Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this Holy and joyful season. It is a wonderful blessing to enter the new year through the season of Advent and Christmas. We are so blessed. We have reasons to celebrate. We are using a book and video by Rick Warren, "The Purpose of Christmas" for our Wednesday study. In it he says that one of the purposes of Christmas is celebration. We cannot celebrate the joy , the peace, and the good will the Lord gives to us unless we know Him as our Lord and Savior. May the Christ of Christmas propel us to proclaim the Peace of Christmas to those who have no clue about Christmas, who are blinded and walk in darkness. Those who live in the area, join us this evening at 7 PM on Time Warner Cable channel 4 for Friday TV out reach. I am sharing from Luke 21.25ff" The Summer is near".
Isaiah 2:1-4 gives us a wonderful picture of God’s peace. Verse 4 poetically states that the weapons of war will be transformed into farm implements. Swords will beaten into plowshares. Spears will be beaten into pruning hooks. At that time, nations will no longer train their militaries for war any more.
The United States did not enter the war until after WORLD WAR II until after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Both civilians and service men alike remember that event. From that day forward, no one living at that time would ever forget where they were or what they doing when they heard the news. After the events of December 7, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt described that day as one that would live in infamy. Those who were not living at that time have learned about the events of that historic day from the history books. From the moment that Pearl Harbor was bombed onward, the name of the place known as Pearl Harbor became a battle cry.
Fitsuo Fuchida led 360 Japanese planes in the attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. Updated reports in 1991 suggested that there may have been as many as 5 Japanese submarines that were involved in addition to their 360 planes. The results of their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor follow:
- 2,403 Americans were killed
- 1,178 Americans were wounded
- Of the 18 American ships that were present, 11 were sunk, (8 battleships, 3 cruisers)
- 347 American planes were destroyed
Over two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ was born in a small town called Bethlehem. Far too many times we make light of the significance of this fact, that the Son of God, accustomed to the splendor, majesty, and glory of Heaven, would submit Himself to be born in the humblest of circumstances, wrapped in rags, and laid in a cattle trough for his bed. Jesus is the PRINCE OF PEACE (Isaiah 9:6). The name "Jesus" means Savior (Matthew 1:21). Jesus is our Immanuel, which means God with us (Matthew 1:23).
German theologian Karl Barth once said that in Christ both creation and humanity are reconciled. Forgiveness and reconciliation are one and the same in Him. It was only through Jesus Christ that Jacob Deshazer, U. S. soldier and ex-POW, was able to be relieved of his hatred for the Japanese. Jacob Deshazer had just finished flight school when he heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As a result, Jacob began to hate the Japanese passionately. He felt that he had an axe to grind, a score to settle. In fact, he was impassioned that he even volunteered for the bombing mission to Japan known as "Doolittle's raiders". While he was on that mission, he ran out of fuel. Shortly thereafter, he was captured by the Japanese. The next 40 months of his life he spent as a POW. 34 of those 40 months he spent in solitary confinement. One day, when he saw a fellow POW die of starvation, it enraged him all the more in his passionate hate for the Japanese. However, somehow, he began to reflect on the idea that Jesus Christ could turn hatred into love.
He spent the next few months begging for a Bible. Finally, his captors gave him one. Through his solitary hours with that Bible he came to know the Lord. After his conversion, he would pray for his captors even when they beat him. Obviously, through Jesus Christ, God had changed Jacob’s axe to grind and his score to settle into a cross to carry as a disciple of Jesus Christ. God had emotionally and spiritually turned his sword and spear into a plowshare and a pruning hook.
