The Scripture says that our Savior Jesus suffered and died for us, and as Christians we know that we too may very well suffer—both the suffering that everyone on earth suffers as well as the suffering that may come to those who choose to follow hard after Jesus. Paul says that we can boast even in our suffering. “We also boast in our hope in our suffering, says Paul,” knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us”. –Romans 5:3-5 . Now we almost always hear this passage used in sermons on sufferings—and rightly so. But I’ve noticed that sometimes we miss the key word in this passage; and that’s the word ‘because.’ Circle that word. We boast in our suffering, not because it produces endurance, which produces character, which produces hope. We can boast even in our sufferings because, says Paul, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us”. That flood of God’s love is why hope doesn’t disappoint us and how suffering ends up producing character and hope. God’s love isn’t measured out in eyedroppers or teaspoons. Paul says it is poured into our hearts. Not a drop of love is held back. Oh, we may feel unworthy, but because of Jesus , God’s love is poured into my heart, and that’s something to brag about.
Joni Eareckson Tada, whom I was privileged to met in person in 1982, who was paralyzed in a diving accident as a teenager, describes how she experienced love poured into her heart on her wedding day. She remembers that she “felt awkward as her girlfriends strained to shift her paralyzed body into a cumbersome wedding gown. No amount of corseting and binding, she said, gave her a perfect shape. The dress just didn’t fit well. Then, as she was wheeling into the church, she glanced down and noticed that she’d accidentally run over the hem of her dress, leaving a greasy tire mark. Joni said, “My paralyzed hands couldn’t hold the bouquet of daisies that lay off-center on my lap. And my chair, though decorated for the wedding, was still a big, clunky gray machine with belts, gears, and ball bearings. I certainly didn’t feel like the picture-perfect bride in a bridal magazine. I inched my chair closer to the last pew to catch a glimpse of Ken in front. There he was, standing tall and stately in his formal attire. I saw him looking for me, craning his neck to look up the aisle. My face flushed, and I suddenly couldn’t wait to be with him. I had seen my beloved. The love in Ken’s face had washed away all my feelings of unworthiness. (This We Believe: The Good News of Jesus Christ for the World, (Zondervan) p. 222. That’s the kind of love Paul’s talking about! It’s a deluge of love poured into your heart that floods away your sin, guilt, and shame. It’s a flood of love into your heart that Jesus sends your way and the Holy Spirit delivers. That kind of love is not earned—it is simply God’s gift to you in Jesus Christ. You can’t take credit for it as if you are worthy. No, it because of Jesus, all because of Jesus and what he has done—and that’s something to boast about. Cheryl Crow, so called celebrity so many, yet so confused , said that she thinks, “everybody on the planet feels alone, even when they’re in the greatest relationships or surrounded by family. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life alone. That’s the only true fear I have, because what else is there but love? … it’s really the only thing that matters. It’s what brings you the most joy. So that is what I long for—the consummate love. (Cheryl Crow in Interview magazine (10-01-98); submitted by Mike Herman, Glen Ellyn, Illinois). Consummate love—complete and unreserved love. That only comes from God through Jesus. He pours his love into you, but he doesn’t wait for you to be perfect before he sends his love your way. Paul said that, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. –Romans 5:8-9 .What Paul is saying is as simple as it is profound , so let me cut to the chase: Before Jesus we were God’s enemies; because of Jesus I have God’s friendship. There’s no greater love, no greater friendship. God’s love is the only thing that ultimately matters. That’s the consummate love Cheryl Crow was looking for. And God’s consummate love for us leads to our third boast. Paul said, “More than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. –Romans 5:11 . We can boast about God! God’s worth bragging about! What an awesome God we worship—he loves us with a consummate love!Here’s the story of someone who discovered the kind of love that Cheryl Crow was longing for. Her name is Liz Curtis Higgs. Rick Warren tells her story: Once she was one of the best-known disc jockeys in America, and she lived quite wild lifestyle without God. In fact, Howard Stern was the A.M. show, and Liz Curtis Higgs was the P.M. show. And one day Howard Stern said to Liz, “You know, you need to clean up your act.” Now, that really says something if Howard Stern is saying it. She was the ultimate party girl. Liz Higgs had been burned by so many men, and her heart had been broken so many times that she became a militant feminist. And I underscore, militant feminist. But she had a Christian girlfriend who kept inviting her to church. So one day after a long, long time, she said, “Okay, I will go to church one time and one time only.” So she went to church one time with her friend. And that week, the pastor just happened to be teaching on the Bible verse that says, “Wives submit yourselves to your husbands.” Not exactly a good verse to start with a militant feminist. And she got a little uptight, a little ticked, a little angry. But she continued to listen, and she actually heard the second part of the verse.