Good morning,
What a way to live, knowing and serving Christ. He inflates us with His divine thrill and Holy Passion. Henry David Thoreau said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” Abraham Maslow put it this way, “A musician must make music, a builder must build, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.”
I think we focus way too much on not doing anything wrong and way too little on doing something right. I am not convinced that the greatest tragedy lies in the things we do wrong. Albert Schweitzer said, “The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.” I think too many of us are playing not to lose instead of playing to win. That is a great tragedy, indeed.
In I Samuel 14, Israel was held at bay by a battalion of Philistines that controlled the pass at Mikmash. While this was happening, what was the leader of Israel doing? I Samuel 14:2, “Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron.” Instead of fighting on the front lines, Saul was sitting on the sidelines, and this was not an isolated incident.
Then, along came David, a youth, with bravery, and David offered himself to fight Goliath. King Saul said, “You are only a boy.” David may have been young, but Saul was not offering to fight Goliath in place of David (nor did any of his "mighty men of valor". He sat on the sidelines while a shepherd youth fought his battles for him! Scripture teaches that Saul was head and shoulders taller than any Israelite, so he was the only one who began to match up to Goliath physically. Yet Saul was cowardly.
In his book, "Divine Appointments", Erwin McManus says that most of us are what he calls "sideliners". He says that a sideliner is “an observer of life rather than a liver of life.” He argues that most people live vicariously, saying, “We find our romance in "You’ve Got Mail", and we fight our battles through William Wallace and Maximus Aurelius.” However, there is no place for sideliners in a church. Church was never intended to be spectator sport. The way to get more out of church is to put more of ourselves into it.
Carl Jung, the Swiss Psychiatrist, was asked how he helped people get well. His response was pretty profound. He said, “Most people came to me with an insurmountable problem. However, what happened was through our work together they discovered something more important than the problem and the problem lost its power and went away.” That’s what ministry is. It’s something more important than your problem.
Saul sat on the sidelines, but Jonathan was, in effect, listening to the police scanner. I Samuel 14:3 says, “No one was aware that Jonathan had left.” Jonathan was tired of sitting and waiting. He wanted some action. Verse 4 says, “On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistines outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez and the other Seneh. One cliff stood to the north toward Mikmash, and the other to the south toward Geba. Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, ‘Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few’.” So Jonathan and his armor bearer climbed the cliff.
So they climbed and, by the hand of the Lord, defeated an entire Philistine battalion. This triggered a panic among the Philistines, so they started to flee in every direction. Thus, according to verse 20, “on that day the Lord saved Israel.”
The course of Israel’s history was changed by one man with the right mindset: “Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf.” What if Jonathan had sat on the sidelines like the rest of the Israelites? What would have been the dire results then?
So, where are we in our spiritual walk. Are we passively sitting under a pomegranate tree, waiting for something good to happen? Or are we proactively "picking a fight with the Philistines"? David chased the lions. David stood against the giant. The Lord gave victory to David, and to Jonathan. If we stand firm in the Lord, somehow Jesus will come and give use the victory as well.
" Somehow Jesus came and gave me the victory".
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMrAafe7Mns
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Brown's Daily Word 1-21-10
Good morning,
Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.” I know many people who say they have never experienced a miracle, but the truth is that we all experience miracles all day every day. Right now we have no sensation of motion, but we are sitting on a planet that is spinning around its axis at approximately 1,000 mph. In fact, Planet Earth will make one full rotation in the next twenty-four hours.
Praise the Lord for the miracles He performs every day all the way. Last Sunday's Gospel reading was taken from John 2. Jesus, our Lord, performed His first miracle, turning water in to wine. John recorded only seven miracles in his Gospel, and these miracles are called " Signs" in the Gospel according to John. Before the Resurrection the Lord performed Seven miracles which were recorded in John. John wrote, "But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life,in His Name".
Thomas Carlyle said imagine a man who had lived in a cave his entire life stepping outside for the first time to watch the sunrise. Carlyle indicated that he would watch “with rapt astonishment the sight we daily witness with indifference.” That’s so true isn't it? We take the daily miracles for granted.
G. K. Chesterton said, “Grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. Is it possible God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon? The repetition in nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.”
