Good Morning.
Praise the way the Lord of the time reminds us to number our days. On Thursday of this week I will be conducting a funeral service for a man who died early part of this week. He was 49 years old. Also, a sixth grader from one of our local schools died a tragic death this past week. The Lord reminds us to lay up our treasures in a place where they are beyond decay and corruption. In Luke 12:32-40, the Lord is asking us, "Where Is Your Treasure?"
Long ago, in a kingdom far, far away, a rich king hired a “fool” to entertain him and make him laugh when he was sad. He gave the fool a golden scepter and told him that when he met a greater fool than he, to pass the golden scepter to that person. Years passed and one day the king grew very ill. As he neared death, the king called for his “fool”, wanting to be made to laugh one last time. “I'm going on a very long journey,” said the king to the fool. “Have you made preparations and arranged for accommodations at your destination?” asked the fool. “No,” answered the king. “I’ve been too busy and I didn’t think I would be leaving so soon.” The fool handed the king his golden scepter and said, “Sire, you are a greater fool than I since you have made no plans for your long journey.”
The story leads me to ask you - are you a fool? How big a fool are you? Have you made preparations for your journey? Do you even know where you are going?
In verses Luke 12:32-33, Jesus gives instructions on the attitude a Christian should have toward treasures, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Verses 34-38, "Some people live as if there will be no tomorrow. Live it up and do it all today! "
We all know that when the boss isn’t around, and no one else is around, people tend to goof off on the job! A recent email circulated sharing excuses people used when caught with their head down taking a nap. A few of my favorites are: “I was just resting my eyes for a moment.” --- “I think best with my eyes closed.” --- The number 1 best thing to say is, “in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.”
Contemporary Christians have become complacent. There excuses include, "Jesus hasn’t returned yet, so maybe we have a few more days. . . Besides, that’s why we have the pastor. . . He’s supposed to be watching and warn us".
While touring Europe a tourist visited a lovely estate in Italy. He admired the beautiful garden and, encountering the gardener, he said, “You’ve done a beautiful job. How long have you worked here?” "Twenty-five years", came the answer. “How often has the owner been to this estate?” "Four times", came the response. The tourist continued to inquire, “When was he here last?” The gardener replied, "Twelve years ago, sir". The fascinated tourist continued, “You keep the garden so lovely one would assume you were expecting the owner tomorrow.” Thoughtfully, the gardener said, “Today, sir, today!”
In Verses 39 – 40, The gardener couldn’t let the weeding and planting go until he "heard the owner’s car in the driveway". He had no way of knowing when he would arrive. “The Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
In her book, “Favorite Stories,” by Heather A. Hannam, she quotes Oswald Chambers as saying, “God does not call us to be successful, only faithful.”
We tend to worry about all the “what ifs”, such as --- What if our money doesn’t last until the next paycheck?; What if I get laid off?; What if my marriage is on the rocks?; What if my kids get caught up in drugs?; What if I died tomorrow?; WHAT IF!?
God has promised through Christ to care for us, to redeem us, to provide for us. Yet, you and I want to rely on ourselves. We want to be assured that things will turn out the way we want, when we want.
God’s question on the last day will not be, “How much were you noticed?” or “How much did you do?” or “How much did you give?” God’s question to each of us will be, “Were you faithful in fulfilling your calling where I placed you?” He will ask if we were faithful not just once in a while, not just when we were younger, but throughout our entire life. We need to live as if we will stand before the Lord today.
In Christ,
Brown
A father wanted to read the paper, but was being bothered by his little
daughter, Vanessa. Finally, he tore a sheet out of his magazine, on
which was printed the map of the world. Tearing it into small pieces, he
gave it to Vanessa, and said, "Go into the other room and see if you can
put this together."
After a few minutes, Vanessa returned and handed him the map correctly
fitted together. The father was surprised and asked how she had
finished so quickly.
"Oh," she said, "on the other side of the paper was a picture of Jesus.
