It is the first Friday of Summer, 2007. We are reminded in the Word of the Lord that our days on earth are numbered. Life is short. Eternity is very long. Hell is for real. Heaven can be ours in through Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Resurrection and the Life.
A Christian woman wrote to me yesterday that her Ex-Husband is dying of cancer. He is facing an imminent death. He does not know the Lord. She needs prayer for him, that he might come to surrender his life to Jesus, and thus discover new life, abundant and eternal.
I performed two funerals last Saturday, for one man and one woman, both of whom were in their 80's. I was asked at about midnight last night if I can officiate a funeral service for a young man who died tragically in a car accident yesterday. He was Jessica's high school classmate, just 23 years old.
Whenever I am in a cemetery, I walk between the tombstones and read the names and birth dates written there. I have come to realize that in those graves are many unsaved souls, disobedient children of God who never repented and came to Christ; children of God who had an opportunity to sit in the heights of Heaven, but instead chose to be tormented in the pit of Hell! Buried beneath the soil are dreams that never came to pass; books that were never written; songs never sung; children never born; ideas never shared; paintings never painted; inventions that were never invented; plans that never became reality; goals never fulfilled! Graveyards are filled with potential greatness that will externally remain potential. What a tragedy when you realize that so many have denied the Savior and died in their sins. Yet, "God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son so that whosoever believes in Him may not be lost, but have eternal life". (John 3:16)
You see even on the streets of our cities, towns, and villages the wasted, broken, disoriented lives of our people. Many are found standing on the corners, caught up in Substance Abuse; Alcoholism; Lack of Purpose; Poor Choice of Friends; Violence; Child Abuse; Lying; Murder; Prostitution and Total Despair. One of God’s awesome promises is found in 2 Corinthians 4:8,9 "We have troubles all around us, but we are not defeated. We do not know what to do, but we do not give up the hope of living. We are hurt sometimes, but we are not destroyed."
Saul, the terrorist and accuser of the brethren, met Jesus on the way to Damascus. The light was so sudden that Saul fell to the ground, and he heard a voice from above asking, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? Saul asked, who are you?"
The voice answered, saying, "I Am Jesus! The one you are persecuting." Jesus commanded Saul to get up and go into the city and he would be told what to do!
The men with Saul were speechless- for they heard the voice, but saw no one!!
Saul fell to his knees, and when the command ended, he could no longer physically see. The first words that came out of his mouth were no longer words of persecution, but words of prayer he had never spoken before, "Oh Jesus, help me!!!!"
Saul was led to Damascus. All of Saul’s life up to that point he had been a blind man- spiritually blind- the blind leading the blind. But God had a plan for Saul because he had potential leadership ability. The Lord had another path for Saul to take and good works for him to do. Saul’s home boys took him to Judas' house and left him there. He had no food and no water, and for 3 days he could not see! He looked through a glass door darkly and all he had was Jesus as his guide and protector! Saul had a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he could see again!
It is amazing how the Lord works.... At that very same time, the Lord spoke to Ananias, who was a believer in Damascus, and told him in a vision, " Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas and ask for Saul of Tarsus. He is praying for me right now! Ananias didn’t want to go. He said, "Lord, I’ve heard about the terrible things that this man has done to believers!" But the Lord said, "Go and do it, for Saul is my CHOSEN instrument to take My message to the people. And I will show him how much he must suffer for Me."
Ananias went to Straight Street and found Saul, laid hands upon him, and instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, his sight was restored and Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit. He got up and was baptized, he ate food and was strengthened. Immediately Saul began preaching about Jesus to the kings, the Gentiles and to the people of Israel.
Saul used to be powerful and feared by many in the neighborhoods, but he was more powerful as a preacher and follower of Jesus Christ. He knew he’d been saved by grace and mercy and was not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Apostles of Christ accepted Saul as a Christian brother and they recognized his God-given potential to lead others to Christ. After that he was with them constantly.
.....that is what we as Christians need to do today! We need to go down to Straight Street, where the Lord is working on the blind. Everybody has potential! They are crying out on a Street called Straight- praying to Jesus for help!
In Him,
Brown
The vigour of our spiritual life will be
in exact proportion to the place held by
the Bible in our life and thoughts.
George Müller (1805-1898)
Prussian-born English evangelist and
founder of a Bristol orphanage
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:21
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 1 Timothy 3:16
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Pslam 119:105
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE ANVIL OF GOD'S WORD
"Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith's door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.
"'How many anvils have you had,' said I,
'To wear and batter all these hammers so?'
'Just one,' said he, and then with twinkling eye,
'The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.'
"And so, I thought, the Anvil of God's Word
For ages sceptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone."
—Attributed to John Clifford
Give Him A Strong Warning
On a street, where the speed is limited to 30 mph the police stop a driver.
"Not only have you been driving too fast, you've been passing cars where it is not allowed. Your lights don't work, your tires all completely worn out. This is surely going to cost you a lot. What's your name?"
"Schtrathewisizeski Vocgefastilongchinic."
"Well, I'll let you go this time but don't do it again."
Friday, June 22, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Brown's Daily Word 6-21-07
Good Morning.
Our Lord specializes in extreme makeovers of our lives. He loves us more than any thing. He finds where we are in our follies, sin, rebellion, and restlessness. He finds us in our wanderings in far away countries and confronts us with His truth and grace. He comes to us in all the seasons of our lives with His life-changing and life-transforming power and love. He finds us in our world which has been turned topsy-turvy and He turns our lives right side up that we might follow Him and serve Him all the days of our lives. He comes along side us in our lives and meets us in the journeys we take. He diffuses our darkness and sheds His glorious light.
Saul was a very religious man. He was focused and passionate, but his focus and passion were contrary to the will of Jesus for His life. One day, very possibly on a hot summer day, Jesus showed up and interrupted Saul’s plans. God shot a laser beam of light out of the throne room of Heaven and knocked Paul to the ground. Suddenly, all of the education, plans, hatred, and condemnation that had been controlling Saul were erased in one quick flash and Saul became the accused and condemned. The Hound of Heaven had hunted down the hunter and felled his prey. Before this time, Saul had not really heard the voice of the Lord Jesus, the Light of the world; he had listened only to the voice of religion and of the world. But now he heard a different voice – a voice with power and authority that shook him to the core of his soul.
This same voice had spoken the world into existence.
This same voice had called to Adam in the Garden.
This same voice had spoken judgment upon Satan, the serpent and all of creation as a result of sin.
This same voice had spoken to Moses on Mt. Sinai and given the Law.
This same voice had spoken to Lazarus and raised him from the dead
This same voice had raised the Window’s son at Nain.
This same voice had cried out, “it is finished” as he paid the price of redemption on the cross
This same voice cries out to us today – follow me, and I will make you fishers of men
This same voice speaks to each of us – this is my will for your life, now do it
This same voice will someday say to us “Well done my good and faithful servant”
I want to hear his voice. I want to be a sheep of his fold. I want to know his voice.
When that voice came from Heaven, Saul knew this was no ordinary voice, but he did not know the Lord and did not recognize him. But Jesus had come to make a change in Saul’s life, so He revealed his identity to Saul. "I AM JESUS – the one you are really fighting against, the one you are really condemning, the one you are really persecuting – I AM JESUS CHRIST, THE KING OF KING AND LORD OF LORDS, CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE – I AM THAT I AM!"
