Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the mystery and wonder of it all. The Bible declares, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known." ( 1 Corinthians 13:2) Life in Christ Jesus is a pilgrimage. We see the parallel between the journey of the people of God from Egypt to the Promised Land, and the pilgrim's journey to the celestial city. We read in the Book Of Joshua, that the people of God stood at the border of the Promised Land. Hundreds of years had passed since this land was first promised to Abraham. A whole generation wandered the desert on the other side of the border, but finally, after so much promise, it the promise was about to become reality. Joshua received final instructions before going in and claiming the promise. The Christian life is about inhabiting the Promised Land- the Kingdom of God. It is the understanding of the 'now and not yet' aspects of the kingdom of God in this world and in our current lives. On the one hand, the kingdom has not come in its fullness. We wait for the promises to be fulfilled. We know that, in the last day, we will be victorious and our hearts and sin will be completely cleansed; we will be righteous and we will stand in the full presence of God. Until that time, creation continues to groan, and we struggle to persevere and grow in our faith and righteousness. On the other hand, the kingdom of God has come in Jesus Christ. God is with us. We can fully know God even now, just as we are known by him. This is the place of full relationship with God that we can know even now. We can see the face of God and know every moment that he is with us and have our lives transformed dramatically into his image with the glow of the glory of God reflected in our faces as we keep our eyes on him. The Israelites stood on the very edge of the promise. In many regards we also are still in the desert, so close - the Spirit is in our hearts; it is so real and palpable, and we can see our promised land right in front of us. 1 Peter has a good picture of this in chapter 2, verses 11-12, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world.” That is what we are. We are aliens and strangers in this world because we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Heaven is already in us. Peter went on to give us directions how to live on this border of the Promised Land, “abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” Peter spoke of war with the kingdom of this world. In preparation for that war, we have the words God gave to Joshua as he stood on the banks of the Jericho. Three times in this short passage, he said, “Be strong and courageous.” Herman Wouk was a famous novelist, who was also a Jew. In 1955, he visited Israel and had the opportunity to spend some time with David Ben-Gurion, who was the first leader of Israel when it was re-established after World War 2. Ben-Gurion was asking Wouk in subtle ways during their time together to move to Israel during those frightening times. Wouk wrote, “When we were leaving, he came out with his straight Zionist line, no more hints. "You must return here to live," he said. "This is the only place for Jews like you. Here you will be free." "Free?" I ventured to reply. "Free? With enemy armies ringing you, with their leaders publicly threatening to wipe out 'the Zionist entity,' with your roads impassable after sundown—free?" "I did not say safe," the old man retorted, "I said free." So often we think that becoming a Christian, even a mature Christian, means that things are going to get safer. In the respect that nothing can finally harm us, that is true. In that respect, we are of all the most free. But we are not safe. Being a Christian should never, ever be safe. Crossing the Jordan and moving more and more fully into the Promised Land is not safe. If we are trying to make our lives and our churches safe, we are heading the wrong direction. The fulfillment of God’s promises, the blaze of his glory, is not safe. There is a great picture in the great children’s books, "the Chronicles of Narnia" of this truth. Jill Pole ("The Silver Chair") finds herself in a position where she feels she is dying of thirst. She sees a river of beautiful water, but then she sees a lion lying on the other side of the water. She hears a voice saying, “If you’re thirsty, you may drink. …For a second she stared here and there, wondering who had spoken. Then the voice said again, ‘if you are thirsty, come and drink,’ …and she realized it was the lion speaking. …She had seen its lips move this time, and the voice was not like a man’s. It was deeper, wilder, and stronger; a sort of heavy, golden voice. It did not make her any less frightened than she had been before, but it made her frightened in rather a different way. “Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion. “I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill. “Then drink,” said the Lion. “May I – could I – would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill. “The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic. “Will you promise not to – do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill. “I make no promise,” said the Lion. Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.“Do you eat girls?” she said. “I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it. “I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill. “Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion. “Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.” “There is no other stream,” said the Lion. It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion – no one who had seen his stern face could do that – and her mind suddenly made itself up. It was the worst thing she had ever had to do, but she went forward to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted. You didn’t need to drink much of it, for it quenched your thirst at once. Before she tasted it she had been intending to make a dash away from the Lion the moment she had finished. Now she realized that this would be on the whole the most dangerous thing of all. She got up and stood there with her lips still wet from drinking. “Come here,” said the Lion.
We stand at the river's edge. We have known the thirst of the desert. We have tasted the refreshing water of salvation. Now it is time to cross that river and enter the Promised Land. The Lion of Judah looks us in the eye and says, “Come here.” The Promised Land is the full presence of God. And we have this word from God : “Be strong and courageous.”
