Brown's Daily Word

Brown's Daily Word 5-16-08

2008-05-16T06:57:00.000-05:00

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for the season of Pentecost in the Church Year. The Lord had given prophecy regarding the coming of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Joel. It was prophecy combined with judgement and Grace. It talked about the devouring locusts, and it talked about the rain.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, (one of Sunita's beloved authors), in her book "On the Banks of Plum Creek", in the chapter entitled, “The Glittering Cloud” shows us what it was like to have the swarms of grasshoppers or locusts devour their homestead. This was the greatest plague to attack the United States and it devastated the Great Plains States all the way to the Texas Panhandle. “They left the prairies utterly barren, with only holes in the ground where wheat or range grasses had been. . . .One swarm, about 100 miles wide and 300 miles long, was so high and dense that it obscured the sun and darkened the land”.
In Old Testament times God employed the locusts as instruments of judgment upon His people, Israel. Before they entered Cana, He warned them in Deuteronomy 28, “You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land (--Deuteronomy 28:38-42).” The Lord clearly explained His reasons for sending locust as instruments of judgment in Deuteronomy 28:15, “However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.” Egypt suffered the devastation of the locusts because of the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart; Israel and Judah experienced the same years later because they "did not obey the Lord their God and did not carefully follow all His commands and decrees.” In the midst of the consequences of the law, all crops destroyed by the locusts, we have the promise of grace: “I will repay you for the years the Locust have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you.” The Good News of Grace is found in the words, “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.” I cannot think of a better promise to claim either as an individual disciple of Jesus Christ or collectively as His Body than this one. The image of the words, “have eaten” paints a literal picture of something that has been completely, totally destroyed. God speaks again through the prophet Amos in Amos 4:9 and says, “‘Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,’ declares the LORD.” The fruit of those fig and olive trees was totally destroyed in the same way as in the 1870s, when the Great Plains were “utterly barren, with only holes in the ground where wheat or range grasses had been.” The Lord promises, “I will repay you,” meaning nothing less than full restoration, with the Lord bringing the gardens and the vineyards back to their original productive state." Oftentimes our lives, both as individuals and as the Church, seem to be devastated from years of destruction the locusts have consumed. What have locusts consumed, eaten, destroyed in your life over the years? What hurts and pains have you continued to carry over a long period of time? We all have experienced disappointments. We all have regrets. We all have made mistakes and have neglected opportunities. Each of us has made wrong decisions that can not be reversed. Perhaps there is even sin that has remained unconfessed in our lives. Whatever the locusts have destroyed, God is able to restore. The past cannot be reversed, but in Christ we all can have a new beginning. None of us can “turn back the clock” and reverse the errors of our past, but God is able to give us a clean slate.
I so appreciate Nicky Gumbel’s observation in one of his awesome Alpha talks. He reminds us that we all wish we could have a dress rehearsal for life. In a dress rehearsal you can make all the possible mistakes, but you then have the opportunity to “get it all right” in the actual performance. Nicky says, “Unfortunately that is not possible; from the moment we are born, we are all on stage.” We cannot reverse the mistakes of our past, but Jesus promises us a new beginning. Oswald Chambers said so well in the devotional from "MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST", “Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ. Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.”That is our invitation to each one of you. We invite you to “leave your broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.” He is here to “restore your years the locusts have eaten.”

We are planning for our annual Mother/Daughter banquet tomorrow at 6 p.m. Our friend, Joe Walker, a professional chef, will prepare the meal with much love.
Rev. Jan Devine, co-pastor of the Endicott First Presbyterian Church, will be the speaker.
Sunita and Andy are driving home from DC today, and are scheduled to arrive sometime early this evening.
We thank the Lord for the ministry of Dr. George Miller, who is stepping down as President of Davis College. He will continue to serve the Lord elsewhere. Dr. Miller is a man of integrity and vision, with a heart for Jesus and for His Kingdom. Under the able leadership of Dr. Miller, Davis College has come a long way. Dr George Miller will be missed .
All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name.
In Him,
Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEXDPzqo2g

Brown's Daily Word 5-15-08

2008-05-15T09:56:00.000-05:00

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. Praise the Lord for the Church of Jesus Christ our Lord. Praise the Lord for the Holy Spirit. Somebody once said that Christmas is about "God With us", Easter is about "God for us", and Pentecost is about "the Lord in us".
The Holy Spirit came like a mighty wind, and drove away the fear and apathy from the disciples. The Holy Spirit came as fire, that burned away the dross of sin from them, and galvanized them.
In our Wednesday Bible study, we have been looking at Hebrews 12:1. The Lord desires us to be single-mindedly focused, and determined. He wants us to denounce the destructive attractions of the world.
Chuck Colson has reported that columnist Jonathan Rauch believes that America has made “a major civilizational advance” in recent years. Colson stated, “Rauch, a longtime atheist, is thrilled about a phenomenon he calls ‘apatheism’ [apathetic theism]. It’s not that people don’t believe in God anymore". In fact, Rauch wrote in the Atlantic Monthly, "the majority will still say they believe" . . . On the whole, the people Rauch describes haven’t been putting much thought or effort into their faith. They’re looking for comfort and reassurance, not for a God who asks anything of them. This has given rise to ‘apatheism,’ which Rauch defines as "a disinclination to care all that much about one’s own religion, and an even stronger disinclination to care about other people’s.”
Colson further spoke about writer David Brooks, who noticed a trend a few years ago and coined the term flexidoxy [flexible beliefs]. Flexidoxy describes the form of religion practiced by many educated young Americans as opposed to orthodoxy. Basically, it means that people have become so flexible in their belief system that they look at religion as a giant smorgasbord from which they can pick and choose the beliefs that most suit them. They become the center of their own faith and adapt it to what they see as important. Many of you heard or read about 27-year-old Aaron Ralston who had his right arm pinned by an 800-pound boulder in a climbing accident. He had gone hiking in Bluejohn Canyon, adjacent to Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. He was an experienced climber, having already climbed 49 other peaks in Colorado which were over 14,000 feet in elevation. When he became pinned by the boulder, he thought about what it would be like to die on the mountain and have his family find his body, or, worse yet, never know his fate. Ralston, a former engineer for Intel and an avid outdoorsman, thought about his options. After five days of being pinned, and having run out of food and water, he decided to apply a tourniquet and amputate his arm below the elbow with his pocket knife. He then rigged anchors and rappelled to the canyon floor with his one good arm. He walked downstream until he was spotted by a Utah Public Safety Helicopter. What the news did not say much about was that this Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Carnegie Mellon University credits his faith in God for ability to do what he had to do. He is a deeply committed Christian who often played the piano in the United Methodist Church in Greenwood Village near Denver, Colorado. Because Aaron wanted to live, he was willing to cut away everything that was holding him back.
It is that kind of commitment and zeal that will enable us to experience Pentecostal power. When you are willing to cut away everything that is holding you back and walk out of the canyon of bondage, then the Holy Spirit will come to you in new ways and you know a life that you did not know was possible. The Bible says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us” (Hebrews 12:1, New Living). The apostle Paul did this, for he wrote, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

In Jesus our Saviour,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNdjML2kquc&feature=related