Now those around him didn’t hear what Saul heard. They were not ready to hear. Jesus comes to each man in his own time and in the way that He knows will reach him. People who have not heard the voice cannot understand and cannot know what we are all about. They only know that we are different, that something has interrupted our lives and changed us.
Saul was confronted with the Light from Heaven, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness or shadow of turning. When we are confronted with the Light of Jesus by hearing His Word, the eyes of our spirits are opened and the light of love flows in. We cannot help but be changed. We can then choose to change and follow the Light or we can choose to close our eyes and walk into the depths of darkness.
Saul did not stand up and look into that light and say, “Look at me, I’m Saul, Look at who I am”. All that Saul was, all that he knew, all that he had planned suddenly meant nothing. Without Jesus we are nothing, and we can do nothing outside of His power within us. We can accomplish nothing for the kingdom of God without Jesus. Jesus said, “Its hard for you to kick against the prick”!
Just as you take a stick with a sharp point and drive cattle into the pen or the barn, the HOLY GHOST and the Word of God act as a sharp goad to constantly push us toward the Cross of Christ. We can kick against it, fight against it, try to forget about it, but the goading continues. It isn’t God will that anyone should perish, so He is constantly trying to reach us and turn us back
Saul was instantly and eternally changed in the flash of light. Where he was threatening, now he was trembling. Where he was in control, now he was under God’s control. Where he could see his future under his own control, now he was blind to the world around him and blind to the future that law before him.
For three days Saul was blind – that gave him time to focus on the things that God wanted him to do. It gave him time to think about his life, to repent, and to learn to depend on God’s voice and leading in his life. Sometimes God must lead us into a blind corner and take away our ability to do anything before we will stop long enough and listen close enough to hear His voice.
SAUL WAS INSTANTLY CHANGED FROM PERSECUTOR TO PROCLAIMER!
The fire-breathing dragon from Jerusalem, bent on destruction of Jesus’ disciples had now began to breath the fire of the gospel from his lips.
In Him,
Brown
We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is "of him". If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other.
... John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion
The Genesis Quiz
You studied the first book of the Bible when you were a child, but how much of it do you really remember? Take this quiz and find out.
Answers from Genesis:
Q1. Which of the following would not have been created on the sixth day?
1. Goldfish***
2. Zebras
3. Human Beings
4. Coyotes
Q2. What mountain did Noah’s ark come to rest upon?
1. Sinai
2. Nebo
3. Scopus
4. Ararat***
Q3. What creature guards Eden after Adam and Eve are expelled?
1. Seraph***
2. Unicorn
3. Cherub
4. Satan
Q4. What was Abraham’s original name?
1. Abimelech
2. Noah
3. Abram***
4. Abba
Q5. Which of the following is NOT a son of Jacob?
1. Naftali
2. Hezekiah***
3. Issachar
4. Simeon
Raining in the Woods
Two young guys were at a party in the woods when all of a sudden there was a downpour of thunder and rain. The two ran for about 10 minutes in the pouring rain, finally reaching their car just as the rain let up. They jumped in the car, started it up and headed down the road laughing.
All of a sudden an old man's face appeared in the passenger window and tapped lightly on the window!
The passenger screamed out, "Eeeeekkk! Look at my window!!! There's an old guy's face there!"
(Was this a ghost?)
The old man kept knocking, so the driver said, "Well open the window a little and ask him what he wants!"
So the passenger rolled his window down part way and said, scared out of his wits, "What do you want?"
The old man softly replied, "You have any tobacco?"
The passenger, terrified, looked at the driver and said, "He wants tobacco!"
"Well, offer him a cigarette! HURRY!!" the driver replies.
So the passenger fumbles around with the pack and hands the old man a cigarette, rolling up the window in terror and yells, "Step on it!!!"
Now going about 80 miles an hour, they calm down and they start laughing again.
The passenger says, "What did you think of that?"
The driver says, "I don't know. How could that be? I am going pretty fast!"
All of a sudden, AGAIN there is a knock on the window and the old man is looking in the window.
"Aaaaaaaaaaargh! There he is again!", the passenger yells.
"Well, see what he wants now!" yells back the driver.
The passenger rolls down the window a little ways and shakily says "Yes?"
"Do you have a light?" the old man quietly asks.
The passenger throws a lighter out the window at him, rolls up the window and again yells, "STEP ON IT!"
They are now going about 100 miles an hour, trying to forget what they had just seen and heard. Suddenly, again there is more knocking!
"HE'S BACK!" He rolls down the window and screams out, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" in stark fear.
The old man gently replies, "You want some help getting out of the mud?"
Our Lord specializes in extreme makeovers of our lives. He loves us more than any thing. He finds where we are in our follies, sin, rebellion, and restlessness. He finds us in our wanderings in far away countries and confronts us with His truth and grace. He comes to us in all the seasons of our lives with His life-changing and life-transforming power and love. He finds us in our world which has been turned topsy-turvy and He turns our lives right side up that we might follow Him and serve Him all the days of our lives. He comes along side us in our lives and meets us in the journeys we take. He diffuses our darkness and sheds His glorious light.
Saul was a very religious man. He was focused and passionate, but his focus and passion were contrary to the will of Jesus for His life. One day, very possibly on a hot summer day, Jesus showed up and interrupted Saul’s plans. God shot a laser beam of light out of the throne room of Heaven and knocked Paul to the ground. Suddenly, all of the education, plans, hatred, and condemnation that had been controlling Saul were erased in one quick flash and Saul became the accused and condemned. The Hound of Heaven had hunted down the hunter and felled his prey. Before this time, Saul had not really heard the voice of the Lord Jesus, the Light of the world; he had listened only to the voice of religion and of the world. But now he heard a different voice – a voice with power and authority that shook him to the core of his soul.
This same voice had spoken the world into existence.
This same voice had called to Adam in the Garden.
This same voice had spoken judgment upon Satan, the serpent and all of creation as a result of sin.
This same voice had spoken to Moses on Mt. Sinai and given the Law.
This same voice had spoken to Lazarus and raised him from the dead
This same voice had raised the Window’s son at Nain.
This same voice had cried out, “it is finished” as he paid the price of redemption on the cross
This same voice cries out to us today – follow me, and I will make you fishers of men
This same voice speaks to each of us – this is my will for your life, now do it
This same voice will someday say to us “Well done my good and faithful servant”
I want to hear his voice. I want to be a sheep of his fold. I want to know his voice.
When that voice came from Heaven, Saul knew this was no ordinary voice, but he did not know the Lord and did not recognize him. But Jesus had come to make a change in Saul’s life, so He revealed his identity to Saul. "I AM JESUS – the one you are really fighting against, the one you are really condemning, the one you are really persecuting – I AM JESUS CHRIST, THE KING OF KING AND LORD OF LORDS, CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE – I AM THAT I AM!"
Now those around him didn’t hear what Saul heard. They were not ready to hear. Jesus comes to each man in his own time and in the way that He knows will reach him. People who have not heard the voice cannot understand and cannot know what we are all about. They only know that we are different, that something has interrupted our lives and changed us.