… The second part of the verse says, “And husbands—you sacrifice yourself; you give yourself for your wives just as Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for the church and died for her.” Who is asked to give their life up? The husband. When Liz heard that part, she leaned over to her friend and said with a little cynicism, “I’d gladly give myself to any man if I knew he would die for me.” And her friend leaned over and said, “Liz, there is a man who loved you enough to die for you. His name is Jesus Christ. That’s how much he loves you.” And it was not long after that that Liz dropped her guard, surrendered her life to God in love, and became a believer. Liz discovered friendship with God and today Liz is a well-known Christian author and speaker. She uses her life to boast about a God who died for her when she was so unworthy. (Rick Warren, “You Were Planned for God’s Pleasure,” Purpose Driven Life Campaign Resources; submitted by Darin Reimer, Victori), Paul says that we can and should boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We can and ought to be bragging about our God! He gave his son to die for us so that we could be his friends. He pours his love into our hearts. He makes it possible for us to share his glory. Who else does that? What other religion in the world believes in a God like this? We have a God who died for us while we were still sinners! How amazing is that! We have something to boast about!May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. –Galatians 6:14 (NIV) There are many reasons God saves you: to bring glory to himself, to appease his justice, to demonstrate his sovereignty. But one of the sweetest reasons God saved you is because he is fond of you. He likes having you around. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Spend some time at the altar this morning, boasting about the God who shares his glory with you, who pours his love into your heart, and has made you his friend through Jesus Christ.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 5-1-08
Praise the Lord
Today is the National Day of Prayer. It is also May Day - - - and Sunita's birthday. Praise the Lord. Our God, who is revealed in the Bible, and in the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord, is holy and righteous, mighty and merciful, eternal and sovereign. His works are awesome. His grace is marvelous. He is the Lord of all nations, all peoples, and all lands. He exalts the humble and humbles the proud.
Psalm 66 calls all nations and peoples to make a joyful noise to the Lord, to sing glory to His holy name. All are called to give glorious praise to Him. It is written that His deeds are so awesome and brilliant that His enemies cringe before Him. All nations and all peoples are invited to come before His presence, to pause and ponder before the wonder of His majesty, and to see that which He has done. His works are awesome over all of the earth. All nations and peoples are provoked to bless Him, so that the sounds of His praise may be heard. He judges the nations, He judges sin, but He is merciful towards those who come to Him with a contrite and broken heart.
The Lord made a wonderful declaration of grace and mercy to King Solomon in response to Solomon's prayer for his people. He said, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way, then I will hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and heal their land." The Lord further declared that His eyes would be open and His ear would be attentive to the prayers of His people, when the prayers were made from the temple which Solomon had built.
Now, because of Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we have direct access, 24-7, to the mercy seat of God.
In Jeremiah 33:3 we read, "Call to me, and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things which you have not known." We read again, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Then, in Proverbs 14:34, we read, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."
Let us pray for our nation today, which is called "the last best hope on earth", that the Lord would forgive our sins and heal our land. Let us come humbly, in repentance, and seek the Lord's face and His favor.
"Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our Land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." - from the United Methodist Church's "The Book of Worship"
In Jesus the King of all nations and the Lord of all.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heY4bAQFwW8
Today is the National Day of Prayer. It is also May Day - - - and Sunita's birthday. Praise the Lord. Our God, who is revealed in the Bible, and in the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord, is holy and righteous, mighty and merciful, eternal and sovereign. His works are awesome. His grace is marvelous. He is the Lord of all nations, all peoples, and all lands. He exalts the humble and humbles the proud.