One day Jacob Deshazer and Mitsuo Fuchida met each other, a meeting that changed Mitsuo’s life forever. He had been called as a character witness for war crimes at a court house. He had been sent as an investigator to Hiroshima and back to Tokyo along with twelve others after the atomic bomb had been dropped in Hiroshima. Of those thirteen who went to investigate what had happened to Hiroshima, Mitsuo was the only one who did not die from radiation. Mitsuo stepped outside the court house as he saw a crowd around Jacob Deshazer. He noticed that Deshazer was handing out pamphlets of his testimony about how Jesus turned him from hateful U.S. soldier and POW to a new creation in Christ (Second Corinthians 5:17). Paper was scarce at the time, so many were lining the soles of their worn out shoes with these pamphlets. Mitsuo, however, took one and read its contents. As a result, he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He, too, had allowed God to emotionally and spiritually turn his sword and spear into a plowshare and a pruning hook.
The spiritual battle has already been won, but the victory that comes from Jesus Christ cannot be our victory until we surrender completely to Him. Sometimes we are guilty of harboring a grudge and feeding the fires of hatred long after the initial conflict had lost it’s fire. We do not have to bear arms to find ourselves fighting with God and each other. When we refuse to be the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) that Christ has called us to be as His disciples, we will allow the devil to get a hold on us so that, in the end, we only keep biting and devouring one another until we have destroyed each other (Galatians 5:15 paraphrased).
If these two men who were enemies as a result of the war that they fought in can become brothers in Christ, then why is it so hard for some of us to do the same? The reason it is so difficult may be that we have not been willing to surrender those swords and spears so that Christ can reconcile us to each other and to God. We cannot proclaim Christ's peace, unless we have proclaimed it in our own lives.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAyplzXmjVE
The source: Mitsuo Fuchida as told to Elizabeth Sherril and Al Hartley. "Attack". Old Tappan: Flemig H. Revell, Co., 1975).
St. Petersburg ( Russia) Men's Ensemble
in Concert. On Sunday December 6, 2009.
The St Petersburg Men's ensemble will be in concert on Sunday, December 6, 2009 at The Union Center United Methodist Church, Endicott, New York. They will present traditional Russian classical Christian music along with some Russian folk music. The public is cordially invited to come. The concert is scheduled for 7 PM. The Union Center United Methodist Church is located at 128 Maple Drive, Endicott, New York. For Information call (607)-748-1358, or (607)-748-6329.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Brown's Daily Word 12-03-09
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the Christ of Christmas and for all the prophesies regarding the Birth of Jesus. There are over 300 prophesies regarding Christ in the Old Testament. I get excited as I read the prophesies. This morning I was reading from Isaiah 2, as the passage talks about the mountain of the Lord. It is written, “It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come.” God’s mountain will be the highest and Yahweh will be seen as the one true God. All peoples will come to Yahweh. Salvation, peace, love, forgiveness, and life will only come from the true God.
Augustine, early church father, wrote about this chapter of Isaiah, this image of God’s mountain. Augustine said, “Approach the mountain, climb up the mountain, and you that climb it, do not go [back] down it. There you will be safe, there you will be protected; Christ is your mountain of refuge.” You have come to the mountain of Christ today; there is no need to ever go back down to check out the foothills, the other gods, the religions that do not offer you true hope. Augustine is urging us to remain on God’s mountain, to remain in the faith.
Isaiah described how the nations will flow to God’s mountain. What an incredible image—people flowing like a river towards God, except (this is incredibly miraculous) this river is flowing up the mountain. The people are being drawn up to God, drawn by God’s Holy Spirit.
God sent Isaiah as a prophet to His people. Isaiah was, in a way, like a party crasher. He was uninvited and his message was even unwelcome by God’s people, who were doing their own thing, checking out all of the other religions around them and what they had to offer. Isaiah got their attention with this image of Zion, God’s mountain. He reminded the people that God’s mountain is the highest of all of the mountains, that God is better than any gods, and that God is the true God. After Isaiah described this incredible vision, he said, “Come on, let’s go up God’s mountain, so that He can teach us His ways.”
Later in chapter 2, Isaiah went on to preach God’s judgment against the people, saying, “Their land is filled with idols, they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made." The people didn't want to give up their wanton ways. They did not desire to give up their idols. Rather than return to God’s mountain, they wanted to stay where they could worship on all of the mountains, worshipping many different gods. Therefore, Isaiah rejected their actions.
