Saturday, October 6, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
Brown's Daily Word 10-5-07
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this beautiful, summer-like Friday. Thank the Lord for the opportunity to go to the Mercy Me concert last night. It was wonderful - and a great blessing. I had the special blessing of being able to spend several hours with the six members of the band, all of whom reside in Dallas with their wives and children. It was amazing to see all of the preparations by the road crew before the concert, setting up equipment and preparing the stage. It is a huge undertaking.
The other two groups were also a great blessing. Monk and Neagle, from Amarillo, Texas, led in heartfelt worship and praise - and were wonderful. Aaron Schust also performed with his band, and glory came down.
I asked the band members of Mercy Me how they came up with the name for their band. The lead singer told me that at the time when he was looking for a name for their band, his grandmother asked him what he was doing. He replied that he was starting a little band and that he needed a name for it. She responded, "Oh, mercy me!" (just like a grandmother, don't you think?)
During the concert the lead singer shared from his heart. He spoke of the death of his father when he himself was 19 years old. He struggled with his father's death from cancer, and out of the dark night of his soul the Lord gave him marvelous peace and light. He had a glimpse of the glory of Jesus and he penned the words, "I Can Only Imagine", which grew into the group's signature song. It has been a great comfort to many around the world. I was in a cemetery recently, where I saw the words, "I can only imagine" inscribed on one of the tombstones.
He also spoke about his young son's diagnosis with juvenile diabetes at the age of two, and how this diagnosis led him through great personal struggles. Out of those struggles the Lord gave him many wonderful songs of praise and worship, including my wife's favorite, "Bring the Rain".
This devotion is posted on my homepage: BrownNaik.com. Our friend, Julie, is the webmaster who maintains this page so faithfully. On this page you can find the link to our children's ministry in India and to our church's homepage. Also, there is the link to Sunita and Andy's wedding picture gallery.
I was reading about a teenager named Ron who came from a broken home. When he was 15, he said something terrible to his dad and he ran away. He got into drinking and drugs and partying. But one day, he met someone who told him about Jesus. He heard about how God loves him so much that He wants us to come back to Him. The Spirit of God opened Ron’s heart to respond to the gospel. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
And God changed his life. One day, Ron said, “I bet there are a lot of teenagers who need Jesus just like I did. I want to do everything I can to reach them with God’s love.”
He started Teen Mania Ministries in 1986. And now Ron Luce is in ministry for the Lord. God totally reshaped and reformed his life, and turned him into something beautiful. The ministry of The Teen Menia was featured in recent ,CNN's " God's Warriors"
That’s what God wants to do for everyone Today,
Let us look at Jeremiah chapter 18. It’s 600 BC. Beginning with verse one, God says to Jeremiah, “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”
So Jeremiah heads for the potter’s house. He sees him working at the wheel. The potter spins the lower wheel with his foot. And he works with the clay on the top wheel. He never takes his eyes off the clay. He’s always watching. He’s always working. Making sure that the clay turns out the way it’s supposed to turn out.
This is a picture of God at work in our lives. Just as the potter molds and shapes the clay into what it ought to be, our heavenly Father molds and shapes us into what we ought to be. He uses our situations and our circumstances to make us more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. We may be struggling financially. We are working as hard as we can. But the bills just keep coming. We can’t get ahead. We say, “Lord, this isn’t what wewanted!? Why is this happening?”
But then we realize that God is using this to make us more like Jesus. Philippians 1:6 says that “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Our God is an attentive God.
Our God is an artistic God. He doesn’t want us to be lumps of clay for the rest of our lives. He wants us to become His masterpieces! Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
God’s plan for our lives will turn out well if we turn to Him.
Back in 1501, Michelangelo was commissioned to work on a great statue of David. At the time, he had a big block of marble that was spoiled and abandoned. Most artists would say, “Who needs this ruined hunk of marble?”
But Michelangelo couldn’t take his eyes off of it. Every day he would walk to where it was, and he would touch it, measure it and caress it.
He decided to work with it. And so for two years, Michelangelo worked without any contact with the outside world. He chipped off the parts of the marble that were bad. And he chiseled the rest of it into the image he wanted it to be.
Today, his amazing statue of David is considered to be one of the greatest works of art in Renaissance culture. It’s a wonderful example of how an artist can take something that is marred and turn it into something that is marvelous.
He makes all things beautiful in His time.
In His grace,
Brown
Praise and Prayer:
I am forwarding prayer requests and praise reports from various friends and ministry partners. We serve an awesome God who specializes in healing brokenness, restoring broken lives and filling empty vessels. We are so grateful we serve the living Lord who is in the world today. The kingdoms of the world have become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Dear friends in Christ,
Peg and I have had one of the busiest falls ever; God has given supernatural strength to both of us, undergirding and empowering us for ministry! We praise His name!
Tomorrow about noon, October 5, we will begin our trip to Tangier Island, VA and the Swain Memorial UMC. Once we reach the land dock we will embark on the "Mail Boat" for a 15-mile ride across the Chesapeake Bay.This will be our third time among these beautiful people! They love their church and their God. This revival runs from Oct. 7-11. Please pray for us as we minister in music, Bible teaching and preaching in their midst. We do need much prayer for: safe travel, good health, anointing, souls coming to the Lord and seeing church renewal. Thanks so much for including us on your prayer list!
Following the Tangier Revival we begin a revival in Petersburg, VA at St. Mark's UMC on Oct. 14-16.
Thanks so much for your prayers.
God loves you and so do we!
LeRoy & Peg
Lucky you to b an escort for MERCY ME!!!!!!PLZ put my client Bethany
Brelsford on the prayer list ,she is having uncontrolled seizures .We are
waiting to get her in CHOP.phila, for lonbg term monitoring ..pray that that
happens soon...thx love to all the family ,M.
Pastor Brown,
Thank you for this message on the storm. It confirmed a word from God that L. received a week earlier. He came home and told me that we needed to remember Jesus sleeping in the boat in the middle of the storm. That was such a comforting thought to me, that when I go to sleep at night, I picture myself curling up next to Jesus in the bottom of the boat while the storm rages all around. Your words added so much more depth and insight to that word. It was especially meaningful to see the contrast in the fear of the storm verses the fear of Jesus who calmed the storm. We are holding on to those “pitons” of God’s faithfulness and know by faith that this will be another one in which we see God work all things together for good to those who love him.
Thanks again. The Lord bless you. Love,
J.
Simian Dube, the passenger vin this car, is a good friend of my granddaughter Rachel. He is not doing well so we would really appreciate prayers. I will keep you posted on his progress.
Thanks
L and W
*****************************************************************************************************************************
Two Williston teens injured in crash
Published: Thursday, October 4, 2007
Free Press Staff Report
HINESBURG -- A one-car accident Wednesday morning left a Williston teenager in critical condition.
Hinesburg Community Police responded at 8:18 a.m. to a crash on Pond Road near the Champlain Valley Union High School soccer field. The car, a 2001 Volkswagen Beetle driven by Carolyn Dube, 16, of Williston went off the west side of the road, overturned and struck a tree.
Simian Dube, 14, a passenger, was trapped in the car until removed by passing motorists who witnessed the crash.
Both teens, en route to CVU for school, were taken to Fletcher Allen Health Care. Carolyn Dube was treated and released. Simian Dube remains in the hospital in critical condition
Hi Brown: Please put our grandson Alex Umiker on the prayer request list. He will be in Rochester on Friday for tests. He has been very ill with stomach pains, headaches and vomiting. He will have 3 tests to determine if there is a problem with the brain shunt. Karen and I will be with him.
L.
That's awesome that you are going to chauffeur.Mercy me. One of my favorites of mercy Me is "I can't say enough" and "here I am send me" this was our theme song for Malawi really!
I love getting your daily emails!
Please keep praying for us here in Malawi as we plant Churches and support the National church here. K. is over seeing the finishing of a large Church building in Zomba about one hour drive away.I do a bible study at the local weaving factory where people with disabilities work.
This email encourages me today in my discouragement of this MS. Walking is getting harder and the disease is sometimes very hard to cope with.
Please give my love to your girls today all 5 of them!
Blessings,
J.
Praise note from the Family of Jack Hoppes:
I just want to drop everyone a line who has been praying for my dad and family. First I want to tell you that my dad and family thank you for your prayers. There is power in prayer.
The tests came back and the doctor was encouraged by the size of the tumor in the pancreas, it was smaller (2cm) than he anticipated. The spot on his liver was only about 1cm. Praise God. I myself believe that God is healing him of all and that by the time that they do the procedure there will be nothing at all. Not even the diabetes.
You see, my father had bypass surgery years back and to make a long story short, they didn't understand then how he was still alive as two arteries were blocked and two were partially blocked. Upon doing the surgery they came across the fifth artery that needed attention also. Jesus was holding his hand and standing by his side then as He is doing today. With this type of cancer it is suppose to be very painful. I have been told by a nurse that usually an IV morphine drip is given for the pain. My dad has no pain and any person that didn't know what he was experiencing right now, wouldn't even know he has been diagnosed with the cancer.
Right now my dad is sitting in the palm of the Almighty's hand. The same God that created the heavens and the earth, the same God that parted the red sea, the same God that healed the blind, the lepers, the deaf. The same God that at the name of Jesus, demons would flee in fear. The same God that raised Jesus from the dead.
Now you tell me, what is impossible for our God? NOTHING
Praise the Lord for this beautiful, summer-like Friday. Thank the Lord for the opportunity to go to the Mercy Me concert last night. It was wonderful - and a great blessing. I had the special blessing of being able to spend several hours with the six members of the band, all of whom reside in Dallas with their wives and children. It was amazing to see all of the preparations by the road crew before the concert, setting up equipment and preparing the stage. It is a huge undertaking.
The other two groups were also a great blessing. Monk and Neagle, from Amarillo, Texas, led in heartfelt worship and praise - and were wonderful. Aaron Schust also performed with his band, and glory came down.
I asked the band members of Mercy Me how they came up with the name for their band. The lead singer told me that at the time when he was looking for a name for their band, his grandmother asked him what he was doing. He replied that he was starting a little band and that he needed a name for it. She responded, "Oh, mercy me!" (just like a grandmother, don't you think?)
During the concert the lead singer shared from his heart. He spoke of the death of his father when he himself was 19 years old. He struggled with his father's death from cancer, and out of the dark night of his soul the Lord gave him marvelous peace and light. He had a glimpse of the glory of Jesus and he penned the words, "I Can Only Imagine", which grew into the group's signature song. It has been a great comfort to many around the world. I was in a cemetery recently, where I saw the words, "I can only imagine" inscribed on one of the tombstones.
He also spoke about his young son's diagnosis with juvenile diabetes at the age of two, and how this diagnosis led him through great personal struggles. Out of those struggles the Lord gave him many wonderful songs of praise and worship, including my wife's favorite, "Bring the Rain".
This devotion is posted on my homepage: BrownNaik.com. Our friend, Julie, is the webmaster who maintains this page so faithfully. On this page you can find the link to our children's ministry in India and to our church's homepage. Also, there is the link to Sunita and Andy's wedding picture gallery.
I was reading about a teenager named Ron who came from a broken home. When he was 15, he said something terrible to his dad and he ran away. He got into drinking and drugs and partying. But one day, he met someone who told him about Jesus. He heard about how God loves him so much that He wants us to come back to Him. The Spirit of God opened Ron’s heart to respond to the gospel. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
And God changed his life. One day, Ron said, “I bet there are a lot of teenagers who need Jesus just like I did. I want to do everything I can to reach them with God’s love.”
He started Teen Mania Ministries in 1986. And now Ron Luce is in ministry for the Lord. God totally reshaped and reformed his life, and turned him into something beautiful. The ministry of The Teen Menia was featured in recent ,CNN's " God's Warriors"
That’s what God wants to do for everyone Today,
Let us look at Jeremiah chapter 18. It’s 600 BC. Beginning with verse one, God says to Jeremiah, “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”
So Jeremiah heads for the potter’s house. He sees him working at the wheel. The potter spins the lower wheel with his foot. And he works with the clay on the top wheel. He never takes his eyes off the clay. He’s always watching. He’s always working. Making sure that the clay turns out the way it’s supposed to turn out.
This is a picture of God at work in our lives. Just as the potter molds and shapes the clay into what it ought to be, our heavenly Father molds and shapes us into what we ought to be. He uses our situations and our circumstances to make us more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. We may be struggling financially. We are working as hard as we can. But the bills just keep coming. We can’t get ahead. We say, “Lord, this isn’t what wewanted!? Why is this happening?”
But then we realize that God is using this to make us more like Jesus. Philippians 1:6 says that “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Our God is an attentive God.
Our God is an artistic God. He doesn’t want us to be lumps of clay for the rest of our lives. He wants us to become His masterpieces! Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
God’s plan for our lives will turn out well if we turn to Him.
Back in 1501, Michelangelo was commissioned to work on a great statue of David. At the time, he had a big block of marble that was spoiled and abandoned. Most artists would say, “Who needs this ruined hunk of marble?”
But Michelangelo couldn’t take his eyes off of it. Every day he would walk to where it was, and he would touch it, measure it and caress it.
He decided to work with it. And so for two years, Michelangelo worked without any contact with the outside world. He chipped off the parts of the marble that were bad. And he chiseled the rest of it into the image he wanted it to be.