Brown's Daily Word 5-14-08

2008-05-14T15:16:00.001-05:00

Good Morning ,
We just returned from Boston. I had gone back for my yearly checkup. I got a clean bill of health. Thank you Jesus. We left here Sunday afternoon, after worship, getting to Jamaica Plain in time to tuck Micah into bed. We were able to spend some time with Janice, Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon. The Lord blessed our time together. Micah is a big girl, and she talks like a young lady. She told me that her favorite song is "You are Amazing God" (except that she calls it the "Jesus Song". I asked who sings that song. She replied, "Mr. Tomlin". I will include the song in this devotion today.
Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, along with Mother's day. The Lord blessed us in worship of Him. We read the account of the Pentecost event in Acts 2. The disciples were all together in one accord in the upper room in Jerusalem. Suddenly, there was a mighty and awesome move of the Lord. I call it a divine disturbance. "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and filled the house where they were sitting , and there appeared unto them,cloven tongues like as of fire and sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues. as the Spirit gave them utterance."
There was an audible sign and there was also visible sign. The Holy Sprit broke upon the disciples; they were filled and propelled. They were made bold and courageous. They came into the temple court and began to declare the mighty deeds of the Lord. Their tongues were let loose. We see the Holy Spirit manifested in the disciples, causing them to praise the Lord and proclaim the message about Jesus and His mighty deeds with boldness and courage. We read that there were people from all over the world gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. Each heard the mighty deeds proclaimed in his own language. People from different ethnic groups, speaking diverse and different languages understood the good news in their own languages.
We see in this text the confusion of the Tower of Babel, found in Genesis 11 reversed. The Lord kept His promise. He sent the Holy Spirit in His appointed time. All those gathered there in the Temple precinct, that heard the Good News, were amazed and perplexed. They began to ask question, "What is this?" Peter, standing with the eleven, preached his first sermon. Peter was both filled and anointed. His message was anointed. The hearing of the people was anointed also.
Prior to His ascension up into Heaven, Jesus had told the disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit to come. For those ten days they spent their time in prayer. Can you imagine spending ten straight days doing nothing but praying? Some of those who gathered together had been with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, who could not remain awake a few hours to watch, wait, and pray with Jesus. Jesus has to continually awaken them. Yet, this group was uniquely assembled in prayer. They wanted so much to be at one with Jesus, that they were willing to spend the time in continuous prayer. We find that this group was unique in that Scripture says they were all assembled in one place. Can you imagine what it would be like to come to church one Sunday and discover that every church member was present? This says something powerful about this group. These words go beyond just faithful church attendance. They demonstrate that these people needed each other; they needed the love and support that the other believers could give. The text goes on to say that not only were they gathered in one place, they were gathered in unity. Just think of the lack of unity outside of that room. Most of the people in town were there for religious reasons, yet they hardly agreed about anything. The Sadducees were fighting with the Pharisees over resurrection. The religious lawyers were fighting over the intent of the law and on and on we could go. Outside that room people were in disagreement about everything. There was a lack of harmony. Yet, the Bible emphasizes the fact that this small group was gathered in unity. What was the basis of their harmony? What enabled them to lay aside their differences, (they were different in many ways) and become one? We can identify at least five characteristics that contributed to their harmony. 1. They loved Jesus 2. They loved each other 3. They had a desire to share the story of Jesus 4. They were willing to give every thing they had for the gospel, including their lives 5. They longed to see Jesus again. Outside that small upper room, life went on as usual. Inside, however, something beautiful took place. Unknown to the rest of the world an event was about to occur that would change the course of history. As these believers were gathered in one place, in one accord, praying, the Bible says that there was suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind from heaven filled the whole house where they were sitting. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, they received a power that could come only from God. Peter is a perfect example of what can happen to a person yields his life to the Holy Spirit. Previously, it was Peter who was always loosing his temper. It was Peter who once cut off the ear of a man. It was Peter who swore up and down that he would never deny Jesus, yet in a moment of fear he denied Jesus three times. But when the Holy Spirit came upon Peter, this person who was once afraid and followed Jesus at a distance, took the lead and went out of the small room with courage and boldly preached Jesus, dead, buried, resurrected and coming again. His life was changed forever because of the power of the Holy Spirit.
Rick Kirchoff says, “When God sends forth the Spirit amazing things happen: barriers are broken, communities are formed, opposites are reconciled, unity is established, disease is cured, addiction is broken, cities are renewed, races are reconciled, hope is established, people are blessed, and church happens. Today the Spirit of God is present and we’re gonna’ have church. So be ready, get ready. . . God is up to something. . . discouraged folks cheer up, dishonest folks ‘fess up, sour folks sweeten up, closed folk, open up, gossipers shut up, conflicted folks make up, sleeping folks wake up, lukewarm folk, fire up, dry bones shake up, and pew potatoes stand up! But most of all, Christ the Savior of all the world is lifted up.” We sometimes forget that Peter was not alone on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is not just for the leader. He is for all believers. On the day of Pentecost, 119 other disciples lives were changed. They gained strength and began to witness, many of them in other languages. Notice that the effects of the Holy Spirit went beyond the 120. In Acts 2:37 we read that those who heard Peter preach "were cut to the heart." The old KJV reads that they were "pricked in their heart." Has your heart ever been pricked? Has it been cut to the quick? The Holy Spirit laid it on the heart of many that day that they needed a Savior; they needed Jesus in their heart. Have we ever been cut to the core of our being with the recognition that we need a savior, that we can’t make it alone?
In Jesus,
Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE0yUobk6TM&feature=related