When I got Jesus in His place, then the world came out all right."
three boys were talking about their fathers exelence. One of them said:my father is a great professor. When he is talking about a subject, only 10 persons in the world can understand him!The second boy said: my father is great brain surgeon, when he is talking about his surgery only 5 person in the whole world can realize what he is saying.The third boy said:my father is a pastor, when he is preaching nobody can understand what he is saying.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 2-26-08
Good Morning,
The Gospel Reading for last Sunday, was taken from John 4. This devotion is part of the Message that I preached last Sunday on the Samaritan woman at the well who met Jesus. Jesus entered into a deep conversation with her and invited her to trust in Him as the Lord and Savior. Her life was changed dramatically.
No doubt most of you have seen or heard of a Julia Roberts movie by the name of “Pretty Woman”. It is the story of young prostitute that meets her Prince Charming and is taken out of her horrific surroundings and her entire life changes just because she had the opportunity to meet this man and to trust him and his genuine love for her. Once he came into her life everything began to change. Her dress changed, her looks changed, her character changed, gradually her whole life changed all because of this one meeting.
When you put Christ in your life and in your heart you will also begin to see your whole life transformed. Charles Swindoll, in his book "Growing Deep in the Christian Life", tells the true story of a man who bought fried chicken dinners for himself and his girlfriend to enjoy on a picnic one afternoon. He was in for a big surprise because the person behind the counter mistakenly gave him the wrong paper bag. Earlier the manager had taken the money from the cash registers and placed it in an ordinary bag, hoping to disguise it on his way to the bank. But when the person working the cash register went to give the man his order, he grabbed the bag full of money instead of the bag full of chicken. Swindoll says, “After driving to their picnic site, the two of them sat down to enjoy some chicken. They discovered a whole lot more than chicken — over $800! But he was unusual. He quickly put the money back in the bag. They got back into the car and drove all the way back. Mr. Clean got out, walked in, and became an instant hero. By then, the manager was frantic. The guy with the bag of money looked the manager in the eye and said, ‘I want you to know I came by to get a couple of chicken dinners and wound up with all this money here.’ Well, the manager was thrilled to death. He said, ‘Let me call the newspaper. I’m gonna have your picture put in the local paper. You’re one of the most honest men I’ve ever heard of.’ To which the man quickly responded, ‘Oh, no. No, no, don’t do that!’ Then he leaned closer and whispered, ‘You see, the woman I’m with is not my wife. She’s, uh, somebody else’s wife.’” Swindoll closes the story by saying, “Harder to find than lost cash is a perfect heart.”
Unfortunately, these stories are all too common in a culture which has lost its moral foundation. How did we get to this place when Jesus Christ, the center of our faith, was ruthlessly clear and truthful? Whenever people confronted him, they were often stripped of their pretenses and made vulnerable by the truth with which he confronted them. Some of those individuals ran from the truth, others were staggered by it, and still others embraced it, difficult as it was. But people were always confronted by the truth. They had to face the truth about themselves and the reality of who Christ was.
That was the case with the woman Jesus encountered by the well in Samaria, I believe it teaches that when Jesus encounters us, the first thing that happens is: We are confronted with the truth about who we are. The truth this woman was forced to see was not very pleasant. She liked men, and if there had been a men’s magazine she would have posed for it. Her moral life was the joke of the community. She seemed to lack any moral sense, let alone an understanding of what was appropriate. She defended herself and discredited herself at the same time. And there was always someone to take advantage of her weakness.
When Jesus offered her water from the well of living water, she didn’t understand what he was saying. She misinterpreted what Jesus meant when he said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). She foolishly replied, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” She thought that since Jesus was a stranger she could pretend to be someone she was not, but Jesus quickly unmasked her pretense by saying, “Go, call your husband and come back.” Now her disguise began to unravel, and her true self was laid bare. She said to Jesus, “I have no husband.” He said, “The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true” (John 4:18).
Jesus knew the truth about her, and forced her to see and admit the truth about herself. But that is the way it is when we come into contact with God. Suddenly His light shines on us and reveals the truth about us, and we understand that he sees us as we really are. When the real us is exposed by God, we have to admit the truth.