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsxNPM4P0w4
Friday, August 7, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Brown's Daily Word 8-4-09
Good day,
Praise the Lord for this beautiful summer day. Praise the Lord for the way He displays His beauty around the world, and for the way that He demonstrates His power throughout the earth. In the midst of confusion, chaos, and crises, our Lord still reigns.
Let us continue to pray for the persecuted church around the world. Pray for the Church in Pakistan, where Christians were burned to death by militant Moslems last weekend. Often our fellow Christians are both helpless and defenseless, but we seek our anchor in Christ. Praise the Lord for those who still dare to die for the sake of the Gospel, and for those who exemplify the truth, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose" (Jim Elliot). We will not let the world defeat us, for the Lord God is "our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise" ("O Worship the King"). In the midst of intense persecution the Church continues to minister to people, in Pakistan, in the Sudan, in China, in India, and around the world.
Sunita is flying to Bangladesh next week Monday to see some of the work of World Vision and American AID there. On her return she hopes to stop off in Bhubaneswar, India to visit my mom, my brother Patel, Lisa, and Kenny for a couple of days.
Our Lord is the hope of the hopeless. He is the Christ for the confused. He is the Way for the Lost. He is the Truth for the deceived and Life for the dying.
Dr. Jerome Frank at Johns Hopkins talks about our "assumptive world." What he means is that all of us make assumptions about life about God, about ourselves, about others, about the way things are. He argues that when our assumptions are true to reality, we live relatively happy, well-adjusted lives. But when our assumptions are distant from reality, we become confused and angry and disillusioned” (Haddon Robinson, "How Does God Keep His Promises?," Nothing is more destructive than hoping in failed promises.
Our world is full of promises of things to meaning and purpose and value to our lives. Some promise that you don’t have to feel what you’re feeling and that everything is going to be all right. Many promise that tomorrow is going to be a better day. We tend to live our lives by these promises. We live in a tough world, a fallen world that still rebels against the ways of the Lord. There are many people who are going through trials and the harsh realties of this life. In spite of promises about how they could make a lot of money and have a better life, the promises were false, leading them deeper and deeper into debt and despair. It is hard to watch. The great D.L. Moody said, “God never made a promise that was too good to be true”. In Christ Jesus we are called to stand on His promises. Our Lord God is a God of beautiful and magnanimous promises. Jeremiah 33 was written by the prophet when things looked very bad for his people. About 600 years before Jesus, the people of Israel were about to be taken away from their Promised Land because for generations they had been not relying on the promise-giver, but on any other sort of promise. Everything that had given them meaning and identity would be destroyed. And right then, Jeremiah, said that one would rise up – a Messiah – another David, to restore Jerusalem to justice and righteousness. It was said that He, himself, would be our righteousness.
Our situations may make life confusing. Each of us is in a different place, and it is hard to lump us all together in regards to how well or how poorly we have done in choosing the promises we follow. But all of us, in the deepest needs in our lives, and, finally, in everything, have only one final source of promises that will be wholly, completely, true, reliable, forgiving, freeing, meaningful, real, and everything that we need. Jesus has come. He has conquered sin, Satan, and the grave. He makes all things beautiful in His time. That is the greatest promise, and the one worth holding onto and celebrating above all others. “Professional golfer Paul Azinger was diagnosed with cancer at age 33. He had just won a PGA championship and had ten tournament victories to his credit. He was doing well in the ways of the world. He wrote, "A genuine feeling of fear came over me. I could die from cancer. Then another reality hit me even harder. I’m going to die eventually anyway, whether from cancer or something else. It’s just a question of when. Everything I had accomplished in golf became meaningless to me. All I wanted to do was live." Then he remembered something that Larry Moody, who teaches a Bible study on the tour, had said to him. "Zinger, we’re not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living." “Zinger” recovered from chemotherapy and returned to the PGA tour. He’s done pretty well. But that bout with cancer changed him. He wrote, "I’ve made a lot of money since I’ve been on the tour, and I’ve won a lot of tournaments, but that happiness is always temporary. The only way you will ever have true contentment is in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not saying that nothing ever bothers me and I don’t have problems, but I feel like I’ve found the answer to the six-foot hole" (Robert Russell, Resurrection Promises)
Praise the Lord "For all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him Amen, to the glory of God by us." (2 Coriathians 1:20)
Praise the Lord for our friend Roger DuBois, who recently completed a cross-country bicycle ride from coast to coast. He is a young 60-something. He is praising the Lord for giving him grace, strength, and triumph. He is a descendent of the French Huguenots, and avid Steelers fan, and a lover of Jesus (best of all).
I'll be off and on with my computer throughout the month of August, so I won't be posting devotions every day. Thank you for praying for me faithfully and fervently, and for your grace notes.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC617kE1maU
Praise the Lord for this beautiful summer day. Praise the Lord for the way He displays His beauty around the world, and for the way that He demonstrates His power throughout the earth. In the midst of confusion, chaos, and crises, our Lord still reigns.
