Brown's Daily Word 9-10-09

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for His faithfulness. Praise the Lord for the way He surrounds us with His mercy and grace. Praise the Lord that He makes all things beautiful in His time, for He is the "Beautiful One". We have been blessed to have Janice, Micah and Simeon spend these few days with us here in New York. I call Micah and Simeon our "fresh air kids" from Boston. We went picking raspberries on Tuesday at a place called "Apple Hills". It was one of the ten best days. It was sunny and warm. You can see and feel the beauty and the blessing of the Lord all around. You can see the manifold witness to "His Handiwork".
In his book "Opening Blind Eyes", John Claypool talks about all of us having three kinds of eyes. He says we, except for those who are literally blind, have eyes of the body. They allow us to see shapes and differentiate between things. Then we have the eyes of the mind, which process the things the eyes of the body discover. For example, the eyes of the body see ice or snow. The eyes of the mind let us know it is cold. But, the most important eyes says Claypool, are the eyes of the heart. The eyes of the heart allow us to see the needs of others around us. The eyes of the heart let us see God at work in the world. The eyes of the heart allow us to be touched by what they see and be about the work that God lays out before us.
A fellow by the name of Tim Bruster tells a powerful story about a mom who took her children to a crowded restaurant one day. Her six-year-old son asked if he could say grace. He prayed, “God is great and God is good, let us thank him for our food, and God I would thank you even more if Mom gets us ice cream for dessert. And liberty and justice for all! Amen!”
Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby, the woman at the very next table growled loudly, “that’s what’s wrong with this country. Kids today don’t even know how to pray. The very idea… asking God for ice cream! Why I never.”
Hearing this, the little boy burst into tears and asked his mother, “Did I do it wrong? I’m sorry. Is God mad at me?” The little boy’s mother pulled him over into her lap. She hugged him and assured him that he had done a terrific job with his prayer and God was certainly not mad at him.
An elderly gentleman walked over to the table. He winked at the little boy and he said, “I know God really well. We visit every day and I happen to know that God loved your prayer. It may have been the best one He has heard all day.”
“Really?” the little boy asked.
“Cross my heart,” said the man. Then he leaned over and whispered into the little boy’s ear, pointing at the woman at the next table who had made the remark that started the whole thing, “Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes.”
Naturally, the mom ordered ice cream for her kids at the end of the meal. The little boy stared at his for a moment and then he did something that no one in the restaurant that day would ever forget. He picked up his sundae and without a word walked over and placed it in front of the woman at the next table. With a big smile he said to her, “Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes and my soul is good already.”
It seems to me that there are several eyes that are open in that story and a couple that were still blind. Perhaps God used a six-year-old little boy and a bowl of ice cream to open some eyes blinded by the dark. God opens blind eyes.
There is one other thing from this lesson that I want to lift up this morning. It is also on that good news front. Jesus comes to us. In the lesson at the end of the man’s confrontation with the Pharisees they kick him out of the temple. When Jesus heard about it, Jesus came to him, and when he found the man gave him the opportunity at an eternal relationship. That says to me that during our times of need, times when it seems that our world is collapsing on us, Jesus will come to us as well, to heal and to give comfort.
Jesus the wonderful and winsome physician heals a blind man as it is recorded in John 9.In this account the man doesn’t come to belief in Jesus until after he is healed. When questioned about it, the man first says the man Jesus. Later he identifies Jesus as a prophet. But, when Jesus seeks him out again, the man comes to understand that Jesus is the Messiah. It is then that he believes.
Jesus comes to us. Jesus calls us. Jesus is seeking a relationship with us, just as he did the man born blind, long before we ever know Him for who He is.
The theological term for that is “Prevenient Grace.” Quite simply it means, the grace that comes before. Before we even knew who God was, God was pursuing a relationship with us, trying to open our blind eyes.
It seems to me, when Jesus comes to us, and anoints us, Christ opens the eyes of our hearts, our eyes are opened. With our eyes opened, we are no longer blinded by the dark.
I would like to wish a very happy birthday to our friends Reed Barton, Gill Woodward and Peter Garnes. All of them turned 90 this week.. Howard Woodward the older brother Gill Woodward drove from Lancaster , PA to join his younger brother Gill celebrate his 90 th birthday.
In Christ,
Brown

"Sorry. I didn't recognize you."
As Bill was approaching mid-life, physically he was a mess. Not only was he going bald, but years of office work had given him a large pot belly. The last straw came when he asked a woman co-worker out on a date, and she all but laughed at him. That does it, he decided. I'm going to start a whole new regimen. He began attending aerobics classes. He started working out with weights. He changed his diet. And he got an expensive hair transplant.
In six months, he was a different man. Again, he asked his female co-worker out, and this time she accepted. There he was, all
dressed up for the date, looking better than he ever had. He stood
poised to ring the woman's doorbell, when a bolt of lightning
struck him and knocked him off his feet. As he lay there dying,
he turned his eyes toward the heavens and said, "Why, God, why now? After all I've been through, how could you do this to me?"
From up above, there came a voice, "Sorry. I didn't recognize
you."