Psalm 66 calls all nations and peoples to make a joyful noise to the Lord, to sing glory to His holy name. All are called to give glorious praise to Him. It is written that His deeds are so awesome and brilliant that His enemies cringe before Him. All nations and all peoples are invited to come before His presence, to pause and ponder before the wonder of His majesty, and to see that which He has done. His works are awesome over all of the earth. All nations and peoples are provoked to bless Him, so that the sounds of His praise may be heard. He judges the nations, He judges sin, but He is merciful towards those who come to Him with a contrite and broken heart.
The Lord made a wonderful declaration of grace and mercy to King Solomon in response to Solomon's prayer for his people. He said, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way, then I will hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and heal their land." The Lord further declared that His eyes would be open and His ear would be attentive to the prayers of His people, when the prayers were made from the temple which Solomon had built.
Now, because of Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we have direct access, 24-7, to the mercy seat of God.
In Jeremiah 33:3 we read, "Call to me, and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things which you have not known." We read again, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Then, in Proverbs 14:34, we read, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."
Let us pray for our nation today, which is called "the last best hope on earth", that the Lord would forgive our sins and heal our land. Let us come humbly, in repentance, and seek the Lord's face and His favor.
"Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our Land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." - from the United Methodist Church's "The Book of Worship"
In Jesus the King of all nations and the Lord of all.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heY4bAQFwW8
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 4-30-08
Good Morning,
Paul, loved to write letters to churches and to his friends. He wrote a letter to the Church in Corinth, a church which was imperfect like all our churches. There were church fights that were becoming courtroom battles, issues of sexual ethics, marriage issues, worship of idols, and serious disruptions of worship services, as well as arguments and divisions over leadership. Here was a broken church if ever there was one. The Corinthian believers were hurting, feeling pain and giving pain, confused about morality and ethics, and yet, in Chapter 1 Vs. 4, Paul begins his letter to them with “I always thank God for you . . .” WHY he is thankful? How could he be thankful for a dysfunctional church? It was “Because of God’s grace given in Christ Jesus.” The grace of Christ Jesus shines through the brokenness of the Church, His chosen. The words “church of God” appear only 3 times in the NT, once in Acts 20 and twice in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth. The word church, (ekklesiai) simply referred to an assembly, not necessarily religious in nature, but Paul qualified the “ekklesiai” as “tou Theou” or “of God”. Two things distinguish the “assembly of God” from other assemblies: One, it was “sanctified in Christ Jesus” – cleansed or made worthy by Christ Jesus. It wasn’t of their own doing. Two, they were “called to be holy”, set apart, or special again, something they could not do for themselves. Only through Christ were they different, set apart, and worthy before God. They were being reminded that without Christ at the center of their lives and church they were worthless and no better than the pagans of Corinth. Paul reminded them that any value they had was because of Christ. Any gift they possessed was because of Christ. It is Christ Jesus that adds value and meaning to all. There is a tale told of a man who bought an old junk motorcycle at an auction. One day as he worked to clean it up, he opened the gas tank and on the inside of the cap he read, “to Elvis, from Priscilla.” Suddenly, his worthless motorcycle became a valuable collector’s item based on previous ownership. Paul wanted the Corinthian Christians (and us) to realize that our worth is found only in Christ. Yet, we like to think God needs our gifts and abilities, and that the church couldn’t survive without us. Insurance companies would like us to think we are worth many thousands or millions of dollars. The plain and simple fact is that without Christ, we are worth ZERO! Fred Craddock, a United Methogist professor and preacher,said, “We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table. Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all. But the reality for most of us is that God would send us to the bank and have us change the $1,000 into quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, “Get lost.” Go to the committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul. It’s called FAITHFULNESS!" I have been part of the church of our Lord Jesus, all of my life, by His grace. I have been blessed beyond belief. Praise the Lord for His church. “God, who has called you into fellowship with his son Christ Jesus our Lord, is faithful.” May the Lord grant us His grace and power so that might remain faithful to Him.