Our natural tendency is to cover up and conceal the truth. We hide the truth from ourselves and others. We put on our mask and go about our make-believe world. We play the pretender, just as the woman at the well did with Jesus. She presented another self to Jesus, the one she wanted him to see, and tried to hide her true self from Him. that is, until he removed her mask by confronting her with the truth, and made it impossible to be an imposter any longer. Yet, what was just as unnerving was that when she realized Jesus saw the real her, she did not feel in any way condemned. Jesus saw through her facade. He knew all about her sin — and he loved her in spite of it. She felt his pure love for her because she was drawn to him. If she had felt condemned by his words she would have left him, but after she encountered Jesus, she went to the others in her town and said, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:28-29).
Jesus revealed the complete truth about her and completely accepted her at the same time. The saving factor in this woman’s life was that she did not deny the truth. If that had happened, it would have been the beginning of the end of her relationship with Jesus. Jesus will forgive our sin, but only if we face it and admit it. He will not tolerate our deceitfulness. He will not allow us to play the imposter. The truth must be understood and owned. It is through truth that we experience the love of God.
We do not find God by pointing out our strengths, but by admitting our weaknesses. “Wholeness is brokenness owned and thereby healed.” Wholeness is not the absence of brokenness. Wholeness is facing the truth of our brokenness and finding healing in that act of honesty. It’s denial and dishonesty that give sin its power. It is in trying to hide our sin and push it down that it has the most power to exert itself in our lives. Admitting who we are and what we have done seems frightening, but in reality it is freeing. There is no other way to find God.
But the second thing we learn when Jesus encounters us is that we are confronted with the truth about who He is. When Jesus revealed the truth about her, this woman realized that He must have had some kind of supernatural ability. They had only spoken a few words and He saw right through her. She assumed that He was a prophet or something, so she asked him a religious question. This is always a good technique for getting the spotlight off of yourself and onto something more comfortable, even if it is controversial. There was a running argument between the Jews and Samaritans about where the real place of worship should be, whether on Mt. Zion, the mountain in Jerusalem where the temple had been built, or Mt. Gerizim, the sacred mountain in Samaria. She was trying to turn the spotlight off herself, but when she did, she encountered another truth that was just as difficult for her as the truth about herself — she came face to face with who Jesus really was. She wanted to argue religion, but Jesus wanted her to face reality. She learned that the great question of faith is not about mountains or doctrines, but it is the truth about who Jesus Christ really is.
Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-24). What was this truth which Jesus spoke about? She was about to find out, and the truth would be shocking. She said to Jesus, “I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am He” (John 4:25-26).
This is so amazing because Jesus’ method of confronting this woman would be scorned in our present day, when no one is believed to be really right or really wrong. We say, “Everyone has his own truth, and we should respect that by not trying to change the way he thinks or believes.” Our culture asserts that truth is whatever you sincerely believe in.
Jesus did not affirm the woman’s error; he pointed her to the truth. He bluntly told her that the Samaritans were worshiping what they did not know. He told her that everything she had believed all her life had been wrong. He said, “Salvation is from the Jews.” She was uncomfortable and thought she would change the subject again. She came over to his side a bit, being familiar with Jewish beliefs, and said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When He comes He will explain everything to us.” Again, Jesus confronted her with a searing truth that began to burn its way into her brain. He said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” He proclaimed that He was Himself the Messiah, the Son of God, the One promised in the Scriptures. She had assumed that He was merely a prophet, but He proclaimed that He was the living God who had come to earth in human form to confront the world with the truth.
There are some people today, even in our Christian circles, who believe that we should not interfere with the belief systems of people in other cultures. We should not try to convert them; we should respect their beliefs. But let me ask a question. If you went into a country where people were dying because they were relying on witch doctors and magical spells, would you be reluctant to bring them a real physician, if you could, who would actually cure them? Would you respect their belief system, or would you try to save them by bringing them into contact with the truth? Certainly, it is no less important when we are talking about people’s eternal welfare. If we really believe that people are lost without Christ, then we ought to witness to the truth out of concern for their future in eternity. If the truth is at all important, then we should be concerned about error.