Today, his amazing statue of David is considered to be one of the greatest works of art in Renaissance culture. It’s a wonderful example of how an artist can take something that is marred and turn it into something that is marvelous.
He makes all things beautiful in His time.
In His grace,
Brown
Praise and Prayer:
I am forwarding prayer requests and praise reports from various friends and ministry partners. We serve an awesome God who specializes in healing brokenness, restoring broken lives and filling empty vessels. We are so grateful we serve the living Lord who is in the world today. The kingdoms of the world have become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Dear friends in Christ,
Peg and I have had one of the busiest falls ever; God has given supernatural strength to both of us, undergirding and empowering us for ministry! We praise His name!
Tomorrow about noon, October 5, we will begin our trip to Tangier Island, VA and the Swain Memorial UMC. Once we reach the land dock we will embark on the "Mail Boat" for a 15-mile ride across the Chesapeake Bay.This will be our third time among these beautiful people! They love their church and their God. This revival runs from Oct. 7-11. Please pray for us as we minister in music, Bible teaching and preaching in their midst. We do need much prayer for: safe travel, good health, anointing, souls coming to the Lord and seeing church renewal. Thanks so much for including us on your prayer list!
Following the Tangier Revival we begin a revival in Petersburg, VA at St. Mark's UMC on Oct. 14-16.
Thanks so much for your prayers.
God loves you and so do we!
LeRoy & Peg
Lucky you to b an escort for MERCY ME!!!!!!PLZ put my client Bethany
Brelsford on the prayer list ,she is having uncontrolled seizures .We are
waiting to get her in CHOP.phila, for lonbg term monitoring ..pray that that
happens soon...thx love to all the family ,M.
Pastor Brown,
Thank you for this message on the storm. It confirmed a word from God that L. received a week earlier. He came home and told me that we needed to remember Jesus sleeping in the boat in the middle of the storm. That was such a comforting thought to me, that when I go to sleep at night, I picture myself curling up next to Jesus in the bottom of the boat while the storm rages all around. Your words added so much more depth and insight to that word. It was especially meaningful to see the contrast in the fear of the storm verses the fear of Jesus who calmed the storm. We are holding on to those “pitons” of God’s faithfulness and know by faith that this will be another one in which we see God work all things together for good to those who love him.
Thanks again. The Lord bless you. Love,
J.
Simian Dube, the passenger vin this car, is a good friend of my granddaughter Rachel. He is not doing well so we would really appreciate prayers. I will keep you posted on his progress.
Thanks
L and W
*****************************************************************************************************************************
Two Williston teens injured in crash
Published: Thursday, October 4, 2007
Free Press Staff Report
HINESBURG -- A one-car accident Wednesday morning left a Williston teenager in critical condition.
Hinesburg Community Police responded at 8:18 a.m. to a crash on Pond Road near the Champlain Valley Union High School soccer field. The car, a 2001 Volkswagen Beetle driven by Carolyn Dube, 16, of Williston went off the west side of the road, overturned and struck a tree.
Simian Dube, 14, a passenger, was trapped in the car until removed by passing motorists who witnessed the crash.
Both teens, en route to CVU for school, were taken to Fletcher Allen Health Care. Carolyn Dube was treated and released. Simian Dube remains in the hospital in critical condition
Hi Brown: Please put our grandson Alex Umiker on the prayer request list. He will be in Rochester on Friday for tests. He has been very ill with stomach pains, headaches and vomiting. He will have 3 tests to determine if there is a problem with the brain shunt. Karen and I will be with him.
L.
That's awesome that you are going to chauffeur.Mercy me. One of my favorites of mercy Me is "I can't say enough" and "here I am send me" this was our theme song for Malawi really!
I love getting your daily emails!
Please keep praying for us here in Malawi as we plant Churches and support the National church here. K. is over seeing the finishing of a large Church building in Zomba about one hour drive away.I do a bible study at the local weaving factory where people with disabilities work.
This email encourages me today in my discouragement of this MS. Walking is getting harder and the disease is sometimes very hard to cope with.
Please give my love to your girls today all 5 of them!
Blessings,
J.
Praise note from the Family of Jack Hoppes:
I just want to drop everyone a line who has been praying for my dad and family. First I want to tell you that my dad and family thank you for your prayers. There is power in prayer.
The tests came back and the doctor was encouraged by the size of the tumor in the pancreas, it was smaller (2cm) than he anticipated. The spot on his liver was only about 1cm. Praise God. I myself believe that God is healing him of all and that by the time that they do the procedure there will be nothing at all. Not even the diabetes.
You see, my father had bypass surgery years back and to make a long story short, they didn't understand then how he was still alive as two arteries were blocked and two were partially blocked. Upon doing the surgery they came across the fifth artery that needed attention also. Jesus was holding his hand and standing by his side then as He is doing today. With this type of cancer it is suppose to be very painful. I have been told by a nurse that usually an IV morphine drip is given for the pain. My dad has no pain and any person that didn't know what he was experiencing right now, wouldn't even know he has been diagnosed with the cancer.
Right now my dad is sitting in the palm of the Almighty's hand. The same God that created the heavens and the earth, the same God that parted the red sea, the same God that healed the blind, the lepers, the deaf. The same God that at the name of Jesus, demons would flee in fear. The same God that raised Jesus from the dead.
Now you tell me, what is impossible for our God? NOTHING
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Brown's Daily Word 10-4-07
Praise the Lord for this beautiful day. It is going to be warm, very warm, and glorious. It is still like summer. One of the big events for our area is the Mercy Me concert . It will be held at the Forum in Binghamton tonight. The doors will open at 5.30 p.m. The concert will start at 7 p.m. Some of the beautiful contemporary Christian praise songs made prominent by the Mercy Me Band are "I Can Only Imagine" and " If We Are the Body". Some of our teens will be attending the concert. Laureen is driving up from Washington today to join us for this concert. I have been asked to pick up the band members from the Syracuse airport this afternoon. I will be their chauffeur. (Lord help us, Jesus) We are praying the Lord would bless the ministry of the music to bless His people and to encourage all of us.
We live in a world filled with discouraging situations, discouraging financial news, and discouraged people. Without question, the number one way reason that Christians do not ascend to the highest level of spiritual maturity is discouragement. When people feel disenchanted they are less likely to love, to give, or to serve, as they should. Millions are depressed and need medication for their bouts with depression. More Christians are disengaged from Christian fellowships today because they have somehow given in to feelings of discouragement or have internalized their setbacks and they say, "What is the use".
God’s sent His encouraging message to Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6,7 where God says, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, ’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of God bless it! Go bless it.'"
The Lord will work through us, not by human, but by His supernatural Spirit’s power. God will carry out His work through us by the power of the Holy Spirit who helps us do everything God asks us to do. The Lord wants to direct, guide and lead us in the ways out of the clouds of discouragements. The Lord told Joshua, "Be strong and courageous and act, do not fear or be dismayed for the Lord goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until ALL the work of the house of God is completed." (Josh. 1:7-9) Do not think you have to pilot your way to your destination, because the Lord wants to navigate you through all kinds of troubled waters. God told Jeremiah, "I know the plans that I have for you says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope." Look to the Lord’s Spirit continuously to guide you with the still small voice of calm.
So many people are discouraged because they think they do not have enough money, materials or resources. Other people are discouraged because they do not have any close friends. Paul wrote, "He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things.” (Romans 8:32)Our Almighty God is a Providential Giver. He provides for our needs with His timely care. The Providential God foresees what we need emotionally, socially, physically and spiritually. His beneficent care supplies us all our needs according to His rich reservoir of resources found in Christ. Jesus. (Phil. 4:19) We can trust Him to supply us with whatever we need financially, emotionally, or socially.
Regardless of how dark the clouds may appear on your horizon, the Lord’s promises will brighten your outlook. His word is filled with more than 7000 promises that are ready to be claimed in Christ. Paul wrote, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the Amen is spoken by us to the glory of God." (2 Corinthians 1:20)
Promises are like assets in the bank that are given to us to use when we are in need. Many Christians are not appropriating or utilizing the riches that are available to them in Christ and the promises of God’s word. In Christ we have the power, the encouragement, the consolation of love, the fellowship of the Spirit, the affection, and the compassion to make our joy complete. His resources are inexhaustible.
In Christ,
Brown
Happy 50th anniversary to our friends Lee and Skip, who live in Hope, NJ. Hope is a town that was founded by the Moravians. Lee and Skip love the Lord, and serve Him faithfully through their local church. After Lee's mother died, she and Skip raised her young sister, Becky. (Becky turned 50 this year). Amazing love!
Pray for Sarah Deuel, who will be having back surgery next week.
Please remember our young friend Alexander in prayer today:
Hi Brown: Please put our grandson Alex Umiker on the prayer request list. He will be in Rochester on Friday for tests. He has been very ill with stomach pains, headaches and vomiting. He will have 3 tests to determine if there is a problem with the brain shunt. Karen and I will be with him.
Linda
Hundreds Remember Televangelist Rex Humbard
According to The Christian Post, hundreds gathered on Saturday in Akron, Ohio, to remember the late Rev. Rex Humbard, widely considered the pioneer of televangelism. "Rex was focused on one thing: to tell people they need to be saved," said Wayne Jones, Humbard's brother-in-law, according to The Associated Press. Humbard died Sept. 21 of natural causes at the age of 88. His body lay in state Saturday at the former Cathedral of Tomorrow in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where he broadcast Sunday services to millions of people worldwide. Elizabeth Bandy of Akron said: "I grew up in this church. My parents came to Christ through Rex's ministry. His legacy is so touching. He's made such a difference in this community and his ministry worldwide is so overwhelming. When I look around and see the faces of all these people who came to say goodbye, I realize the one common thread is Rex's ministry."
China Urged to Release Christian Human Rights Lawyer
ASSIST News Service reports that a prominent Christian human rights lawyer has been rearrested in Beijing. China Aid Association (CAA) reports Mr. Gao Zhisheng and his family members were reportedly arrested again on September 23, 2007 after he sent an open letter to the US Congress and Senate on September 21. In the letter, Gao lists numerous cases of grave human rights abuses in the name of hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics and urges the international community not to be fooled by the Chinese government propaganda. Earlier this year after being detained and even severely tortured for a number of months, Mr. Gao was sentenced to three years with five years probation because of his human rights defense work.
Trans World Radio Impacting Muslim Countries for Christ
OneNewsNow.com reports that Trans World Radio (TWR), which broadcasts to the Arab world, is making a major impact in the Muslim world. TWR's coordinator, whose name is withheld for security concerns, says although many Arab countries are closed to the gospel, radio waves penetrate all areas of the world with the message of Christ. "A faithful body of Christian believers are facing huge tasks, because they want to fulfill their calling and they want to be the good news for this part of the world -- and they believe that there's something they can contribute to the Muslim community." The coordinator says although Islam is not a peaceful religion, Muslims must be given the opportunity to hear the gospel and respond to Christ.
We live in a world filled with discouraging situations, discouraging financial news, and discouraged people. Without question, the number one way reason that Christians do not ascend to the highest level of spiritual maturity is discouragement. When people feel disenchanted they are less likely to love, to give, or to serve, as they should. Millions are depressed and need medication for their bouts with depression. More Christians are disengaged from Christian fellowships today because they have somehow given in to feelings of discouragement or have internalized their setbacks and they say, "What is the use".
God’s sent His encouraging message to Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6,7 where God says, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, ’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of God bless it! Go bless it.'"
The Lord will work through us, not by human, but by His supernatural Spirit’s power. God will carry out His work through us by the power of the Holy Spirit who helps us do everything God asks us to do. The Lord wants to direct, guide and lead us in the ways out of the clouds of discouragements. The Lord told Joshua, "Be strong and courageous and act, do not fear or be dismayed for the Lord goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until ALL the work of the house of God is completed." (Josh. 1:7-9) Do not think you have to pilot your way to your destination, because the Lord wants to navigate you through all kinds of troubled waters. God told Jeremiah, "I know the plans that I have for you says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope." Look to the Lord’s Spirit continuously to guide you with the still small voice of calm.
So many people are discouraged because they think they do not have enough money, materials or resources. Other people are discouraged because they do not have any close friends. Paul wrote, "He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things.” (Romans 8:32)Our Almighty God is a Providential Giver. He provides for our needs with His timely care. The Providential God foresees what we need emotionally, socially, physically and spiritually. His beneficent care supplies us all our needs according to His rich reservoir of resources found in Christ. Jesus. (Phil. 4:19) We can trust Him to supply us with whatever we need financially, emotionally, or socially.
Regardless of how dark the clouds may appear on your horizon, the Lord’s promises will brighten your outlook. His word is filled with more than 7000 promises that are ready to be claimed in Christ. Paul wrote, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the Amen is spoken by us to the glory of God." (2 Corinthians 1:20)
Promises are like assets in the bank that are given to us to use when we are in need. Many Christians are not appropriating or utilizing the riches that are available to them in Christ and the promises of God’s word. In Christ we have the power, the encouragement, the consolation of love, the fellowship of the Spirit, the affection, and the compassion to make our joy complete. His resources are inexhaustible.
In Christ,
Brown
Happy 50th anniversary to our friends Lee and Skip, who live in Hope, NJ. Hope is a town that was founded by the Moravians. Lee and Skip love the Lord, and serve Him faithfully through their local church. After Lee's mother died, she and Skip raised her young sister, Becky. (Becky turned 50 this year). Amazing love!