In His Faithfulness,
Brown
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. C. S. Lewis
Paul, loved to write letters to churches and to his friends. He wrote a letter to the Church in Corinth, a church which was imperfect like all our churches. There were church fights that were becoming courtroom battles, issues of sexual ethics, marriage issues, worship of idols, and serious disruptions of worship services, as well as arguments and divisions over leadership. Here was a broken church if ever there was one. The Corinthian believers were hurting, feeling pain and giving pain, confused about morality and ethics, and yet, in Chapter 1 Vs. 4, Paul begins his letter to them with “I always thank God for you . . .” WHY he is thankful? How could he be thankful for a dysfunctional church? It was “Because of God’s grace given in Christ Jesus.” The grace of Christ Jesus shines through the brokenness of the Church, His chosen. The words “church of God” appear only 3 times in the NT, once in Acts 20 and twice in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth. The word church, (ekklesiai) simply referred to an assembly, not necessarily religious in nature, but Paul qualified the “ekklesiai” as “tou Theou” or “of God”. Two things distinguish the “assembly of God” from other assemblies: One, it was “sanctified in Christ Jesus” – cleansed or made worthy by Christ Jesus. It wasn’t of their own doing. Two, they were “called to be holy”, set apart, or special again, something they could not do for themselves. Only through Christ were they different, set apart, and worthy before God. They were being reminded that without Christ at the center of their lives and church they were worthless and no better than the pagans of Corinth. Paul reminded them that any value they had was because of Christ. Any gift they possessed was because of Christ. It is Christ Jesus that adds value and meaning to all. There is a tale told of a man who bought an old junk motorcycle at an auction. One day as he worked to clean it up, he opened the gas tank and on the inside of the cap he read, “to Elvis, from Priscilla.” Suddenly, his worthless motorcycle became a valuable collector’s item based on previous ownership. Paul wanted the Corinthian Christians (and us) to realize that our worth is found only in Christ. Yet, we like to think God needs our gifts and abilities, and that the church couldn’t survive without us. Insurance companies would like us to think we are worth many thousands or millions of dollars. The plain and simple fact is that without Christ, we are worth ZERO! Fred Craddock, a United Methogist professor and preacher,said, “We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table. Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all. But the reality for most of us is that God would send us to the bank and have us change the $1,000 into quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, “Get lost.” Go to the committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul. It’s called FAITHFULNESS!" I have been part of the church of our Lord Jesus, all of my life, by His grace. I have been blessed beyond belief. Praise the Lord for His church. “God, who has called you into fellowship with his son Christ Jesus our Lord, is faithful.” May the Lord grant us His grace and power so that might remain faithful to Him.
In His Faithfulness,
Brown
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. C. S. Lewis
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 4-29-08
Good Morning,
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. (v. 9) In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. (v. 10) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him." This passage is taken from 1 John 4, one of the greatest passages on Love. In September, 2006 sociologists from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in conjunction with the Gallup organization, released the results of a study looking into America’s different views of God. The Gallup organization is a statistical research group which was founded by the late George Horace Gallup (1901-1984), an American statistician. This Gallup poll identified four distinct views of God’s personality and interaction with the world. Baylor researchers outlined the results as follows: 1. Those who believe in an "Authoritarian God" - a God who is "angry at humanity’s sins and engaged in every creature’s life and world affairs" - 31.4 percent. 2. Those who believe in a "Benevolent God" - a God who is forgiving and accepting of anyone who repents - 23 percent. 3. Those who believe in a "Critical God" - a God who "has His judgmental eye on the world, but he’s not going to intervene, either to punish or comfort" - 16 percent. 4. Those who believe in a "Distant God" - a God who is more of a "cosmic force that launched the world, then left it spinning on its own" - 24.4 percent. In which of these categories do you find yourself? Does the "Authoritarian God," the "Benevolent God," the "Critical God," or the "Distant God" align more with your thinking and you heart? I, personally, believe in the "Benevolent God" and I would like to share with you this morning some reasons why I believe in God's benevolence. In 1 John 4, we read "God is love!" Almighty God does not just have the ability to love; but, that He is love. Love is a description of Who God is, not just of what He does! According to Holy Scripture, this God Who is Love desires nothing more than He desires to share His love with each and everyone of us! Author Richard Armstrong, in "Make Your Life Worthwhile," reported a story about a man in Wales who sought to win the affection of a certain lady for 42 years before she finally said, "Yes." The couple, both 74 years of age, recently became "Mr. and Mrs." For more than 40 years, the persistent, but rather shy man slipped a weekly love letter under the door of her home, his neighbor’s house. However, she continually refused to speak and mend the spat that had parted them many years before. After writing 2,184 love