Saul was confronted with the Light from Heaven, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness or shadow of turning. When we are confronted with the Light of Jesus by hearing His Word, the eyes of our spirits are opened and the light of love flows in. We cannot help but be changed. We can then choose to change and follow the Light or we can choose to close our eyes and walk into the depths of darkness.
Saul did not stand up and look into that light and say, “Look at me, I’m Saul, Look at who I am”. All that Saul was, all that he knew, all that he had planned suddenly meant nothing. Without Jesus we are nothing, and we can do nothing outside of His power within us. We can accomplish nothing for the kingdom of God without Jesus. Jesus said, “Its hard for you to kick against the prick”!
Just as you take a stick with a sharp point and drive cattle into the pen or the barn, the HOLY GHOST and the Word of God act as a sharp goad to constantly push us toward the Cross of Christ. We can kick against it, fight against it, try to forget about it, but the goading continues. It isn’t God will that anyone should perish, so He is constantly trying to reach us and turn us back
Saul was instantly and eternally changed in the flash of light. Where he was threatening, now he was trembling. Where he was in control, now he was under God’s control. Where he could see his future under his own control, now he was blind to the world around him and blind to the future that law before him.
For three days Saul was blind – that gave him time to focus on the things that God wanted him to do. It gave him time to think about his life, to repent, and to learn to depend on God’s voice and leading in his life. Sometimes God must lead us into a blind corner and take away our ability to do anything before we will stop long enough and listen close enough to hear His voice.
SAUL WAS INSTANTLY CHANGED FROM PERSECUTOR TO PROCLAIMER!
The fire-breathing dragon from Jerusalem, bent on destruction of Jesus’ disciples had now began to breath the fire of the gospel from his lips.
In Him,
Brown
We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is "of him". If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other.
... John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion
The Genesis Quiz
You studied the first book of the Bible when you were a child, but how much of it do you really remember? Take this quiz and find out.
Answers from Genesis:
Q1. Which of the following would not have been created on the sixth day?
1. Goldfish***
2. Zebras
3. Human Beings
4. Coyotes
Q2. What mountain did Noah’s ark come to rest upon?
1. Sinai
2. Nebo
3. Scopus
4. Ararat***
Q3. What creature guards Eden after Adam and Eve are expelled?
1. Seraph***
2. Unicorn
3. Cherub
4. Satan
Q4. What was Abraham’s original name?
1. Abimelech
2. Noah
3. Abram***
4. Abba
Q5. Which of the following is NOT a son of Jacob?
1. Naftali
2. Hezekiah***
3. Issachar
4. Simeon
Raining in the Woods
Two young guys were at a party in the woods when all of a sudden there was a downpour of thunder and rain. The two ran for about 10 minutes in the pouring rain, finally reaching their car just as the rain let up. They jumped in the car, started it up and headed down the road laughing.
All of a sudden an old man's face appeared in the passenger window and tapped lightly on the window!
The passenger screamed out, "Eeeeekkk! Look at my window!!! There's an old guy's face there!"
(Was this a ghost?)
The old man kept knocking, so the driver said, "Well open the window a little and ask him what he wants!"
So the passenger rolled his window down part way and said, scared out of his wits, "What do you want?"
The old man softly replied, "You have any tobacco?"
The passenger, terrified, looked at the driver and said, "He wants tobacco!"
"Well, offer him a cigarette! HURRY!!" the driver replies.
So the passenger fumbles around with the pack and hands the old man a cigarette, rolling up the window in terror and yells, "Step on it!!!"
Now going about 80 miles an hour, they calm down and they start laughing again.
The passenger says, "What did you think of that?"
The driver says, "I don't know. How could that be? I am going pretty fast!"
All of a sudden, AGAIN there is a knock on the window and the old man is looking in the window.
"Aaaaaaaaaaargh! There he is again!", the passenger yells.
"Well, see what he wants now!" yells back the driver.
The passenger rolls down the window a little ways and shakily says "Yes?"
"Do you have a light?" the old man quietly asks.
The passenger throws a lighter out the window at him, rolls up the window and again yells, "STEP ON IT!"
They are now going about 100 miles an hour, trying to forget what they had just seen and heard. Suddenly, again there is more knocking!
"HE'S BACK!" He rolls down the window and screams out, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" in stark fear.
The old man gently replies, "You want some help getting out of the mud?"
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Brown's Daily Word 6-20-07
Praise the Lord for the way He is immanent and transcendent at the same time. The Greeks thought of gods as those who made the earth and the human beings and then took off and watched from a distance. As Beth Midler sang, "God is watching from a distance". The Greeks thought of gods as having holy ethos but no pathos. The Greek gods would not touched by our infirmities. They could not be moved by human emotions of pain, sorrow and tribulations. The Lord God who is revealed in Jesus our Savior and Lord is known as a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He has Holy ethos and has holy pathos. He hears us when we call on Him. He knows our name. He sees every tear drop. He answers prayer. He intervenes in our lives and circumstances and performs miracles.
Less than 6 weeks ago I had my surgery. All of you around the corner and around the globe prayed for me. The Lord Jesus who is mighty and merciful has heard and has answered. He has healed me. I am cancer free. Thank you Jesus. Jesus reigns. He answers prayer. As we read in Psalm 103, He forgives all our sins and He heals all our diseases. He redeems our lives from destruction and the pit. He crowns us with tender mercies and loving kindness.
I read about a ship that was engulfed in fog off the coast of Newfoundland on a Wednesday night. It was moving very slowly. The Rev. George Mueller, who was aboard the ship, went up to the bridge and said, "Captain, I have to be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon."
The captain said, "Pastor, that’s impossible. We're not going to make it."
Then Mueller said, "Let’s go down to the chart room and pray to God."
The captain said, "Are you crazy? I can’t go to the chart room right now! Do you have any idea how dense the fog is?"
Mueller said, "No. My eye is not on the density of the fog. But on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life." Once they got to the chart room, Mueller got down on his knees and prayed "Lord, you’re the one who made the arrangements for me to preach the gospel in Quebec. I really believe with all my heart that you want me to be there on time. If it is consistent with your will, please remove this fog in five minutes. In Jesus’ name, amen."
They went back upstairs to the bridge. Within a matter of minutes, the fog lifted! It was a miracle!
Beginning in verse seven, of Mathew 7 Jesus is saying, "Ask, and it will be given to you! Seek and you will find! Knock, and the door will be opened.” The verbs "ask, seek, and knock" are in the present tense, suggesting persistent prayer over a period of time. In other words Jesus is saying, “Don’t just pray one time and quit! Keep on asking! Keep on seeking! Keep on knocking! Whatever it is that God has placed upon your heart, keep praying until you get a definitive answer.” The Lord calls us to pray with expectation and with holy persistence. Our problem is that we give up too quickly. Jesus says “Don’t give up!”
He tells a story in Luke 18 about a guy who needs some food for his houseguest. So he knocks on his neighbor’s door again and again until he gets the help that he needs.
The Bible teaches us that persistent prayer pays off. We see a beautiful picture of persistent prayer in Exodus 17. The Amalekites are attacking the children of Israel, so Moses tells Joshua, “You guys go out and fight. I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” Verse 11 says that as long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. When his arms got tired, he got two of his buddies to hold his hands up, one on one side and one on the other. Because of this, the children of Israel won the battle. Persistent prayer pays off.