Jesus was concerned about the false way this woman was living and the false way she was believing. He lovingly confronted her with the truth, and then let her decide what to do with it. Herein lies the final point. When Jesus encounters us, we are confronted with the responsibility to act on the truth. We are almost surprised by this woman’s reaction. She had seemed silly and shallow, but she responded to the truth with which Jesus confronted her, while many of the religious leaders rejected it. She, who had no education or religious training, opened her heart to Jesus though the religious leaders in Jerusalem who were scholars in the Scriptures which spoke of Jesus, remained closed to him.
It is interesting that the Bible says, “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:28-29). She left her water jar — either because she was so overtaken by what she had experienced that she forgot it, or because she knew she was coming back. Either way, she left Jesus unceremoniously and without explanation, but she was a woman on a mission. She was going to find other people and tell them about the truth she had discovered. She had become honest now about all the things she has done, and so she told the people in town that Jesus told her everything she ever did. She wanted to tell others about the great Truth she has discovered. She wanted to tell them about Jesus.
Then the Bible says, “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. Because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.’” (John 4:39-42). When these people were confronted with the truth, they responded to the truth.
Winston Churchill once said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” Yet, how we respond to truth determines the direction of our lives. It will determine the quality of our lives and the destiny of our eternal soul. In the end, truth will triumph for, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn remarked, “One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.”
In His Truth and Grace,
Brown
A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDICINE:
"Doctor, I have an ear ache."
2000 BC - "Here, eat this root."
1000 BC - "That root is heathen, say this prayer."
1850 AD - "That prayer is superstition, drink this potion."
1940 AD - "That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill."
1985 AD - "That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic."
2001 AD - "That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why do we have a leap year (as in this year) and why is it in February?
The issue of leap year and the weirdness of February is always worth looking at because, coming so infrequently, who can remember the explanation for it from the last time?
The earth revolves around the sun every 365.24 days, not an even 365. That produces an extra day's worth of hours every four years. We could distribute them as a bonus to everyone--a one-day time-out every fourth year in which the clock is stopped and we stay in bed all day. But we don't. Instead we add an extra day onto February.
Why February? It was originally the last month on the Roman calendar and a logical place to stick the extra day. But Julius Caesar changed the first month to January, stranding February and its little peculiarity in the second spot.
The Gospel Reading for last Sunday, was taken from John 4. This devotion is part of the Message that I preached last Sunday on the Samaritan woman at the well who met Jesus. Jesus entered into a deep conversation with her and invited her to trust in Him as the Lord and Savior. Her life was changed dramatically.
No doubt most of you have seen or heard of a Julia Roberts movie by the name of “Pretty Woman”. It is the story of young prostitute that meets her Prince Charming and is taken out of her horrific surroundings and her entire life changes just because she had the opportunity to meet this man and to trust him and his genuine love for her. Once he came into her life everything began to change. Her dress changed, her looks changed, her character changed, gradually her whole life changed all because of this one meeting.
When you put Christ in your life and in your heart you will also begin to see your whole life transformed. Charles Swindoll, in his book "Growing Deep in the Christian Life", tells the true story of a man who bought fried chicken dinners for himself and his girlfriend to enjoy on a picnic one afternoon. He was in for a big surprise because the person behind the counter mistakenly gave him the wrong paper bag. Earlier the manager had taken the money from the cash registers and placed it in an ordinary bag, hoping to disguise it on his way to the bank. But when the person working the cash register went to give the man his order, he grabbed the bag full of money instead of the bag full of chicken. Swindoll says, “After driving to their picnic site, the two of them sat down to enjoy some chicken. They discovered a whole lot more than chicken — over $800! But he was unusual. He quickly put the money back in the bag. They got back into the car and drove all the way back. Mr. Clean got out, walked in, and became an instant hero. By then, the manager was frantic. The guy with the bag of money looked the manager in the eye and said, ‘I want you to know I came by to get a couple of chicken dinners and wound up with all this money here.’ Well, the manager was thrilled to death. He said, ‘Let me call the newspaper. I’m gonna have your picture put in the local paper. You’re one of the most honest men I’ve ever heard of.’ To which the man quickly responded, ‘Oh, no. No, no, don’t do that!’ Then he leaned closer and whispered, ‘You see, the woman I’m with is not my wife. She’s, uh, somebody else’s wife.’” Swindoll closes the story by saying, “Harder to find than lost cash is a perfect heart.”