letters without ever getting a spoken or written answer, the man eventually summoned up enough courage to present himself in person. He knocked on the door of her home and asked for her hand. To his delight and surprise, the formerly reluctant lady accepted! Now, try to imagine how God has shown mankind His love down through the ages, through history as we know it! Time and time again, He tried to get His message of love through to His human Creation, both male and female, with little or no response. Finally, He wrapped up His message in Person; His love for us was displayed in the Person of Jesus Christ! The late, great, Dutch Christian and holocaust survivor, Cornelia Johanna Arnolda ten Boom (1892 - 1983), also known as "Corrie ten Boom," in her autobiogaphy, entitled, "The Hiding Place," shared this true story about a time after her release from the concentration camp when she was speaking at a church. "It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there - the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face. He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing, 'How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,' he said. ’To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’ His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? 'Lord Jesus', I prayed, 'forgive me and help me to forgive him'. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer, ’Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.’ As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself."
In Jesus ,
Brown
Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endlessMother Theresa
Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kindAmiel, Henri Frederick
The course of human history is determined, not by what happens in the skies, but what takes place in our hearts. Keith, Sir Arthur
Life is a journey, and love is what makes that journey worthwhile. Unknown
Love is the beauty of the soul.St. Augustine
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere. Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. (v. 9) In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. (v. 10) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him." This passage is taken from 1 John 4, one of the greatest passages on Love. In September, 2006 sociologists from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in conjunction with the Gallup organization, released the results of a study looking into America’s different views of God. The Gallup organization is a statistical research group which was founded by the late George Horace Gallup (1901-1984), an American statistician. This Gallup poll identified four distinct views of God’s personality and interaction with the world. Baylor researchers outlined the results as follows: 1. Those who believe in an "Authoritarian God" - a God who is "angry at humanity’s sins and engaged in every creature’s life and world affairs" - 31.4 percent. 2. Those who believe in a "Benevolent God" - a God who is forgiving and accepting of anyone who repents - 23 percent. 3. Those who believe in a "Critical God" - a God who "has His judgmental eye on the world, but he’s not going to intervene, either to punish or comfort" - 16 percent. 4. Those who believe in a "Distant God" - a God who is more of a "cosmic force that launched the world, then left it spinning on its own" - 24.4 percent. In which of these categories do you find yourself? Does the "Authoritarian God," the "Benevolent God," the "Critical God," or the "Distant God" align more with your thinking and you heart? I, personally, believe in the "Benevolent God" and I would like to share with you this morning some reasons why I believe in God's benevolence. In 1 John 4, we read "God is love!" Almighty God does not just have the ability to love; but, that He is love. Love is a description of Who God is, not just of what He does! According to Holy Scripture, this God Who is Love desires nothing more than He desires to share His love with each and everyone of us! Author Richard Armstrong, in "Make Your Life Worthwhile," reported a story about a man in Wales who sought to win the affection of a certain lady for 42 years before she finally said, "Yes." The couple, both 74 years of age, recently became "Mr. and Mrs." For more than 40 years, the persistent, but rather shy man slipped a weekly love letter under the door of her home, his neighbor’s house. However, she continually refused to speak and mend the spat that had parted them many years before. After writing 2,184 love letters without ever getting a spoken or written answer, the man eventually summoned up enough courage to present himself in person. He knocked on the door of her home and asked for her hand. To his delight and surprise, the formerly reluctant lady accepted! Now, try to imagine how God has shown mankind His love down through the ages, through history as we know it! Time and time again, He tried to get His message of love through to His human Creation, both male and female, with little or no response. Finally, He wrapped up His message in Person; His love for us was displayed in the Person of Jesus Christ! The late, great, Dutch Christian and holocaust survivor, Cornelia Johanna Arnolda ten Boom (1892 - 1983), also known as "Corrie ten Boom," in her autobiogaphy, entitled, "The Hiding Place," shared this true story about a time after her release from the concentration camp when she was speaking at a church. "It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there - the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face. He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing, 'How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,' he said. ’To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’ His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? 'Lord Jesus', I prayed, 'forgive me and help me to forgive him'. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer, ’Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.’ As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself."