Scripture hints at the sense of awe and wonder that should be intrinsic in the daily operation of the universe. Psalm 29, (The Message) says, “Bravo, God, Bravo. All the angels shout encore!” It’s as if the angels are so enthralled with what God does day in and day out that they ask Him to do it over and over again!
Part of spiritual growth is learning to recognize and appreciate the miracles that surround us.
My heart will pump about 100,800 times today without skipping a beat. I will inhale and exhale about 23,000 times. A hundred things are happening in my body right now that I pay no attention to. That is absolutely astounding, but of all the miracles that happen all the time I think the mind is the magnum opus. It is difficult for us to even conceive of how complicated even the simplest of mental functions is. Most of us take sight for granted, but that is because we have no idea how it works.
When was the last time we stopped to thank God that you can perceive about ten million different colors? We probably owe God a thank you for each color. Have we ever contemplated how incredible it is that we can read fine print and see stars that are billions of miles away? Have we ever thanked God for depth perception or peripheral vision? Are we thankful for motion vision? We take it for granted, but people who suffer from motion blindness cannot cross the street because they can't judge the speed of cars. They have difficultly pouring coffee into a cup because the moving liquid appears to be solid. Without a properly functioning motion-perception pathway we would have a tough time walking, much less dancing, catching a Frisbee, or hitting a fastball traveling 95 mph.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.
Loving God with half a mind just doesn't cut it. Being half-minded is no better than being half-hearted. Loving God with all our mind involves every facet of our mind. Many of us honestly believe the spiritual battle is won or lost in the mind. In our lives, many of our problems are the byproduct of stinking thinking, that is, poor management of our minds. The battle against pride or lust or anger isn't won in the behavioral realm, but in the cognitive realm.
It is amazing how many verses of Scripture talk about the importance of the mind. "Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." "Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ." "Study to show yourself approved." "If anything is good or right or pure of just think about such things."
"Fix your mind on things above." "Let this mind be in your which was also in Christ Jesus."
The battle is won or lost in the mind. The end goal is the mind of Christ. In the words Fanny Crosby:
"Oh, the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God
I commune as friend with friend!"
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi0yLRX4d2M
Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.” I know many people who say they have never experienced a miracle, but the truth is that we all experience miracles all day every day. Right now we have no sensation of motion, but we are sitting on a planet that is spinning around its axis at approximately 1,000 mph. In fact, Planet Earth will make one full rotation in the next twenty-four hours.
Praise the Lord for the miracles He performs every day all the way. Last Sunday's Gospel reading was taken from John 2. Jesus, our Lord, performed His first miracle, turning water in to wine. John recorded only seven miracles in his Gospel, and these miracles are called " Signs" in the Gospel according to John. Before the Resurrection the Lord performed Seven miracles which were recorded in John. John wrote, "But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life,in His Name".
Thomas Carlyle said imagine a man who had lived in a cave his entire life stepping outside for the first time to watch the sunrise. Carlyle indicated that he would watch “with rapt astonishment the sight we daily witness with indifference.” That’s so true isn't it? We take the daily miracles for granted.
G. K. Chesterton said, “Grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. Is it possible God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon? The repetition in nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.”
Scripture hints at the sense of awe and wonder that should be intrinsic in the daily operation of the universe. Psalm 29, (The Message) says, “Bravo, God, Bravo. All the angels shout encore!” It’s as if the angels are so enthralled with what God does day in and day out that they ask Him to do it over and over again!
Part of spiritual growth is learning to recognize and appreciate the miracles that surround us.
My heart will pump about 100,800 times today without skipping a beat. I will inhale and exhale about 23,000 times. A hundred things are happening in my body right now that I pay no attention to. That is absolutely astounding, but of all the miracles that happen all the time I think the mind is the magnum opus. It is difficult for us to even conceive of how complicated even the simplest of mental functions is. Most of us take sight for granted, but that is because we have no idea how it works.
