Brown's Daily Word 5-9-08

Good morning,
I have a friend whose name is David. He often tells me that he loves to read about King David. We all love to read his songs and psalms. He was a nobody who became somebody by the grace of God. He loved to sing the praises of His Lord. He danced before Him in self-forgetfulness. He offered to Him all of his praise and worship. When David went to battle, he fought with complete reliance on the Lord of the battle and under the authority of the Captain of the Host. When he sinned and fell, he repented, coming before the Lord with a broken and contrite heart.
David is often called, "a man after God’s own heart." More has been written about David than any other character in all the Old Testament. Fourteen chapters have been devoted to Abraham, 13 to Joseph, 11 to Jacob, 40 to Moses, but there are 66 chapters in the Old Testament given over to the life of David. In fact, there are also 57 New Testament references to him. He was the youngest son of Jesse, a shepherd lad from Bethlehem, a giant killer, a composer of Psalms, and the greatest King Israel has ever known. Yet, perhaps, what draws many of us to him is the fact that he was not a polished-marble personality but he blood, bone, and breath, a man who shares our struggles of spirit and soul. Although he was a man of glorious triumphs he was also a man with some great tragedy in his life. Because he struggled in life, we can gain help for our own struggles. David wrestled with success, discouragement, sexual temptation, and parenthood, to mention just a few of his struggles.
When Samuel was sent out by the Lord to anoint the next king of Israel, Samuel began his hunt by focusing on the external. In 1 Samuel 16:7, God said to Samuel, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God does not see people as the world does. That David would be anointed Israel’s next king would not of been the world’s choice. He must have seemed too young, lacking in combat experience, of a limited education, and a sheep herder! But, in the mind of God, who is impressed not by brawn or brains but by a heart completely His, it made perfect sense. God revealed to us through the choosing of David that someone, though evidently unnoticed and overlooked by man, had great worth to God. Apparently, even Jesse, David’s father, didn’t recognize his youngest son’s leadership potential. But God saw David’s heart and claimed his service.
Wouldn’t it be great if we all could change our mentality and see beyond the surface of people and know their hearts? When God refused Eliab, the rest of Jesse’s sons were paraded before Samuel, and God rejected every one of them. Samuel finally asked in vs:11, "Are these all the sons you have?" Jesse replied, "I do have one more. He’s out taking care of the sheep, I guess he kind of slipped my mind." Jesse had 8 sons and 2 daughters, so I would imagine that when you have 10 kids you could forget one. Samuel said in the last portion of vs:11, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives." It is impossible to know how long they stood there, because the Bible doesn’t give any indication as to us how far away David’s herd was, but when he came--- I love this picture! When David finally came in from the fields, he must have noticed his brothers all dressed up, and everyone standing around. David was wearing his Shepherds garb and still smelled like sheep. God basically said to Samuel, “There, he’s the one!” The prophet of God came over to him, poured oil on his head, it ran down the back of his neck and told him, "You’re the next King." Can you imagine David's reaction to this? What an unexpected, unorthodox, unanticipated choice! Here was a boy that nobody seemed to notice, yet God did, because God doesn’t look at the outward appearances. He looks on the heart. David possessed a heart of dependence on God. David also had a heart of obedience for God. Psalm 40:8 reveals his heart as he wrote, "I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your law is written on my heart." (NLT) David possessed the heart of a servant. In Psalm 89:20 we read where God spoke, saying, "I have found my servant David; I appointed him by pouring holy oil on him." (NCV) David is revealed as "my servant". Servanthood is humility in practice. To be a servant means to perform the menial tasks of all manner of description. To be a servant means not caring who gets the credit. To be a servant you must have just one goal: the success of your superior. Jesus said, in Mark 9:35, "Anyone wanting to be the greatest must be the least—the servant of all!" (LB) Do you know what David did after he was told he was going to be King? He went back out and tended his sheep. Is that what you would of done? I might have been tempted to catch the camel to Jerusalem to check out my new palace. In today's terms I might have gone out to have new business cards printed, changing them from “David the Shepherd” to “David the King!” Such was not the reaction of David. When Saul needed a musician in verse 17, Saul's messenger found David back with the sheep. He was not too proud to tend sheep. David also possessed a heart of integrity. Psalm 78:70 reveals, "He chose David his servant, from tending the sheep.. he brought him to be the shepherd of his people. And David shepherded them with integrity of heart." Do you know what integrity is? It is what you are when no one else is looking. We also must remain, by His grace, true to Him and faithful to Him, even when no one is looking.