Pray for Sarah Deuel, who will be having back surgery next week.
Please remember our young friend Alexander in prayer today:
Hi Brown: Please put our grandson Alex Umiker on the prayer request list. He will be in Rochester on Friday for tests. He has been very ill with stomach pains, headaches and vomiting. He will have 3 tests to determine if there is a problem with the brain shunt. Karen and I will be with him.
Linda
Hundreds Remember Televangelist Rex Humbard
According to The Christian Post, hundreds gathered on Saturday in Akron, Ohio, to remember the late Rev. Rex Humbard, widely considered the pioneer of televangelism. "Rex was focused on one thing: to tell people they need to be saved," said Wayne Jones, Humbard's brother-in-law, according to The Associated Press. Humbard died Sept. 21 of natural causes at the age of 88. His body lay in state Saturday at the former Cathedral of Tomorrow in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where he broadcast Sunday services to millions of people worldwide. Elizabeth Bandy of Akron said: "I grew up in this church. My parents came to Christ through Rex's ministry. His legacy is so touching. He's made such a difference in this community and his ministry worldwide is so overwhelming. When I look around and see the faces of all these people who came to say goodbye, I realize the one common thread is Rex's ministry."
China Urged to Release Christian Human Rights Lawyer
ASSIST News Service reports that a prominent Christian human rights lawyer has been rearrested in Beijing. China Aid Association (CAA) reports Mr. Gao Zhisheng and his family members were reportedly arrested again on September 23, 2007 after he sent an open letter to the US Congress and Senate on September 21. In the letter, Gao lists numerous cases of grave human rights abuses in the name of hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics and urges the international community not to be fooled by the Chinese government propaganda. Earlier this year after being detained and even severely tortured for a number of months, Mr. Gao was sentenced to three years with five years probation because of his human rights defense work.
Trans World Radio Impacting Muslim Countries for Christ
OneNewsNow.com reports that Trans World Radio (TWR), which broadcasts to the Arab world, is making a major impact in the Muslim world. TWR's coordinator, whose name is withheld for security concerns, says although many Arab countries are closed to the gospel, radio waves penetrate all areas of the world with the message of Christ. "A faithful body of Christian believers are facing huge tasks, because they want to fulfill their calling and they want to be the good news for this part of the world -- and they believe that there's something they can contribute to the Muslim community." The coordinator says although Islam is not a peaceful religion, Muslims must be given the opportunity to hear the gospel and respond to Christ.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Brown's Daily Word 10-3-07
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this beautiful day. It will be sunny and warm today. The fall foliage should be peaking in a few days. It is a beautiful time of year, when we see the Lord's handiwork all around us, reminding us of how He displays His colors and His grandeur.
Laureen is coming home tomorrow. We are planning to attend the Mercy Me concert in Binghamton tomorrow evening. Sunita and Andy, together with their friend, Meredith, will be driving in from Washington, DC on Friday night. Jessy and Tom also are driving up from Philadelphia on Friday to get New York State apples and make homemade doughnuts. I am planning to spend next week with Micah and Simeon in Boston, leaving on Monday. One month from today Micah will be 2 years old. I can't believe it! She is talking a lot - in full sentences, too.
Please scroll down each morning to check on the prayer and praise updates, and take some time to pray for those on the prayer list. As you know, this devotional and each morning devotional is posted on my home page brownnaik.com and my friend Julie, in Oklahoma, is my webmaster. She maintains the page so faithfully and joyfully. There is a link from my home page to the church's home page, one to the children's homes in India which we support, and a link to the gallery containing Sunita and Andy's wedding pictures. Praise the Lord for the way that He links us with Him, and with one another as His body on earth. I am reading from Psalm 90, this morning. It is the only Psalm written by Moses. It is called the prayer of Moses, the man of God. It talks about time and Eternity.
Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with
$86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!
Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits
you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as lost whatever of
this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance.
It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each
night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s
deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.
I heard a story about a man who worked at a factory. One of his main jobs was to blow the factory whistle at 5:00 to indicate the workday was over. He walked to work each day and passed a jewelry store where a beautiful grandfather clock was displayed in the window. Every morning, he stopped and set his pocket watch to match the time on the grandfather clock. One morning the store owner was out front sweeping the sidewalk and the factory worker asked him how he kept such accurate time on the grandfather clock. The jeweler said, “Oh, I set it every afternoon when the factory whistle blows at 5:00.”
People live by the clock, because time is important to all of us. Benjamin Franklin said, “Do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.”
Many frustrated people seem to always fight the clock, habitually, as a way of life. They stay up late, then they sleep as late as they can and then rush frantically to school or work, gulping down an unhealthy breakfast in the car, applying their make-up (or using a razor) at the stoplight, talking on their cell phone at the same time.
The Bible gives us some great insight into how time can become your friend rather than your enemy. Basically, God exists in a realm that is not bound by time or space. God doesn’t wear a Rolex or even a Timex. He doesn’t have a Day-Timer or a PDA. He is the Creator of time, and He is greater than time. So, the first step in making time your friend is to totally immerse your life in God. In Psalm 90, we read:
Psalm 90:1-4, 10, 12
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. [2] Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. [3] Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. [4] For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:10
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Psalm 90:12
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
God says we should treasure time as a valuable commodity. You number your years (or at least some of you do), but God says every day is so precious, we should treasure it and number it.
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. How valuable is an hour? Ask the businessman whose flight was delayed an hour and he missed an important business deal. How valuable is one minute? Ask the man who had the heart attack in the restaurant and an EMT happened to be sitting at the next table and CPR saved his life. How valuable is a second? Ask the person who barely missed a head on w/ an oncoming car. How valuable is a millisecond? Ask the Olympic swimmer who missed qualifying by six-tenths. Time really is valuable. So learn a couple of things about what this means for your family:
Treasure every moment that you have! Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is
a mystery. Today is a gift...That’s why it’s called the “present!”
“You can make more money but you can’t make more time.”
Have you ever heard the expression, “time is money?” It’s not true. Time is much more valuable than money. It may be hard to make more money, but it can be done. But it is totally impossible to make more time. TIME is more valuable than money. A.W. Tozer wrote:
“Time is a resource that is nonrenewable and nontransferable. You cannot store it, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up or give it up. You can’t hoard it up or save it for a rainy day–when it’s lost it’s unrecoverable. When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.”
Time is more valuable than money, but it’s like money in that it can be spent and invested. It’s different from money though, because while money can be saved, time can’t. It you don’t use it, you lose it. Forever. In the early 1970s Jim Croce wrote a song that said, “If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I’d like to do, is to save every day ‘till eternity passes away–just to spend them with you.” Those are great lyrics, and it would be nice if we could save time, but you can’t. In fact, a few months after he wrote that song, he was tragically killed in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana at the age of 30. You can’t save time.
We have all kinds of time-saving appliances…like microwave ovens. Guys love to take short cuts in order to “save time.” Show me some of the time you’ve saved–where is it? You can’t save it you can only spend it and invest it. At a graduation commencement at his alma mater, Wheaton College, Billy Graham said: “Time is the capital that God has given us to invest. People are the stocks in which we are to invest our time, whether they’re blue chips or penny stocks or even junk bonds.”
There are 168 golden hours in each week. The average person will spend about 56 of those hours sleeping, about 24 of those hours in eating and personal hygiene, and about 50 of those hours working or traveling to work. That means there are only about 35 hours a week of “discretionary” time left over. That’s about 5 hours per day. Where are you investing those hours?
If I were to follow you around and observe you for those 5 hours, after about 10 days, I could tell you what is most important in your life. How much of that discretionary time are you devoting to your Lord? How much are you devoting to your family? A study of 1,500 households at the University of Michigan found mothers working outside the home spend an average of 11 minutes a day on weekdays, and thirty minutes a day on weekends with the children (not including mealtime). Fathers spend an average of 8 minutes a day on weekdays and 14 minutes a day on weekends in different activities with their children.
I reminded you this morning that all the money we receive comes from God and we only manage it. The same can be true of time. God is the creator of time, and He alone controls it.
A time management expert was teaching a seminar for executives. He placed a large, clear open-mouthed jar in front of the group. Next, he put seven or eight large rocks into the jar until it was full. “Is the jar full?” He asked. Everyone nodded. Then he took pebbles and filled up the jar with the small rocks until they reached the rim. “Is the jar full?” By now, they didn’t answer. So, he poured fine sand in. “Is the jar full?” Some nodded. He proceeded to take a pitcher of water and filled up the jar again. “What’s the lesson about time management?” he asked. Hands shot up, and everyone agreed “No matter how busy you are you can always fit more things into your schedule.” “Wrong.” he replied. “The lesson is: unless you put the big rocks in first, they never will fit in. You must figure out what the big rocks are for you.” What are the big rocks in your life? Giving time to God? Giving time to your marriage and to your children? If you don’t put those big rocks in first, someone else will fill up your jar.
There is an entire field of study called “time management.” In almost every business in America, consultants are hired to teach busy executives how to better manage their time. Time management is a hot topic. In his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey writes: “Time management is a misleading concept. You can’t really manage time. You can’t delay it, speed it up, save it or lose it. No matter what you do time keeps moving forward at the same rate. The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.”
The Bible uses another word. Instead of managing your time, it speaks of “redeeming” the time, which is an even better idea. Paul writes: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:14- 15)
The phrase “walk circumspectly,” means to be constantly looking around to make the most of every opportunity. Emmett Smith was a great football running back, but he’s not the biggest or the fastest, or the strongest. What he excels at is running with his eyes open, and he is one of the best at seeing holes as they open and then running through them. That’s the way we should live, looking for every opportunity to invest time wisely, then darting through them. When an opportunity passes, it can’t be reclaimed–it is gone forever. That’s what it means to redeem the time.
If you don’t manage your time - someone else will manage it for you
You can’t save time, or even waste time–you are going to spend it somewhere and invest it in someone. If you don’t control your schedule, someone will always be happy to do it for you. Some people complain they just don’t have enough time to spend with their family. You’ve got exactly the same amount of time as everyone else; you just aren’t managing your time wisely or managing yourself wisely.
The most important time you will invest will be in your family. Many of you remember the song, “The Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin. Part of it says,
“My child arrived just the other day.
He came to the world in the usual way.
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay.
He learned to walk while I was away.
He was talking before I knew it, and as he grew
He said, “I’m going to be like you, Dad.
You know I’m going to be like you.”
My son turned ten just the other day.
He said, “Thanks for the ball, now come on let’s play.
Can you teach me to throw?” I said, “Not today,
I’ve got a lot to do.” He said, “That’s OK.”
And he walked away and he smiled and he said
“You know I’m going to be like you, Dad,
You know I’m going to be like you.”
The final verse says:
I’ve long since retired and my son’s moved away.
I called him up just the other day.
I said, “I’d like to see you, if you don’t mind.”
He said, “I’d love to, Dad, if I could find the time.
You see, my new job’s a hassle and the kids have the flu,
But it’s sure nice talking to you, Dad.
It’s been real nice talking to you.”
And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me,
He’d grown up just like me.
My boy was just like me.
Maybe you’ve heard the song, but here’s the rest of the story: Harry Chapin’s wife, Sandy, actually wrote the words to that song after their son Josh was born. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy. When their son was 7, Harry was performing 200 concerts a year, and Sandy asked him when he was going to take some time to be with his son. Harry promised to make some time at the end of the summer. He never made it. That summer, a truck hit Harry’s Volkswagen bug and he was killed.
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
In Christ,
Brown
Ryan K ,who is in hospice care.
LA, for total healing
JB who will be going for drug rehabilitation
Jack Black.
Rich McPherson and the prison ministry team.
Grant DeGaramo.
Don Harbecke, 52 years old is had a quadruple heart bypass in Illinois,.
Jack B, experiencing heart problems,
Leslie Broughton, Receiving chemo therapy
Larry, and Jane,
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,
Our youngest daughter Jessica, who will be finishing her assignment with the Americorps in Philadlphia in few weeks,
Pray for Cameron Tyler, born 8 weeks prematurely, weighing 4 pounds, in neonatal ICU in Boston
Pray for Dave and Linda Barton and the team that are going to Uruguay on a short term mission trip in October.
Pray for Dr. Doug Kerr and Dr. Carpenter who are going to Kenya on a short term medical mission.
Pray for Kristin, Becky, Shannan - our young expecting moms
Jane Leoffler, Andy, in Sloane-Kettering Hospital in New York City.
Kim, is home after her surgery.
Patsie Carmen, .
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,
Jack Hoppes Jr,
Sarah Duel,
Hi Brown
I am Jan ~ a very close friend of Senie and Allans.
Will you put Andrea from Washington State on the prayer list.
She is young & has been diagnosed with breast Cancer and will start radiation and possibly chemo soon.
Love In Christ
Jan
For John Hoppes Jr
. He likes to go by the name Jack but if you say John I know God will know who you're praying for. We ask that all stand in prayer and be saying the Name above all Names. The only Name that holds the power to Heal and Restore. God Bless You All and may God be glorified.
The following is what my Heavenly Father spoke to me today. He so delights in His children that believe Him at His word.