In Jesus ,
Brown
Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endlessMother Theresa
Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kindAmiel, Henri Frederick
The course of human history is determined, not by what happens in the skies, but what takes place in our hearts. Keith, Sir Arthur
Life is a journey, and love is what makes that journey worthwhile. Unknown
Love is the beauty of the soul.St. Augustine
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Monday, April 28, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 4-28-08
Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this good day, a gift from the Lord. I trust you had a great weekend of worship, rest, and renewal. Laureen came home and joined us for a an extended weekend. The Lord blessed us all.
Ferdinand Magellan was the Spanish explorer who led the first expedition to sail around the world. As he approached the tip of Argentina in the year 1520, he came to the region he named Tierra del Fuego (land of fire), so named because there were natives on the shore tending several large fires. As the great ships sailed past the natives, who had surely never seen nor heard of sailing vessels in their lives, they completely ignored the ships as though they did not exist. When Magellan and his crew landed, he learned that they had considered the ships unreal, an apparition, because they were so unlike anything they had seen before. Magellan’s experience with the natives of Argentina is a metaphor of modern civilization. We see sights around us every day that point to God’s presence and we dismiss them as unreliable, because they are beyond our experience in the world as we know it. We have kept ourselves from seeing and understanding the spiritual and supernatural world around us because of a fixed mindset that is unwilling to accept the concept of God. Jacques Monod expressed worldview of those like him who refused to see what is right before them, “Man must learn to live in an alien world that is deaf to his music and is as indifferent to his hopes as it is to his sufferings or his crimes. . . . Man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged only by chance.” How sad it is that the people of earth are trying to discover their place on the planet and find where they fit in the universe, while avoiding the obvious, and refusing to put God into the equation. God is sailing by and they consider it a fantasy. They turn their heads away as they tend to the fires of their own existence. The problem with this is that our civilization is left with an empty and vacuous world devoid of meaning and purpose. When we avoid God, we miss the reason for our existence and all that he wants to do for us. We miss the warmth of his love, the completeness of his forgiveness, and thrill of his embrace. The author of the book of Acts tells us that the whole reason the world was created is that we might know God and have a relationship with him. Hear it again as he says, “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:27-28). We must realize that God is for us. God is not the angry avenger who is peering at earth, looking for wayward sinners whom he can condemn. He is not looking through a microscope for all of the wrong we do. He is looking at us in compassionate love. It is hard to get through to us that God is crazy about us. He is passionate for us. He is longing for us. He is wanting us. He desires us. He is calling us to himself that we might have a relationship with him. Here is what the atheist misses — living with the realization that they are loved by the Creator of the universe. They do not understand that at the heart of the universe is a heart that is throbbing for them. The same is true, for that matter, for those believers whose idea of Christianity is a list of obligations which we owe to God. There are many who have been poisoned by a toxic religion that has led them to believe that God is hard to please and impossible to satisfy. They see him as looking for their faults and recording their sins. They feel that He loads them with guilt and delights in their shame. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus says to us what he said to the woman with a shameful life: “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). Jesus says to us what he said to greedy Zacchaeus: “Come down. I want to stay at your house tonight” (Luke 19:5). Jesus says to us what he said to the sinful woman who washed his feet: “Your many sins have been forgiven” (Luke 7:47). God is the father who runs out to welcome his sinful son home, and not only throws his arms around him, but throws a party as well (Luke 15:20). In the Old Testament book, the Song of Solomon, the relationship between God and us is compared to two breathless lovers who are full of passion for one another. In the New Testament he calls us his bride. He speaks with tender words calling us his beloved. In no other religion of the world do you find a God who is breathlessly in love with the people of the world. This passionate love never occurs in Hinduism, Islam, or Buddhism. The amazing thing about Jesus is the intimate vocabulary he uses when addressing us. He calls us his little children. He also said things like, “I no longer call you servants. . . . Instead, I have called you friends” (John 15:15). I read about King David, whose sins were