There are times when we, in America, are too pluralistic, not wanting to limit ourselves to Jesus. We want to do it "my way", trusting in ourselves about how to live, creating our own belief system about God. Many take a few thoughts from the Bible, some from the Dali Lama, some from Oprah or Dr. Phil, some from magazine articles about what celebrities believe, and some from Hallmark cards. Let us recall the words of Isaiah, and go up the mountain of God.” Augustine is here saying, “Climb up the mountain, and do not go back down it.”
What is on that mountain? There we find God’s ways and God’s vision for our lives, that goes so far beyond what we can imagine. Verse 3 says, “For out of Zion shall go the instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,” and then verse 4 gives us an example of God’s instruction, one way in which God’s ways completely change our way of viewing the world. “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plow blades, and their spears into pruning knives; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” In these verses, God shows that His plan for the world is far beyond what we can accomplish on our own. When we reject him, building our own belief system apart from God, we can never get to a place where there’s peace among all people. In teaching us about nations no longer going to war, and tools of war becoming tools for farming, we see that His ways are not our ways. His vision for the world will completely transform our lives.
This brings us back to those first words of this prophecy, “It shall come to pass in the last days.” The vision of God bringing the world’s people together in peace is a vision for the end of the world. When Jesus returns, then God’s mountain will be raised up and everyone will realize that it is truly the highest mountain. In this Advent season leading up to Christmas, this prophecy from Isaiah points us to the Second Advent of Jesus, the Second Coming of Jesus, when He returns to bring an end to this world, to bring us to a new world, a new life, life forever with Him.
That’s what Advent is all about — urging each other to wait and watch for Jesus to return. You do this when you tell each other to return to Jesus, and to return to church. You encourage each other by sending Christmas cards that point to the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus was born to die for our sins-- from cradle to the cross-- from cross to the grave -- from grave to the sky.
O Come O Come Emmanuel.
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-XAjkKQup8
Praise the Lord for the Christ of Christmas and for all the prophesies regarding the Birth of Jesus. There are over 300 prophesies regarding Christ in the Old Testament. I get excited as I read the prophesies. This morning I was reading from Isaiah 2, as the passage talks about the mountain of the Lord. It is written, “It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come.” God’s mountain will be the highest and Yahweh will be seen as the one true God. All peoples will come to Yahweh. Salvation, peace, love, forgiveness, and life will only come from the true God.
Augustine, early church father, wrote about this chapter of Isaiah, this image of God’s mountain. Augustine said, “Approach the mountain, climb up the mountain, and you that climb it, do not go [back] down it. There you will be safe, there you will be protected; Christ is your mountain of refuge.” You have come to the mountain of Christ today; there is no need to ever go back down to check out the foothills, the other gods, the religions that do not offer you true hope. Augustine is urging us to remain on God’s mountain, to remain in the faith.
Isaiah described how the nations will flow to God’s mountain. What an incredible image—people flowing like a river towards God, except (this is incredibly miraculous) this river is flowing up the mountain. The people are being drawn up to God, drawn by God’s Holy Spirit.
God sent Isaiah as a prophet to His people. Isaiah was, in a way, like a party crasher. He was uninvited and his message was even unwelcome by God’s people, who were doing their own thing, checking out all of the other religions around them and what they had to offer. Isaiah got their attention with this image of Zion, God’s mountain. He reminded the people that God’s mountain is the highest of all of the mountains, that God is better than any gods, and that God is the true God. After Isaiah described this incredible vision, he said, “Come on, let’s go up God’s mountain, so that He can teach us His ways.”
Later in chapter 2, Isaiah went on to preach God’s judgment against the people, saying, “Their land is filled with idols, they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made." The people didn't want to give up their wanton ways. They did not desire to give up their idols. Rather than return to God’s mountain, they wanted to stay where they could worship on all of the mountains, worshipping many different gods. Therefore, Isaiah rejected their actions.