When was the last time we stopped to thank God that you can perceive about ten million different colors? We probably owe God a thank you for each color. Have we ever contemplated how incredible it is that we can read fine print and see stars that are billions of miles away? Have we ever thanked God for depth perception or peripheral vision? Are we thankful for motion vision? We take it for granted, but people who suffer from motion blindness cannot cross the street because they can't judge the speed of cars. They have difficultly pouring coffee into a cup because the moving liquid appears to be solid. Without a properly functioning motion-perception pathway we would have a tough time walking, much less dancing, catching a Frisbee, or hitting a fastball traveling 95 mph.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.
Loving God with half a mind just doesn't cut it. Being half-minded is no better than being half-hearted. Loving God with all our mind involves every facet of our mind. Many of us honestly believe the spiritual battle is won or lost in the mind. In our lives, many of our problems are the byproduct of stinking thinking, that is, poor management of our minds. The battle against pride or lust or anger isn't won in the behavioral realm, but in the cognitive realm.
It is amazing how many verses of Scripture talk about the importance of the mind. "Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." "Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ." "Study to show yourself approved." "If anything is good or right or pure of just think about such things."
"Fix your mind on things above." "Let this mind be in your which was also in Christ Jesus."
The battle is won or lost in the mind. The end goal is the mind of Christ. In the words Fanny Crosby:
"Oh, the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God
I commune as friend with friend!"
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi0yLRX4d2M
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Brown's Daily Word 1-20-10
Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. We will gather for our Mid-week service today at 6 PM with a "Happy Meal" followed by Bible study at 6:30 PM and Choir practice at 7:30 PM. We have begun studying the Book of Matthew. "The Grass Withers the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures for ever."
I got an e-mail from Sunita. She and Andy are having a very blessed time in Israel. She said it is very green, though quite unexpectedly cold, in the Northern part of Israel. One of my recent trips was in the month of February, and it was raining in Israel. The Almond trees were in full bloom. It was brilliant.
Dr. J. B. Phillips, a British scholar and clergyman, wrote a book many years ago titled, "Your God Is Too Small". Often we fail to fathom the greatness of our God--- His Majesty and His Splendor. Often, in the corrupt, confused, and bankrupt culture of day, we fail to see the beauty and the splendor of our God, revealed in the Person of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He rules and over rules. He exalts the humble. He humbles the exalted. He brings down the proud and the arrogant. He crowns the humble and the meek. He is upon the Throne..
At the end of Prince Caspian, one of the books in The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a great dialogue between Lucy and Aslan, the Lion who is the Christ-figure in the book. They haven’t seen each other in over a year and Lucy says, “Aslan, you’re bigger.” Aslan responds, “That is because you are older, little one.” She says, “Not because you are?” Aslan replies, “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” So it is with our relationship with God; the more we grow the bigger He gets.
In Psalm 34:3, David said, “O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name forever.” The word magnify means “to enlarge.” We have a copier in our church office that allows us to reduce or enlarge images. If we ignore the Lord God, he gets reduced in size in our life's spheres. He gets smaller and smaller until all that’s left is a thumbnail image. But when we read Scripture, it is like hitting the enlarge button on the copier. The image of God gets bigger and more real to us. The same thing happens when we pray. Our problems get smaller and God gets bigger. When we worship God, the Lord is magnified in our lives. I think the same thing happens when we serve the Lord with obedience and joy, using our spiritual gifts. He gets bigger and bigger!
How big is your God? Is he bigger than your biggest problem? Is He bigger than your worst failure? Is he bigger than your greatest fear? Is your God bigger than a 500 pound lion?
G.K. Chesterton said, “How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos.”
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-zJHgaoVa4
Praise the Lord for this new day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. We will gather for our Mid-week service today at 6 PM with a "Happy Meal" followed by Bible study at 6:30 PM and Choir practice at 7:30 PM. We have begun studying the Book of Matthew. "The Grass Withers the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures for ever."
I got an e-mail from Sunita. She and Andy are having a very blessed time in Israel. She said it is very green, though quite unexpectedly cold, in the Northern part of Israel. One of my recent trips was in the month of February, and it was raining in Israel. The Almond trees were in full bloom. It was brilliant.
Dr. J. B. Phillips, a British scholar and clergyman, wrote a book many years ago titled, "Your God Is Too Small". Often we fail to fathom the greatness of our God--- His Majesty and His Splendor. Often, in the corrupt, confused, and bankrupt culture of day, we fail to see the beauty and the splendor of our God, revealed in the Person of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He rules and over rules. He exalts the humble. He humbles the exalted. He brings down the proud and the arrogant. He crowns the humble and the meek. He is upon the Throne..