great, but who turned to God asking him to cleanse his heart. His passion for God became the fire that burns through the book of Psalms. He wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1-2). I read about the woman who pushed through the crowd just so she might touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. I read about blind men who cried out for Jesus, even when people told them to be quiet. These are the people who came into a relationship with Jesus and had their lives transformed, because they were passionate for God. They found that relationship to be redemptive because they were changed. Their brokenness turned to wholeness. Their weakness became strength. Their failure turned to faithfulness. They learned obedience, not by trying harder, but by loving more. Love came before obedience. Brennan Manning said, “Jesus Christ did not come to make us nicer people with better morals. He came to transform people into better lovers. He came to make brand new people alive with the fire of God.” He knows every thought and imagination of our minds. He is aware of all the attitudes and intentions of our hearts, and still is passionately drawn to us. His knowledge of us pierces our souls, reveals our true self and loves us immeasurably. What a wonderful God we serve. This calls for a response on our behalf. We have been loved completely and we need to love completely in return. It is the only adequate response to a God like this. The Bible says, “You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God” (1 Peter 2:2, The Message). The Bible gives this invitation: “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). I just read a magazine that carried the following story, “A recent promotion by H & R Block offered walk-in customers a chance to win a drawing for $1 million. Glen and Gloria Sims of Sewell, New Jersey, won the drawing, but they refused to believe it when a Block representative phoned them with the good news. After several additional contacts by both mail and phone, the Simses still thought it was all just a scam, and usually hung up the phone or trashed the special notices. Some weeks later, H & R Block called one more time to let the Simses know the deadline for accepting their million-dollar prize was nearing and that the story of their refusal to accept the prize would appear soon on NBC’s ‘Today’ show. At that point, Glen Sims decided to investigate. A few days later he appeared on ‘Today’ to tell America that he and his wife had finally claimed their million dollars. Sims said, ‘From the time this has been going on, H & R Block explained to us they really wanted a happy ending to all this, and they were ecstatic that we finally accepted the prize.’ Every time someone decides to accept God’s free gift of a relationship with him that he has been trying to give away, it is the same. He is ecstatic when we accept the prize. God loves it when there is a happy ending.
In Christ,
Brown
Praise the Lord for this good day, a gift from the Lord. I trust you had a great weekend of worship, rest, and renewal. Laureen came home and joined us for a an extended weekend. The Lord blessed us all.
Ferdinand Magellan was the Spanish explorer who led the first expedition to sail around the world. As he approached the tip of Argentina in the year 1520, he came to the region he named Tierra del Fuego (land of fire), so named because there were natives on the shore tending several large fires. As the great ships sailed past the natives, who had surely never seen nor heard of sailing vessels in their lives, they completely ignored the ships as though they did not exist. When Magellan and his crew landed, he learned that they had considered the ships unreal, an apparition, because they were so unlike anything they had seen before. Magellan’s experience with the natives of Argentina is a metaphor of modern civilization. We see sights around us every day that point to God’s presence and we dismiss them as unreliable, because they are beyond our experience in the world as we know it. We have kept ourselves from seeing and understanding the spiritual and supernatural world around us because of a fixed mindset that is unwilling to accept the concept of God. Jacques Monod expressed worldview of those like him who refused to see what is right before them, “Man must learn to live in an alien world that is deaf to his music and is as indifferent to his hopes as it is to his sufferings or his crimes. . . . Man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged only by chance.” How sad it is that the people of earth are trying to discover their place on the planet and find where they fit in the universe, while avoiding the obvious, and refusing to put God into the equation. God is sailing by and they consider it a fantasy. They turn their heads away as they tend to the fires of their own existence. The problem with this is that our civilization is left with an empty and vacuous world devoid of meaning and purpose. When we avoid God, we miss the reason for our existence and all that he wants to do for us. We miss the warmth of his love, the completeness of his forgiveness, and thrill of his embrace. The author of the book of Acts tells us that the whole reason the world was created is that we might know God and have a relationship with him. Hear it again as he