Unfortunately, these stories are all too common in a culture which has lost its moral foundation. How did we get to this place when Jesus Christ, the center of our faith, was ruthlessly clear and truthful? Whenever people confronted him, they were often stripped of their pretenses and made vulnerable by the truth with which he confronted them. Some of those individuals ran from the truth, others were staggered by it, and still others embraced it, difficult as it was. But people were always confronted by the truth. They had to face the truth about themselves and the reality of who Christ was.
That was the case with the woman Jesus encountered by the well in Samaria, I believe it teaches that when Jesus encounters us, the first thing that happens is: We are confronted with the truth about who we are. The truth this woman was forced to see was not very pleasant. She liked men, and if there had been a men’s magazine she would have posed for it. Her moral life was the joke of the community. She seemed to lack any moral sense, let alone an understanding of what was appropriate. She defended herself and discredited herself at the same time. And there was always someone to take advantage of her weakness.
When Jesus offered her water from the well of living water, she didn’t understand what he was saying. She misinterpreted what Jesus meant when he said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). She foolishly replied, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” She thought that since Jesus was a stranger she could pretend to be someone she was not, but Jesus quickly unmasked her pretense by saying, “Go, call your husband and come back.” Now her disguise began to unravel, and her true self was laid bare. She said to Jesus, “I have no husband.” He said, “The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true” (John 4:18).
Jesus knew the truth about her, and forced her to see and admit the truth about herself. But that is the way it is when we come into contact with God. Suddenly His light shines on us and reveals the truth about us, and we understand that he sees us as we really are. When the real us is exposed by God, we have to admit the truth.
Our natural tendency is to cover up and conceal the truth. We hide the truth from ourselves and others. We put on our mask and go about our make-believe world. We play the pretender, just as the woman at the well did with Jesus. She presented another self to Jesus, the one she wanted him to see, and tried to hide her true self from Him. that is, until he removed her mask by confronting her with the truth, and made it impossible to be an imposter any longer. Yet, what was just as unnerving was that when she realized Jesus saw the real her, she did not feel in any way condemned. Jesus saw through her facade. He knew all about her sin — and he loved her in spite of it. She felt his pure love for her because she was drawn to him. If she had felt condemned by his words she would have left him, but after she encountered Jesus, she went to the others in her town and said, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:28-29).
Jesus revealed the complete truth about her and completely accepted her at the same time. The saving factor in this woman’s life was that she did not deny the truth. If that had happened, it would have been the beginning of the end of her relationship with Jesus. Jesus will forgive our sin, but only if we face it and admit it. He will not tolerate our deceitfulness. He will not allow us to play the imposter. The truth must be understood and owned. It is through truth that we experience the love of God.
We do not find God by pointing out our strengths, but by admitting our weaknesses. “Wholeness is brokenness owned and thereby healed.” Wholeness is not the absence of brokenness. Wholeness is facing the truth of our brokenness and finding healing in that act of honesty. It’s denial and dishonesty that give sin its power. It is in trying to hide our sin and push it down that it has the most power to exert itself in our lives. Admitting who we are and what we have done seems frightening, but in reality it is freeing. There is no other way to find God.
But the second thing we learn when Jesus encounters us is that we are confronted with the truth about who He is. When Jesus revealed the truth about her, this woman realized that He must have had some kind of supernatural ability. They had only spoken a few words and He saw right through her. She assumed that He was a prophet or something, so she asked him a religious question. This is always a good technique for getting the spotlight off of yourself and onto something more comfortable, even if it is controversial. There was a running argument between the Jews and Samaritans about where the real place of worship should be, whether on Mt. Zion, the mountain in Jerusalem where the temple had been built, or Mt. Gerizim, the sacred mountain in Samaria. She was trying to turn the spotlight off herself, but when she did, she encountered another truth that was just as difficult for her as the truth about herself — she came face to face with who Jesus really was. She wanted to argue religion, but Jesus wanted her to face reality. She learned that the great question of faith is not about mountains or doctrines, but it is the truth about who Jesus Christ really is.
Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-24). What was this truth which Jesus spoke about? She was about to find out, and the truth would be shocking. She said to Jesus, “I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am He” (John 4:25-26).
This is so amazing because Jesus’ method of confronting this woman would be scorned in our present day, when no one is believed to be really right or really wrong. We say, “Everyone has his own truth, and we should respect that by not trying to change the way he thinks or believes.” Our culture asserts that truth is whatever you sincerely believe in.
Jesus did not affirm the woman’s error; he pointed her to the truth. He bluntly told her that the Samaritans were worshiping what they did not know. He told her that everything she had believed all her life had been wrong. He said, “Salvation is from the Jews.” She was uncomfortable and thought she would change the subject again. She came over to his side a bit, being familiar with Jewish beliefs, and said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When He comes He will explain everything to us.” Again, Jesus confronted her with a searing truth that began to burn its way into her brain. He said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” He proclaimed that He was Himself the Messiah, the Son of God, the One promised in the Scriptures. She had assumed that He was merely a prophet, but He proclaimed that He was the living God who had come to earth in human form to confront the world with the truth.
There are some people today, even in our Christian circles, who believe that we should not interfere with the belief systems of people in other cultures. We should not try to convert them; we should respect their beliefs. But let me ask a question. If you went into a country where people were dying because they were relying on witch doctors and magical spells, would you be reluctant to bring them a real physician, if you could, who would actually cure them? Would you respect their belief system, or would you try to save them by bringing them into contact with the truth? Certainly, it is no less important when we are talking about people’s eternal welfare. If we really believe that people are lost without Christ, then we ought to witness to the truth out of concern for their future in eternity. If the truth is at all important, then we should be concerned about error.
Jesus was concerned about the false way this woman was living and the false way she was believing. He lovingly confronted her with the truth, and then let her decide what to do with it. Herein lies the final point. When Jesus encounters us, we are confronted with the responsibility to act on the truth. We are almost surprised by this woman’s reaction. She had seemed silly and shallow, but she responded to the truth with which Jesus confronted her, while many of the religious leaders rejected it. She, who had no education or religious training, opened her heart to Jesus though the religious leaders in Jerusalem who were scholars in the Scriptures which spoke of Jesus, remained closed to him.
It is interesting that the Bible says, “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:28-29). She left her water jar — either because she was so overtaken by what she had experienced that she forgot it, or because she knew she was coming back. Either way, she left Jesus unceremoniously and without explanation, but she was a woman on a mission. She was going to find other people and tell them about the truth she had discovered. She had become honest now about all the things she has done, and so she told the people in town that Jesus told her everything she ever did. She wanted to tell others about the great Truth she has discovered. She wanted to tell them about Jesus.
Then the Bible says, “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. Because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.’” (John 4:39-42). When these people were confronted with the truth, they responded to the truth.
Winston Churchill once said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” Yet, how we respond to truth determines the direction of our lives. It will determine the quality of our lives and the destiny of our eternal soul. In the end, truth will triumph for, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn remarked, “One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.”
In His Truth and Grace,
Brown
A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDICINE:
"Doctor, I have an ear ache."
2000 BC - "Here, eat this root."
1000 BC - "That root is heathen, say this prayer."
1850 AD - "That prayer is superstition, drink this potion."
1940 AD - "That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill."
1985 AD - "That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic."
2001 AD - "That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why do we have a leap year (as in this year) and why is it in February?
The issue of leap year and the weirdness of February is always worth looking at because, coming so infrequently, who can remember the explanation for it from the last time?
The earth revolves around the sun every 365.24 days, not an even 365. That produces an extra day's worth of hours every four years. We could distribute them as a bonus to everyone--a one-day time-out every fourth year in which the clock is stopped and we stay in bed all day. But we don't. Instead we add an extra day onto February.
Why February? It was originally the last month on the Roman calendar and a logical place to stick the extra day. But Julius Caesar changed the first month to January, stranding February and its little peculiarity in the second spot.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 2-25-08
Good morning,
Praise the Lord, for He redeems us and sends us into the world to serve Him, to witness for Him, and to demonstrate our love for Him. Praise the Lord, for He equips us to serve Him with the talents, the treasures, and the time that He bestows upon us.