Brown's Daily Word 5-9-08

2008-05-09T07:10:00.001-05:00

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

2008-05-08T17:08:00.001-05:00

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

2008-05-07T06:14:00.000-05:00

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

Brown's Daily Word 5-6-08

2008-05-06T07:01:00.000-05:00

Good Morning,
It is one of the glorious days the Lord has made. Spring has fully sprung here in beautiful New York. You can see the countless flowers with magnificent colors all around us. The crab apple tree overshadows the parsonage with bountiful bloom displaying the splendor of our Savior and King. The daffodils and tulips and forsythias on the parsonage grounds are just passing their peak. Praise the Lord for the manifold witness to the splendor and majesty of our Lord and God. How great is indeed our God. If you had looked at your diary last Friday, May 1, (that would have been six weeks after Easter), you might have seen the heading "Ascension Day". Then, it might not be there because Ascension Day is one of the neglected feast days of the Christian church. The BBC (in Britain) does its best by broadcasting a special service. Many European countries celebrate Ascension Day with a bank holiday. Perhaps because Ascension Day falls on a weekday it does not get the attention it truly deserves. It is full of significance concerning the historical life of Jesus when on Earth - and his continuing ministry for us in heaven. As a weekday event it reminds us that Christianity is not just something for Sunday - it’s an experience for every day. For the Christian the secular cannot be separated from the sacred.Although the Ascension occupies a place on the church’s calendar it is far from being prominent in Christian thought. It seems overshadowed by Good Friday and outshone by the glory of Easter morning. The gospel writer Luke is renowned as a careful historian. When he recorded the birth of Jesus he rooted the event in its historical setting within the Roman Empire. He continued that same precision at the end of our Lord’s earthly ministry by recalling the place of the Ascension at Bethany. He also dates the event at 40 days after the Resurrection on Easter Day. He emphasized the presence of eyewitnesses. The Ascension took place, he wrote, "before their very eyes" (Acts 1:9). Yes, the Ascension was a real event in history. Some people are puzzled as to why Jesus waited around on Earth 40 days after his resurrection, but that period is no accident. Jesus had endured the Devil’s temptation for 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of his public ministry, but now the tables were turned. In the post-ascension period Jesus triumphantly paraded his victory over the Devil and all his works. During this time, the conqueror of death displayed his supremacy before his faithful followers so that they might share in the joy of his victory. But there was also another reason. Those 40 days of his appearing after the resurrection were of immense value to the believers, for they established the reality of his lordship. A single sighting of the risen Christ may have been open to question, but the continuous encounters that the disciples had with him would remove the doubts of even the most skeptical among them and assure them of his power and authority. The Ascension must always remain a mystery in the sense that it’s beyond the scope of human experience. It draws us into the realm of the supernatural. It happened very simply and very quickly. The Master and his followers were gathered on the slopes of Olivet. When Jesus had delivered his farewell message to the disciples, he lifted up his nail-scarred hands in blessing. Then, his body commenced to rise supernaturally, and a cloud bore him out of their sight. What a fitting end to his earthly ministry! The resurrection of Jesus had signaled the ending of a chapter in his earthly life. Things could never be the same again and it was essential that there should be a clear-cut event to bring the chapter to a close. It’s true that Jesus had been making a series of appearances to his followers, but those could not go on forever. It would be odd if they should grow less frequent until finally they petered out; that would only cause confusion, chaos, and even loss of faith. No, there had to be a day dividing the time, when the Jesus of Earth would become the Christ of heaven. The Ascension was the only fitting conclusion to the life of Jesus on Earth. God is not the author of confusion. The disciples who witnessed the Ascension saw it as an ending. It was the day when their faith in a flesh and blood person, depending on a physical presence, was ended. Now they were linked to someone who was independent of space and time. Yet, the ending of the earthly chapter also meant a new beginning. Luke tells us that the disciples did not leave the scene broken-hearted. They had a definite promise of the soon-to-be-given Holy Spirit. The disciples knew that the Ascension was the completion of the cycle that had begun with the incarnation. Jesus himself had predicted, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father" (John 16:28). This gave them great assurance because their dearest friend was in heaven.
The resurrection and the Ascension cannot be separated. They form two parts of the one continuous movement resulting in the glorification of Jesus. When Jesus met Mary Magdalene in the garden he told her to tell his disciples, "I am ascending", as if the process had already begun with the resurrection and would be completed when he was finally received into his Father’s presence. The resurrection and the Ascension are milestones in the process whereby Jesus, crucified, risen and ascended, finally entered into the glory of God. Luke’s account of the Ascension places us in the shoes of the disciples. There they are with eyes uplifted, as Luke records the scene so vividly, "gazing into heaven as he went" and all too soon the ascending Savior disappeared from their sight. Then Mark takes up the story. He writes from the viewpoint of our Lord’s destination. Through the inspiration given to him we are allowed to share the secrets of heaven itself. Only the Holy Spirit could have revealed the scene to Mark, "Jesus was received into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" (16:19). What a homecoming! The crown of thorns was changed into a crown of glory!
Many a hero has been welcomed back into his hometown with bands blaring - the round the world yachtsman, the newly elected prime minister, or the president. But that is nothing when compared to the glory of the welcome given to the ascended Lord Jesus. Is that some speculation on my part? No, it’s not! Psalm 24 is a foretelling or anticipation of the grandeur of the spectacle associated with the homecoming of the Son of God. The scene defies adequate description. As the conqueror neared the celestial city the heavenly heralds cried out in preparation for his arrival, "Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in." The proclamation prompts the enquiry, "Who is the Lord of glory?" The reply declares Christ’s right to the title, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle" (7-10). Yes, Jesus had triumphed over Satan, the world, death and hell. His resurrection and Ascension proved he was the victor, and truly that "He is the Lord of glory." The apostle Peter confirmed this, saying, "Jesus Christ … has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand - with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him" (1 Peter 3:22). This proves that Christ had finished the work of redemption that the Father had given him to do. The Day of Ascension from earth became the Coronation Day for Jesus in Heaven. Now we have to ask ourselves the question, have we acknowledged him as our Lord and King? Have we knelt before him in glad allegiance?
When we see pictures on television of a State banquet, the chief guest is seated at the right hand of the Sovereign or the President. Like honor was afforded to the Lord Jesus, but the fact that he is seated there does not imply that his ministry is ended -- far from it. Although the Ascension closed his public ministry, it opened a new age of the Spirit. That is why we celebrate Pentecost. We might even say that the Ascension represents the final liberation of Jesus from all limitations of space and time, so that he is free to be lovingly and powerfully present with every believer in every place, in every age. Christ the King is with me and in me by His Spirit every minute of every day wherever I go. This is beautifully summarized in the words of Charles Wesley’s hymn, "He ever lives above, for me to intercede; his all-redeeming love, his precious blood to plead; his blood atones for all our race, and sprinkles now the throne of grace." Hallelujah! What a Savior! Yet, we each have a responsibility to live holy lives, but if we sin we have a means of cleansing and forgiveness. The Ascension of Jesus makes it possible for him to be close to each and every one of us if only we allow him in every part of our lives. As the disciples gaze heaven-ward in awe and wonder, two men in dazzling apparel appeared. They were just like those that stood by the graveyard on Easter morning. According to Luke's account, they announced to the disciples, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking unto heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). It would be an over-simplification to say that the Lord’s Second Coming will be like a film of the Ascension played backwards, to return on the same spot, wearing the same clothes. Although his coming will be in person, it won’t be in private, for "every eye will see him" (Rev 1:7). He ascended alone, but he will return in the company of millions of the redeemed from all ages (1 Thessalonians 4:13). The Ascension testifies to the fact of our Lord’s return, "He will come." The disciples were not told that they themselves would see the coming again of Christ. The timeline is left open, and it is both futile and unprofitable to speculate as to when his return will occur. Jesus told his disciples that not even he knew the day or the hour when the Son of Man would come (Mark 13:22). But the certainty of his return is clear. It gives assurance that God is working out his purposes for his whole creation and that, when he is ready, our Lord will return just as surely as he ascended. The all-important, practical call of the Ascension is that we are ready for his return. Someone once said, "If I am always ready, I shall be ready when Jesus comes." The secret is to keep short accounts with God and our fellow men. In other words, if something breaks our fellowship then we must immediately put it right. We have to ask ourselves the question, "Are we redeeming the time until Jesus returns? Are we fulfilling the ministries he had given to the church?" We have been placed where we are for a purpose. The angelic beings asked the disciples, "Why do you stand here looking into the sky?" It was the Earth, not the sky, which they should be occupied with, as witnesses, not as stargazers! Our calling is not upwards in nostalgia, but outwards in compassion to a lost world that needs Jesus. It’s been well said that: "At the Ascension Jesus left the Here for the Everywhere; He left the Time for the Eternal; He left the First Century to fill All the Centuries."

In Jesus, our Savior,
Brown
A Sudanese Christian boy has his knees and feet nailed to a board and he is left to die. When rescued he says he forgives the man who did this because Jesus was also nailed and forgave him.
A Vietnamese pastor is sentenced to two years in prison. When he is offered an early release, he declines stating that he has a group of new Believers in the prison he has to disciple.
A Colombian missionary is kidnapped and told she only has two hours to live. She tells her captors that if she only has two hours to live, she wants to spend it telling them about Jesus.
The persecution of Christians around the world is a tragic reality. Our brothers and sisters are beaten and tortured simply for their faith in Jesus Christ. And some pay with the ultimate price.

