Brown's Daily Word 10-26-07

Good Morning.
Praise the Lord for this last Friday of October. We are just less than two months away from Christmas! It is a wonderful way to end the year as we celebrate All Saints Day, Thanksgiving Day, the Advent season, and Christmas, and then enter the new year with the season of Epiphany. Praise the Lord for the way His perfect plans and purposes for our lives culminate in Christ Jesus our Lord, who is the Alpha and Omega, and in Him all things hold together. He is the Super Glue of the Universe.
We have full weekend of celebration and worship coming up, starting tomorrow morning. We will begin with a Breakfast Buffet, with all you can eat homemade pancakes, maple syrup, New York apple cider, fruit salad, eggs, ham, sausage, Columbian coffee, (picked by Juan Valdez, of course), and New York milk (and maybe some Florida orange juice). The women of the church cooking the breakfast with much love. The men will gather for worship and praise. Aric Phinney and the worship band will lead in worship. Terry Steenberg will bring the message. Then the men will be in motion with mission. They will be working in the church, moving some office furniture, doing some painting, and helping a needy family in winterizing the house. Some men will be changing oil and winterizing the cars of some of our single moms. We get energized by serving Christ and His people. We get excited about Jesus when we serve Him with Holy Hands and grateful hearts.
This Sunday we are planning for continued celebration and worship with our holy version of the October Feast. The Students from the Binghamton University those who meet at Wesley will be joining us for a feast and fellowship after the conclusion of the 11:00 worship service. Praise the Lord for His Faithfulness. Praise the Lord for His mercy that endures for ever. Praise the Lord for His Love never fails.
We've heard it said that God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives. It’s easy to agree when we like the plan. But, sometimes, God’s plan turns out to be different than what we were thinking it would or should be. The same thing is true of the Jewish people in Jeremiah 29. God is judging the nation of Judah because of their unfaithfulness. The Babylonians have attacked Jerusalem. They’ve taken 3000 prisoners back to Babylon. Including the king, the court officials, and the craftsmen. And the Jews are saying “This isn’t supposed to happen to us! We’re the chosen people! We’re the apple of God’s eye! What is going on?”
The Jewish people have a beautiful history of God coming through for them in times of crisis. In Exodus chapter 3:7, the Lord told Moses that “I have seen the misery of my people. I am concerned about their suffering at the hands of the Egyptians. So I’m going to bring them out of the land of Egypt.” And that’s exactly what happens. In Exodus 14, God brings them through the Red Sea. 40 years later in Joshua 24, the Israelites inherit the Promised Land. God’s plan was accomplished in the lives of His people.
In 2 Kings 19, the Assyrian army invaded the land of Judah. The people were scared. The commander of the Assyrian army said, “No one can deliver you out of the hand of the King of Assyria. Surrender to us now, and we will let you live!”
But Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. And that very night, an angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 people in the Assyrian camp. Almighty God had come through once again! God’s word was accomplished in the lives of His people.
Thus, when the Babylonians invade the land of Judah in 597 BC, the captives are thinking, “This isn’t going to last long. God is going to come through for us like He always does! The prophet Hananiah said in Jeremiah 28 that in two years, God will break the yoke of the king of Babylon, and we will be free! We’re coming back home! Praise God!” But in Jeremiah 29:1-6, Jeremiah writes a letter to the captives in Babylon. And basically, he says “You’re not coming home for a while. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Be fruitful and multiply.” In other words, ‘You’re not ready to go home because I have plans for you right here in Babylon.”
Like the Jewish people in this story, we too are living in a world that is not our own. But we’re not ready to go home because God has plans for us right here in Babylon. He wants us to live for Him in this foreign land until he calls us home to the Promised Land.
Then in verse seven, Jeremiah says, “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." Here the Jews would have been thinking, “You want us to pray for the community that carried us into captivity? Jeremiah, have you lost your mind? These people are the enemies of God! These are the people who ransacked the city of Jerusalem! How can you ask us to pray for these people?”
But God doesn’t want us to be bitter toward the non-Christian world. He wants us to be a blessing to the non-Christian world. He wants us to pray for people even if they’re different from us. Even if they don’t always treat us the way we deserve. In fact, Jesus gives us the same advice in Matthew 5:44 when He says “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Anyone can pray for their kids. Or for their friends. But praying for people we don’t get along with is what makes Christian love different from all other kinds of love.