Let us continue to pray for the persecuted church around the world. Pray for the Church in Pakistan, where Christians were burned to death by militant Moslems last weekend. Often our fellow Christians are both helpless and defenseless, but we seek our anchor in Christ. Praise the Lord for those who still dare to die for the sake of the Gospel, and for those who exemplify the truth, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose" (Jim Elliot). We will not let the world defeat us, for the Lord God is "our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise" ("O Worship the King"). In the midst of intense persecution the Church continues to minister to people, in Pakistan, in the Sudan, in China, in India, and around the world.
Sunita is flying to Bangladesh next week Monday to see some of the work of World Vision and American AID there. On her return she hopes to stop off in Bhubaneswar, India to visit my mom, my brother Patel, Lisa, and Kenny for a couple of days.
Our Lord is the hope of the hopeless. He is the Christ for the confused. He is the Way for the Lost. He is the Truth for the deceived and Life for the dying.
Dr. Jerome Frank at Johns Hopkins talks about our "assumptive world." What he means is that all of us make assumptions about life about God, about ourselves, about others, about the way things are. He argues that when our assumptions are true to reality, we live relatively happy, well-adjusted lives. But when our assumptions are distant from reality, we become confused and angry and disillusioned” (Haddon Robinson, "How Does God Keep His Promises?," Nothing is more destructive than hoping in failed promises.
Our world is full of promises of things to meaning and purpose and value to our lives. Some promise that you don’t have to feel what you’re feeling and that everything is going to be all right. Many promise that tomorrow is going to be a better day. We tend to live our lives by these promises. We live in a tough world, a fallen world that still rebels against the ways of the Lord. There are many people who are going through trials and the harsh realties of this life. In spite of promises about how they could make a lot of money and have a better life, the promises were false, leading them deeper and deeper into debt and despair. It is hard to watch. The great D.L. Moody said, “God never made a promise that was too good to be true”. In Christ Jesus we are called to stand on His promises. Our Lord God is a God of beautiful and magnanimous promises. Jeremiah 33 was written by the prophet when things looked very bad for his people. About 600 years before Jesus, the people of Israel were about to be taken away from their Promised Land because for generations they had been not relying on the promise-giver, but on any other sort of promise. Everything that had given them meaning and identity would be destroyed. And right then, Jeremiah, said that one would rise up – a Messiah – another David, to restore Jerusalem to justice and righteousness. It was said that He, himself, would be our righteousness.
Our situations may make life confusing. Each of us is in a different place, and it is hard to lump us all together in regards to how well or how poorly we have done in choosing the promises we follow. But all of us, in the deepest needs in our lives, and, finally, in everything, have only one final source of promises that will be wholly, completely, true, reliable, forgiving, freeing, meaningful, real, and everything that we need. Jesus has come. He has conquered sin, Satan, and the grave. He makes all things beautiful in His time. That is the greatest promise, and the one worth holding onto and celebrating above all others. “Professional golfer Paul Azinger was diagnosed with cancer at age 33. He had just won a PGA championship and had ten tournament victories to his credit. He was doing well in the ways of the world. He wrote, "A genuine feeling of fear came over me. I could die from cancer. Then another reality hit me even harder. I’m going to die eventually anyway, whether from cancer or something else. It’s just a question of when. Everything I had accomplished in golf became meaningless to me. All I wanted to do was live." Then he remembered something that Larry Moody, who teaches a Bible study on the tour, had said to him. "Zinger, we’re not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living." “Zinger” recovered from chemotherapy and returned to the PGA tour. He’s done pretty well. But that bout with cancer changed him. He wrote, "I’ve made a lot of money since I’ve been on the tour, and I’ve won a lot of tournaments, but that happiness is always temporary. The only way you will ever have true contentment is in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not saying that nothing ever bothers me and I don’t have problems, but I feel like I’ve found the answer to the six-foot hole" (Robert Russell, Resurrection Promises)
Praise the Lord "For all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him Amen, to the glory of God by us." (2 Coriathians 1:20)
Praise the Lord for our friend Roger DuBois, who recently completed a cross-country bicycle ride from coast to coast. He is a young 60-something. He is praising the Lord for giving him grace, strength, and triumph. He is a descendent of the French Huguenots, and avid Steelers fan, and a lover of Jesus (best of all).