Brown's Daily Word 5-5-08

2008-05-05T06:51:00.001-05:00

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this bountiful and beautiful day, a gift from the Lord. I trust you had a blessed weekend of worship and service, a time of rest and renewal, a time with the Lord and His people, a time to give and a time to receive, a time to gather and a time to scatter. Ecclesiastes 11:1-8 opens with the familiar words, “Cast your bread upon the waters.” It meant that sometimes we do things for others that may appear to be wasteful, extravagant. This “casting of bread” means that we should be willing to take a chance where we perceive that a need exists. This is a faith venture. The bread of charity goes forth, like ships transporting their cargo over the waters. C. S. Lewis was walking with J. R. R. Tolkien in Cambridge when the two were approached by a shabbily-dressed man asking for money. Lewis fished out of his pocket all his spare change and handed it to the man. Tolkien chided Lewis, saying that the man would likely use it for drink. “Well,” said Lewis, “I’d probably use it for drink myself.” We should give wisely, but sometimes we simply give out of the goodness of our hearts. In his book, "The Power of Generosity", Dave Toycen maintains: “Panhandlers deserve to be treated as human beings. Whether we choose to give money or not, our first obligation in a caring society is to acknowledge their presence. Looking away is a form of denial that diminishes and distances at the same time. Generosity sets a standard that builds relationships rather than destroys them.” Some people who go to the city bring extra sandwiches to give to panhandlers. On the other hand, I saw a t-shirt that read, “No change--don’t ask.” We can be mean-spirited, or we can communicate grace. It’s wiser to give to shelters and soup kitchens, and steer people to them, particularly if we suspect our money may aid someone’s addiction. Are we generous or greedy? If we fantasize about winning a magazine sweepstakes, what first comes to mind? a) What we could buy for ourselves; or b) what we might do for others? Proverbs 11:24 says, “the world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller” ("The Message"). Generosity is not something religious fanatics do; it’s a lifestyle of sharing that enriches the giver. Chuck Swindoll tells a story about his time in the Marine Corps. His barracks mate was a young guy who made it clear he wanted nothing of religion, “Don’t cram that stuff down my throat, OK?” Chuck was involved in a Scripture memory program and asked his Marine buddy to help him review his verses. He was told, “I’ll help you with the words, Chuck, but I ain’t interested in being some kind of monk!” This Marine went along with the plan--he listened, corrected Chuck, even encouraged him, but there was never a glimmer of interest…until 25 years later. Chuck got a phone call one day. “Hey Chuck, this is Eddie, your old bunk buddy in Okinawa. I’m a Christian thanks to you. Remember the verses we worked on? It worked!” Jesus commended a poor woman who gave to the temple two “mites”, an insignificant amount, yet Her giving received special notice from God. We don’t give to gain favor from God; we certainly don’t do it to get to Heaven. We give because we cannot help ourselves; we are grateful for all God has done, and we want to give, cheerfully. We need to keep from limiting our generosity. Verse 2 says to “give portions to seven, eight”, whatever is needed. Seven is the Hebrew number of completeness; eight goes one step further. Giving becomes a habit, a way of life, both in good times and in times of disaster. We should not wait for an earthquake or flood, but give regularly. In verse 3 our kindness is compared to clouds swelling with rain, the natural outflow of a full life. We empty ourselves again and again. Our lives are full with God’s blessings, and we in turn shower others with our bounty. We don’t know what disasters may come upon us. In other words, this could be our last day, so we are to be benevolent. Solomon used a symbol of trees falling to the south or north in verse 3. Whatever direction a tree falls, that is where it is meant to be, according to God’s providence. In the same way, we are placed where God wants us, for His purpose. Things don’t happen by accident. The people to whom Solomon is writing are struggling with causality; they see life as meaningless. They wonder, does anything matter in life? As people of faith, we accept God’s will and we try to bloom where we are planted. Sometimes we lack faith, and hesitate to act. Verse 4 cautions that we lose out by waiting for the perfect time and occasion to proceed. Waiting for perfect conditions can keep us from growing, and failure to get things done. Time and events wait for no one. Procrastination is the thief of time. Faith means trusting God, especially when His timing disagrees with ours. One thing we eventually discover about life is just how little we really know. We frequently are baffled by what God does in His world, and why; we have no control over His activity. Verse 5 reminds us that we don’t know the path of the wind, nor can we comprehend the mystery of birth. We do not need to know all the answers to life’s mysteries. We marvel at Creation and are humbled by all that God has wrought. The winds are directed by His command. Until God takes us home we will not grasp the mystery at work in all He does.God expects us to continue sowing our seed, verse 6. We can’t foresee whether our efforts will be fruitful, but we labor on, nonetheless. We don’t stop; we don’t give up, and we don’t know how our work will turn out in the end.Verses 7 and 8 speak of light and darkness. When the sun breaks through a darkened, cloudy sky we thank God for getting us through the storm. There will be many days of darkness, many inevitable trials in life. God helps us grow through them, and He intends that we become blessings to others. The true source of the world’s light is the Lord Jesus, and we are His hands in the world, bringing comfort to those in need.
In Christ,
Brown
"All the exaggerations are right, if they exaggerate the right thing." - "On Gargoyles." Alarms and Discursions . G.K.Chesterton

Brown's Daily Word 5-2-08

2008-05-02T14:31:00.000-05:00

The Scripture says that our Savior Jesus suffered and died for us, and as Christians we know that we too may very well suffer—both the suffering that everyone on earth suffers as well as the suffering that may come to those who choose to follow hard after Jesus. Paul says that we can boast even in our suffering. “We also boast in our hope in our suffering, says Paul,” knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us”. –Romans 5:3-5 . Now we almost always hear this passage used in sermons on sufferings—and rightly so. But I’ve noticed that sometimes we miss the key word in this passage; and that’s the word ‘because.’ Circle that word. We boast in our suffering, not because it produces endurance, which produces character, which produces hope. We can boast even in our sufferings because, says Paul, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us”. That flood of God’s love is why hope doesn’t disappoint us and how suffering ends up producing character and hope. God’s love isn’t measured out in eyedroppers or teaspoons. Paul says it is poured into our hearts. Not a drop of love is held back. Oh, we may feel unworthy, but because of Jesus , God’s love is poured into my heart, and that’s something to brag about.

