Brown's Daily Word 3-5-09

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for His great faithfulness and for His wonder-working power. He brings cosmos our chaos. He brings fullness our of emptiness. He brings life out of death. I recently had a conversation with one of our ministerial colleagues, whose wife is a brilliant financial planner and prudent money manager. She was very successful in engineering their family finances for their children's education and for their own retirement. They were very successful in investing and launching their portfolio into the two million dollar range. Then the stock market headed south. Like all of us they lost lots of money. Their portfolio declined rapidly. The wife of my colleague friend is going through some genuine anguish and pain, a deep emotional upheaval and turmoil. How do we face these uncertain days and situations? We have the Good News.
Our Lord God does his greatest, his most significant, and his deepening works individually and corporately during times of uncertainty. Our favorite Bible stories, our favorite Psalms, and the most comforting passages of Scripture were birthed during times of uncertainty. Our Living and most loving God was not absent during these transitional times. He was more active than at any other time. In each example, the lives of these women and men of the Bible were interrupted. The familiar, predictable things were wrenched away. The structure of their lives disintegrated. There was, no doubt, a sense of panic. It must have seemed as if God had fallen asleep at the wheel. Then, in the middle of what felt like total chaos, He showed up in ways we are still marveling about. He specializes in bringing cosmos out of chaos. We read about and ponder the faithfulness of the heroes of the Bible. We wonder what would have happened if they had abandoned God. Think of what they would have missed. God was at work and they would have never known. From God’s perspective, uncertain times are opportunities for Him to do a work in us. He can do more in us during times of uncertainty than we see in the normal 9 to 5, everything-the-way-it-ought-to-be times. All of us are idolaters at heart. We each have a natural propensity to lean on and trust in the things we create or are created by someone else. Our job tenures, our businesses, our finances, our 401Ks, other investments, our network of friends and associates, our families, and our good health all give us a false sense of security. All of these things represent STRUCTURE, familiarity, and order and there is nothing wrong with that. However, they can become comfort zones that wean us away from dependency on the Father - there is much wrong with that! It is the image of God in us that motivates us to create order from chaos. So, when God comes along and shakes our structures or allows them to be shaken, we tend to panic. But when our structures are shaken, when we move through transitions, God has our undivided attention. When He has our undivided attention, we are positioned to grow like crazy. Suddenly, that which is real and truly important becomes the focus of our attention. It is then, when He is all we have, that we discover He is all we need. From God’s perspective, uncertainty creates opportunities for Him to do something in and through us. For God to accomplish something great in and through us, we must respond correctly in times of uncertainty. We all are familiar with the wonderful and grace- filled story of Joseph, who got it right. He was a favored son who became a slave -a slave who became an inmate - an inmate who became a prime minister. Through all of the years of uncertainty, Joseph remained faithful. The Lord exalted him. That same Lord desires to use us, to get our focus and attention, and to do great work in and through us for His kingdom purposes and to the glory of His name. Our Lord is the same yesterday, today and for ever.
In Christ,
Brown



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HgAVenbUU