At the end of Prince Caspian, one of the books in The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a great dialogue between Lucy and Aslan, the Lion who is the Christ-figure in the book. They haven’t seen each other in over a year and Lucy says, “Aslan, you’re bigger.” Aslan responds, “That is because you are older, little one.” She says, “Not because you are?” Aslan replies, “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” So it is with our relationship with God; the more we grow the bigger He gets.
In Psalm 34:3, David said, “O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name forever.” The word magnify means “to enlarge.” We have a copier in our church office that allows us to reduce or enlarge images. If we ignore the Lord God, he gets reduced in size in our life's spheres. He gets smaller and smaller until all that’s left is a thumbnail image. But when we read Scripture, it is like hitting the enlarge button on the copier. The image of God gets bigger and more real to us. The same thing happens when we pray. Our problems get smaller and God gets bigger. When we worship God, the Lord is magnified in our lives. I think the same thing happens when we serve the Lord with obedience and joy, using our spiritual gifts. He gets bigger and bigger!
How big is your God? Is he bigger than your biggest problem? Is He bigger than your worst failure? Is he bigger than your greatest fear? Is your God bigger than a 500 pound lion?
G.K. Chesterton said, “How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos.”
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-zJHgaoVa4
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Brown's Daily Word 1-19-10
Good morning,
Dr. Scott Peck is the author of the best-selling book called "The Road Less Traveled." As a psychiatrist, Dr. Peck spent a great deal of time working with patients in a large psychiatric hospital. He stated that he discovered in his practice an almost universal apathy: lack of interest; no desire to ask questions; no desire to seek the new and to grow; "no taste for mystery" as he put it. He discovered also that if he could cultivate in the patient a willingness to want to search and to grow, then there is some hope. If not, he sees little hope.
Apparently, there must be a desire to grow in some form in order to make progress in life. This is especially true in the spiritual realm. We need to grow up in Christ, but if the desire is not present, nothing may be done about it. II Corinthians 10:15-16 states, "Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our area of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you."
Ephesians 4:15, "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ."
Colossians 1:10, "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God."
Many of us today have lost that sense of excitement and expectation. The wedding at Cana was crowded, but only a few were aware that Jesus had worked a miracle in their midst. Most were not paying attention, except to realize that the wine was flowing again. They were not watching, and so they missed an event that people have talked about for two thousand years. Bethlehem was so full of people that Mary and Joseph couldn’t even find a room to spend the night, but there is no indication that more than a handful paid any notice to the new life that changed all of history, bright stars and shepherd’s stories notwithstanding.
A British journalist once said that there three kinds of people on earth. First are those who make things happen. Second are those who see things happen. Finally, there are those do not know what happened. Let us be among the aware, who pay attention to all that the Lord is doing around us. May we all be propelled by the Holy Spirit to live with Holy Expectation today. May we see "The Signs of Jesus" in our going out and in our coming in.
Anticipating the best , because of Christ our Lord,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HgAVenbUU
Dr. Scott Peck is the author of the best-selling book called "The Road Less Traveled." As a psychiatrist, Dr. Peck spent a great deal of time working with patients in a large psychiatric hospital. He stated that he discovered in his practice an almost universal apathy: lack of interest; no desire to ask questions; no desire to seek the new and to grow; "no taste for mystery" as he put it. He discovered also that if he could cultivate in the patient a willingness to want to search and to grow, then there is some hope. If not, he sees little hope.
Apparently, there must be a desire to grow in some form in order to make progress in life. This is especially true in the spiritual realm. We need to grow up in Christ, but if the desire is not present, nothing may be done about it. II Corinthians 10:15-16 states, "Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our area of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you."
Ephesians 4:15, "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ."
Colossians 1:10, "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God."
Many of us today have lost that sense of excitement and expectation. The wedding at Cana was crowded, but only a few were aware that Jesus had worked a miracle in their midst. Most were not paying attention, except to realize that the wine was flowing again. They were not watching, and so they missed an event that people have talked about for two thousand years. Bethlehem was so full of people that Mary and Joseph couldn’t even find a room to spend the night, but there is no indication that more than a handful paid any notice to the new life that changed all of history, bright stars and shepherd’s stories notwithstanding.