Joni Eareckson Tada, whom I was privileged to met in person in 1982, who was paralyzed in a diving accident as a teenager, describes how she experienced love poured into her heart on her wedding day. She remembers that she “felt awkward as her girlfriends strained to shift her paralyzed body into a cumbersome wedding gown. No amount of corseting and binding, she said, gave her a perfect shape. The dress just didn’t fit well. Then, as she was wheeling into the church, she glanced down and noticed that she’d accidentally run over the hem of her dress, leaving a greasy tire mark. Joni said, “My paralyzed hands couldn’t hold the bouquet of daisies that lay off-center on my lap. And my chair, though decorated for the wedding, was still a big, clunky gray machine with belts, gears, and ball bearings. I certainly didn’t feel like the picture-perfect bride in a bridal magazine. I inched my chair closer to the last pew to catch a glimpse of Ken in front. There he was, standing tall and stately in his formal attire. I saw him looking for me, craning his neck to look up the aisle. My face flushed, and I suddenly couldn’t wait to be with him. I had seen my beloved. The love in Ken’s face had washed away all my feelings of unworthiness. (This We Believe: The Good News of Jesus Christ for the World, (Zondervan) p. 222. That’s the kind of love Paul’s talking about! It’s a deluge of love poured into your heart that floods away your sin, guilt, and shame. It’s a flood of love into your heart that Jesus sends your way and the Holy Spirit delivers. That kind of love is not earned—it is simply God’s gift to you in Jesus Christ. You can’t take credit for it as if you are worthy. No, it because of Jesus, all because of Jesus and what he has done—and that’s something to boast about. Cheryl Crow, so called celebrity so many, yet so confused , said that she thinks, “everybody on the planet feels alone, even when they’re in the greatest relationships or surrounded by family. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life alone. That’s the only true fear I have, because what else is there but love? … it’s really the only thing that matters. It’s what brings you the most joy. So that is what I long for—the consummate love. (Cheryl Crow in Interview magazine (10-01-98); submitted by Mike Herman, Glen Ellyn, Illinois). Consummate love—complete and unreserved love. That only comes from God through Jesus. He pours his love into you, but he doesn’t wait for you to be perfect before he sends his love your way. Paul said that, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. –Romans 5:8-9 .What Paul is saying is as simple as it is profound , so let me cut to the chase: Before Jesus we were God’s enemies; because of Jesus I have God’s friendship. There’s no greater love, no greater friendship. God’s love is the only thing that ultimately matters. That’s the consummate love Cheryl Crow was looking for. And God’s consummate love for us leads to our third boast. Paul said, “More than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. –Romans 5:11 . We can boast about God! God’s worth bragging about! What an awesome God we worship—he loves us with a consummate love!Here’s the story of someone who discovered the kind of love that Cheryl Crow was longing for. Her name is Liz Curtis Higgs. Rick Warren tells her story: Once she was one of the best-known disc jockeys in America, and she lived quite wild lifestyle without God. In fact, Howard Stern was the A.M. show, and Liz Curtis Higgs was the P.M. show. And one day Howard Stern said to Liz, “You know, you need to clean up your act.” Now, that really says something if Howard Stern is saying it. She was the ultimate party girl. Liz Higgs had been burned by so many men, and her heart had been broken so many times that she became a militant feminist. And I underscore, militant feminist. But she had a Christian girlfriend who kept inviting her to church. So one day after a long, long time, she said, “Okay, I will go to church one time and one time only.” So she went to church one time with her friend. And that week, the pastor just happened to be teaching on the Bible verse that says, “Wives submit yourselves to your husbands.” Not exactly a good verse to start with a militant feminist. And she got a little uptight, a little ticked, a little angry. But she continued to listen, and she actually heard the second part of the verse.… The second part of the verse says, “And husbands—you sacrifice yourself; you give yourself for your wives just as Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for the church and died for her.” Who is asked to give their life up? The husband. When Liz heard that part, she leaned over to her friend and said with a little cynicism, “I’d gladly give myself to any man if I knew he would die for me.” And her friend leaned over and said, “Liz, there is a man who loved you enough to die for you. His name is Jesus Christ. That’s how much he loves you.” And it was not long after that that Liz dropped her guard, surrendered her life to God in love, and became a believer. Liz discovered friendship with God and today Liz is a well-known Christian author and speaker. She uses her life to boast about a God who died for her when she was so unworthy. (Rick Warren, “You Were Planned for God’s Pleasure,” Purpose Driven Life Campaign Resources; submitted by Darin Reimer, Victori), Paul says that we can and should boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We can and ought to be bragging about our God! He gave his son to die for us so that we could be his friends. He pours his love into our hearts. He makes it possible for us to share his glory. Who else does that? What other religion in the world believes in a God like this? We have a God who died for us while we were still sinners! How amazing is that! We have something to boast about!May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. –Galatians 6:14 (NIV) There are many reasons God saves you: to bring glory to himself, to appease his justice, to demonstrate his sovereignty. But one of the sweetest reasons God saved you is because he is fond of you. He likes having you around. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Spend some time at the altar this morning, boasting about the God who shares his glory with you, who pours his love into your heart, and has made you his friend through Jesus Christ.

Brown's Daily Word 5-1-08

2008-05-01T07:03:00.000-05:00

Praise the Lord
Today is the National Day of Prayer. It is also May Day - - - and Sunita's birthday. Praise the Lord. Our God, who is revealed in the Bible, and in the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord, is holy and righteous, mighty and merciful, eternal and sovereign. His works are awesome. His grace is marvelous. He is the Lord of all nations, all peoples, and all lands. He exalts the humble and humbles the proud.
Psalm 66 calls all nations and peoples to make a joyful noise to the Lord, to sing glory to His holy name. All are called to give glorious praise to Him. It is written that His deeds are so awesome and brilliant that His enemies cringe before Him. All nations and all peoples are invited to come before His presence, to pause and ponder before the wonder of His majesty, and to see that which He has done. His works are awesome over all of the earth. All nations and peoples are provoked to bless Him, so that the sounds of His praise may be heard. He judges the nations, He judges sin, but He is merciful towards those who come to Him with a contrite and broken heart.
The Lord made a wonderful declaration of grace and mercy to King Solomon in response to Solomon's prayer for his people. He said, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way, then I will hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and heal their land." The Lord further declared that His eyes would be open and His ear would be attentive to the prayers of His people, when the prayers were made from the temple which Solomon had built.
Now, because of Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we have direct access, 24-7, to the mercy seat of God.
In Jeremiah 33:3 we read, "Call to me, and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things which you have not known." We read again, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Then, in Proverbs 14:34, we read, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."
Let us pray for our nation today, which is called "the last best hope on earth", that the Lord would forgive our sins and heal our land. Let us come humbly, in repentance, and seek the Lord's face and His favor.
"Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our Land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." - from the United Methodist Church's "The Book of Worship"
In Jesus the King of all nations and the Lord of all.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heY4bAQFwW8

Brown's Daily Word 4-30-08

2008-04-30T07:08:00.000-05:00

Good Morning,
Paul, loved to write letters to churches and to his friends. He wrote a letter to the Church in Corinth, a church which was imperfect like all our churches. There were church fights that were becoming courtroom battles, issues of sexual ethics, marriage issues, worship of idols, and serious disruptions of worship services, as well as arguments and divisions over leadership. Here was a broken church if ever there was one. The Corinthian believers were hurting, feeling pain and giving pain, confused about morality and ethics, and yet, in Chapter 1 Vs. 4, Paul begins his letter to them with “I always thank God for you . . .” WHY he is thankful? How could he be thankful for a dysfunctional church? It was “Because of God’s grace given in Christ Jesus.” The grace of Christ Jesus shines through the brokenness of the Church, His chosen. The words “church of God” appear only 3 times in the NT, once in Acts 20 and twice in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth. The word church, (ekklesiai) simply referred to an assembly, not necessarily religious in nature, but Paul qualified the “ekklesiai” as “tou Theou” or “of God”. Two things distinguish the “assembly of God” from other assemblies: One, it was “sanctified in Christ Jesus” – cleansed or made worthy by Christ Jesus. It wasn’t of their own doing. Two, they were “called to be holy”, set apart, or special again, something they could not do for themselves. Only through Christ were they different, set apart, and worthy before God. They were being reminded that without Christ at the center of their lives and church they were worthless and no better than the pagans of Corinth. Paul reminded them that any value they had was because of Christ. Any gift they possessed was because of Christ. It is Christ Jesus that adds value and meaning to all. There is a tale told of a man who bought an old junk motorcycle at an auction. One day as he worked to clean it up, he opened the gas tank and on the inside of the cap he read, “to Elvis, from Priscilla.” Suddenly, his worthless motorcycle became a valuable collector’s item based on previous ownership. Paul wanted the Corinthian Christians (and us) to realize that our worth is found only in Christ. Yet, we like to think God needs our gifts and abilities, and that the church couldn’t survive without us. Insurance companies would like us to think we are worth many thousands or millions of dollars. The plain and simple fact is that without Christ, we are worth ZERO! Fred Craddock, a United Methogist professor and preacher,said, “We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table. Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all. But the reality for most of us is that God would send us to the bank and have us change the $1,000 into quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, “Get lost.” Go to the committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul. It’s called FAITHFULNESS!" I have been part of the church of our Lord Jesus, all of my life, by His grace. I have been blessed beyond belief. Praise the Lord for His church. “God, who has called you into fellowship with his son Christ Jesus our Lord, is faithful.” May the Lord grant us His grace and power so that might remain faithful to Him.
In His Faithfulness,
Brown

