Brown's Daily Word 9-27-07

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for the way He is our eternal contemporary and our Eternal companion. In this vast world we are meant to never roam alone. He is the Way. He is our Guide. He is our Guardian. He is our Vision. He loves to lead us. He delights in ordering our path. We read Psalm 37:23, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord…" This can apply to us personally, to our families, finances, moves, businesses, and decisions. However, the “stops” and the detours of a good man are ordered by the Lord as well.
Sometimes God closes doors and puts up roadblocks, when we are going the wrong way. At times He paves detours for those who walk with Him. God sometimes uses outward circumstances to guide us, like a door closing, and the worst thing we can do is kick it down and barge through anyway. If we insist on having our way God may do something that we won’t like in the end…He may let us have our way!
Our disappointments are often God’s appointments! Our extremities are His opportunities. When God closes one door he opens another. As Anslem said"We all have a God-shaped void inside of us," and often people try to fill that void with things of the world, such as pleasure, sex, drugs and alcohol, material goods, achievement, money, relationships, and even good works and social involvement!
But the only thing that can fill the God-shaped void is the Lord of Life! As people try all these things they are really calling out, come and help me!
David Brainerd won many thousands of American Indians to Christ. He said, “I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls for Christ. While I was asleep I dreamed of these things, and when I awoke, it was the first thought that I had, the thought of this great work.”
He caught the vision, he heard the Indians crying, “come over here and help us!”
David Livingston, the first man to take the gospel into the heart of Africa, said, “I must open a way to the interior or perish!” It was do or die. He caught the vision, and he heard the Africans crying, “come over here and help us!” J. Hudson Taylor, pioneer Missionary to China, said, “I feel as though I cannot live if something is not done for China.” William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, said, "Oh, God, what can I say? Souls! Souls! Souls! My heart hungers for souls!"
The story has often been told of the little church in Germany situated near train tracks that carried Jews to their death. "Each Sunday Morning," the German man telling the story said, "we could hear the whistle in the distance and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars! Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the train was coming and when we heard the whistle blow we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more. Years have passed, and no one talks about it much any more; but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. I can still hear them crying out for help. God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene."
Paul and Silas got into a boat and crossed the Aegean Sea. They began a new venture. We read in Acts 20:6— On the way over God must have been breathing into their sails to get them there! There’s no experience in the world like doing the will of God! The 1st church they established in Europe was in Philippi. When they got there they found a little group of women praying down by the river.
v. 12-13 It was a just a little prayer meeting, just a group of women. Some might have thought, that’s so small, that’s so silly, or some may have thought it was sweet. Let us not despise the small things. It’s from the tiny acorn that a mighty oak tree grows! And God heard these prayers and they are likely the reason for Paul’s vision. Paul saw a man in his vision, and responded, and when he got there, found out it was a woman! Lydia became the first convert on that side of the sea.
“Little is much when God is in it…” You have to remember something about the start of this first European church. That is, the apostle Paul, prior to his salvation, was a Pharisee. And everyday when a Pharisee woke up he would pray 3 things by custom. He thanked God he was not a woman, that he was not a slave, and that he was not a Gentile. Guess who the 1st 3 converts were in Europe? They were a woman, Lydia, a slave girl, and a Gentile! Isn’t that just like God? He breaks down our walls of prejudice and bigotry!
I expect to meet Lydia someday, but she won’t be wearing a purple robe. She will be wearing a robe made white by the blood of the Lamb!

In Christ,
Brown

Some one has said " Every addict is some one's beloved". In a deeper way every one who is sick is some ones' beloved". Pray for the following:

Ryan K ,who is in hospice care.
LA, for total healing
JB who will be going for drug rehabilitation
GD, who is battling chronic depression
Don Harbecke, 52 years old is had a quadruple heart bypass in Illinois,.
He came through the surgery well. Praise the Lord.
Jack B, experiencing heart problems,
Leslie Broughton, Receiving chemo therapy
Larry, Jane, and family who just moved to their dream house. Larry is concerned that he might lose his job in Atlanta
Geraldine who is hospitalized in with a heart attack and a stroke in Columbia, SC.
JN, who is a recent college graduate, looking for job,
Janice, our oldest daughter, who is going back to work next week, after the birth of Simeon. She works for Healthcare for the Homeless in Boston,
Our youngest daughter Jessica, who will be finishing her assignment withe the Americorps in Philadlphia in few weeks,
Sunita who is attending a weeklong conference in Haiti,
Pray for Cameron Tyler, born 8 weeks prematurely, weighing 4 pounds, in neonatal ICU in Boston
Pray for Kristin, Becky, Shannan - our young expecting moms
Jane Leoffler, who has been admitted to the hospital with multiple complications. She and her husband Charles have been married for 65 years. WOW!
Andy, in Sloane-Kettering Hospital in New York City.
Kim, is home after her surgery.
Patsie Carmen, suffred a stroke. She is in the Hospital .
Prudence Wesner, recovering from Complete knee replacement surgery
Brolin Parker... As he recovers from surgery in Albany last week.
Burt Sweet (Retired Pastor) is still recovering from lung surgery in Watertown, NY. Please pray for Burt and his family as his health continues to be fragile.
Geno DeAngelo, Binghamton Police officer, father of four children, battling lung cancer,
Depend on it! God's work done in God's way
will never lack God's supply.

There is a living God;
He has spoken in the Bible;
He means what He says
and will do all He has promised.

J. Hudson Taylor (1832-1905)
English missionary and founder of the China Inland Mission


Live so as to be missed when dead.

Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843)
Scottish minister

Live so as to be missed when dead.

Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843)
Scottish minister




The Confused Samaritan
A man was beaten up by robbers on a road to London. He lay there, half dead and in bad shape. A Vicar came along, saw him and passed by on the other side. Next, a monk came by but also walked quickly on the other side. Finally, a social worker came along, looked at the man and said "Whoever did this needs help!"


Goliath's Grief!
Why was Goliath so surprised when David hit him with a stone? Because nothing like this had ever entered his mind before.






The Brutal Truth!
A man called up a bible believing church and the church secretary answered the call. The man on the other end of the line said, "I’d like to speak to the head hog." The secretary replied, "That wasn’t a very nice thing to say about our beloved minister, Rev. Jones." Again the man replied, "I’d like to speak to the head hog, because I’m going to donate £75,000.00 to the church. She replied, "Hold on a moment, I think the big fat pig just walked in."