A British journalist once said that there three kinds of people on earth. First are those who make things happen. Second are those who see things happen. Finally, there are those do not know what happened. Let us be among the aware, who pay attention to all that the Lord is doing around us. May we all be propelled by the Holy Spirit to live with Holy Expectation today. May we see "The Signs of Jesus" in our going out and in our coming in.
Anticipating the best , because of Christ our Lord,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HgAVenbUU
Monday, January 18, 2010
Brown's Daily Word 1-18-10
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for blessing us with so much abundance of His extravaganzant grace. Alice and Laureen went down to Philly for Jessica's wedding shower. It was great blessing. Tom and Jessica closed on their new house last Friday. It is an old stone house, with typical Pennsylvania Dutch decor. Sunita and Andy are currently in Israel, as Sunita had to return to Jerusalem to continue her work in grant proposal writing.
Praise the Lord that in the face of disasters and calamities the Lord uses His church to bring the Good News to the broken hearted. The Church is at work in Haiti, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ in word and deed. Even before the disaster there, the Church has been at work in Haiti. Praise the Lord for the Witness of the Gospel. In the words of Charles Wesley, "The Sign of Jesus here". A group short term missionaries from my friend's Church (Trinity United Methodist Church" in Hope, New Jersey, was in Haiti when the disaster struck. The Lord protected all the members of the group, and they now are all home safely. Many of Sunita's friends and colleagues are in Haiti, and they are all safe. Some of the leaders of UMCOR, the Relief Agency of our Church, died in earthquake, including the executive director of UMCOR. We praise the Lord the brave and courageous servants of Christ who are on the front lines in the mission of Jesus Christ, our Lord. We heard from our friend Karen Woods, who is in Madras, India with the team that is preparing for the Franklin Graham Festival in Madras, India. May the Lord energize and ferment His church through out the world to impact the nations of the world with the Good News of the Kingdom.
The Lord blessed us with a wonderful day in His House yesterday. One of the readings for yesterday was take from John 2. Jesus, our Lord, was invited to a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Our Lord loved to bring joy to His people. He is the Christ in every crisis. According to John's Gospel it is the first miracle Christ performed. Mary, like a typical Jewish mother tried to control the situation. Jesus gently told her, "Madam, what have you to do with it; my hour has not come yet." These words were no sooner out of Jesus’ mouth than Mary turned to the servants to say, “Do whatever he tells you.” What follows is extraordinary; it is unexpected, miraculous, extravagant, new and good.
Six very large, empty stone jars were standing by, each able to hold the equivalent of some twenty to thirty gallons, normally used to store water for the purification washing ritual. Jesus told the servants to fill the stone jars with water, and they did so to the brim. Then Jesus told them to draw some water out and take it to the chief steward. Tasting the water, the steward was flabbergasted – it was very good wine, the best wine yet. Miraculously, they had the best wine, in extraordinary abundance, well more than was needed for the extended, week-long wedding feast. Had not Jesus told Nathaniel, just two verses earlier in John, that in following Jesus he would see new and great things? The miracle at the wedding of Cana was just the beginning. The reign of God was beginning to unfold in Jesus’ person as revealed in this sign. Had not the prophets used the image of an abundance of good wine as a sign that the new age, the age of God’s reign has begun? The absurdity of the numbers, of the sheer gallons of superb wine can mean nothing less. It seems that Jesus’ hour had begun. Certainly, it wass not the ultimate sign of his ultimate hour, his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. But his ministry had begun and in that, the reign of God had broken into human life.
The unexpected, the miraculous, the extravagant, the new, and the good, are the marks of God’s gracious presence in life. The crisis was resolved, but not even the host was aware of its resolution nor of the person responsible. In fact, not even the cast of supporting characters could begin to comprehend what had taken place. It was an act of sheer grace, offered anonymously, which revealed the character of the one who did it. He is miraculous, extravagant, unexpected, new, and good.