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. C. S. Lewis

Brown's Daily Word 4-29-08

2008-04-29T07:04:00.001-05:00

Good Morning,
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. (v. 9) In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. (v. 10) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him." This passage is taken from 1 John 4, one of the greatest passages on Love. In September, 2006 sociologists from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in conjunction with the Gallup organization, released the results of a study looking into America’s different views of God. The Gallup organization is a statistical research group which was founded by the late George Horace Gallup (1901-1984), an American statistician. This Gallup poll identified four distinct views of God’s personality and interaction with the world. Baylor researchers outlined the results as follows: 1. Those who believe in an "Authoritarian God" - a God who is "angry at humanity’s sins and engaged in every creature’s life and world affairs" - 31.4 percent. 2. Those who believe in a "Benevolent God" - a God who is forgiving and accepting of anyone who repents - 23 percent. 3. Those who believe in a "Critical God" - a God who "has His judgmental eye on the world, but he’s not going to intervene, either to punish or comfort" - 16 percent. 4. Those who believe in a "Distant God" - a God who is more of a "cosmic force that launched the world, then left it spinning on its own" - 24.4 percent. In which of these categories do you find yourself? Does the "Authoritarian God," the "Benevolent God," the "Critical God," or the "Distant God" align more with your thinking and you heart? I, personally, believe in the "Benevolent God" and I would like to share with you this morning some reasons why I believe in God's benevolence. In 1 John 4, we read "God is love!" Almighty God does not just have the ability to love; but, that He is love. Love is a description of Who God is, not just of what He does! According to Holy Scripture, this God Who is Love desires nothing more than He desires to share His love with each and everyone of us! Author Richard Armstrong, in "Make Your Life Worthwhile," reported a story about a man in Wales who sought to win the affection of a certain lady for 42 years before she finally said, "Yes." The couple, both 74 years of age, recently became "Mr. and Mrs." For more than 40 years, the persistent, but rather shy man slipped a weekly love letter under the door of her home, his neighbor’s house. However, she continually refused to speak and mend the spat that had parted them many years before. After writing 2,184 love letters without ever getting a spoken or written answer, the man eventually summoned up enough courage to present himself in person. He knocked on the door of her home and asked for her hand. To his delight and surprise, the formerly reluctant lady accepted! Now, try to imagine how God has shown mankind His love down through the ages, through history as we know it! Time and time again, He tried to get His message of love through to His human Creation, both male and female, with little or no response. Finally, He wrapped up His message in Person; His love for us was displayed in the Person of Jesus Christ! The late, great, Dutch Christian and holocaust survivor, Cornelia Johanna Arnolda ten Boom (1892 - 1983), also known as "Corrie ten Boom," in her autobiogaphy, entitled, "The Hiding Place," shared this true story about a time after her release from the concentration camp when she was speaking at a church. "It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there - the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face. He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing, 'How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,' he said. ’To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’ His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? 'Lord Jesus', I prayed, 'forgive me and help me to forgive him'. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer, ’Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.’ As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself."
In Jesus ,
Brown
Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endlessMother Theresa
Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kindAmiel, Henri Frederick
The course of human history is determined, not by what happens in the skies, but what takes place in our hearts. Keith, Sir Arthur
Life is a journey, and love is what makes that journey worthwhile. Unknown
Love is the beauty of the soul.St. Augustine
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Brown's Daily Word 4-28-08