We see this again in the New Testament. In Matthew 15, a Gentile woman goes to Jesus and says “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! Please heal my little girl!” Jesus doesn’t answer her right away. He’s testing her to see if her request is borne solely from desperation, or if it comes from personal faith in who Jesus is. So she says it again, “Lord, please heal my little girl!”
Then Jesus says to her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
But this woman doesn’t take no for an answer. She gets on her knees and says, “Lord, please heal my little girl!”
And then Jesus says, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to their dogs.” That answer would discourage a lot of people. But not this lady! In verse 27, she says, "Lord, you’re right. I’m a Gentile dog. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table." In other words, ’Lord, you can call me what you want, as long as my girl gets better! All I need is a crumb of your blessing. A crumb of your healing power! Please heal my little girl!"
You can see that the Lord Jesus is deeply moved by this woman’s persistence. You can see the love and the admiration he has for her, as he says in verse 28, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted!” At that exact moment, the little girl was healed.
The story teaches us that all of our asking and all of your seeking can move the heart of God to act on our behalf. Persistent prayer pays off!
Sometimes God says no to the good things we want because He has BETTER things in mind! 1 John 5:14 says, “this is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything in accordance with His will, He hears us!” Confidence in prayer doesn’t come from believing that God is going to give us whatever we want when we want it. Confidence in prayer comes from believing that our prayers will be answered in accordance with the will of God. It’s possible that God still wants to heal us. Keep praying. But it’s also possible that God is using the pain in our lives to teach us that His grace is sufficient in all circumstances.
Jesus goes on to give an illustration of God’s fatherly provision in Matthew 7:9. He says, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? If he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?”
Jesus is saying, “If that’s how you feel about your children, then how much more does God feel that way about His children? If you would do whatever it takes to provide for your kids, then why wouldn’t we expect Almighty God to do whatever it takes to provide for His children.
Whatever our pressing need might be, let us take it to the Lord in prayer.
In His grace and Mercy,
Brown
Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great sanctity. If you learn this art of being thoughtful, you will become more and more Christ-like, for his heart was meek and he always thought of others. Our vocation, to be beautiful, must be full of thought for others.
... Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Less than 6 weeks ago I had my surgery. All of you around the corner and around the globe prayed for me. The Lord Jesus who is mighty and merciful has heard and has answered. He has healed me. I am cancer free. Thank you Jesus. Jesus reigns. He answers prayer. As we read in Psalm 103, He forgives all our sins and He heals all our diseases. He redeems our lives from destruction and the pit. He crowns us with tender mercies and loving kindness.
I read about a ship that was engulfed in fog off the coast of Newfoundland on a Wednesday night. It was moving very slowly. The Rev. George Mueller, who was aboard the ship, went up to the bridge and said, "Captain, I have to be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon."
The captain said, "Pastor, that’s impossible. We're not going to make it."
Then Mueller said, "Let’s go down to the chart room and pray to God."
The captain said, "Are you crazy? I can’t go to the chart room right now! Do you have any idea how dense the fog is?"
Mueller said, "No. My eye is not on the density of the fog. But on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life." Once they got to the chart room, Mueller got down on his knees and prayed "Lord, you’re the one who made the arrangements for me to preach the gospel in Quebec. I really believe with all my heart that you want me to be there on time. If it is consistent with your will, please remove this fog in five minutes. In Jesus’ name, amen."
They went back upstairs to the bridge. Within a matter of minutes, the fog lifted! It was a miracle!
Beginning in verse seven, of Mathew 7 Jesus is saying, "Ask, and it will be given to you! Seek and you will find! Knock, and the door will be opened.” The verbs "ask, seek, and knock" are in the present tense, suggesting persistent prayer over a period of time. In other words Jesus is saying, “Don’t just pray one time and quit! Keep on asking! Keep on seeking! Keep on knocking! Whatever it is that God has placed upon your heart, keep praying until you get a definitive answer.” The Lord calls us to pray with expectation and with holy persistence. Our problem is that we give up too quickly. Jesus says “Don’t give up!”
He tells a story in Luke 18 about a guy who needs some food for his houseguest. So he knocks on his neighbor’s door again and again until he gets the help that he needs.
The Bible teaches us that persistent prayer pays off. We see a beautiful picture of persistent prayer in Exodus 17. The Amalekites are attacking the children of Israel, so Moses tells Joshua, “You guys go out and fight. I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” Verse 11 says that as long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. When his arms got tired, he got two of his buddies to hold his hands up, one on one side and one on the other. Because of this, the children of Israel won the battle. Persistent prayer pays off.
We see this again in the New Testament. In Matthew 15, a Gentile woman goes to Jesus and says “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! Please heal my little girl!” Jesus doesn’t answer her right away. He’s testing her to see if her request is borne solely from desperation, or if it comes from personal faith in who Jesus is. So she says it again, “Lord, please heal my little girl!”
Then Jesus says to her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
But this woman doesn’t take no for an answer. She gets on her knees and says, “Lord, please heal my little girl!”
And then Jesus says, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to their dogs.” That answer would discourage a lot of people. But not this lady! In verse 27, she says, "Lord, you’re right. I’m a Gentile dog. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table." In other words, ’Lord, you can call me what you want, as long as my girl gets better! All I need is a crumb of your blessing. A crumb of your healing power! Please heal my little girl!"
You can see that the Lord Jesus is deeply moved by this woman’s persistence. You can see the love and the admiration he has for her, as he says in verse 28, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted!” At that exact moment, the little girl was healed.
The story teaches us that all of our asking and all of your seeking can move the heart of God to act on our behalf. Persistent prayer pays off!
Sometimes God says no to the good things we want because He has BETTER things in mind! 1 John 5:14 says, “this is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything in accordance with His will, He hears us!” Confidence in prayer doesn’t come from believing that God is going to give us whatever we want when we want it. Confidence in prayer comes from believing that our prayers will be answered in accordance with the will of God. It’s possible that God still wants to heal us. Keep praying. But it’s also possible that God is using the pain in our lives to teach us that His grace is sufficient in all circumstances.
Jesus goes on to give an illustration of God’s fatherly provision in Matthew 7:9. He says, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? If he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?”
Jesus is saying, “If that’s how you feel about your children, then how much more does God feel that way about His children? If you would do whatever it takes to provide for your kids, then why wouldn’t we expect Almighty God to do whatever it takes to provide for His children.
Whatever our pressing need might be, let us take it to the Lord in prayer.
In His grace and Mercy,
Brown
Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great sanctity. If you learn this art of being thoughtful, you will become more and more Christ-like, for his heart was meek and he always thought of others. Our vocation, to be beautiful, must be full of thought for others.
... Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Brown's Daily word 6-19-07
Good Morning ,
It is going to be hot and humid here in New York today. It is like sweet summer, though the calendar still declares that it is spring. In Barrow, Alaska they have 24 hours of daylight at this time of the year. Jessica and I, along with our friend Frank Decker from Atlanta, were in India on a short mission trip last year at this time. We spent our time preaching, training pastors, and equipping the saints for ministry. Jessica and I spent 10 days in Bangalore preaching and visiting some of my friends who I had not seen since 1974. We also spent some time visiting three of the bishops of the Church of North India. It is a great blessing to share the Word of the Lord around the corner and around the Globe.