Out of the old came the new in unexpected ways. From the waters of purification comes wine to make our hearts glad. From a world concerned with sin, comes one whose purpose is not only the redemption of sinners, but also the news that God is searching for them to bring them new life. Like the new wine, he is not only good, but better than anything or anyone who has come before. John ends this story by telling us that “Jesus did this, the first of his signs... and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” As always, in John’s gospel the signs are there for us to see God’s glory in Jesus so that we might believe in him.
Thus began the gospel of John as he witnessed to us that in Jesus is about the business of addressing our needs with abundant and generous grace. Further, this first sign suggests that God not only has the capacity to address our crisis and need, but often is doing so long before we know they exist. More often than not God does so anonymously. Good luck? Never! The phrase needs to be stricken from the Christian’s vocabulary. Providence? Always -- God works to provide for us in generous ways just as Jesus went to work to provide for the host of the wedding feast in Cana in generous ways.
God is at work in our lives right now in ways that we can neither conceive nor identify, ways that are miraculous, extravagant, unexpected, new, and good. God is doing it so that you and I might have life, and have it more abundantly!
When the wine of life runs out, look to Jesus and do whatever he tells you to do. When the joy of life runs short, look to Jesus and do whatever he tells you to do. When the power for living your life with integrity and sobriety fails you, look to Jesus and do whatever he tells you to do. When the meaning of it all disappears, look to Jesus and do whatever he tells you to do. He is the one who has the capacity to do something about your need. In fact, the good news is that he is already working at it on his own, anonymously, just as he worked on the wedding host’s problem. He is miraculous, extravagant, unexpected, new and good.
In Christ the Maker and the giver of New Wine.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9zHn4QSH-8
U.S. Churches Look for Own in Haiti
By SUZANNE SATALINE, KEITH JOHNSON And THOMAS M. BURTON
While many churches and aid organizations have been scrambling to send whatever help they can to Haiti, others are searching for information about their own members who were caught in last week's devastating earthquake.
Friends and relatives of nuns with the Daughters of Mary, a Catholic religious order, have sought information for days since learning that the nuns' house in Port au Prince was destroyed. Julienne Jules of Lawrenceville, Ga., said she has heard that as many as 17 nuns may be dead, with several more injured and missing, including her 84-year-old aunt. "We know several are under the debris and we are trying to get someone to go in and rescue them," Ms. Jules said. "They need machinery to get them out."
Lynn University, a private school in Boca Raton, Fla., is continuing to search for four missing students and two missing faculty members, part of a 12-person team from the university that arrived in Haiti just hours before the earthquake struck, to offer housing and food aid to the poor. The other six have returned safely to Florida. Two university staff members who were vacationing in Haiti are also unaccounted for.
The university has contracted two search-and-rescue teams to look through the ruins of the Hotel Montana in Port au Prince, the last known location of university students and faculty. Lynn University students are holding candlelight vigils. Lynn staffers are also scouring hospital and embassy rolls in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the university said. The university said Sunday it had no additional details regarding the missing persons.
The missing faculty members are Dr. Patrick Hartwick, dean of the Ross College of Education, and Dr. Richard Bruno, assistant professor in the College of Liberal Education.
One of 12 missionaries from a Dallas church working at an eye clinic in Haiti died from injuries sustained in the earthquake. Jean Arnwine, who was on her first visit to Haiti to work in the eye clinic the Highland Park United Methodist Church established in 1985, was rescued from the quake area but died Friday in Guadeloupe. One other member of the mission remains in Guadeloupe, while the remaining 10 have returned home.
Two high-ranking officials with the United Methodist Church died as a result of the quake. Rev. Sam Dixon, head of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, was caught in the collapse of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince.
Also caught in the rubble was Rev. Clinton Rabb, a member of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and part of the church's mission volunteer unit since 2006. He died Sunday in Florida from injuries sustained after 55 hours trapped in the hotel rubble.
Chicago-based charity Friends of the Orphans said two young volunteers had also died in the quake. It said Molly Hightower, 22, of Port Orchard, Wash., and Ryan Kloos, 24, of Phoenix, had perished. Ryan's sister, Erin, was rescued and is in a Florida hospital, the group said.
Friends of the Orphans is the Chicago fundraising arm of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, a Catholic-affiliated nonprofit.