2008-04-28T06:59:00.001-05:00

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this good day, a gift from the Lord. I trust you had a great weekend of worship, rest, and renewal. Laureen came home and joined us for a an extended weekend. The Lord blessed us all.
Ferdinand Magellan was the Spanish explorer who led the first expedition to sail around the world. As he approached the tip of Argentina in the year 1520, he came to the region he named Tierra del Fuego (land of fire), so named because there were natives on the shore tending several large fires. As the great ships sailed past the natives, who had surely never seen nor heard of sailing vessels in their lives, they completely ignored the ships as though they did not exist. When Magellan and his crew landed, he learned that they had considered the ships unreal, an apparition, because they were so unlike anything they had seen before. Magellan’s experience with the natives of Argentina is a metaphor of modern civilization. We see sights around us every day that point to God’s presence and we dismiss them as unreliable, because they are beyond our experience in the world as we know it. We have kept ourselves from seeing and understanding the spiritual and supernatural world around us because of a fixed mindset that is unwilling to accept the concept of God. Jacques Monod expressed worldview of those like him who refused to see what is right before them, “Man must learn to live in an alien world that is deaf to his music and is as indifferent to his hopes as it is to his sufferings or his crimes. . . . Man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged only by chance.” How sad it is that the people of earth are trying to discover their place on the planet and find where they fit in the universe, while avoiding the obvious, and refusing to put God into the equation. God is sailing by and they consider it a fantasy. They turn their heads away as they tend to the fires of their own existence. The problem with this is that our civilization is left with an empty and vacuous world devoid of meaning and purpose. When we avoid God, we miss the reason for our existence and all that he wants to do for us. We miss the warmth of his love, the completeness of his forgiveness, and thrill of his embrace. The author of the book of Acts tells us that the whole reason the world was created is that we might know God and have a relationship with him. Hear it again as he says, “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:27-28). We must realize that God is for us. God is not the angry avenger who is peering at earth, looking for wayward sinners whom he can condemn. He is not looking through a microscope for all of the wrong we do. He is looking at us in compassionate love. It is hard to get through to us that God is crazy about us. He is passionate for us. He is longing for us. He is wanting us. He desires us. He is calling us to himself that we might have a relationship with him. Here is what the atheist misses — living with the realization that they are loved by the Creator of the universe. They do not understand that at the heart of the universe is a heart that is throbbing for them. The same is true, for that matter, for those believers whose idea of Christianity is a list of obligations which we owe to God. There are many who have been poisoned by a toxic religion that has led them to believe that God is hard to please and impossible to satisfy. They see him as looking for their faults and recording their sins. They feel that He loads them with guilt and delights in their shame. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus says to us what he said to the woman with a shameful life: “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). Jesus says to us what he said to greedy Zacchaeus: “Come down. I want to stay at your house tonight” (Luke 19:5). Jesus says to us what he said to the sinful woman who washed his feet: “Your many sins have been forgiven” (Luke 7:47). God is the father who runs out to welcome his sinful son home, and not only throws his arms around him, but throws a party as well (Luke 15:20). In the Old Testament book, the Song of Solomon, the relationship between God and us is compared to two breathless lovers who are full of passion for one another. In the New Testament he calls us his bride. He speaks with tender words calling us his beloved. In no other religion of the world do you find a God who is breathlessly in love with the people of the world. This passionate love never occurs in Hinduism, Islam, or Buddhism. The amazing thing about Jesus is the intimate vocabulary he uses when addressing us. He calls us his little children. He also said things like, “I no longer call you servants. . . . Instead, I have called you friends” (John 15:15). I read about King David, whose sins were great, but who turned to God asking him to cleanse his heart. His passion for God became the fire that burns through the book of Psalms. He wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1-2). I read about the woman who pushed through the crowd just so she might touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. I read about blind men who cried out for Jesus, even when people told them to be quiet. These are the people who came into a relationship with Jesus and had their lives transformed, because they were passionate for God. They found that relationship to be redemptive because they were changed. Their brokenness turned to wholeness. Their weakness became strength. Their failure turned to faithfulness. They learned obedience, not by trying harder, but by loving more. Love came before obedience. Brennan Manning said, “Jesus Christ did not come to make us nicer people with better morals. He came to transform people into better lovers. He came to make brand new people alive with the fire of God.” He knows every thought and imagination of our minds. He is aware of all the attitudes and intentions of our hearts, and still is passionately drawn to us. His knowledge of us pierces our souls, reveals our true self and loves us immeasurably. What a wonderful God we serve. This calls for a response on our behalf. We have been loved completely and we need to love completely in return. It is the only adequate response to a God like this. The Bible says, “You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God” (1 Peter 2:2, The Message). The Bible gives this invitation: “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). I just read a magazine that carried the following story, “A recent promotion by H & R Block offered walk-in customers a chance to win a drawing for $1 million. Glen and Gloria Sims of Sewell, New Jersey, won the drawing, but they refused to believe it when a Block representative phoned them with the good news. After several additional contacts by both mail and phone, the Simses still thought it was all just a scam, and usually hung up the phone or trashed the special notices. Some weeks later, H & R Block called one more time to let the Simses know the deadline for accepting their million-dollar prize was nearing and that the story of their refusal to accept the prize would appear soon on NBC’s ‘Today’ show. At that point, Glen Sims decided to investigate. A few days later he appeared on ‘Today’ to tell America that he and his wife had finally claimed their million dollars. Sims said, ‘From the time this has been going on, H & R Block explained to us they really wanted a happy ending to all this, and they were ecstatic that we finally accepted the prize.’ Every time someone decides to accept God’s free gift of a relationship with him that he has been trying to give away, it is the same. He is ecstatic when we accept the prize. God loves it when there is a happy ending.
In Christ,
Brown

Brown's Daily Word 4-25-08

2008-04-25T17:17:00.000-05:00

Praise the Lord for the way He loves us. It is written in Romans: "But God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." It is written again in 1 John 4: “We love, because He first loved us"

A pastor tells of a wife who came into his office full of hatred toward her husband. "I do not only want to get rid of him; I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has me," the woman fumed. Crane suggested an ingenious plan. "Go home and act as if you really loved your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you’ve convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb. Tell him that you’re getting a divorce. That will really hurt him." With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, "Beautiful, beautiful. Will he ever be surprised!" And she did it with enthusiasm—acting as if. For two months she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, forgiveness, patience, sharing. When she didn’t return, Crane called. "Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?" "Divorce?!" she exclaimed. "Never! I discovered I really do love him."The Catholic Saint Francis de Sales said, “You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so, you learn to love God and man by loving.”The Apostle Paul penned his Corinthian letter to a church in complete disarray and on the verge of imploding upon itself. The church was rife with public immorality, doctrinal confusion, divisions, party politics, petty bickering, believers suing other believers in secular courts, syncretism, divorce, and abuses of spiritual gifts and the sacraments. And the root causes all of those ills Paul subscribes to one deficiency: The Corinthians were not manifesting and exercising sacrificial love to each other in their common life. Following this diagnosis the Apostle then proceeds to prescribe the cure for the Corinthian troubles: Manifest and exercise sacrificial love to each other in your common life.The remedy is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the familiar, much beloved, and popularly named “love chapter.” Yet I submit to you that our familiarity with 1 Corinthians 13 has not resulted in our incorporating its truths into our hearts and manifesting its principles in our lives—just the opposite. Perhaps our over-familiarity has desensitized us, and numbed us, to the scandal of the priority and power of sacrificial love in action. And it’s time for us to wake up. Paul begins his appeal to the addled Corinthians and us in the first 3 verses of chapter 13 by a declaration of the priority and primacy of sacrificial love for the every born again believer. His point is a simple one: Love is the premier virtue of the Christian life. It towers above all others in importance, and it must be the ground, the foundation, the first principle, of everything we as believers do and are. And notice how Paul uses hyperbole—exaggeration—to make his point so that we won’t miss it.The Apostle states rather matter-of-factly: “No matter how spiritual other Christians perceive me to be, or how much I accomplish for the kingdom, if it is not motivated by and accompanied with love, I am nothing and I accomplish absolutely nothing. If I exhibit supernatural, ecstatic utterances without love—worthless. If I memorize the Bible cover to cover, and know everything there is to know about God, and have supernatural faith, without love it is all meaningless. If I give everything I have for the poor, and even my own dearest possession, my life, as a martyr, and if either is loveless, it is also in God’s reckoning useless.”Paul’s point? Sacrificial love is the premier virtue of the Christian faith; and with that point implicitly comes this imperative: Do what you have to do to begin manifesting this love in your life. Genuine love does not envy. It does not parade itself—boast about what it is doing to receive recognition and acclaim. Love is not rude—that is, it is concerned with the feelings of others and doesn’t manifest itself in fits of meanness. It is not self-serving; it motivates us to forego our needs and concentrates rather on the needs of others. Love is not easily provoked; in trying situations it causes us to stop and seek a response that better serves our brother or sister than our own need to be right. It is difficult to incite a row with love. Love keeps no accounts of wrongs done to it. Husbands and wives, do you know when we play the “trump card” of our spouse’s past wrongs in a marital spat? When our case is weak and we are losing the argument. Love has a short memory of past injuries and refuses to bring them up again to hurt someone. And love doesn’t rejoice in evil, but finds its joy and contentment in what is good, and true, and righteous. Conversely, love suffers long; it holds off anger and is able to withstand wrongs. It is kind—tender, pleasant, and sweet-natured. Love bears all things. When we think of a “bearing” love our thoughts go immediately to Calvary; there our Lord, motivated by love, bore the cross, the shame, the abuse, the rejection of friends, and the sins of the world. Love believes all things. It hopes all things, continuing to look beyond the immediate circumstances to the future fulfillment of God’s promised blessings to the righteous. Love endures all things—. St. John says in 1 John 4:7-8: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”Paul concludes his appeal to the Corinthians and us with the revelation of the permanence of love in verses 8-13.The sign gifts, like tongues, interpretation of tongues, special revelations, and the like, the Apostle says, will fade away in the life of the church. But love he says will never fade away. The obvious implications are that love is more important than these gifts, because that which is important endures. Paul says that there are 3 cardinal virtues in the Christian life—3 things we must possess and manifest if we are authentic heirs of everlasting life: Faith—a complete reliance upon the redemptive work of Christ; hope—the expectation of realizing the promises of God in the future which we only anticipate now; and love—the decision of our wills to put the needs and concerns of others before our own. And of these 3 essentials Paul says, the greatest is love. This harkens us back to Jesus’ teaching, doesn't it? “Rabbi,” the lawyer asked, “which is the greatest of all the commandments?” “Love God with all that you have and all that you are, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. On these 2 commandments hang God’s entire revelation and ethical imperative in the Old Covenant. There is no commandment greater than these.”What does love look like? It looks like this. In his book Loving God, Chuck Colson writes:It was a quiet December evening on Ward C43, the oncology unit at Georgetown University Hospital. Many of the rooms around the central nurse’s station were dark and empty, but in Room 11 a man lay critically ill.The patient was Jack Swigert, the man who had piloted the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970 and was now Congressman-elect from Colorado’s 6th Congressional district. Cancer, the great lever, now waged its deadly assault on his body.With the dying man was a tall, quiet visitor, sitting in the spot he had occupied almost every night since Swigert had been admitted. Though Bill Armstrong, U.S. Senator from Colorado and chairman of the Senate subcommittee handling Washington’s hottest issue, social security, was one of the busiest and most powerful men in Washington, he was not visiting this room night after night as a powerful politician. He was here as a deeply committed Christian and as Jack Swigert’s friend, fulfilling a responsibility he would not delegate or shirk, much as he disliked hospitals.This night Bill leaned over the bed and spoke quietly to his friend. “Jack, you’re going to be all right. God loves you. I love you. You’re surrounded by friends who are praying for you. You’re going to be all right.” The only response was Jack’s tortured and uneven breathing.Bill pulled his chair closer to the bed and opened his Bible. “Psalm 23,” he began to read in a steady voice. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want….”Time passed. “Psalm 150,” Bill began, then his skin prickled. Jack’s ragged breathing had stopped. He leaned down over the bed, then called for help. As he watched the nurse examining Jack, Bill knew there was nothing more he could do. His friend was dead.Politicians are busy people, Colson concludes, especially Senate committee chairmen. Yet it never occurred to Bill Armstrong that he was too busy to be at the hospital. Nothing dramatic or heroic about his decision—just a friend doing what he could.What more can be said except, “Go, and do thou likewise?”St. Augustine rightly opined that as a consequence of the Fall we are all born with natures, as he called them, incurvatis in se: “twisted in on themselves.” We are by nature selfish, self-absorbed, and blind to accurate self-analysis about just those realities.What then are we to do?Francis de Sales rightly said: We learn to love by loving. Period.I have spent long hours in the intensive care waiting room…watching with anguished people…listening to urgent questions: Will my husband make it? Will my child walk again? How do you live without your companion of thirty years?The intensive care waiting room is different from any other place in the world. And the people who wait are different. They can’t do enough for each other. No one is rude. The distinctions of race and class melt away. A person is a father first, a black man second. The garbage man loves his wife as much as the university professor loves his, and everyone understands this. Each person pulls for everyone else.In the intensive care waiting room, the world changes. Vanity and pretense vanish. The universe is focused on the doctor’s next report. If only it will show improvement. Everyone knows that loving someone else is what life is all about.Can you imagine how very different our homes and our church would be if we realized that our everyday life is in fact the crucible of the intensive care waiting room?In Jesus our Saviour
Brown