I'll be off and on with my computer throughout the month of August, so I won't be posting devotions every day. Thank you for praying for me faithfully and fervently, and for your grace notes.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC617kE1maU
Monday, August 3, 2009
Brown's Daily Word 8-3-09
This morning I was listening to the Choir and the congregation from St. Paul's Cathedral, London, as they sang one of the powerful and beloved hymns of the church,
"Praise, my soul, the King of heaven;to his feet thy tribute bring;ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,evermore his praises sing:Alleluia, alleluia!Praise the everlasting King.Praise him for his grace and favorto our fathers in distress;praise him still the same for ever,slow to chide and swift to bless:Alleluia, alleluia!Glorious in his faithfulness.Father-like, he tends and spares us;well our feeble frame he knows;in his hand he gently bears us, rescues us from all our foes.Alleluia, alleluia!Widely yet his mercy flows.Angels, help us to adore him;ye behold him face to face;sun and moon, bow down before him,dwellers all in time and space.Alleluia, alleluia!Praise with us the God of grace. "
I quoted from 2 Corinthians 2: 14 during my morning message yesterday. “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ . . .” In Paul’s day and time, “When a Roman general won an important military victory, the Senate or Emperor honored him upon his return home with a ‘triumph.’ This was something like a . . . parade . . . The victorious general and his soldiers usually came first. Behind him came the incense-bearers. They carried censers of burning incense, which represented thanksgiving to the gods for victory. The scent of this burning incense wafted all along the street behind the incense-bearers. Next came the captives, usually consisting of two distinct groups: 1.) Those who had voluntarily surrendered and complied with Rome. They were to be set free after the triumph. 2.) Those who resisted and were forcibly subdued came last and in chains. They were to be executed after the triumph. You can imagine how differently these two groups of captives reacted to the incense. To the former group, it represented rescue and freedom. To the latter group, it represented defeat and imminent execution” (Gary DeLashmutt ).
Our God is always leading us at the front of the parade of triumph and victory, and as we follow him praising his name and shouting to the world of his glory, an aroma is being lifted up. To one group, “those who are being saved”, it is a reminder of release and freedom from sin and death. To another group, “those who are perishing” or the lost, it is a reminder that they are still held in bondage awaiting judgment, condemnation, and death. I want to emphasize that we are only the “aroma of death” to those who refuse “the fragrance of his knowledge” that leads to eternal life. If we are setting a good example in our lives of the love of Christ, and sharing a message of forgiveness and grace, then we are always diffused in the world as a beautiful, sweet smelling “fragrance.” Let’s keep in mind that “we are the aroma of . . . life leading to life” (v. 16). We are ministers of life, and as ministers of life we become life-givers, as Christ works through us to diffuse life to the world. We must emit the refreshing fragrance of life in Jesus Christ our Lord, at all times.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d9RJMOP9Tw
"Praise, my soul, the King of heaven;to his feet thy tribute bring;ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,evermore his praises sing:Alleluia, alleluia!Praise the everlasting King.Praise him for his grace and favorto our fathers in distress;praise him still the same for ever,slow to chide and swift to bless:Alleluia, alleluia!Glorious in his faithfulness.Father-like, he tends and spares us;well our feeble frame he knows;in his hand he gently bears us, rescues us from all our foes.Alleluia, alleluia!Widely yet his mercy flows.Angels, help us to adore him;ye behold him face to face;sun and moon, bow down before him,dwellers all in time and space.Alleluia, alleluia!Praise with us the God of grace. "
I quoted from 2 Corinthians 2: 14 during my morning message yesterday. “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ . . .” In Paul’s day and time, “When a Roman general won an important military victory, the Senate or Emperor honored him upon his return home with a ‘triumph.’ This was something like a . . . parade . . . The victorious general and his soldiers usually came first. Behind him came the incense-bearers. They carried censers of burning incense, which represented thanksgiving to the gods for victory. The scent of this burning incense wafted all along the street behind the incense-bearers. Next came the captives, usually consisting of two distinct groups: 1.) Those who had voluntarily surrendered and complied with Rome. They were to be set free after the triumph. 2.) Those who resisted and were forcibly subdued came last and in chains. They were to be executed after the triumph. You can imagine how differently these two groups of captives reacted to the incense. To the former group, it represented rescue and freedom. To the latter group, it represented defeat and imminent execution” (Gary DeLashmutt ).
Our God is always leading us at the front of the parade of triumph and victory, and as we follow him praising his name and shouting to the world of his glory, an aroma is being lifted up. To one group, “those who are being saved”, it is a reminder of release and freedom from sin and death. To another group, “those who are perishing” or the lost, it is a reminder that they are still held in bondage awaiting judgment, condemnation, and death. I want to emphasize that we are only the “aroma of death” to those who refuse “the fragrance of his knowledge” that leads to eternal life. If we are setting a good example in our lives of the love of Christ, and sharing a message of forgiveness and grace, then we are always diffused in the world as a beautiful, sweet smelling “fragrance.” Let’s keep in mind that “we are the aroma of . . . life leading to life” (v. 16). We are ministers of life, and as ministers of life we become life-givers, as Christ works through us to diffuse life to the world. We must emit the refreshing fragrance of life in Jesus Christ our Lord, at all times.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d9RJMOP9Tw
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