We had a wonderful weekend. The Jeremiah People ministered to us this past Saturday through music and drama, in a musical centered on the personal relationships, interactions, communications (or lack thereof) and temptations faced by every family. The presentation, the music, and the message were powerful and provocative. It was intense and inspiring. We are blessed indeed to be able to have such a gifted and talented troupe of musicians/actors/dancers with us.
The Lord also blessed us in worship yesterday. Indeed, "Better is one day in His house than a thousand elsewhere". As our Lord and Savior journeyed to Jerusalem, He blessed people on the way, bringing change and transformation. He demonstrated His mighty deeds, along with signs and wonders. We are also given glimpses of how ordinary people demonstrated their love for Him. In John 12:1-12:8 we encounter Mary, who exhibited extravagant love towards Her Savior and Lord. As her alabaster flask was "Broken and Spilled out", so was her heart, her life, and her love. Jesus' love and grace is reckless, and even relentless, toward us. Mary, saved by grace poured her love out to Jesus in a very demonstrative way.
I heard a song, “What I Did For Love” from a famous Broadway musical, "A Chorus Line". These are the words: “Kiss today goodbye, the sweetness and the sorrow. Wish me luck, the same to you. But I can’t regret what I did for love, what I did for love. Look my eyes are dry. The gift was ours to borrow. It’s as if we always knew, and I won’t forget what I did for love, what I did for love. Gone, Love is never gone. As we travel on, Love’s what we’ll remember.”
John 12:1, “6 days before Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany." Bethany was a Jewish village about 2 miles from Jerusalem where travelers often stayed because Jerusalem was crowded and there were no accommodations there. Bethany was also the home of three of Jesus’ closest friends: Martha, Lazarus, and Mary. Jesus used their home as a sort of headquarters. This family gave a special dinner for Jesus, perhaps out of gratitude for all he had done for them, especially for the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
There are 3 main characters in the passage, Jesus, Mary and Judas. Mary and her gift to Jesus are viewed in different ways by varying people. The gift was an alabaster container holding a pint of nard. Nard was an oil made from the root of a plant grown in India, Nepal and China. It was imported and very costly, 300 denari, (a year’s wages then). Nard is still available today. It would cost $328 for the pint Mary used. That’s about $20.50 per ounce, a little pricey even by today’s standards.
Mary used this costly gift in a way that definitely drew attention to herself. It was unlawful for a woman to touch a man or to draw attention to oneself in public. The only women who let their hair down were the harlots. Yet, Mary threw aside convention and restraint, and bestowed on Jesus this precious, extravagant, loving, sacrificial gift. She didn’t care what people thought. She was going to show her love for Jesus.
Surely those present questioned in their mind, if not verbally, what Mary was thinking. “Who does she think she is? --- “This is outrageous!” --- “How dare she be so bold!” They may have been offended. I have found that people who are looking for a reason to be offended are usually all too easily able to find it. You tend to see and find that for which you are looking.
“The house was filled with fragrance.” Was it a spontaneous, loving, extravagant gift or a flagrant, foolish, public display of outrageous waste? If I had been there I would probably be sneezing, coughing or wheezing. I might even have complained about how Mary’s action had ruined the evening for me. It probably would have been necessary for me to leave.
In Verse 6 – Judas is called out as a thief and it is implied that Judas really wanted the money for himself, not the poor. I wonder whether, for Judas, Mary’s actions were a horrible waste of money because: 1) he could have taken the money for himself, or 2) he honestly did not think Jesus was worth it.
There are those like Judas who think it was a waste. They also believe it is a waste to give so much money to the work of Jesus’ church, to go to a small church with little prestige, and to serve God and our community with our talent, our time, and our hands.
What do you think? Were Mary’s actions an example of loving devotion to be emulated by all Christians or were they a waste of time and money because Jesus was not worth it? What are you willing to do, to what lengths are you willing to go, for the love of Jesus?