Brown's Daily Word 4-24-08

2008-04-24T10:43:00.001-05:00

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for His tender mercies and loving kindness. One of the salient characteristics of our God, who is revealed in the Person Jesus Christ, is Love. In 1 John, we read that there is no fear in love, and perfect love casts out all fear. His Love is amazing. It frees us, it heals us, and it fills us.
C.S. Lewis suggested that God’s love for us is a much safer subject to consider than our love for others. In 1 John 4 it is declared that people born of God are able to love, because love comes from God. It doesn’t come naturally for us. We confuse attraction and emotion with love. Our deluded world thinks love is something that makes people feel good, a “many-splendored thing.” The world is filled with people who are self-centered rather than love-centered. True love is unconditional acceptance and sacrificial commitment. While we can define love, it’s not something that can be learned. We are only able to love through the work of Holy Spirit, Who lives in us. People you know may not read the Bible, but they look at us to see whether we show genuine love and compassion; they are checking out “the Gospel According to You.” “God is love”(vs 7 & 16). Everything God does is an expression of love. What God does may not be for our immediate good but it is always for our ultimate good. We are part of a love story written by the Author and Finisher of our faith. God loves the unlovable and the undeserving, and He pursues them until they stop running--then blesses them! His love compels us to love others. Love is God’s nature, and our new nature as Christians. We become what God is, and God is love! This does not mean that “love is God”, which is being in love with love, making love an idol. It is entirely possible to have sound biblical beliefs, yet show little love toward others. When we enter into a living relationship with a loving God we are transformed into loving people. The true follower of Christ both believes and loves. “There’s an infinite difference between real Christianity and mere ideology” (Kreeft). Faith without works of love is dead (James 2:26). God’s word may reach our heads, but it has to also reach our hearts, and then our feet. D. L. Moody said that “Bibles ought to be bound in shoe leather!” We are to go beyond sentiment, all the way to action. Sentiment is merely “feeling without responsibility” (Wiersbe). Love, however, is compassion with a plan. I John 4:9 is reminiscent of John 3:16. “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” The Cross is the ultimate expression of God’s love, extending beyond the boundaries of eternity. The Cross has your name written on it by the Hand of Love. Other loves cannot explain the Cross. Jesus was the visible presence of God in the world, the unveiling of God’s heart. We now serve as His visible presence. We do so imperfectly, yet we are nonetheless His body. We are His arms to a world in need of an accepting embrace. No one who has come to the Cross and experienced God’s undeserved love can return to a life of selfishness. “This is love: not that we loved God but that He loved us” (10). No mere definition of love is adequate. We must go to the Source. Love originates with God, and is manifested in the coming of His Son. He initiates love; He doesn’t wait for us to love Him. He loved us, and loves us still, at our worst. We can love because “God lives in us” (12). Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. In Old Testament times, the presence of God dwelt in the Holy of Holies within the Jewish Temple. In the same way, God’s Spirit now dwells within all believers. Our inner life is empowered, which changes our outer life. There is no true believer who can remain a casual Christian when the Holy Spirit is living and active within. John refers to Jesus as “the Savior of the world” (14). The Romans regarded Caesar as their savior; today, in North Korea, the people treat Kim Jung Il like a god. But we are loyal to One whose authority transcends any and all human liberators. We are rescued from oppression and the penalty of sin. Jesus, Who is love incarnate, is the true Savior. “We love because He first loved us,” verse 19. Loving one another is an essential part of truly loving God (Marshall). This epistle, I John, tells what true faith looks like. The chapter closes by stating that the test of our love for God is in how we treat the people in our lives. Real love for God exists only when we also love others. We are so grateful and grounded in God’s love that our lives are transformed. We are healed inwardly, making love towards others the natural outgrowth of the love we have experienced. God’s love is complete when it is reproduced in us. God’s love generates our love. When we love, we show that we are living in the Light.
In His Amazing Love,
Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NeKnC4WXCs