10/1/2007
Heavenly Father, I do love you so much. You know right now where we are all at and you meet each of us at the point of our need. You alone know what You want each of us to learn thru what is happening. You are so awesome, comforting, Mighty in power. Father, there are no words in the human language to describe You.
Lord, I need to tell You that I trust You, I believe Your word and I know You are faithful. It is I Lord that can do nothing but cling to Your promises. Father, I do believe that my faith is bigger than a mustard seed but I also want to not have doubt the size of a mustard seed, not even the size of a grain of sand. So I come to You Father and ask that You would replace any question of doubt with Your gift of supernatural faith. Lord, it is easy to see You even when it is cloudy. During the storm it is harder. I can sense Your presence but cannot always see where you are at. Help me Father to see You ever so clearly with my heart and not just my eyes. For I know when I see thru my eyes Your blessings, my faith grows and my spirit is lifted. Help us all now to believe, to stand on Your word and grow our faith so that you may say of us "blessed are you who believed before seeing". I praise You Father for Who You are, for You alone are the great I AM. May You alone be glorifed.
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
Praise the Lord for this beautiful day. It will be sunny and warm today. The fall foliage should be peaking in a few days. It is a beautiful time of year, when we see the Lord's handiwork all around us, reminding us of how He displays His colors and His grandeur.
Laureen is coming home tomorrow. We are planning to attend the Mercy Me concert in Binghamton tomorrow evening. Sunita and Andy, together with their friend, Meredith, will be driving in from Washington, DC on Friday night. Jessy and Tom also are driving up from Philadelphia on Friday to get New York State apples and make homemade doughnuts. I am planning to spend next week with Micah and Simeon in Boston, leaving on Monday. One month from today Micah will be 2 years old. I can't believe it! She is talking a lot - in full sentences, too.
Please scroll down each morning to check on the prayer and praise updates, and take some time to pray for those on the prayer list. As you know, this devotional and each morning devotional is posted on my home page brownnaik.com and my friend Julie, in Oklahoma, is my webmaster. She maintains the page so faithfully and joyfully. There is a link from my home page to the church's home page, one to the children's homes in India which we support, and a link to the gallery containing Sunita and Andy's wedding pictures. Praise the Lord for the way that He links us with Him, and with one another as His body on earth. I am reading from Psalm 90, this morning. It is the only Psalm written by Moses. It is called the prayer of Moses, the man of God. It talks about time and Eternity.
Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with
$86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!
Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits
you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as lost whatever of
this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance.
It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each
night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s
deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.
I heard a story about a man who worked at a factory. One of his main jobs was to blow the factory whistle at 5:00 to indicate the workday was over. He walked to work each day and passed a jewelry store where a beautiful grandfather clock was displayed in the window. Every morning, he stopped and set his pocket watch to match the time on the grandfather clock. One morning the store owner was out front sweeping the sidewalk and the factory worker asked him how he kept such accurate time on the grandfather clock. The jeweler said, “Oh, I set it every afternoon when the factory whistle blows at 5:00.”
People live by the clock, because time is important to all of us. Benjamin Franklin said, “Do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.”
Many frustrated people seem to always fight the clock, habitually, as a way of life. They stay up late, then they sleep as late as they can and then rush frantically to school or work, gulping down an unhealthy breakfast in the car, applying their make-up (or using a razor) at the stoplight, talking on their cell phone at the same time.
The Bible gives us some great insight into how time can become your friend rather than your enemy. Basically, God exists in a realm that is not bound by time or space. God doesn’t wear a Rolex or even a Timex. He doesn’t have a Day-Timer or a PDA. He is the Creator of time, and He is greater than time. So, the first step in making time your friend is to totally immerse your life in God. In Psalm 90, we read:
Psalm 90:1-4, 10, 12
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. [2] Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. [3] Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. [4] For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:10
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Psalm 90:12
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
God says we should treasure time as a valuable commodity. You number your years (or at least some of you do), but God says every day is so precious, we should treasure it and number it.
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. How valuable is an hour? Ask the businessman whose flight was delayed an hour and he missed an important business deal. How valuable is one minute? Ask the man who had the heart attack in the restaurant and an EMT happened to be sitting at the next table and CPR saved his life. How valuable is a second? Ask the person who barely missed a head on w/ an oncoming car. How valuable is a millisecond? Ask the Olympic swimmer who missed qualifying by six-tenths. Time really is valuable. So learn a couple of things about what this means for your family:
Treasure every moment that you have! Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is
a mystery. Today is a gift...That’s why it’s called the “present!”
“You can make more money but you can’t make more time.”
Have you ever heard the expression, “time is money?” It’s not true. Time is much more valuable than money. It may be hard to make more money, but it can be done. But it is totally impossible to make more time. TIME is more valuable than money. A.W. Tozer wrote:
“Time is a resource that is nonrenewable and nontransferable. You cannot store it, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up or give it up. You can’t hoard it up or save it for a rainy day–when it’s lost it’s unrecoverable. When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.”
Time is more valuable than money, but it’s like money in that it can be spent and invested. It’s different from money though, because while money can be saved, time can’t. It you don’t use it, you lose it. Forever. In the early 1970s Jim Croce wrote a song that said, “If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I’d like to do, is to save every day ‘till eternity passes away–just to spend them with you.” Those are great lyrics, and it would be nice if we could save time, but you can’t. In fact, a few months after he wrote that song, he was tragically killed in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana at the age of 30. You can’t save time.
We have all kinds of time-saving appliances…like microwave ovens. Guys love to take short cuts in order to “save time.” Show me some of the time you’ve saved–where is it? You can’t save it you can only spend it and invest it. At a graduation commencement at his alma mater, Wheaton College, Billy Graham said: “Time is the capital that God has given us to invest. People are the stocks in which we are to invest our time, whether they’re blue chips or penny stocks or even junk bonds.”
There are 168 golden hours in each week. The average person will spend about 56 of those hours sleeping, about 24 of those hours in eating and personal hygiene, and about 50 of those hours working or traveling to work. That means there are only about 35 hours a week of “discretionary” time left over. That’s about 5 hours per day. Where are you investing those hours?
If I were to follow you around and observe you for those 5 hours, after about 10 days, I could tell you what is most important in your life. How much of that discretionary time are you devoting to your Lord? How much are you devoting to your family? A study of 1,500 households at the University of Michigan found mothers working outside the home spend an average of 11 minutes a day on weekdays, and thirty minutes a day on weekends with the children (not including mealtime). Fathers spend an average of 8 minutes a day on weekdays and 14 minutes a day on weekends in different activities with their children.
I reminded you this morning that all the money we receive comes from God and we only manage it. The same can be true of time. God is the creator of time, and He alone controls it.
A time management expert was teaching a seminar for executives. He placed a large, clear open-mouthed jar in front of the group. Next, he put seven or eight large rocks into the jar until it was full. “Is the jar full?” He asked. Everyone nodded. Then he took pebbles and filled up the jar with the small rocks until they reached the rim. “Is the jar full?” By now, they didn’t answer. So, he poured fine sand in. “Is the jar full?” Some nodded. He proceeded to take a pitcher of water and filled up the jar again. “What’s the lesson about time management?” he asked. Hands shot up, and everyone agreed “No matter how busy you are you can always fit more things into your schedule.” “Wrong.” he replied. “The lesson is: unless you put the big rocks in first, they never will fit in. You must figure out what the big rocks are for you.” What are the big rocks in your life? Giving time to God? Giving time to your marriage and to your children? If you don’t put those big rocks in first, someone else will fill up your jar.
There is an entire field of study called “time management.” In almost every business in America, consultants are hired to teach busy executives how to better manage their time. Time management is a hot topic. In his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey writes: “Time management is a misleading concept. You can’t really manage time. You can’t delay it, speed it up, save it or lose it. No matter what you do time keeps moving forward at the same rate. The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.”
The Bible uses another word. Instead of managing your time, it speaks of “redeeming” the time, which is an even better idea. Paul writes: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:14- 15)
The phrase “walk circumspectly,” means to be constantly looking around to make the most of every opportunity. Emmett Smith was a great football running back, but he’s not the biggest or the fastest, or the strongest. What he excels at is running with his eyes open, and he is one of the best at seeing holes as they open and then running through them. That’s the way we should live, looking for every opportunity to invest time wisely, then darting through them. When an opportunity passes, it can’t be reclaimed–it is gone forever. That’s what it means to redeem the time.
If you don’t manage your time - someone else will manage it for you
You can’t save time, or even waste time–you are going to spend it somewhere and invest it in someone. If you don’t control your schedule, someone will always be happy to do it for you. Some people complain they just don’t have enough time to spend with their family. You’ve got exactly the same amount of time as everyone else; you just aren’t managing your time wisely or managing yourself wisely.
The most important time you will invest will be in your family. Many of you remember the song, “The Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin. Part of it says,
“My child arrived just the other day.
He came to the world in the usual way.
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay.
He learned to walk while I was away.
He was talking before I knew it, and as he grew
He said, “I’m going to be like you, Dad.
You know I’m going to be like you.”
My son turned ten just the other day.
He said, “Thanks for the ball, now come on let’s play.
Can you teach me to throw?” I said, “Not today,
I’ve got a lot to do.” He said, “That’s OK.”
And he walked away and he smiled and he said
“You know I’m going to be like you, Dad,
You know I’m going to be like you.”
The final verse says:
I’ve long since retired and my son’s moved away.
I called him up just the other day.
I said, “I’d like to see you, if you don’t mind.”
He said, “I’d love to, Dad, if I could find the time.
You see, my new job’s a hassle and the kids have the flu,
But it’s sure nice talking to you, Dad.
It’s been real nice talking to you.”
And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me,
He’d grown up just like me.
My boy was just like me.
Maybe you’ve heard the song, but here’s the rest of the story: Harry Chapin’s wife, Sandy, actually wrote the words to that song after their son Josh was born. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy. When their son was 7, Harry was performing 200 concerts a year, and Sandy asked him when he was going to take some time to be with his son. Harry promised to make some time at the end of the summer. He never made it. That summer, a truck hit Harry’s Volkswagen bug and he was killed.
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
In Christ,
Brown
Ryan K ,who is in hospice care.
LA, for total healing
JB who will be going for drug rehabilitation
Jack Black.
Rich McPherson and the prison ministry team.
Grant DeGaramo.
Don Harbecke, 52 years old is had a quadruple heart bypass in Illinois,.
Jack B, experiencing heart problems,
Leslie Broughton, Receiving chemo therapy
Larry, and Jane,
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,
Our youngest daughter Jessica, who will be finishing her assignment with the Americorps in Philadlphia in few weeks,
Pray for Cameron Tyler, born 8 weeks prematurely, weighing 4 pounds, in neonatal ICU in Boston
Pray for Dave and Linda Barton and the team that are going to Uruguay on a short term mission trip in October.
Pray for Dr. Doug Kerr and Dr. Carpenter who are going to Kenya on a short term medical mission.
Pray for Kristin, Becky, Shannan - our young expecting moms
Jane Leoffler, Andy, in Sloane-Kettering Hospital in New York City.
Kim, is home after her surgery.
Patsie Carmen, .
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,
Jack Hoppes Jr,
Sarah Duel,
Hi Brown
I am Jan ~ a very close friend of Senie and Allans.
Will you put Andrea from Washington State on the prayer list.
She is young & has been diagnosed with breast Cancer and will start radiation and possibly chemo soon.
Love In Christ
Jan
For John Hoppes Jr
. He likes to go by the name Jack but if you say John I know God will know who you're praying for. We ask that all stand in prayer and be saying the Name above all Names. The only Name that holds the power to Heal and Restore. God Bless You All and may God be glorified.
The following is what my Heavenly Father spoke to me today. He so delights in His children that believe Him at His word.
10/1/2007
Heavenly Father, I do love you so much. You know right now where we are all at and you meet each of us at the point of our need. You alone know what You want each of us to learn thru what is happening. You are so awesome, comforting, Mighty in power. Father, there are no words in the human language to describe You.
Lord, I need to tell You that I trust You, I believe Your word and I know You are faithful. It is I Lord that can do nothing but cling to Your promises. Father, I do believe that my faith is bigger than a mustard seed but I also want to not have doubt the size of a mustard seed, not even the size of a grain of sand. So I come to You Father and ask that You would replace any question of doubt with Your gift of supernatural faith. Lord, it is easy to see You even when it is cloudy. During the storm it is harder. I can sense Your presence but cannot always see where you are at. Help me Father to see You ever so clearly with my heart and not just my eyes. For I know when I see thru my eyes Your blessings, my faith grows and my spirit is lifted. Help us all now to believe, to stand on Your word and grow our faith so that you may say of us "blessed are you who believed before seeing". I praise You Father for Who You are, for You alone are the great I AM. May You alone be glorifed.
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
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Brown's Daily Word 10-2-07
Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this glorious day. It is going to be another brilliant and beautiful day. It is Autumn in New York. Wish you were here. The autumn colors are magnificent and as my friends in England say " Fantastic". I was asked by a dear family to go and pray for a dear brother , who has found out last Friday that he has cancer. Some other friends of the family came and we joined in prayer for healing by anointing with oil. We are trusting and claiming the great healing from the Great and Winsome physician our Lord Jesus who was wounded for our transgressions and by His stripes we are healed, I was asked by another friend to pray for a young woman in the State of Washington, who is undergoing chemo and radiation treatment, for cancer.