We are planning to host a Christian tour to the historic Passion Play 2010, which will be held in Germany. This spectacular and brilliant performance and presentation is held once in every ten years. It is held in Oberammergau in the Black Forest region of Germany. We are planning to host the trip in July of 2010. The duration of the trip will be two weeks. So mark your calendars. There will be optional tours planned to the Reformation sites in Germany, to the Holy Land, and to Rome. We will be visiting various parts of magnificent Austria.
Christian singer and songwriter Michael Card wrote a song entitled, "Joy in the Journey," which contains some valuable insight. The first stanza of this song says, "There is a joy in the journey, there’s a light we can love on the way. There is a wonder and wildness to life, and freedom for those who obey." All too often we look for the joy of the Lord in the destination when that joy is really found in the journey, and then we miss out on many blessings that God wants to give us. Instead of experiencing the freedom God has granted us through Christ, we become chained to something or some dream that’s only in our imagination and we cannot think of anything else except that dream.
Let us look at Acts 8:26-29 and see that God is found in the journey and not the destination. In Scripture Jesus says that he has come to give us life and give it more abundantly, but we can only experience that abundant life if we claim it today. Abundant life is not found somewhere in the distance; it is here for us to have right now. God’s will is not out there somewhere waiting to be found, but God’s will is that we worship him here and now.
We see in Acts 8:26-29 that God spoke to Philip through an angel of the Lord, who told him to leave Jerusalem and go to the desert city of Gaza. When the Lord spoke to Philip he asked him to do something that just didn’t seem to make much sense. He was asked to leave a very fruitful ministry in Jerusalem to go to Gaza, a city that lay about fifty miles southwest of Jerusalem at the very end of the Palestinian world at that time. Gaza was right at the edge of the Sinai desert, which trailed off into Egypt, and was very sparsely populated. The modern city of Gaza is the one of the violent hotspots of the world , and also the most densely populated spot on earth. Gaza probably would have seemed like such a fruitless area for ministry, and any other person than Philip likely would have questioned God about going to such a place.
Sometimes God asks us to do something that doesn’t make much sense but, like Philip, we need to be obedient and go. Philip didn’t question the Lord or say to him, “Well Lord, I really need some time to pray about this.” If God has spoken a word to us and then we say to him that we’ll pray about it, what that sometimes means is that we want to debate the matter within our own minds for a while, or question God and struggle with him. If God tells us to go, he means it, and we should do just as he says or we will miss a great blessing that he has in store for us.
We need to always be open to God’s leading. If he speaks to us then we need to be sensitive to hear his voice. Remember that one of the ways the Lord speaks to us is through circumstances. An Ethiopian Eunuch coming down the road, dressed very nicely and driving an expensive looking chariot, was definitely a circumstance that couldn’t have been ignored by Philip. He had to take notice. What Philip saw would have been similar to us seeing some dude in a suit with lots of chains around his neck driving a Cadillac. We need to view every encounter with individuals throughout our life as circumstances that God has arranged and opportunities to either share with people about Jesus Christ or to learn a lesson. Let’s try not to focus so hard on the destination that our peripheral vision is skewed. Let’s live our lives day by day and one step at a time, being sensitive to what is going on around us at every moment.
Remember that there is joy in the journey. We read in Hebrews chapter twelve that we are on a journey through life, and that this life is not our final destination or homeland. Let’s not allow our worldly goals to distract us from seeing the beauty and joy that lie all around us. Singer Toby Mac tells us we are riding the "J-Train" or Jesus train. We are not driving a car to heaven, having to work to stay on the road and work to take the correct turn. We are trusting our lives to Jesus to take us to our destination wherever that might be, and to give us opportunities to serve him along the way. Let’s try to keep our eyes open to people whom we need to meet - either to witness to them or learn a lesson from them. Our joy in Jesus Christ is not found in the destination but in the journey.
After my surgery, as I have seen the Lord perform a wonderful miracle in my body and in my life, , the Lord has been teaching me to enjoy my journey, day by day. He has graciously given me a miraculous healing. I am learning to seize the moments of joy, gaze upon things of beauty, and hold lightly to the things of the world. The joy of the Lord is my strength.
In His Joy,
Brown
Prayer is the movement of trust, of gratitude, of adoration, or of sorrow, that places us before God, seeing both Him and ourselves in the light of His infinite truth, and moves us to ask Him for the mercy, the spiritual strength, the material help, that we all need. The man whose prayer is so pure that he never asks God for anything does not know who God is, and does not know who he is himself: for he does not know his own need of God. All true prayer somehow confesses our absolute dependence on the Lord of life and death. It is, therefore, a deep and vital contact with Him whom we know not only as Lord but as Father. It is when we pray truly that we really are. Our being is brought to a high perfection by this.
... Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
It is going to be hot and humid here in New York today. It is like sweet summer, though the calendar still declares that it is spring. In Barrow, Alaska they have 24 hours of daylight at this time of the year. Jessica and I, along with our friend Frank Decker from Atlanta, were in India on a short mission trip last year at this time. We spent our time preaching, training pastors, and equipping the saints for ministry. Jessica and I spent 10 days in Bangalore preaching and visiting some of my friends who I had not seen since 1974. We also spent some time visiting three of the bishops of the Church of North India. It is a great blessing to share the Word of the Lord around the corner and around the Globe.
We are planning to host a Christian tour to the historic Passion Play 2010, which will be held in Germany. This spectacular and brilliant performance and presentation is held once in every ten years. It is held in Oberammergau in the Black Forest region of Germany. We are planning to host the trip in July of 2010. The duration of the trip will be two weeks. So mark your calendars. There will be optional tours planned to the Reformation sites in Germany, to the Holy Land, and to Rome. We will be visiting various parts of magnificent Austria.
Christian singer and songwriter Michael Card wrote a song entitled, "Joy in the Journey," which contains some valuable insight. The first stanza of this song says, "There is a joy in the journey, there’s a light we can love on the way. There is a wonder and wildness to life, and freedom for those who obey." All too often we look for the joy of the Lord in the destination when that joy is really found in the journey, and then we miss out on many blessings that God wants to give us. Instead of experiencing the freedom God has granted us through Christ, we become chained to something or some dream that’s only in our imagination and we cannot think of anything else except that dream.
Let us look at Acts 8:26-29 and see that God is found in the journey and not the destination. In Scripture Jesus says that he has come to give us life and give it more abundantly, but we can only experience that abundant life if we claim it today. Abundant life is not found somewhere in the distance; it is here for us to have right now. God’s will is not out there somewhere waiting to be found, but God’s will is that we worship him here and now.
We see in Acts 8:26-29 that God spoke to Philip through an angel of the Lord, who told him to leave Jerusalem and go to the desert city of Gaza. When the Lord spoke to Philip he asked him to do something that just didn’t seem to make much sense. He was asked to leave a very fruitful ministry in Jerusalem to go to Gaza, a city that lay about fifty miles southwest of Jerusalem at the very end of the Palestinian world at that time. Gaza was right at the edge of the Sinai desert, which trailed off into Egypt, and was very sparsely populated. The modern city of Gaza is the one of the violent hotspots of the world , and also the most densely populated spot on earth. Gaza probably would have seemed like such a fruitless area for ministry, and any other person than Philip likely would have questioned God about going to such a place.