Blessed be His Name,
Brown

Please remember in prayer our friend Al Smith who had an emergency surgery for Diberticulosis yesterday. He will be hospitalized for a few days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HgAVenbUU

Brown's Daily Word 5-8-08

Praise the Lord!
He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. In Psalm 91 we read,“‘Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.’” If you have a love relationship with God then even the greatest disappointments in life have meaning and purpose, because all of life finds its meaning and purpose in him. Our relationship with God is the filter through which we look at all of life. That relationship helps us to interpret all the things which happen to us. We see him standing there in the midst of the situation we face, holding out his arms to us. I love the story of Jesus’ disciples when they leave Jesus on the shore and head out onto the sea of Galilee. A terrible storm arose and they were straining at the oars just trying to survive. The wind came up against them and it looked as though the sea was going to swallow them. But, suddenly, something worse than the storm frightened them. Their worst fears were realized as they saw what they thought was a ghost floating across the waves. They did not realize it was Jesus walking on the water toward them. Screams of terror arose from the boat. But just as they thought they were going to perish, they heard a familiar voice say, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Mark 6:50).
I believe that has been the experience of Christians throughout the ages. Just as their worst fears were realized, just as they thought the storms of life were going to overcome them and the waves would swallow them, just as they thought they were going to perish, they heard a familiar voice call out to them saying, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid. It is not disaster, it is me!” See him coming to you now. Hear him speak through the storm, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Hear him say through the psalmist, “Because you love me I will rescue you. Because you have acknowledged my name I will protect you. I will be with you in trouble. I will deliver you.”
In Jesus who calms storm.
Brown

Please Pray for :
Our sister-in-law, my brother Potel's wife in Orissa, India
Jerry A, as he awaits upcoming surgery
Grayson , as he prepares for upcoming surgery,
.( For healing and full restoration) Connie, Carol, Caroline, Gail, Harvey, David, Dave, Denny, Jack, Wilbur, Alfred, Irene . Laurie.
Happy Birthday to our daughter, Sunita, (on May 1), and to our Friend Linda. . . Sweet servants of Jesus.