Storms came in the life of our Lord's disciples. The disciples found themselves in the middle of a ferocious squall out in the sea of Galilee. This was nothing unusual on the Sea of Galilee; it is in a basin surrounded by mountains and notorious for furious storms. Rising just to the North over the lake is beautiful Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon is capped with snow, and sometimes the cold air from the top of Hermon rushes down the mountain and blows across the lake. The force of the cold air meeting the hot moist air around Galilee can be explosive, as it was on the day. Jesus and his friends are in the middle of the lake when the storm hits. It is terrifying and it looks as though they will not survive the storm. Storms will come. The apostle Peter reminds us: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). There are many who do not seem to understand this. The disciples seemed to be shocked that they were in this position. After all, wasn’t Jesus with them? Wouldn’t God protect his Messiah, and therefore protect his followers? How then could this happen? I sometimes meet people who have the same feeling of shock when some storm comes into their lives. Didn’t I do all the right things? Isn’t God supposed to watch out for his own? Doesn’t he protect those he loves? How can this be happening to me? I am sure those are the questions which were marching through the heads of the disciples.
I was reading in the book of Hebrews this past week and I came across a fascinating passage. It was talking about Abraham and the wonderful promises God made to him, but then this verse popped out at me that says, “And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised” (Hebrews 6:15). I was reading it in the original language which puts it much stronger. It uses the word macrothumia which can be translated “longsuffering.” That would make it say, “And so after longsuffering, Abraham received what was promised.” God made a great promise to Abraham, but in order to receive it, Abraham had to go through longsuffering. This is life, even with the promises of God. Endurance and faith are the keys, and these things are only possible because of the promises and faithfulness of God. The Bible says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19).
There are some people who will read this devotion today, in whose life a storm is raging. For some of you it is financial. For others it is a health issue. Still others are being swamped in the area of relationships. You have tried to be a good person and do the right thing, and yet you feel like you are sinking, and you want to know the same thing the disciples wanted to know: “Jesus, don’t you care if I drown? Are you aware of what I am going through?” What is interesting is that when Matthew and Luke tell this story in their gospels, they leave out this question about whether Jesus cared about them and their perilous situation. Matthew and Luke simply record the words of the disciples as, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” (Matthew 8:25, Luke 8:24). I’m sure that these words, and many others, were said as they shouted in fear for their lives. They were frightened, and they could not understand how or why this was happening.
Here is what a storm in your life does not mean. It does not mean that God does not love you. It does not mean that God is angry with you, or that he is paying you back for something. God is not toying with you. Sometimes the storms that happen in our lives are self-made. But many times it is just that storms happen, and trying to analyze what happened or assign blame is a fruitless activity. We live in a fallen world. And as Jesus said, “[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). In other words, good and bad happen to all. The important thing is whether or not we are prepared for them.
Jesus is with us in the storm. It you are going to be in a storm, the one person you want your boat is Jesus. Jesus could have stayed on the shore and let them take all the chances by themselves, but he did not do that. Where they went, he went.
The problem for the disciples was that he was with them, but he was asleep. It is interesting that this is the only place in all the Bible that we read of Jesus sleeping. Several times we read of him staying awake all night and praying, and we wonder how he did that. He obviously had to sleep, but this is the only recorded incident of him sleeping. It is ironic because this is a time when you would think it was impossible to sleep. The disciples wondered how he could sleep through the storm, and how he could sleep when they were in danger. They expected him to be attentive to their needs even in his sleep.
We have all been there, haven’t we? You are in the middle of a crisis and it seems like God is off somewhere taking a nap. He doesn’t seem very responsive to your need. At least we know that we are in the same boat as the disciples. But what is Jesus’ response when he is awakened? After he rebukes the storm, he rebukes his disciples. He asks them two questions: “Why are you so afraid?”, and “Do you still have no faith?”. Fear and faith are incompatible. You might expect that Jesus would be compassionate here. “Why are we so afraid?” the disciples might say. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe it was the raging storm around us, the violent pitching of the boat, the water swamping the boat so that it was starting to sink. Maybe it was that we thought we were about to drown. Just stuff like that. Don’t you think we had a right to be anxious?”
But Jesus was hoping that what they had seen him do in the past would provide a stronger faith in the future, but that was not the case. So first Jesus had to calm the storm, and then he had to calm his disciples. Has God ever done anything for you in the past? Has he solved any problems or answered any prayers? He is hoping that his faithfulness in the past will cause you to trust him in the future.
Jesus will calm the storm. At the perfect time, during the perfect storm he exercises his power over the storms of life. God is never in a hurry, and the reason he is never in a hurry is because he knows exactly what to do at exactly the right time. He does not go by our time. At just the right time, not the right time as far as the disciples were concerned, but just at right time, Jesus stood up and calmed the storm. Don’t worry, God has you in mind. He knows and understands you and your situation. He cares for you. His timing is perfect. The Bible says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). He is always watching out for us. Peter wrote, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer” (1 Peter 3:12).
It is only in the storm that we truly understand who Jesus is. I think the most amazing part of the story is the disciple’s reaction to Jesus. When Jesus asks them why they are afraid, it is the Greek word meaning fearful in the moderate sense. But when Jesus calms the storm, the Bible says, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’” (Mark 4:41). The Greek literally says ephobethesan phobon megan: “they feared with great fear.” They just thought they were afraid before. They were afraid of the storm, but they were terrified of Jesus. Their fear of the storm was nothing compared with the fear they had when they realized who it really was who was with them in the boat. It is one thing to be in the boat with someone you believe was sent from God to be a great teacher and spiritual leader. It is quite another thing to be confined in a small space with One whom you suddenly realize is the Lord of the universe. Your knees give way and you begin to tremble. You find it difficult to breathe. Your insides are shaking and you cannot stop.
It is interesting that this is the second time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus has rebuked something and said, “Be still.” The first time was in the first chapter where Mark says, “Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!’ ‘Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly. Come out of him!’” (Mark 1:23-25). And the people respond in a similar way to the disciples. They say, “What is this? . . . He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him” (Mark 1:26-27). Throughout Mark’s gospel the disciples, as well as others, keep coming to new understandings of who Jesus is, and it is always in the context of some crisis.
This is true for us as well. We keep meeting Jesus in new ways as we meet him in new crises. We don’t really understand who he is or the power he has until we see him in action. This is what Peter meant when he said, “Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
It was terrible to be blind, but the blind man could not see who Jesus was until he was healed. The deaf man could not hear Jesus until his ears were opened. The affliction of the lame man brought Jesus to his side and he was able to leap and dance so that he loved the Master and wanted to follow him. Sin had ruined Mary until Jesus delivered her and she was able to understand who he was. Doubting Thomas was devastated by the events that led to the death of Jesus. Everything seemed futile and depressing after that. But Thomas experienced Jesus in a whole new way when he saw him after the resurrection and placed his finger in Jesus’ hands and side. He fell down crying, “My Lord and my God!” It is in those crisis moments that we really understand who Jesus is. If you place your complete faith and trust in Jesus, you will have a greater understanding of him, a deeper relationship with him, and a new love for him when the storm is over. You will see his power over darkness and the depth of his love for you. Jesus is telling us to live by faith, not by fear.
In his book The Unnecessary Pastor, Eugene Peterson writes: “My two sons are both rock climbers, and I have listened to them plan their ascents [up a mountain]. They spend as much or more time planning their climbs as in the actual climbing. They meticulously plot their route and then, as they climb, put in what they call ‘protection’— pitons hammered into small crevices in the rock face, with attached ropes that will arrest a quick descent to death. Rock climbers who fail to put in protection have short climbing careers. Our pitons or ‘protection’ come as we remember and hold on to those times when we have experienced God’s faithfulness in our lives. Every answered prayer, every victory, every storm that has been calmed by his presence is a piton which keeps us from falling, losing hope, or worse yet, losing our faith. Every piton in our life is an example of God’s faithfulness to us. . . . As we ascend in the kingdom of God, we also realize that each experience, each victory is only a piton — a stepping stone toward our ultimate goal of finishing the race and receiving the crown of glory.”
Dear friends,
The Mercy Me concert is going to be held on Thursday, October 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Broome County Veterans arena. We have special tickets for the youth to attend this event. Those who would like to attend, please let us know so we can secure the tickets for our young people.
Please lift up the following needs and concerns before the Lord in prayer, for whom nothing is impossible.
Praise and prayer update:
Patsy Carmon who had a stroke has been moved to General hospital for rehabilitation.
Eleanor Skinner who has been hospitalized General hospital.
Rosemary Bowen who had surgery is home recovering.
Ryan Kerr,who is in hospice care, he is the nephew of Dr. Douglas Kerr.
Trudy Wesner who had complete knee replacement surgery. She is receiving physical therapy at home and she is doing well.
Please pray for George and Irene Dunham who are going down to Virginia to attend Irene's nephew's funeral.
Please continue to pray for Bud Lee.
Justin Brown.
Linda Ayer
Jack Black.
Rich McPherson and the prison ministry team.
Grant DeGaramo.
Don Harbecke, 52 years old is had a quadruple heart bypass in Illinois, he recovering from heart surgery. Praise the Lord.
Leslie Broughton, is going for chemo treatment.
Larry, Jane, and family.
Geraldine Okes (Betty DuBois’s sister) who is hospitalized, she had a heart attack and a stroke in Columbia, SC.
Jovita who is a recent college graduate, looking for a job.
Janice, our oldest daughter, who is going back to work today, after the birth of Simeon. She works for Healthcare for the Homeless in Boston.
Our youngest daughter Jessica, who will be finishing her assignment with the Americorps in Philadelphia in few weeks.
Pray for Cameron Tyler, (Lee and Eunice Sanford’s grandson) born 8 weeks prematurely, weighing 4 pounds, in neonatal ICU in Boston. He is doing well and becoming stronger everyday.
Pray for Kristin, Becky, Shannan - our young expecting moms.
Jane Loeffler, she is doing well now but she is still at Wilson hospital. Andy Morse, (Mary Lou Horn’s grandson). Andy is waiting for the biopsy results. He is still at Sloane Kettering in New York City.
Kim, a young mom had an emergency appendectomy yesterday. Kim is home now recovering.
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.
Pray for Jack Hoppes who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Jack had open heart surgery nine years ago.
Pray for Jim Haas who is working with FEMA in Ohio.
Pray for Eloise Tewksbury for continued healing.
Pray for Sarah Deuel who is going for back surgery next week.
Pray for Carol Crossly who is going for back surgery tomorrow morning, October 2.
Pray for Bethany Monaco, a young college student who is going for surgery today.
Pray for Dave and Linda Barton and the team that are going to Uruguay on a short term mission trip in October.
Pray for Dr. Doug Kerr and Dr. Carpenter who are going to Kenya on a short term medical mission.
The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.
Psalm 145:18,19
In Christ,
Brown
Hi Pastor Brown, Thank you so much for praying for us and for adding us to your church prayer list. That means a lot to us. Every day I get up and look for an encouraging word from you. Several I save to reread. Your words are such a blessing. We just keep reminding ourselves of how faithful God has been to us in the past. Everyday Larry comes home and still has a job, we are grateful.
Jane.
Hi Brown
I am Jan ~ a very close friend of Senie and Allans.
Will you put Andrea from Washington State on the prayer list.
She is young & has been diagnosed with breast Cancer and will start radiation and possibly chemo soon.
Love In Christ
Jan
For John Hoppes Jr
This is an update to my fathers scan that is to be done on Tuesday, 10/2/2007 at 7:45am. He likes to go by the name Jack but if you say John I know God will know who you're praying for. We ask that all stand in prayer and be saying the Name above all Names. The only Name that holds the power to Heal and Restore. God Bless You All and may God be glorified.
The following is what my Heavenly Father spoke to me today. He so delights in His children that believe Him at His word.
10/1/2007
Heavenly Father, I do love you so much. You know right now where we are all at and you meet each of us at the point of our need. You alone know what You want each of us to learn thru what is happening. You are so awesome, comforting, Mighty in power. Father, there are no words in the human language to describe You.
Lord, I need to tell You that I trust You, I believe Your word and I know You are faithful. It is I Lord that can do nothing but cling to Your promises. Father, I do believe that my faith is bigger than a mustard seed but I also want to not have doubt the size of a mustard seed, not even the size of a grain of sand. So I come to You Father and ask that You would replace any question of doubt with Your gift of supernatural faith. Lord, it is easy to see You even when it is cloudy. During the storm it is harder. I can sense Your presence but cannot always see where you are at. Help me Father to see You ever so clearly with my heart and not just my eyes. For I know when I see thru my eyes Your blessings, my faith grows and my spirit is lifted. Help us all now to believe, to stand on Your word and grow our faith so that you may say of us "blessed are you who believed before seeing". I praise You Father for Who You are, for You alone are the great I AM. May You alone be glorifed.
Praise the Lord for this glorious day. It is going to be another brilliant and beautiful day. It is Autumn in New York. Wish you were here. The autumn colors are magnificent and as my friends in England say " Fantastic". I was asked by a dear family to go and pray for a dear brother , who has found out last Friday that he has cancer. Some other friends of the family came and we joined in prayer for healing by anointing with oil. We are trusting and claiming the great healing from the Great and Winsome physician our Lord Jesus who was wounded for our transgressions and by His stripes we are healed, I was asked by another friend to pray for a young woman in the State of Washington, who is undergoing chemo and radiation treatment, for cancer.