Sometimes God asks us to do something that doesn’t make much sense but, like Philip, we need to be obedient and go. Philip didn’t question the Lord or say to him, “Well Lord, I really need some time to pray about this.” If God has spoken a word to us and then we say to him that we’ll pray about it, what that sometimes means is that we want to debate the matter within our own minds for a while, or question God and struggle with him. If God tells us to go, he means it, and we should do just as he says or we will miss a great blessing that he has in store for us.
We need to always be open to God’s leading. If he speaks to us then we need to be sensitive to hear his voice. Remember that one of the ways the Lord speaks to us is through circumstances. An Ethiopian Eunuch coming down the road, dressed very nicely and driving an expensive looking chariot, was definitely a circumstance that couldn’t have been ignored by Philip. He had to take notice. What Philip saw would have been similar to us seeing some dude in a suit with lots of chains around his neck driving a Cadillac. We need to view every encounter with individuals throughout our life as circumstances that God has arranged and opportunities to either share with people about Jesus Christ or to learn a lesson. Let’s try not to focus so hard on the destination that our peripheral vision is skewed. Let’s live our lives day by day and one step at a time, being sensitive to what is going on around us at every moment.
Remember that there is joy in the journey. We read in Hebrews chapter twelve that we are on a journey through life, and that this life is not our final destination or homeland. Let’s not allow our worldly goals to distract us from seeing the beauty and joy that lie all around us. Singer Toby Mac tells us we are riding the "J-Train" or Jesus train. We are not driving a car to heaven, having to work to stay on the road and work to take the correct turn. We are trusting our lives to Jesus to take us to our destination wherever that might be, and to give us opportunities to serve him along the way. Let’s try to keep our eyes open to people whom we need to meet - either to witness to them or learn a lesson from them. Our joy in Jesus Christ is not found in the destination but in the journey.
After my surgery, as I have seen the Lord perform a wonderful miracle in my body and in my life, , the Lord has been teaching me to enjoy my journey, day by day. He has graciously given me a miraculous healing. I am learning to seize the moments of joy, gaze upon things of beauty, and hold lightly to the things of the world. The joy of the Lord is my strength.
In His Joy,
Brown
Prayer is the movement of trust, of gratitude, of adoration, or of sorrow, that places us before God, seeing both Him and ourselves in the light of His infinite truth, and moves us to ask Him for the mercy, the spiritual strength, the material help, that we all need. The man whose prayer is so pure that he never asks God for anything does not know who God is, and does not know who he is himself: for he does not know his own need of God. All true prayer somehow confesses our absolute dependence on the Lord of life and death. It is, therefore, a deep and vital contact with Him whom we know not only as Lord but as Father. It is when we pray truly that we really are. Our being is brought to a high perfection by this.
... Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
Monday, June 18, 2007
Brown's Daily Word
Good Morning ,
We drove up to Boston last Wednesday and spent a few days with Janice, Jeremy, and Micah. Micah is 19 1/2 months old now; she is changing into a beautiful young girl. She says Hallelujah, Jesus, and Amen. She recognizes her grand-parents and calls us grandma and grandpa. I had a very good follow up visit with my surgeon on Thursday. We drove back home Friday, and arrived safely on Friday night.
I performed two funeral services Saturday. One of the two was a war bride, who came to New York from Arkansas. She was married for 62 years, serving the Lord in the church. The other person was a World War 2 veteran who served in the Pacific theater, with the navy Seals. He was involved in some of the most clandestine operations in China and India. He and his wife were married for 61 years. Tom Brokaw calls World War II veterans the greatest generation.
Funerals services are wonderful settings to share the good news of Resurrection and life in Jesus. We offer to the hurting and grieving people what the world can not offer. What a way to live, what a way to die, and what a way to live again. It has been said that two things are inevitable: death and taxes. I once read somewhere that the task of a pastor is to prepare people for a good death. John Wesley said that Christians die well.
Chapters 6 and 7 of the Book of Acts tell the story of Stephen. Stephen has the distinction of being the first Christian martyr—the first follower of Jesus to be killed for his faith. This is a story of a good death, not because Stephen was a martyr for the cause of death isn’t the issue. This is the story of a good death because Stephen was prepared. About Stephen’s life we don’t know much detail. We do know that he was a Hellenistic Jew—that is, he spoke Greek better than he spoke Aramaic; he was comfortable in the predominant culture of the Romans and Greeks; but he was nevertheless Jewish (like all the earliest Christians). We know that he was one of the seven men chosen to assist the twelve with leadership responsibilities, specifically the daily distribution of food to the widows in the growing Christian community in Jerusalem. We also know he had a powerful ministry in Jerusalem, and that he did “great signs and miraculous wonders among the people.” On the other hand, we don’t know exactly when Stephen became a Christian. Since Jesus’ ministry was mostly in the countryside of Judea among Aramaic-speaking Jews, Stephen probably came to faith in the risen Jesus sometime after Pentecost. He may have been one of the 3000 who were baptized on the day of Pentecost. In any case, Stephen wasn’t a follower of Jesus for very long, at least not on this earth. In Acts 6:5, Stephen is described as being “full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” In verse 8, this is emphasized again: “Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power…” Every indication is that Stephen’s life as a follower of Jesus, though not long, was very full.
As a follower of Jesus, Stephen faced death without fear. It was not without conflict, not without persecution, not without suffering, not without grief, not without trouble, not without pain, and not without a lot of things that most of us would just as soon do without. Yet, it was without fear.
By the grace and power of God, Stephen’s ministry had gained a lot of attention in the community. He certainly had to know that trouble was coming. His opponents were outspoken in their criticism of him and his ministry. Public debates were common. Stephen won all the debates, but that just made his opponents even more angry. They stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses who testified against him. Things did not look good.
The text says that all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. (No wonder they looked at him so intently; they expected him to be worried too.) That his face looked like an angel could mean a lot of things, but I am pretty sure that one of the things that it means is that they saw in Stephen’s face serenity and confidence. What they did not see in Stephen’s face was worry or fear.
Stephen answered their charges, not with a defense of himself but with a proclamation of God’s faithfulness throughout the generations. He challenged his opponents to see their own unfaithfulness in the mirror of their ancestors’ recurring unfaithfulness. He spoke the truth with clarity and directness, and without fear. Around Stephen, the anger of the opposition forces turned to rage. They dragged him out of the city, where they began throwing stones at him. Yet Stephen stood utterly without fear. Stephen faced death without fear.
Stephen was prepared to face death without fear because, by the power and grace of God, he had learned in life to trust in Christ without fear. Stephen was prepared to face death without fear because Stephen was equipped to live life without fear.
As a follower of Jesus, Stephen faced death with no bitterness in his heart. Stones fell like hail all around Stephen. The text says that he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Some of the stones hit their target. The impact forced him to his knees.
If anybody ever had good reason to be angry and bitter, Stephen did. The rage of others was literally killing him, but he did not rage. Instead he prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” By the grace and power of God, Stephen faced death without fear. By the grace and power of God, Stephen decided to forgive his attackers. Wow!