Brown's Daily Word 5-7-08

Good Morning,
We are having a heat wave here in New York. It is going to be much like summer today. Praise the Lord for the glorious beauty of this day. Praise the Lord for the eyes He has given us so that we can gaze at the beauty, and truly know that, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever " -- John Keats. Praise the Lord that He has given us minds so that we may know Him and hearts with which we may love Him.
Whenever a Christian visits the Holy Land, one of the places he wants to visit is the Upper Room. There were so many significant things that occurred in the Upper Room. It was in the Upper Room that Jesus and the disciples celebrated the Passover together and Jesus gave to us the Lord’s Supper. It was in the Upper Room that Jesus spoke the words of John 14, "Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me." When the agony of Good Friday had passed and the glory of Easter had occurred, many believe it was through the locked door of the Upper Room that Jesus came and showed himself to the disciples. It has been traditionally held that it was to the Upper Room that the disciples retreated after the Ascension of Jesus, and that the Upper Room was the location when the Holy Spirit was poured out on a praying group of disciples on Pentecost. The Upper Room is significant to the Christian. We, as United Methodists, have a devotional guide we call the Upper Room. At the Board of Discipleship in Nashville, there is the Upper Room prayer chapel with a wood craving of the Last Supper. It is only logical that a Christian visiting the Holy Land would want to visit the Upper Room. Every time I have gone to the Holy Land, I have gone to the Upper Room. The Upper Room is a place for solitude, that place were we find our spirits, our minds, even our bodies renewed. It is that place were we receive the rest we need. For example there were times when Elijah, the Old Testament prophet, was alone with God and God would send birds to bring him something to eat. The Upper Room is a place where our spirits are renewed, the obstacles of life are brought into perspective, and we are able to go about life in a renewed way. In one of his books Charles Allen, a great pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Houston, with whom I was in conferences in the late seventies and the early eighties and who is gone to be with Jesus, told about a highway that was being built in England. In the way stood a very, very old building. The workmen tore it down and cleared off the ground on which it stood. After the ground had been exposed to the sunshine and rain for some months, a wonderful thing happened. Flowers began to spring up, and botanists and naturalists from all over England came to study them. Many of the flowers were identified as plants the Romans had brought to England almost 2,000 years before. Some of the plants that sprang up are completely unknown today. Hidden there in the ground, without air and light, the seeds seemed to have died. But they were not dead. As soon as the obstacles were cleared away, and the sunshine let in, they sprang into the fullness of their beauty.
This is very similar to what can happen in the confines of our Upper Room. What was ugly and hard is some how transformed into life. The Upper Room is a place of prayer. A lot of prayer took place in that original Upper Room. In fact the prayers offered by the disciples did not last for just a few hours. They stretched over a period of days. Did the prayers suddenly end on the day of Pentecost? Of course not! The disciples entered the Upper Room of prayer on a regular basis.The Upper Room is a place were we can study and reflect on the Scriptures. We each need an Upper Room were we can experience solitude, have our spirits renewed, pray and study the Scripture. Let’s face it. This is a lot of work. It takes time to do these things. Sometimes the search for the Upper Room is long and difficult, but the benefits, the rewards, are worth it. Think for a moment about what the disciples experienced because of time spent in the Upper Room. It was in the Upper Room that the disciples encountered Jesus. Isn’t that what we are longing for? It may take time but when we earnestly enter our Upper Room we will experience the Risen Lord. It sometimes requires patience and a lot of hard work. We may encounter Jesus in a dramatic way or in a still small voice, or simply in a peaceful quiet. It was in the Upper Room that the disciples received the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was a gift that Jesus had promised them and now in that Upper Room they experienced just a small taste of what the Holy Spirit could do in their lives. When the Holy Spirit was set free in their lives they received a new courage that allowed them to do and experience things they never dreamed possible. It was the Upper Room from which the disciples went out with renewed strength and power to face the world. In the Upper Room they encountered Jesus, which in turn allowed them to get on with the work of the kingdom. William Hinson, Sr., ( who also has gone to be with Jesus) who followed Charles Allen as the pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Houston, the largest church in American Methodism, told the story about a time when he was going to Columbia, South Carolina to preach in a revival. He had not slept well the night before and had gotten up that morning and preached in two Sunday morning services. He went immediately to the airport to leave for Columbia. He had looked forward to sleeping on the plane but it just so happened that the person next to was a talker so. . . so much for sleep. His plane arrived late so he was immediately picked up by a church member and whisked off to the church. He arrived at the church just a couple of minutes before the service was to begin and did not have the opportunity to freshen up at all. He felt yucky. As he preached he could feel his body swaying from fatigue. When the service was over he was led to the fellowship hall where a receiving line was set up to greet the visiting preacher. The line seemed to extend forever. Near the end of the line, a large man stepped aside and suddenly he saw his youngest daughter. His daughter was attending school in Augusta, Georgia, and when she heard her dad was going to be in Columbia she had borrowed her boyfriend's car and had driven for hours just to be with her dad and to talk with him about some things.They left the church and went to get some coffee and pie, and then went to the hotel and talked for several hours. When she finally left, he said he realized the most unusual thing. He was no longer tired. He had spent time with someone very special to him and found himself renewed. (The Power of Holy Habits, pg. 18-19) That’s what our Upper Room is all about. It is time we can spend with Jesus and find renewal. We may enter the Room feeling beaten up and discouraged, but we can come away revived.
Our Lord rescues. He restores. He refreshes. He renews. He revives.
Blessed be His Name.
In Him,
Brown
When was the last time you laughed for the sheer joy of your salvation? People are not attracted to somber doctrines. There is no persuasive power in a gloomy and morbid religion. Let the world see your joy and you won't be able to keep them away. To be filled with God is to be filled with joy. Anonymous
There's nothing more contradictory than an unenthusiastic Christian. The Bible tells us that God loves us so much, in fact, that God gave his only son so that all who believe in him will have everlasting life. Nothing not even death can separate us from God's love! If we really believe that, we can't help but overflow with joy! Ronald Newhouse
One of the great blessings of church, for all of its imperfections, is the gift of a genuine laughter - a laughter shared and bequeathed to us by our perfect Father. This is a laughter that we will share in even greater measure when all the sorrow is gone and every tear is wiped from our eyes. One day, like the captives many years ago said, we too will sing: We are like those who dream. Our mouths are filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. It is said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." Yes, the LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Psalm 126:2-3 Phillip WareHeartlight Magazine
A tongue filled with laughter and praise is a reflection of a heart filled to overflowing with the joy of the Lord. What a joy it is just to be with someone whose heart is full. A soothing tongue, a tongue that can say "I accept you where you are," or "I appreciate your questions" without offence or bitterness, is a secure place someone can go for help without fear of judgement, condemnation or censure Mike Hoskins
"The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance." Reflections on the Psalms(Clive Staples) C. S. LewisInto The Wardrobe