Storms came in the life of our Lord's disciples. The disciples found themselves in the middle of a ferocious squall out in the sea of Galilee. This was nothing unusual on the Sea of Galilee; it is in a basin surrounded by mountains and notorious for furious storms. Rising just to the North over the lake is beautiful Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon is capped with snow, and sometimes the cold air from the top of Hermon rushes down the mountain and blows across the lake. The force of the cold air meeting the hot moist air around Galilee can be explosive, as it was on the day. Jesus and his friends are in the middle of the lake when the storm hits. It is terrifying and it looks as though they will not survive the storm. Storms will come. The apostle Peter reminds us: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). There are many who do not seem to understand this. The disciples seemed to be shocked that they were in this position. After all, wasn’t Jesus with them? Wouldn’t God protect his Messiah, and therefore protect his followers? How then could this happen? I sometimes meet people who have the same feeling of shock when some storm comes into their lives. Didn’t I do all the right things? Isn’t God supposed to watch out for his own? Doesn’t he protect those he loves? How can this be happening to me? I am sure those are the questions which were marching through the heads of the disciples.
I was reading in the book of Hebrews this past week and I came across a fascinating passage. It was talking about Abraham and the wonderful promises God made to him, but then this verse popped out at me that says, “And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised” (Hebrews 6:15). I was reading it in the original language which puts it much stronger. It uses the word macrothumia which can be translated “longsuffering.” That would make it say, “And so after longsuffering, Abraham received what was promised.” God made a great promise to Abraham, but in order to receive it, Abraham had to go through longsuffering. This is life, even with the promises of God. Endurance and faith are the keys, and these things are only possible because of the promises and faithfulness of God. The Bible says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19).
There are some people who will read this devotion today, in whose life a storm is raging. For some of you it is financial. For others it is a health issue. Still others are being swamped in the area of relationships. You have tried to be a good person and do the right thing, and yet you feel like you are sinking, and you want to know the same thing the disciples wanted to know: “Jesus, don’t you care if I drown? Are you aware of what I am going through?” What is interesting is that when Matthew and Luke tell this story in their gospels, they leave out this question about whether Jesus cared about them and their perilous situation. Matthew and Luke simply record the words of the disciples as, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” (Matthew 8:25, Luke 8:24). I’m sure that these words, and many others, were said as they shouted in fear for their lives. They were frightened, and they could not understand how or why this was happening.
Here is what a storm in your life does not mean. It does not mean that God does not love you. It does not mean that God is angry with you, or that he is paying you back for something. God is not toying with you. Sometimes the storms that happen in our lives are self-made. But many times it is just that storms happen, and trying to analyze what happened or assign blame is a fruitless activity. We live in a fallen world. And as Jesus said, “[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). In other words, good and bad happen to all. The important thing is whether or not we are prepared for them.
Jesus is with us in the storm. It you are going to be in a storm, the one person you want your boat is Jesus. Jesus could have stayed on the shore and let them take all the chances by themselves, but he did not do that. Where they went, he went.
The problem for the disciples was that he was with them, but he was asleep. It is interesting that this is the only place in all the Bible that we read of Jesus sleeping. Several times we read of him staying awake all night and praying, and we wonder how he did that. He obviously had to sleep, but this is the only recorded incident of him sleeping. It is ironic because this is a time when you would think it was impossible to sleep. The disciples wondered how he could sleep through the storm, and how he could sleep when they were in danger. They expected him to be attentive to their needs even in his sleep.
We have all been there, haven’t we? You are in the middle of a crisis and it seems like God is off somewhere taking a nap. He doesn’t seem very responsive to your need. At least we know that we are in the same boat as the disciples. But what is Jesus’ response when he is awakened? After he rebukes the storm, he rebukes his disciples. He asks them two questions: “Why are you so afraid?”, and “Do you still have no faith?”. Fear and faith are incompatible. You might expect that Jesus would be compassionate here. “Why are we so afraid?” the disciples might say. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe it was the raging storm around us, the violent pitching of the boat, the water swamping the boat so that it was starting to sink. Maybe it was that we thought we were about to drown. Just stuff like that. Don’t you think we had a right to be anxious?”
But Jesus was hoping that what they had seen him do in the past would provide a stronger faith in the future, but that was not the case. So first Jesus had to calm the storm, and then he had to calm his disciples. Has God ever done anything for you in the past? Has he solved any problems or answered any prayers? He is hoping that his faithfulness in the past will cause you to trust him in the future.
Jesus will calm the storm. At the perfect time, during the perfect storm he exercises his power over the storms of life. God is never in a hurry, and the reason he is never in a hurry is because he knows exactly what to do at exactly the right time. He does not go by our time. At just the right time, not the right time as far as the disciples were concerned, but just at right time, Jesus stood up and calmed the storm. Don’t worry, God has you in mind. He knows and understands you and your situation. He cares for you. His timing is perfect. The Bible says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). He is always watching out for us. Peter wrote, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer” (1 Peter 3:12).
It is only in the storm that we truly understand who Jesus is. I think the most amazing part of the story is the disciple’s reaction to Jesus. When Jesus asks them why they are afraid, it is the Greek word meaning fearful in the moderate sense. But when Jesus calms the storm, the Bible says, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’” (Mark 4:41). The Greek literally says ephobethesan phobon megan: “they feared with great fear.” They just thought they were afraid before. They were afraid of the storm, but they were terrified of Jesus. Their fear of the storm was nothing compared with the fear they had when they realized who it really was who was with them in the boat. It is one thing to be in the boat with someone you believe was sent from God to be a great teacher and spiritual leader. It is quite another thing to be confined in a small space with One whom you suddenly realize is the Lord of the universe. Your knees give way and you begin to tremble. You find it difficult to breathe. Your insides are shaking and you cannot stop.
It is interesting that this is the second time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus has rebuked something and said, “Be still.” The first time was in the first chapter where Mark says, “Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!’ ‘Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly. Come out of him!’” (Mark 1:23-25). And the people respond in a similar way to the disciples. They say, “What is this? . . . He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him” (Mark 1:26-27). Throughout Mark’s gospel the disciples, as well as others, keep coming to new understandings of who Jesus is, and it is always in the context of some crisis.
This is true for us as well. We keep meeting Jesus in new ways as we meet him in new crises. We don’t really understand who he is or the power he has until we see him in action. This is what Peter meant when he said, “Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
It was terrible to be blind, but the blind man could not see who Jesus was until he was healed. The deaf man could not hear Jesus until his ears were opened. The affliction of the lame man brought Jesus to his side and he was able to leap and dance so that he loved the Master and wanted to follow him. Sin had ruined Mary until Jesus delivered her and she was able to understand who he was. Doubting Thomas was devastated by the events that led to the death of Jesus. Everything seemed futile and depressing after that. But Thomas experienced Jesus in a whole new way when he saw him after the resurrection and placed his finger in Jesus’ hands and side. He fell down crying, “My Lord and my God!” It is in those crisis moments that we really understand who Jesus is. If you place your complete faith and trust in Jesus, you will have a greater understanding of him, a deeper relationship with him, and a new love for him when the storm is over. You will see his power over darkness and the depth of his love for you. Jesus is telling us to live by faith, not by fear.
In his book The Unnecessary Pastor, Eugene Peterson writes: “My two sons are both rock climbers, and I have listened to them plan their ascents [up a mountain]. They spend as much or more time planning their climbs as in the actual climbing. They meticulously plot their route and then, as they climb, put in what they call ‘protection’— pitons hammered into small crevices in the rock face, with attached ropes that will arrest a quick descent to death. Rock climbers who fail to put in protection have short climbing careers. Our pitons or ‘protection’ come as we remember and hold on to those times when we have experienced God’s faithfulness in our lives. Every answered prayer, every victory, every storm that has been calmed by his presence is a piton which keeps us from falling, losing hope, or worse yet, losing our faith. Every piton in our life is an example of God’s faithfulness to us. . . . As we ascend in the kingdom of God, we also realize that each experience, each victory is only a piton — a stepping stone toward our ultimate goal of finishing the race and receiving the crown of glory.”
Dear friends,
The Mercy Me concert is going to be held on Thursday, October 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Broome County Veterans arena. We have special tickets for the youth to attend this event. Those who would like to attend, please let us know so we can secure the tickets for our young people.
Please lift up the following needs and concerns before the Lord in prayer, for whom nothing is impossible.
Praise and prayer update:
Patsy Carmon who had a stroke has been moved to General hospital for rehabilitation.
Eleanor Skinner who has been hospitalized General hospital.
Rosemary Bowen who had surgery is home recovering.
Ryan Kerr,who is in hospice care, he is the nephew of Dr. Douglas Kerr.
Trudy Wesner who had complete knee replacement surgery. She is receiving physical therapy at home and she is doing well.
Please pray for George and Irene Dunham who are going down to Virginia to attend Irene's nephew's funeral.
Please continue to pray for Bud Lee.
Justin Brown.
Linda Ayer
Jack Black.
Rich McPherson and the prison ministry team.
Grant DeGaramo.
Don Harbecke, 52 years old is had a quadruple heart bypass in Illinois, he recovering from heart surgery. Praise the Lord.
Leslie Broughton, is going for chemo treatment.
Larry, Jane, and family.
Geraldine Okes (Betty DuBois’s sister) who is hospitalized, she had a heart attack and a stroke in Columbia, SC.
Jovita who is a recent college graduate, looking for a job.
Janice, our oldest daughter, who is going back to work today, after the birth of Simeon. She works for Healthcare for the Homeless in Boston.
Our youngest daughter Jessica, who will be finishing her assignment with the Americorps in Philadelphia in few weeks.
Pray for Cameron Tyler, (Lee and Eunice Sanford’s grandson) born 8 weeks prematurely, weighing 4 pounds, in neonatal ICU in Boston. He is doing well and becoming stronger everyday.
Pray for Kristin, Becky, Shannan - our young expecting moms.
Jane Loeffler, she is doing well now but she is still at Wilson hospital. Andy Morse, (Mary Lou Horn’s grandson). Andy is waiting for the biopsy results. He is still at Sloane Kettering in New York City.
Kim, a young mom had an emergency appendectomy yesterday. Kim is home now recovering.
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.
Pray for Jack Hoppes who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Jack had open heart surgery nine years ago.
Pray for Jim Haas who is working with FEMA in Ohio.
Pray for Eloise Tewksbury for continued healing.
Pray for Sarah Deuel who is going for back surgery next week.
Pray for Carol Crossly who is going for back surgery tomorrow morning, October 2.
Pray for Bethany Monaco, a young college student who is going for surgery today.
Pray for Dave and Linda Barton and the team that are going to Uruguay on a short term mission trip in October.
Pray for Dr. Doug Kerr and Dr. Carpenter who are going to Kenya on a short term medical mission.
The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.
Psalm 145:18,19
In Christ,
Brown
Hi Pastor Brown, Thank you so much for praying for us and for adding us to your church prayer list. That means a lot to us. Every day I get up and look for an encouraging word from you. Several I save to reread. Your words are such a blessing. We just keep reminding ourselves of how faithful God has been to us in the past. Everyday Larry comes home and still has a job, we are grateful.
Jane.
Hi Brown
I am Jan ~ a very close friend of Senie and Allans.
Will you put Andrea from Washington State on the prayer list.
She is young & has been diagnosed with breast Cancer and will start radiation and possibly chemo soon.
Love In Christ
Jan
For John Hoppes Jr
This is an update to my fathers scan that is to be done on Tuesday, 10/2/2007 at 7:45am. He likes to go by the name Jack but if you say John I know God will know who you're praying for. We ask that all stand in prayer and be saying the Name above all Names. The only Name that holds the power to Heal and Restore. God Bless You All and may God be glorified.
The following is what my Heavenly Father spoke to me today. He so delights in His children that believe Him at His word.
10/1/2007
Heavenly Father, I do love you so much. You know right now where we are all at and you meet each of us at the point of our need. You alone know what You want each of us to learn thru what is happening. You are so awesome, comforting, Mighty in power. Father, there are no words in the human language to describe You.