When the shadow of death wanders near, even in the best of us old wounds, long-buried, emerge from the shadows. Bitterness, long-forgotten, surfaces, even bitterness we didn’t even know we had or bitterness we thought we had put behind us. Bitterness makes a good death impossible. Forgiveness makes a good death beautiful.
The threshold of death is a hard place to learn the art of forgiveness, however. When the muscles of forgiveness are weak from disuse in life, the threshold of death can be a fount of bitterness unleashed. On the other hand, if the art of forgiveness has been well-practiced in life, then the threshold of death offers no obstacle to forgiveness and no platform for bitterness.
Stephen faced death with no bitterness in his heart, but with a readiness to forgive because, by the power and grace of God, he practiced in life the art of forgiveness. As a follower of Jesus, Stephen faced death with his eyes focused squarely on Jesus. When opposition arose, Stephen kept his eyes focused squarely on Jesus. He didn’t concern himself with his own standing in the community. He didn’t concern himself with his own ambition. He didn’t concern himself with avoiding conflict for the sake of avoiding He didn’t concern himself with himself. When struggle came his way, Stephen concerned himself with Jesus.
As the anger around him escalated Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. With that vision before him, Stephen was fully prepared to die a good death. I suspect that Stephen was so accustomed to focusing on Jesus that he was prepared to face death with his eyes focused on Jesus because he lived his life with his eyes focused on Jesus.
Stephen was no super-man. He was full of faith and the Holy Spirit—both of which are available to all of us. As a follower of Jesus, Stephen knew scripture. He didn’t just know scripture as ancient history. He knew scripture as God’s story. He knew scripture as his story. He understood the world around him according to scripture. He interpreted the world around him according to scripture. He was immersed in scripture. In fact, most Jews of his time were immersed in scripture. That’s probably why the Sanhedrin listened to Stephen speak as long as they did. They heard him telling the stories they all knew. Stephen’s stories were their stories. He told of Abraham… Jacob …Joseph…Moses…David…Solomon. (In fact, if you want a quick overview of almost the whole Old Testament story, read Stephen’s speech in Acts chapter 7.)
When the circumstances of Stephen’s life reached crisis proportions, Stephen drew on scripture to interpret what was happening, to respond to what was happening, and to find encouragement in what was happening. By the grace and power of God, Stephen found in Scripture the reassurance to face life and death without fear and the resources to forgive. By the grace and power of God, and because of the witness of Scripture, Stephen knew Jesus was the promised Messiah. By the grace and power of God, Stephen was prepared for a good death, in part, because he lived and breathed scripture and because he was equipped for a full life.
I read Stephen’s story and I pray, "God, by your grace and power, fill us with faith and the Holy Spirit, and equip us to live and die without fear. By your grace and power, equip us to truly forgive. By your grace and power, equip us to keep our eyes focused squarely on Jesus. Enable us to view the world through the lens of scripture, and not scripture through the lens of the world. By your grace and power fill us with faith and the Holy Spirit. Prepare us for a good death, that we might live a full life."
In Jesus our Lord, the AUTHOR of LIFE.
Brown
Eternal life is not an unending continuance of this life--that would, perhaps, be Hell--but Eternal Life is quite a different life, divine, not mundane; perfect, not earthly; true life, not corrupt half-life. We cannot form a conception of Eternal Life. What we imagine is ever simply of the earth, temporal, worldly. Nor could we know anything about our eternal life if it had not appeared in Jesus Christ. In him we realize that we were created for the eternal life. If we ask, what is this eternal life? what sense is there in thinking about it if we can have no conception of it?, the answer is, "It is life with God, in God, from God; life in perfect fellowship." Therefore it is a life in love, it is love itself. It is a life without the nature of death and sin, hence without sorrow, pain, anxiety, care, misery. To know this suffices to make one rejoice in eternal life. If there were no eternal life, this life of time would be without meaning, goal, or purpose, without significance, without seriousness and without joy. It would be nothing. That our life does not end in nothing, but that eternal life awaits us, is the glad message of Jesus Christ. He came to give us this promise as a light in this dark world. A Christian is a man who has become certain of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
... Emil Brunner, Our Faith
Frightful this is in a sense, but it is true, and every one who has merely some little knowledge of the human heart can verify it: there is nothing to which a man holds so desperately as to his sin.
... Søren Kierkegaard, Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays
When I get to heaven,
I shall see three wonders there.
The first wonder will be to see
many there whom I did not expect to see;
the second wonder will be to miss
many people who I did expect to see;
and the third and greatest of all
will be to find myself there.
John Newton (1725-1807)
English evangelical minister and hymn writer
Wrong Wish
A Fairy Godmother told a married couple: "For being such an exemplary married couple for 35 years, I will give you each a wish".
"I want to travel around the world with my dearest husband" said the wife.
The Fairy moved her magic stick and abracadabra! two tickets appeared in her hands.
Now it was the husband's turn. He thought for a moment and said: "Well this moment is very romantic, but an opportunity like this only occurs once in a lifetime.
So.....I'm sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me".
The wife was deeply disappointed, but a wish was a wish. The Fairy made a circle with her magic stick and.....abracadabra!... Suddenly the husband was 90 years old.
We drove up to Boston last Wednesday and spent a few days with Janice, Jeremy, and Micah. Micah is 19 1/2 months old now; she is changing into a beautiful young girl. She says Hallelujah, Jesus, and Amen. She recognizes her grand-parents and calls us grandma and grandpa. I had a very good follow up visit with my surgeon on Thursday. We drove back home Friday, and arrived safely on Friday night.
I performed two funeral services Saturday. One of the two was a war bride, who came to New York from Arkansas. She was married for 62 years, serving the Lord in the church. The other person was a World War 2 veteran who served in the Pacific theater, with the navy Seals. He was involved in some of the most clandestine operations in China and India. He and his wife were married for 61 years. Tom Brokaw calls World War II veterans the greatest generation.
Funerals services are wonderful settings to share the good news of Resurrection and life in Jesus. We offer to the hurting and grieving people what the world can not offer. What a way to live, what a way to die, and what a way to live again. It has been said that two things are inevitable: death and taxes. I once read somewhere that the task of a pastor is to prepare people for a good death. John Wesley said that Christians die well.
Chapters 6 and 7 of the Book of Acts tell the story of Stephen. Stephen has the distinction of being the first Christian martyr—the first follower of Jesus to be killed for his faith. This is a story of a good death, not because Stephen was a martyr for the cause of death isn’t the issue. This is the story of a good death because Stephen was prepared. About Stephen’s life we don’t know much detail. We do know that he was a Hellenistic Jew—that is, he spoke Greek better than he spoke Aramaic; he was comfortable in the predominant culture of the Romans and Greeks; but he was nevertheless Jewish (like all the earliest Christians). We know that he was one of the seven men chosen to assist the twelve with leadership responsibilities, specifically the daily distribution of food to the widows in the growing Christian community in Jerusalem. We also know he had a powerful ministry in Jerusalem, and that he did “great signs and miraculous wonders among the people.” On the other hand, we don’t know exactly when Stephen became a Christian. Since Jesus’ ministry was mostly in the countryside of Judea among Aramaic-speaking Jews, Stephen probably came to faith in the risen Jesus sometime after Pentecost. He may have been one of the 3000 who were baptized on the day of Pentecost. In any case, Stephen wasn’t a follower of Jesus for very long, at least not on this earth. In Acts 6:5, Stephen is described as being “full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” In verse 8, this is emphasized again: “Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power…” Every indication is that Stephen’s life as a follower of Jesus, though not long, was very full.