says, “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:27-28). We must realize that God is for us. God is not the angry avenger who is peering at earth, looking for wayward sinners whom he can condemn. He is not looking through a microscope for all of the wrong we do. He is looking at us in compassionate love. It is hard to get through to us that God is crazy about us. He is passionate for us. He is longing for us. He is wanting us. He desires us. He is calling us to himself that we might have a relationship with him. Here is what the atheist misses — living with the realization that they are loved by the Creator of the universe. They do not understand that at the heart of the universe is a heart that is throbbing for them. The same is true, for that matter, for those believers whose idea of Christianity is a list of obligations which we owe to God. There are many who have been poisoned by a toxic religion that has led them to believe that God is hard to please and impossible to satisfy. They see him as looking for their faults and recording their sins. They feel that He loads them with guilt and delights in their shame. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus says to us what he said to the woman with a shameful life: “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). Jesus says to us what he said to greedy Zacchaeus: “Come down. I want to stay at your house tonight” (Luke 19:5). Jesus says to us what he said to the sinful woman who washed his feet: “Your many sins have been forgiven” (Luke 7:47). God is the father who runs out to welcome his sinful son home, and not only throws his arms around him, but throws a party as well (Luke 15:20). In the Old Testament book, the Song of Solomon, the relationship between God and us is compared to two breathless lovers who are full of passion for one another. In the New Testament he calls us his bride. He speaks with tender words calling us his beloved. In no other religion of the world do you find a God who is breathlessly in love with the people of the world. This passionate love never occurs in Hinduism, Islam, or Buddhism. The amazing thing about Jesus is the intimate vocabulary he uses when addressing us. He calls us his little children. He also said things like, “I no longer call you servants. . . . Instead, I have called you friends” (John 15:15). I read about King David, whose sins were great, but who turned to God asking him to cleanse his heart. His passion for God became the fire that burns through the book of Psalms. He wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1-2). I read about the woman who pushed through the crowd just so she might touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. I read about blind men who cried out for Jesus, even when people told them to be quiet. These are the people who came into a relationship with Jesus and had their lives transformed, because they were passionate for God. They found that relationship to be redemptive because they were changed. Their brokenness turned to wholeness. Their weakness became strength. Their failure turned to faithfulness. They learned obedience, not by trying harder, but by loving more. Love came before obedience. Brennan Manning said, “Jesus Christ did not come to make us nicer people with better morals. He came to transform people into better lovers. He came to make brand new people alive with the fire of God.” He knows every thought and imagination of our minds. He is aware of all the attitudes and intentions of our hearts, and still is passionately drawn to us. His knowledge of us pierces our souls, reveals our true self and loves us immeasurably. What a wonderful God we serve. This calls for a response on our behalf. We have been loved completely and we need to love completely in return. It is the only adequate response to a God like this. The Bible says, “You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God” (1 Peter 2:2, The Message). The Bible gives this invitation: “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). I just read a magazine that carried the following story, “A recent promotion by H & R Block offered walk-in customers a chance to win a drawing for $1 million. Glen and Gloria Sims of Sewell, New Jersey, won the drawing, but they refused to believe it when a Block representative phoned them with the good news. After several additional contacts by both mail and phone, the Simses still thought it was all just a scam, and usually hung up the phone or trashed the special notices. Some weeks later, H & R Block called one more time to let the Simses know the deadline for accepting their million-dollar prize was nearing and that the story of their refusal to accept the prize would appear soon on NBC’s ‘Today’ show. At that point, Glen Sims decided to investigate. A few days later he appeared on ‘Today’ to tell America that he and his wife had finally claimed their million dollars. Sims said, ‘From the time this has been going on, H & R Block explained to us they really wanted a happy ending to all this, and they were ecstatic that we finally accepted the prize.’ Every time someone decides to accept God’s free gift of a relationship with him that he has been trying to give away, it is the same. He is ecstatic when we accept the prize. God loves it when there is a happy ending.
In Christ,
Brown
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