Lord, I need to tell You that I trust You, I believe Your word and I know You are faithful. It is I Lord that can do nothing but cling to Your promises. Father, I do believe that my faith is bigger than a mustard seed but I also want to not have doubt the size of a mustard seed, not even the size of a grain of sand. So I come to You Father and ask that You would replace any question of doubt with Your gift of supernatural faith. Lord, it is easy to see You even when it is cloudy. During the storm it is harder. I can sense Your presence but cannot always see where you are at. Help me Father to see You ever so clearly with my heart and not just my eyes. For I know when I see thru my eyes Your blessings, my faith grows and my spirit is lifted. Help us all now to believe, to stand on Your word and grow our faith so that you may say of us "blessed are you who believed before seeing". I praise You Father for Who You are, for You alone are the great I AM. May You alone be glorifed.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Brown's Daily Word 10-1-07
Good morning,
Happy first day of October. It is brilliant and beautiful here. The Autumn colors are bursting with splendor and glory. Thank you Jesus. He makes all seasons beautiful and He makes all things beautiful in Him time. I trust that you had a wonderful weekend of worship, praise and thanksgiving. I attended this weekend a conference at Sky Lake, our church's camping grounds, Friday. It was led by Dr. Walter Bruegggman. One of the sessions dealt with human anxiety and the rest the Lord offers to us. He talked about Pharaoh, who was rich and powerful, yet full of anxiety. In our modern society people live in anxiety and fear. They become consumed with the consumption of the goods and the services. They don't have time for Sabbath rest, which leads to further anxiety and deep depression. The Lord offers a wonderful prescription for our anxiety, it comes through worship and celebration. Praise the Lord for the Lord's day that we can come apart from the world before the One who has made us and redeemed us and offer to Him praise and thanksgiving. In Matthew 11:29, 30, Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." One of the passages from yesterday was taken from Luke Chapter 16:19ff. It is a story of a rich man and Lazarus. Two years ago, in a conference in Birmingham Alabama I met Erwin Lutzer who was one of the speakers. He was a former pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago. In his book “One Minute After You Die” he says, “One minute after you slip behind the parted curtain you will either be enjoying a personal welcome from Christ or catching your first glimpse of gloom as you have never known it. Either way, your future will be irrevocably fixed and eternally unchangeable…. those who find themselves in heaven will be surrounded with friends whom they have known on earth… Every description of heaven they have heard will pale in the light of reality. All this, forever. Others – indeed many others - will be shrouded in darkness, a region of deprivation, and unending regret. There, with all their memories and feeling fully intact, images of their life on earth will return to haunt them. They will think back to their friends, family and relatives; they will brood over opportunities they squandered and intuitively know that their future is both hopeless and unending. For them death will be far worse then they imagined.
And so while relatives and friends plan your funeral – deciding on a casket, a burial plot, and who the pallbearers will be – you will be more alive than you have ever been. You will either see God on His throne surrounded by His angels and redeemed humanity, or you will be feel an indescribable weight of guilt and abandonment. There is no destination midway between these two extremes; just gladness and gloom.” [ Erwin W. Lutzer. “One Minute After You Die.” (Chicago: Moody, 1997) pp. 9-10]
“What Is The First Thing That Will Happen To Us After We Die?” in Luke 16 beginning in verse nineteen we find the story of Rich man and Lazarus. Jesus tells a story that gives us a glimpse into life on the other side of death. This story is unique to the Book of Luke and is the only one where we find these characters. I have come to believe that what we have before us today is not a parable but rather I believe this story to be a real report of the fate of two very real men. Three things you will discover one minute after you die.
First, One Minute After You Die All Earthly Prosperity or Earthly Suffering is Ended. (vv. 19-21)
There is a huge contrast being drawn here between the life of the Rich Man and Lazarus. These two men have nothing in common during their lives. The Rich Man is extremely wealthy. His wardrobe is consists of only the finest clothes that money could buy. He also had a large home. The fact that he had a gate (v. 20) would likely make his home some type of mansion. The Rich man lived in luxury everyday, which tells us that he was flamboyant and flashy with his wealth. The Rich Man is assumed to be healthy because there is no mention of any kind of physical problems. Like many today he is living his life without ever thinking about what will happen when life comes to an end. It an irony that it is the Rich Man who remains the unknown in this story. His name is not mentioned for a specific reason, he is not in a relationship with God. Lazarus lived an extremely different life. He was poor beyond our ability to truly understand. Lazarus was very sick, being unable to work Lazarus was forced to become a beggar, because he had no means to support himself. He was dependent each day on what the good will of others or he would have had nothing to eat that day. We are told that he was so hungry that he was willing to eat the burnt, broken and discarded pieces of bread from the rich man’s table. Yet Lazarus was blessed in one key way, he apparently knew God. The name Lazarus means “God is my helper.” There is a direct connection between his name and the result of his eternity. The rich man and Lazarus lived totally different lives, but they had one thing in common they both died. Yet, death is not the end of existence, both Lazarus and the rich man died. At the point of physical death, the body ceases to function, but the soul and spirit of man continue to live on. At death the invisible part of who we are moves out of the body and enters into a new existence. In 2 Corinthians 5 the Bible compares this body of ours to a tent. This tent gets old and we groan as we experience pain and suffering. The longer we live the more tattered and feeble this tent becomes.
For Lazarus life had held suffering and pain but his pain and suffering were ended. For the Rich man life had been a time of abundance and ease, this too was ended. All that we are told about the beggar death is that “he died.” Nothing is said about his burial. And the fact that we are not told of his burial leads us to believe that when Lazarus died his body was probably carted away to the city dump and burned along with the trash. The rich man also died. And although we are not told so, we can imagine that he was given a glorious sent off, the finest funeral that money could buy. He would have likely had a large funeral with the best of preparations in regards to the spices, anointments and linens used to prepare his body, a nice tomb to lay his body in. That sounds much like our own day, “How many people have prepared for their funeral without preparing to die?” The rich man had lived without God in this world, so he would live without Him in the next. But not only did the rich man having no share with God, and thus lose God – forever, he lost even those things which had in this life. Not only One Minute After You Die Will All Earthly Prosperity or Earthly Suffering be Ended but….
Second, One Minute After You Die Your Eternity Will Begin! (vv. 22-23)
death is not the end; it is the beginning of a whole new existence in another world. Death is not the termination , it is the transition. When both of these men die, there is no pause in the action. There is no break in the narrative. There is no lapse of time. In fact, it would seem that the moment that these men die they instantaneously experience their eternal positions. In verse twenty-two we read, "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.” As both men died and passed through the death’s portal an amazing reversal occurred. The beggar died and angels carried him into God’s presence. Jesus tells us that as soon as Lazarus died the angels came and took him to the place where Abraham’s was. The New King James refers to this as “Abraham’s bosom,” which is simply a way of saying that he went to Heaven. It would seem clear that there is no waiting period for him to enter eternity. Lazarus was a man who had a relationship with God. When he died he was escorted by the angels into the presence of God. It would clearly seem that there was no waiting period for him to enter eternity. Lazarus lived on after he died. Death was not the end for him and there was a life that was waiting for him to enter. Lazarus moved on after he died because the angels came and took him to heaven. Lazarus carried on his new life with the comfort of heaven. The rich man also died but no angels carried him into God’s presence, a split second after he died he woke up in a terrifying place called Hell.
Not only does One Minute After You Die Your Eternity Will Begin but …
Third, One Minute After You Die Your Eternity Will Be Set Forever. (vv. 24-31)
The story tells us that there are two destinations for the soul at death; one a place of comfort and the other a place of torment. But why is the rich man in hell? A surface understanding of this parable might indicate that the rich man missed salvation because he was not generous enough with his money. But that is not the case. The real reason for his being in hell was his disregard of the word of God and his rejection of the Lord. In the story we see Abraham in Heaven. Abraham was one of the very richest men ever lived. Abraham is in Heaven, because he believed in the lord and walked by faith. Some people have an image of Hell that is not based on reality. For instance Mark Twain said, “I'll take heaven for the climate and Hell for the society.” Ted Turner once said “I'm looking forward to dying and going to hell because I know that’s where I'm headed.” People would not be so flippant about Hell if they understood the reality of it. Through the experiences of two men Jesus gives us a glimpse into Hell. It is brief but powerful enough to blow apart many of man’s misconceptions about Hell.
Hell is nothingness we will just cease to exist, hearing, seeing and feeling nothing.
C. S. Lewis was told about a gravestone inscription that read; “Here lies an atheist – all dressed up and no where to go.” Hell is a real place of conscious anguish. This man was dreaming. His hell was not on earth. He was conscious aware of his surroundings – he could feel, he could speak, experience thirst – and was in anguish. In verse twenty-four he pleads, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.” In fact, this is not the only place that the Bible uses vivid language to describe Hell. In Matthew 25:30, Jesus describes Hell as a place of
“outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Hell is also described in the Bible as a place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48). In the book of Revelation the Final Judgment is described as a “lake of fire.” In other places in Scripture, Jesus said that it would be better to have a millstone hung around your neck and thrown into the sea than to go into the unquenchable fire. (Mark 9:43). Every description of Hell is one of suffering, torment and agony. In this parable we see the word “torment” used four times, and it speaks of definite pain. Liberal Bible scholars have been telling us for decades that what the Bible says about Hell is only symbolic. R. C. Sproul points out in the chapter on Hell in his book “Essentials Truths of the Christian Faith,” “If these things are indeed symbols, then we must conclude that the reality is worse than the symbol suggests. The function of symbols is to point beyond themselves to a higher or more intense state of actuality than the symbol itself can contain. That Jesus used the most awful symbols imaginable to describe hell is no comfort to those who see them simply as symbols.[R. C. Sproul. Essentials Truths of the Christian Faith. p. 286.] Not realizing that the choices we make in this life fix our destiny in the next. (vv. 24-25) “So he called to him, ’Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.” There are no second chances after death.
Surely one of the most fearful horrors of hell is the undying memory of what could have been. Abraham responds to the rich man in verse twenty-five with the words, "But Abraham replied, ’Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. After I spend sometime in Hell I will be able to get out. (v. 26)
“And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” The gulf that could have been bridged while alive is now un-crossable. The gulf is un-crossable because Scripture makes it clear that our time on this earth is the place for personal decision: one’s eternal destiny is determined by what one does and believes on earth. There is no purgatory, no reincarnation, no chance for relief, no way out, no end, no kidding. In Hell it is too late to pray, it is too late to change your life and it is too late to repent. Hell is a place without hope. Hell won’t be so bad, I’ll be there with my buddies. (vv. 27-31). "He answered, ’Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ "Abraham replied, ’They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ ’No, father Abraham,’ he said, ’but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ "He said to him, ’If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ "We don't see the rich man reveling in fellowship with his friends, he is very much alone. He didn't say, “I'm glad my brothers will be joining me here. We'll have a wonderful time together.” In fact the rich man expresses concern for his five brothers and he asks that someone be sent back to warn them that their choices in this life have consequences in the next. Implied in the rich man’s argument is that he would have repented if a special messenger from the dead had come to him. This seems to run counter to what the exponents of the “signs and wonders movement” say today, that there can be no effective evangelism without signs and wonders. It is a reminder that the primary use of miracles in the Bible was not to convince people of the truth by replacing the Bible, but rather to confirm the truth of the Bible. He is saying that Moses and the Prophets, the word of God, was not enough. The rich man is saying, “I didn't have a fair chance. I was not sufficiently warned, otherwise I would not be here. My destiny is God’s fault not mine!” He is saying that God’s warning through his word (Moses and the prophets) was inadequate and impotent.
While this verse teaches that God will not give people supernatural signs and wonders to get them to repent. This verse also teaches that a person can avoid Hell if they listen to God’s word and repent. They have all the information they need; they just need to heed the information they have. Only one thing will prevent this man’s brothers from joining him in Hell, to hear the word of God and respond to it in faith. God has spoken in His creation. He has spoken in history. He has spoken in His word. Above all He has spoken in His Son, the writer of Hebrews (1:1-2) states, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son….” Therefore no one is without responsibility or has a valid excuse.
In Christ,
Brown
Praise and prayer update:
Patsy Carmon who had a stroke has been moved to General hospital for rehabilitation.
Eleanor Skinner who has been hospitalized General hospital.
Rosemary Bowen who had surgery is home recovering.
Ryan Kerr,who is in hospice care, he is the nephew of Dr. Douglas Kerr.
Trudy Wesner who had complete knee replacement surgery. She is home now.
Justin Brown.
Linda Ayer
Jack Black.
Rich McPherson and the prison ministry team.
Grant DeGaramo.
Don Harbecke, 52 years old is had a quadruple heart bypass in Illinois, he recovering from heart surgery. Praise the Lord.
Leslie Broughton, is going for chemo treatment.
Larry, Jane, and family.
Geraldine Okes (Betty DuBois’s sister) who is hospitalized, she had a heart attack and a stroke in Columbia, SC.
Jovita who is a recent college graduate, looking for a 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 with the Americorps in Philadelphia in few weeks.
Sunita is back in Washington.
Pray for Cameron Tyler, (Lee and Eunice Sanford’s grandson) born 8 weeks prematurely, weighing 4 pounds, in neonatal ICU in Boston. He is doing well and becoming stronger everyday.
Pray for Kristin, Becky, Shannan - our young expecting moms.
Jane Loeffler, she is doing well now but she is still at Wilson hospital. Andy Morse, (Mary Lou Horn’s grandson). Andy is waiting for the biopsy results. He is still at Sloane Kettering in New York City.
Kim, a young mom had an emergency appendectomy yesterday. Kim is home now recovering.
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.
Pray for Jack Hoppes who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Jack had open heart surgery nine years ago.
Pray for Jim Haas who is working with FEMA in Ohio.
Pray for Eloise Tewksbury for continued healing.
Pray for Sarah Deuel who is going for back surgery next week.
Pray for Carol Crossly who is going for back surgery tomorrow morning, October 2.
Pray for Bethany Monaco, a young college student who is going for surgery today.
Pray for Dave and Linda Barton and the team that are going to Uruguay on a short term mission trip in October.
Pray for Dr. Doug Kerr and Dr. Carpenter who are going to Kenya on a short term medical mission.
Plan to be in the Lord's house this Sunday to worship and celebrate, invite a friend.
The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.