There are times when we, in America, are too pluralistic, not wanting to limit ourselves to Jesus. We want to do it "my way", trusting in ourselves about how to live, creating our own belief system about God. Many take a few thoughts from the Bible, some from the Dali Lama, some from Oprah or Dr. Phil, some from magazine articles about what celebrities believe, and some from Hallmark cards. Let us recall the words of Isaiah, and go up the mountain of God.” Augustine is here saying, “Climb up the mountain, and do not go back down it.”
What is on that mountain? There we find God’s ways and God’s vision for our lives, that goes so far beyond what we can imagine. Verse 3 says, “For out of Zion shall go the instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,” and then verse 4 gives us an example of God’s instruction, one way in which God’s ways completely change our way of viewing the world. “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plow blades, and their spears into pruning knives; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” In these verses, God shows that His plan for the world is far beyond what we can accomplish on our own. When we reject him, building our own belief system apart from God, we can never get to a place where there’s peace among all people. In teaching us about nations no longer going to war, and tools of war becoming tools for farming, we see that His ways are not our ways. His vision for the world will completely transform our lives.
This brings us back to those first words of this prophecy, “It shall come to pass in the last days.” The vision of God bringing the world’s people together in peace is a vision for the end of the world. When Jesus returns, then God’s mountain will be raised up and everyone will realize that it is truly the highest mountain. In this Advent season leading up to Christmas, this prophecy from Isaiah points us to the Second Advent of Jesus, the Second Coming of Jesus, when He returns to bring an end to this world, to bring us to a new world, a new life, life forever with Him.
That’s what Advent is all about — urging each other to wait and watch for Jesus to return. You do this when you tell each other to return to Jesus, and to return to church. You encourage each other by sending Christmas cards that point to the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus was born to die for our sins-- from cradle to the cross-- from cross to the grave -- from grave to the sky.
O Come O Come Emmanuel.
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-XAjkKQup8
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Brown's Daily Word 12-02-09
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the month of December. May the Lord grant His grace and anointing on our lives that we will finish the year well with joy and gratitude. The reading from the Old Testament for first Sunday in Advent was taken from Jeremiah 33:14-16, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth from David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’"
Jeremiah was surrounded by a serious mess. The king was a mess and the government was a mess. In our present age does that sound familiar? His life was a mess, and he was being imprisoned. His country was a mess, as there was a war going on. The people were discouraged. In Jeremiah it says, "Look, look at the end." Jeremiah's message, a message of hope, was given while he was in prison. Hope is the best tool for stress reduction. "... I will fulfill the promise I made." Here God said that he would fulfill the promise made to the house of Israel and Judah. In fact, the entire Bible is about promises. We have the Old Testament and New Testament. Testament means promise.
Jesus is known to be the Promised One because Jeremiah said that the Lord says, "In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth from David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land." v.15. In the Bible Jesus was sometimes called the Son of David because he was a Branch that sprang forth from David.
Lewis Smedes wrote in his book, “A Chorus of Witnesses”, "Yes, somewhere people still make and keep promises. They choose not to quit when the going gets rough because they promised once to see it through. They stick to lost causes. They hold on to a love grown cold. They stay with people who have become pains in the neck. They still dare to make promises and care enough to keep the promises they make. I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God."
That’s what God is like. He is faithful and he keeps his promises. There are more than 7000 promises in the Bible. When we are stressed, we tend to forget God’s promises, making it harder on our hearts. So we need to remind ourselves, of God’s promises by reading God’s Word.
Jeremiah said that on that day Jerusalem will be called "Jehovah Tsidkenu, The Lord is our Righteousness." "The Lord is our Righteousness" is also a name of Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 23:6).
One of the universal stress generators is self-righteousness. Some people are actually addicted to stress. We want to earn our way to heaven by being righteous, doing the right thing, saying the right words, making the right choices, giving the right gifts, and eating the right amount. However, we cannot do it on our own. It will add up to a great deal of stress on us. The Bible says we are fallen beings, and in Romans 3:10 it says, "There is no one who is righteous, not even one."