In His Extravagant Love,
Brown
click here to see video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjPcoElIpR0
Praise the Lord, for He redeems us and sends us into the world to serve Him, to witness for Him, and to demonstrate our love for Him. Praise the Lord, for He equips us to serve Him with the talents, the treasures, and the time that He bestows upon us.
We had a wonderful weekend. The Jeremiah People ministered to us this past Saturday through music and drama, in a musical centered on the personal relationships, interactions, communications (or lack thereof) and temptations faced by every family. The presentation, the music, and the message were powerful and provocative. It was intense and inspiring. We are blessed indeed to be able to have such a gifted and talented troupe of musicians/actors/dancers with us.
The Lord also blessed us in worship yesterday. Indeed, "Better is one day in His house than a thousand elsewhere". As our Lord and Savior journeyed to Jerusalem, He blessed people on the way, bringing change and transformation. He demonstrated His mighty deeds, along with signs and wonders. We are also given glimpses of how ordinary people demonstrated their love for Him. In John 12:1-12:8 we encounter Mary, who exhibited extravagant love towards Her Savior and Lord. As her alabaster flask was "Broken and Spilled out", so was her heart, her life, and her love. Jesus' love and grace is reckless, and even relentless, toward us. Mary, saved by grace poured her love out to Jesus in a very demonstrative way.
I heard a song, “What I Did For Love” from a famous Broadway musical, "A Chorus Line". These are the words: “Kiss today goodbye, the sweetness and the sorrow. Wish me luck, the same to you. But I can’t regret what I did for love, what I did for love. Look my eyes are dry. The gift was ours to borrow. It’s as if we always knew, and I won’t forget what I did for love, what I did for love. Gone, Love is never gone. As we travel on, Love’s what we’ll remember.”
John 12:1, “6 days before Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany." Bethany was a Jewish village about 2 miles from Jerusalem where travelers often stayed because Jerusalem was crowded and there were no accommodations there. Bethany was also the home of three of Jesus’ closest friends: Martha, Lazarus, and Mary. Jesus used their home as a sort of headquarters. This family gave a special dinner for Jesus, perhaps out of gratitude for all he had done for them, especially for the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
There are 3 main characters in the passage, Jesus, Mary and Judas. Mary and her gift to Jesus are viewed in different ways by varying people. The gift was an alabaster container holding a pint of nard. Nard was an oil made from the root of a plant grown in India, Nepal and China. It was imported and very costly, 300 denari, (a year’s wages then). Nard is still available today. It would cost $328 for the pint Mary used. That’s about $20.50 per ounce, a little pricey even by today’s standards.
Mary used this costly gift in a way that definitely drew attention to herself. It was unlawful for a woman to touch a man or to draw attention to oneself in public. The only women who let their hair down were the harlots. Yet, Mary threw aside convention and restraint, and bestowed on Jesus this precious, extravagant, loving, sacrificial gift. She didn’t care what people thought. She was going to show her love for Jesus.
Surely those present questioned in their mind, if not verbally, what Mary was thinking. “Who does she think she is? --- “This is outrageous!” --- “How dare she be so bold!” They may have been offended. I have found that people who are looking for a reason to be offended are usually all too easily able to find it. You tend to see and find that for which you are looking.
“The house was filled with fragrance.” Was it a spontaneous, loving, extravagant gift or a flagrant, foolish, public display of outrageous waste? If I had been there I would probably be sneezing, coughing or wheezing. I might even have complained about how Mary’s action had ruined the evening for me. It probably would have been necessary for me to leave.
In Verse 6 – Judas is called out as a thief and it is implied that Judas really wanted the money for himself, not the poor. I wonder whether, for Judas, Mary’s actions were a horrible waste of money because: 1) he could have taken the money for himself, or 2) he honestly did not think Jesus was worth it.
There are those like Judas who think it was a waste. They also believe it is a waste to give so much money to the work of Jesus’ church, to go to a small church with little prestige, and to serve God and our community with our talent, our time, and our hands.
What do you think? Were Mary’s actions an example of loving devotion to be emulated by all Christians or were they a waste of time and money because Jesus was not worth it? What are you willing to do, to what lengths are you willing to go, for the love of Jesus?
In His Extravagant Love,
Brown
click here to see video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjPcoElIpR0
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