Psalm 145:18,19
Happy first day of October. It is brilliant and beautiful here. The Autumn colors are bursting with splendor and glory. Thank you Jesus. He makes all seasons beautiful and He makes all things beautiful in Him time. I trust that you had a wonderful weekend of worship, praise and thanksgiving. I attended this weekend a conference at Sky Lake, our church's camping grounds, Friday. It was led by Dr. Walter Bruegggman. One of the sessions dealt with human anxiety and the rest the Lord offers to us. He talked about Pharaoh, who was rich and powerful, yet full of anxiety. In our modern society people live in anxiety and fear. They become consumed with the consumption of the goods and the services. They don't have time for Sabbath rest, which leads to further anxiety and deep depression. The Lord offers a wonderful prescription for our anxiety, it comes through worship and celebration. Praise the Lord for the Lord's day that we can come apart from the world before the One who has made us and redeemed us and offer to Him praise and thanksgiving. In Matthew 11:29, 30, Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." One of the passages from yesterday was taken from Luke Chapter 16:19ff. It is a story of a rich man and Lazarus. Two years ago, in a conference in Birmingham Alabama I met Erwin Lutzer who was one of the speakers. He was a former pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago. In his book “One Minute After You Die” he says, “One minute after you slip behind the parted curtain you will either be enjoying a personal welcome from Christ or catching your first glimpse of gloom as you have never known it. Either way, your future will be irrevocably fixed and eternally unchangeable…. those who find themselves in heaven will be surrounded with friends whom they have known on earth… Every description of heaven they have heard will pale in the light of reality. All this, forever. Others – indeed many others - will be shrouded in darkness, a region of deprivation, and unending regret. There, with all their memories and feeling fully intact, images of their life on earth will return to haunt them. They will think back to their friends, family and relatives; they will brood over opportunities they squandered and intuitively know that their future is both hopeless and unending. For them death will be far worse then they imagined.
And so while relatives and friends plan your funeral – deciding on a casket, a burial plot, and who the pallbearers will be – you will be more alive than you have ever been. You will either see God on His throne surrounded by His angels and redeemed humanity, or you will be feel an indescribable weight of guilt and abandonment. There is no destination midway between these two extremes; just gladness and gloom.” [ Erwin W. Lutzer. “One Minute After You Die.” (Chicago: Moody, 1997) pp. 9-10]
“What Is The First Thing That Will Happen To Us After We Die?” in Luke 16 beginning in verse nineteen we find the story of Rich man and Lazarus. Jesus tells a story that gives us a glimpse into life on the other side of death. This story is unique to the Book of Luke and is the only one where we find these characters. I have come to believe that what we have before us today is not a parable but rather I believe this story to be a real report of the fate of two very real men. Three things you will discover one minute after you die.
First, One Minute After You Die All Earthly Prosperity or Earthly Suffering is Ended. (vv. 19-21)
There is a huge contrast being drawn here between the life of the Rich Man and Lazarus. These two men have nothing in common during their lives. The Rich Man is extremely wealthy. His wardrobe is consists of only the finest clothes that money could buy. He also had a large home. The fact that he had a gate (v. 20) would likely make his home some type of mansion. The Rich man lived in luxury everyday, which tells us that he was flamboyant and flashy with his wealth. The Rich Man is assumed to be healthy because there is no mention of any kind of physical problems. Like many today he is living his life without ever thinking about what will happen when life comes to an end. It an irony that it is the Rich Man who remains the unknown in this story. His name is not mentioned for a specific reason, he is not in a relationship with God. Lazarus lived an extremely different life. He was poor beyond our ability to truly understand. Lazarus was very sick, being unable to work Lazarus was forced to become a beggar, because he had no means to support himself. He was dependent each day on what the good will of others or he would have had nothing to eat that day. We are told that he was so hungry that he was willing to eat the burnt, broken and discarded pieces of bread from the rich man’s table. Yet Lazarus was blessed in one key way, he apparently knew God. The name Lazarus means “God is my helper.” There is a direct connection between his name and the result of his eternity. The rich man and Lazarus lived totally different lives, but they had one thing in common they both died. Yet, death is not the end of existence, both Lazarus and the rich man died. At the point of physical death, the body ceases to function, but the soul and spirit of man continue to live on. At death the invisible part of who we are moves out of the body and enters into a new existence. In 2 Corinthians 5 the Bible compares this body of ours to a tent. This tent gets old and we groan as we experience pain and suffering. The longer we live the more tattered and feeble this tent becomes.
For Lazarus life had held suffering and pain but his pain and suffering were ended. For the Rich man life had been a time of abundance and ease, this too was ended. All that we are told about the beggar death is that “he died.” Nothing is said about his burial. And the fact that we are not told of his burial leads us to believe that when Lazarus died his body was probably carted away to the city dump and burned along with the trash. The rich man also died. And although we are not told so, we can imagine that he was given a glorious sent off, the finest funeral that money could buy. He would have likely had a large funeral with the best of preparations in regards to the spices, anointments and linens used to prepare his body, a nice tomb to lay his body in. That sounds much like our own day, “How many people have prepared for their funeral without preparing to die?” The rich man had lived without God in this world, so he would live without Him in the next. But not only did the rich man having no share with God, and thus lose God – forever, he lost even those things which had in this life. Not only One Minute After You Die Will All Earthly Prosperity or Earthly Suffering be Ended but….
Second, One Minute After You Die Your Eternity Will Begin! (vv. 22-23)
death is not the end; it is the beginning of a whole new existence in another world. Death is not the termination , it is the transition. When both of these men die, there is no pause in the action. There is no break in the narrative. There is no lapse of time. In fact, it would seem that the moment that these men die they instantaneously experience their eternal positions. In verse twenty-two we read, "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.” As both men died and passed through the death’s portal an amazing reversal occurred. The beggar died and angels carried him into God’s presence. Jesus tells us that as soon as Lazarus died the angels came and took him to the place where Abraham’s was. The New King James refers to this as “Abraham’s bosom,” which is simply a way of saying that he went to Heaven. It would seem clear that there is no waiting period for him to enter eternity. Lazarus was a man who had a relationship with God. When he died he was escorted by the angels into the presence of God. It would clearly seem that there was no waiting period for him to enter eternity. Lazarus lived on after he died. Death was not the end for him and there was a life that was waiting for him to enter. Lazarus moved on after he died because the angels came and took him to heaven. Lazarus carried on his new life with the comfort of heaven. The rich man also died but no angels carried him into God’s presence, a split second after he died he woke up in a terrifying place called Hell.
Not only does One Minute After You Die Your Eternity Will Begin but …
Third, One Minute After You Die Your Eternity Will Be Set Forever. (vv. 24-31)
The story tells us that there are two destinations for the soul at death; one a place of comfort and the other a place of torment. But why is the rich man in hell? A surface understanding of this parable might indicate that the rich man missed salvation because he was not generous enough with his money. But that is not the case. The real reason for his being in hell was his disregard of the word of God and his rejection of the Lord. In the story we see Abraham in Heaven. Abraham was one of the very richest men ever lived. Abraham is in Heaven, because he believed in the lord and walked by faith. Some people have an image of Hell that is not based on reality. For instance Mark Twain said, “I'll take heaven for the climate and Hell for the society.” Ted Turner once said “I'm looking forward to dying and going to hell because I know that’s where I'm headed.” People would not be so flippant about Hell if they understood the reality of it. Through the experiences of two men Jesus gives us a glimpse into Hell. It is brief but powerful enough to blow apart many of man’s misconceptions about Hell.
Hell is nothingness we will just cease to exist, hearing, seeing and feeling nothing.
C. S. Lewis was told about a gravestone inscription that read; “Here lies an atheist – all dressed up and no where to go.” Hell is a real place of conscious anguish. This man was dreaming. His hell was not on earth. He was conscious aware of his surroundings – he could feel, he could speak, experience thirst – and was in anguish. In verse twenty-four he pleads, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.” In fact, this is not the only place that the Bible uses vivid language to describe Hell. In Matthew 25:30, Jesus describes Hell as a place of
“outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Hell is also described in the Bible as a place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48). In the book of Revelation the Final Judgment is described as a “lake of fire.” In other places in Scripture, Jesus said that it would be better to have a millstone hung around your neck and thrown into the sea than to go into the unquenchable fire. (Mark 9:43). Every description of Hell is one of suffering, torment and agony. In this parable we see the word “torment” used four times, and it speaks of definite pain. Liberal Bible scholars have been telling us for decades that what the Bible says about Hell is only symbolic. R. C. Sproul points out in the chapter on Hell in his book “Essentials Truths of the Christian Faith,” “If these things are indeed symbols, then we must conclude that the reality is worse than the symbol suggests. The function of symbols is to point beyond themselves to a higher or more intense state of actuality than the symbol itself can contain. That Jesus used the most awful symbols imaginable to describe hell is no comfort to those who see them simply as symbols.[R. C. Sproul. Essentials Truths of the Christian Faith. p. 286.] Not realizing that the choices we make in this life fix our destiny in the next. (vv. 24-25) “So he called to him, ’Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.” There are no second chances after death.
Surely one of the most fearful horrors of hell is the undying memory of what could have been. Abraham responds to the rich man in verse twenty-five with the words, "But Abraham replied, ’Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. After I spend sometime in Hell I will be able to get out. (v. 26)
“And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” The gulf that could have been bridged while alive is now un-crossable. The gulf is un-crossable because Scripture makes it clear that our time on this earth is the place for personal decision: one’s eternal destiny is determined by what one does and believes on earth. There is no purgatory, no reincarnation, no chance for relief, no way out, no end, no kidding. In Hell it is too late to pray, it is too late to change your life and it is too late to repent. Hell is a place without hope. Hell won’t be so bad, I’ll be there with my buddies. (vv. 27-31). "He answered, ’Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ "Abraham replied, ’They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ ’No, father Abraham,’ he said, ’but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ "He said to him, ’If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ "We don't see the rich man reveling in fellowship with his friends, he is very much alone. He didn't say, “I'm glad my brothers will be joining me here. We'll have a wonderful time together.” In fact the rich man expresses concern for his five brothers and he asks that someone be sent back to warn them that their choices in this life have consequences in the next. Implied in the rich man’s argument is that he would have repented if a special messenger from the dead had come to him. This seems to run counter to what the exponents of the “signs and wonders movement” say today, that there can be no effective evangelism without signs and wonders. It is a reminder that the primary use of miracles in the Bible was not to convince people of the truth by replacing the Bible, but rather to confirm the truth of the Bible. He is saying that Moses and the Prophets, the word of God, was not enough. The rich man is saying, “I didn't have a fair chance. I was not sufficiently warned, otherwise I would not be here. My destiny is God’s fault not mine!” He is saying that God’s warning through his word (Moses and the prophets) was inadequate and impotent.
While this verse teaches that God will not give people supernatural signs and wonders to get them to repent. This verse also teaches that a person can avoid Hell if they listen to God’s word and repent. They have all the information they need; they just need to heed the information they have. Only one thing will prevent this man’s brothers from joining him in Hell, to hear the word of God and respond to it in faith. God has spoken in His creation. He has spoken in history. He has spoken in His word. Above all He has spoken in His Son, the writer of Hebrews (1:1-2) states, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son….” Therefore no one is without responsibility or has a valid excuse.
In Christ,
Brown
Praise and prayer update:
Patsy Carmon who had a stroke has been moved to General hospital for rehabilitation.
Eleanor Skinner who has been hospitalized General hospital.
Rosemary Bowen who had surgery is home recovering.
Ryan Kerr,who is in hospice care, he is the nephew of Dr. Douglas Kerr.
Trudy Wesner who had complete knee replacement surgery. She is home now.
Justin Brown.
Linda Ayer
Jack Black.
Rich McPherson and the prison ministry team.
Grant DeGaramo.
Don Harbecke, 52 years old is had a quadruple heart bypass in Illinois, he recovering from heart surgery. Praise the Lord.
Leslie Broughton, is going for chemo treatment.
Larry, Jane, and family.
Geraldine Okes (Betty DuBois’s sister) who is hospitalized, she had a heart attack and a stroke in Columbia, SC.
Jovita who is a recent college graduate, looking for a 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 with the Americorps in Philadelphia in few weeks.
Sunita is back in Washington.
Pray for Cameron Tyler, (Lee and Eunice Sanford’s grandson) born 8 weeks prematurely, weighing 4 pounds, in neonatal ICU in Boston. He is doing well and becoming stronger everyday.
Pray for Kristin, Becky, Shannan - our young expecting moms.
Jane Loeffler, she is doing well now but she is still at Wilson hospital. Andy Morse, (Mary Lou Horn’s grandson). Andy is waiting for the biopsy results. He is still at Sloane Kettering in New York City.
Kim, a young mom had an emergency appendectomy yesterday. Kim is home now recovering.
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.
Pray for Jack Hoppes who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Jack had open heart surgery nine years ago.
Pray for Jim Haas who is working with FEMA in Ohio.
Pray for Eloise Tewksbury for continued healing.
Pray for Sarah Deuel who is going for back surgery next week.
Pray for Carol Crossly who is going for back surgery tomorrow morning, October 2.
Pray for Bethany Monaco, a young college student who is going for surgery today.
Pray for Dave and Linda Barton and the team that are going to Uruguay on a short term mission trip in October.
Pray for Dr. Doug Kerr and Dr. Carpenter who are going to Kenya on a short term medical mission.
Plan to be in the Lord's house this Sunday to worship and celebrate, invite a friend.
The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.
Psalm 145:18,19
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