In verse ten, God says something else that would have gotten the Jews riled up. He says “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place." When we read this verse, we think, “Wow, that’s beautiful. In seventy years, God is going to bring the people back to the Promised Land. That’s awesome!” But the Jews were thinking, “You mean we have to live in this rotten country for the next 70 years? Most of us are going to be dead by then! What kind of a plan is this, God?”
But if you look at the Old Testament, you will see that God accomplished great things in the lives of His people during those seventy years. Number one: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were three of the captives that were taken to Babylon. And according to Daniel chapter one, they went on to become three of the best administrators that the country ever had. And they became role models for young people all over the world.
Daniel was another one of the captives that was taken to Babylon. And because Daniel was able to interpret the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, he was made ruler over the entire province of Babylon. With Daniel’s help, Nebuchadnezzar becomes a believer in God. In Daniel 4:37, he says, “I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride He is able to humble.” This beautiful moment in the king’s life would probably not have happened if it were not for the presence of the Jewish people in the land of Babylon.
Because the Jewish people were able to live in peace under the leadership of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, the Lord gave them , some of the greatest books of the Old Testament. 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Psalm 137 . These were given, during this seventy year period.
Most important of all, during this 70 year period, the Jewish people were beginning to realize that they needed to get right with the Lord!
But there are times when we need to hear it. And this time, the Jewish people need to hear it. Because for years, they have been under the impression that because they are the chosen people, and because they are the guardians of the temple of the Lord, they can live their lives any way they please. And God says in Jeremiah 7:4, “Do not trust in deceptive words. If you reform your ways and change your actions, I will let you stay in the land.” But they didn’t listen. And God is using these seventy years of exile to show the Jewish people where they went wrong. And what they need to do to make things right.
So, when we look at the big picture, we can see that God is working behind the scenes in the hearts and in the lives of the Jewish people. Even though they can’t see it. God’s plan is always best. Even if we don’t understand it at the time. Even if we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Even if we would never have chosen this path for ourselves. God’s plan is not always the easiest plan. But it is the BEST plan.
Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.” I think if we knew everything that was going to happen to us ahead of time, we would go crazy. We would be doing everything in our power to change things to make them go the way we would want them to go. (And that’s probably why God doesn’t tell us everything at once.)
But verse 11 reminds us that even though we don’t know all the plans for our lives, GOD knows the plans He has for us. He sees our tomorrows before they become our ‘todays.’
If we were up in the Good Year blimp, and we were watching a parade, we could look down and see the entire parade. You could see the beginning of the parade. The end of the parade. And everything in between. That’s similar to the way that God sees our lives . He sees the beginning of your life. He sees the end of your life. And He sees everything in between. Psalm 139:16 says “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” God knows the plans He has for you.
Then Jeremiah says that “God has plans to prosper you and not to harm you.” God has ‘plans to give you a hope and a future.’ For the Jewish people, that meant going back to the promised land. But for us, it means going UP to the Promised Land.
When we believe in Jesus Christ, and surrender our lives to Him with obedience, we, have a hope and a future that goes far beyond the parameters of this life. We have a hope and a future . We have the hope that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. We have the hope that God will someday be finished with the work He’s doing in our lives , and that we will reign with Christ forever and ever! We have a certain hope that God’s promises in our lives will come true.
Jeremiah 31:31, the Lord says “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. With this covenant, No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ’Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
God ratified this new covenant when He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. Because of what Jesus Christ did for us on that cross, we all have an opportunity to know the Lord for ourselves. We all have an opportunity to be forgiven! Proving once and for all that the word of the Lord always come true.
An Jeremiah 29:12-13 says “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Sometimes His plan for our lives is different than what we were thinking. But it is always the best plan.
In Him,
Brown
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Please remember in prayer:
Sunita, Connie, Linda, Jack H. Jack B, Irving, Allan, JoAnne, Kathleen, Patsie, Linda A. Dr Doug Kerr and the team in Africa,
A short term Mission trip that is going to India in June 2008, The Continentals in tour in Great Britain now, The victims and workers at the California fires.