The good news is that we don't have to be righteous by ourselves. We are already righteous because we believe in Jesus Christ, whose name is "Jehovah Tsikenue - The Lord is our Righteousness." We belong to Jesus. It is written:
"Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength;" (Isaiah 45:24)
“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 ordinary scheme of things. Later, 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 has done pretty well on tour since his recovery, 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,"
In Christ our Righteousness,
Brown
St. Petersburg ( Russia) Men's Ensemble
in Concert. On Sunday December 6, 2009.
The St Petersburg Men's ensemble will be in concert on Sunday, December 6, 2009 at The Union Center United Methodist Church, Endicott, New York. They will present traditional Russian classical Christian music along with some Russian folk music. The public is cordially invited to come. The concert is scheduled for 7 PM. The Union Center United Methodist Church is located at 128 Maple Drive, Endicott, New York. For Information call (607)-748-1358, or (607)-748-6329.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmknWYFr6Xk
Praise the Lord for the month of December. May the Lord grant His grace and anointing on our lives that we will finish the year well with joy and gratitude. The reading from the Old Testament for first Sunday in Advent was taken from Jeremiah 33:14-16, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth from David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’"
Jeremiah was surrounded by a serious mess. The king was a mess and the government was a mess. In our present age does that sound familiar? His life was a mess, and he was being imprisoned. His country was a mess, as there was a war going on. The people were discouraged. In Jeremiah it says, "Look, look at the end." Jeremiah's message, a message of hope, was given while he was in prison. Hope is the best tool for stress reduction. "... I will fulfill the promise I made." Here God said that he would fulfill the promise made to the house of Israel and Judah. In fact, the entire Bible is about promises. We have the Old Testament and New Testament. Testament means promise.
Jesus is known to be the Promised One because Jeremiah said that the Lord says, "In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth from David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land." v.15. In the Bible Jesus was sometimes called the Son of David because he was a Branch that sprang forth from David.
Lewis Smedes wrote in his book, “A Chorus of Witnesses”, "Yes, somewhere people still make and keep promises. They choose not to quit when the going gets rough because they promised once to see it through. They stick to lost causes. They hold on to a love grown cold. They stay with people who have become pains in the neck. They still dare to make promises and care enough to keep the promises they make. I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God."
That’s what God is like. He is faithful and he keeps his promises. There are more than 7000 promises in the Bible. When we are stressed, we tend to forget God’s promises, making it harder on our hearts. So we need to remind ourselves, of God’s promises by reading God’s Word.
Jeremiah said that on that day Jerusalem will be called "Jehovah Tsidkenu, The Lord is our Righteousness." "The Lord is our Righteousness" is also a name of Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 23:6).
One of the universal stress generators is self-righteousness. Some people are actually addicted to stress. We want to earn our way to heaven by being righteous, doing the right thing, saying the right words, making the right choices, giving the right gifts, and eating the right amount. However, we cannot do it on our own. It will add up to a great deal of stress on us. The Bible says we are fallen beings, and in Romans 3:10 it says, "There is no one who is righteous, not even one."
The good news is that we don't have to be righteous by ourselves. We are already righteous because we believe in Jesus Christ, whose name is "Jehovah Tsikenue - The Lord is our Righteousness." We belong to Jesus. It is written:
"Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength;" (Isaiah 45:24)
“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 ordinary scheme of things. Later, 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 has done pretty well on tour since his recovery, 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,"
In Christ our Righteousness,
Brown
St. Petersburg ( Russia) Men's Ensemble
in Concert. On Sunday December 6, 2009.
The St Petersburg Men's ensemble will be in concert on Sunday, December 6, 2009 at The Union Center United Methodist Church, Endicott, New York. They will present traditional Russian classical Christian music along with some Russian folk music. The public is cordially invited to come. The concert is scheduled for 7 PM. The Union Center United Methodist Church is located at 128 Maple Drive, Endicott, New York. For Information call (607)-748-1358, or (607)-748-6329.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmknWYFr6Xk
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