As a follower of Jesus, Stephen faced death without fear. It was not without conflict, not without persecution, not without suffering, not without grief, not without trouble, not without pain, and not without a lot of things that most of us would just as soon do without. Yet, it was without fear.
By the grace and power of God, Stephen’s ministry had gained a lot of attention in the community. He certainly had to know that trouble was coming. His opponents were outspoken in their criticism of him and his ministry. Public debates were common. Stephen won all the debates, but that just made his opponents even more angry. They stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses who testified against him. Things did not look good.
The text says that all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. (No wonder they looked at him so intently; they expected him to be worried too.) That his face looked like an angel could mean a lot of things, but I am pretty sure that one of the things that it means is that they saw in Stephen’s face serenity and confidence. What they did not see in Stephen’s face was worry or fear.
Stephen answered their charges, not with a defense of himself but with a proclamation of God’s faithfulness throughout the generations. He challenged his opponents to see their own unfaithfulness in the mirror of their ancestors’ recurring unfaithfulness. He spoke the truth with clarity and directness, and without fear. Around Stephen, the anger of the opposition forces turned to rage. They dragged him out of the city, where they began throwing stones at him. Yet Stephen stood utterly without fear. Stephen faced death without fear.
Stephen was prepared to face death without fear because, by the power and grace of God, he had learned in life to trust in Christ without fear. Stephen was prepared to face death without fear because Stephen was equipped to live life without fear.
As a follower of Jesus, Stephen faced death with no bitterness in his heart. Stones fell like hail all around Stephen. The text says that he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Some of the stones hit their target. The impact forced him to his knees.
If anybody ever had good reason to be angry and bitter, Stephen did. The rage of others was literally killing him, but he did not rage. Instead he prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” By the grace and power of God, Stephen faced death without fear. By the grace and power of God, Stephen decided to forgive his attackers. Wow!
When the shadow of death wanders near, even in the best of us old wounds, long-buried, emerge from the shadows. Bitterness, long-forgotten, surfaces, even bitterness we didn’t even know we had or bitterness we thought we had put behind us. Bitterness makes a good death impossible. Forgiveness makes a good death beautiful.
The threshold of death is a hard place to learn the art of forgiveness, however. When the muscles of forgiveness are weak from disuse in life, the threshold of death can be a fount of bitterness unleashed. On the other hand, if the art of forgiveness has been well-practiced in life, then the threshold of death offers no obstacle to forgiveness and no platform for bitterness.
Stephen faced death with no bitterness in his heart, but with a readiness to forgive because, by the power and grace of God, he practiced in life the art of forgiveness. As a follower of Jesus, Stephen faced death with his eyes focused squarely on Jesus. When opposition arose, Stephen kept his eyes focused squarely on Jesus. He didn’t concern himself with his own standing in the community. He didn’t concern himself with his own ambition. He didn’t concern himself with avoiding conflict for the sake of avoiding He didn’t concern himself with himself. When struggle came his way, Stephen concerned himself with Jesus.
As the anger around him escalated Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. With that vision before him, Stephen was fully prepared to die a good death. I suspect that Stephen was so accustomed to focusing on Jesus that he was prepared to face death with his eyes focused on Jesus because he lived his life with his eyes focused on Jesus.
Stephen was no super-man. He was full of faith and the Holy Spirit—both of which are available to all of us. As a follower of Jesus, Stephen knew scripture. He didn’t just know scripture as ancient history. He knew scripture as God’s story. He knew scripture as his story. He understood the world around him according to scripture. He interpreted the world around him according to scripture. He was immersed in scripture. In fact, most Jews of his time were immersed in scripture. That’s probably why the Sanhedrin listened to Stephen speak as long as they did. They heard him telling the stories they all knew. Stephen’s stories were their stories. He told of Abraham… Jacob …Joseph…Moses…David…Solomon. (In fact, if you want a quick overview of almost the whole Old Testament story, read Stephen’s speech in Acts chapter 7.)
When the circumstances of Stephen’s life reached crisis proportions, Stephen drew on scripture to interpret what was happening, to respond to what was happening, and to find encouragement in what was happening. By the grace and power of God, Stephen found in Scripture the reassurance to face life and death without fear and the resources to forgive. By the grace and power of God, and because of the witness of Scripture, Stephen knew Jesus was the promised Messiah. By the grace and power of God, Stephen was prepared for a good death, in part, because he lived and breathed scripture and because he was equipped for a full life.
I read Stephen’s story and I pray, "God, by your grace and power, fill us with faith and the Holy Spirit, and equip us to live and die without fear. By your grace and power, equip us to truly forgive. By your grace and power, equip us to keep our eyes focused squarely on Jesus. Enable us to view the world through the lens of scripture, and not scripture through the lens of the world. By your grace and power fill us with faith and the Holy Spirit. Prepare us for a good death, that we might live a full life."
In Jesus our Lord, the AUTHOR of LIFE.
Brown
Eternal life is not an unending continuance of this life--that would, perhaps, be Hell--but Eternal Life is quite a different life, divine, not mundane; perfect, not earthly; true life, not corrupt half-life. We cannot form a conception of Eternal Life. What we imagine is ever simply of the earth, temporal, worldly. Nor could we know anything about our eternal life if it had not appeared in Jesus Christ. In him we realize that we were created for the eternal life. If we ask, what is this eternal life? what sense is there in thinking about it if we can have no conception of it?, the answer is, "It is life with God, in God, from God; life in perfect fellowship." Therefore it is a life in love, it is love itself. It is a life without the nature of death and sin, hence without sorrow, pain, anxiety, care, misery. To know this suffices to make one rejoice in eternal life. If there were no eternal life, this life of time would be without meaning, goal, or purpose, without significance, without seriousness and without joy. It would be nothing. That our life does not end in nothing, but that eternal life awaits us, is the glad message of Jesus Christ. He came to give us this promise as a light in this dark world. A Christian is a man who has become certain of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
... Emil Brunner, Our Faith
Frightful this is in a sense, but it is true, and every one who has merely some little knowledge of the human heart can verify it: there is nothing to which a man holds so desperately as to his sin.
... Søren Kierkegaard, Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays
When I get to heaven,
I shall see three wonders there.
The first wonder will be to see
many there whom I did not expect to see;
the second wonder will be to miss
many people who I did expect to see;
and the third and greatest of all
will be to find myself there.
John Newton (1725-1807)
English evangelical minister and hymn writer
Wrong Wish
A Fairy Godmother told a married couple: "For being such an exemplary married couple for 35 years, I will give you each a wish".
"I want to travel around the world with my dearest husband" said the wife.
The Fairy moved her magic stick and abracadabra! two tickets appeared in her hands.
Now it was the husband's turn. He thought for a moment and said: "Well this moment is very romantic, but an opportunity like this only occurs once in a lifetime.
So.....I'm sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me".
The wife was deeply disappointed, but a wish was a wish. The Fairy made a circle with her magic stick and.....abracadabra!... Suddenly the husband was 90 years old.
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