Yet some groups got happier news. A church outside Detroit, Christian Faith Ministries of Garden City, Mich., received text message last week that its mission in Port-au-Prince was safe and no one injured. "The entire two-acre compound is still there," said the Rev. John Hearn Jr., who is heading there with an additional group of seven this week. "The houses around us fell, but our compound is still there." The group had even just filled two wells and thus has water for drinking and cleaning available.
Compassion International, a children's relief organization based in Colorado Springs, Colo., says that one contractor, David Haynes, is still missing, presumably in the rubble of the Hotel Montana.
Spokeswoman Kathy Redmond said that the organization has people on the ground trying to pinpoint Mr. Haynes' location, and that voices were still being heard in the rubble as of Sunday afternoon.
She said her understanding is that heavy equipment is being used to move large debris at the hotel site, parts of which were just "pancaked," she said.
She added that 73 of 74 Haitian staff of Compassion International had been accounted for, though many have lost family members. Another spokesman said the group's staff was working in a parking lot because of structural concerns about the building that normally houses its offices. This spokesman, Stephan Archer, said late Sunday that "as many as 50" of the group's 230 child development centers had been affected. The centers, housed in local churches, offer food, water, education and medical services to children.
Samaritan's Purse, an international evangelical relief organization based in Boone, N.C., is providing names to a local Haitian radio station of Americans whose family and friends have not heard from them, a spokeswoman said. The broadcast recites the list of names daily at 9 a.m. and the Americans named are being asked to contact the aid organization to let people know that they are fine and have been accounted for.
Ms. Jules, whose aunt is among the missing Daughters of Mary nuns, has been sending emails and calling, but said she has received no reply from the nuns. Ms. Jules, 50, teaches high-school French. She says she contacted outside organizations, including news organizations and a Haitian Democracy nonprofit. A Catholic food organization promised to send someone to the convent to dig for the missing women. Meanwhile, some of the nuns have been taken in by another religious order, but that group has no food or water, Ms. Jules said.
No one could be reached at the sisters' mother house, in Belgium, nor their Brooklyn, N.Y., house. The order's Web site said in a message posted Saturday that the "Daughters of Mary are very affected by the earthquake.''
Ms. Jules has strong ties to the order in Haiti. Born there, she and her two sisters went to live with the sisters in 1970, attending the boarding school there, after their mother died. She said she saw her aunt just last summer. "She's my world," she said.
Members of Catholic orders said several schools were especially hard hit. At least 200 and as many as 500 students and staff at an educational complex run by the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Catholic religious order, died in the rubble, said a spokeswoman for Salesian Missions USA, the order's fundraising arm. The dead include more than 200 young women studying to be teachers at the complex's technical school, the National School of Arts and Trades. The Salesians tried to pull survivors from the rubble, and had succeeded rescuing just a few, according to the order. Without working phones, Salesians abroad were trying to get word of who else had died in a complex that includes a primary school, a youth center and kitchen that feeds thousands of children each year.
Some organizations were trying to provide care with what little they had. More than 200 people were camping on the grounds of the damaged guest residence of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Port au Prince, said Sister Kesta Occident, the congregational leader of the order, based in Montreal. The sisters have no food or electricity, so there is no water to pump, she said. "If we can do something, we will do it," said Sister Occident, who lost an aunt and half sister in the quake. "If you have food you share with them. This is the way people used to live in Haiti."
The school affiliated with the Church of St. Gerard in Port au Prince collapsed, killing most of its 300 students and teachers, according to the website for the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province, a Catholic religious order affiliated with the parish. The order also reported that the major seminary in Port au Prince, which serves all the dioceses in Haiti, was completely destroyed, while several Catholic schools and colleges lay in ruins.
Write to Suzanne Sataline at suzanne.sataline@wsj.com, Keith Johnson at keith.johnson@wsj.com and Thomas M. Burton at tom.burton@wsj.com
Praise the Lord for blessing us with so much abundance of His extravaganzant grace. Alice and Laureen went down to Philly for Jessica's wedding shower. It was great blessing. Tom and Jessica closed on their new house last Friday. It is an old stone house, with typical Pennsylvania Dutch decor. Sunita and Andy are currently in Israel, as Sunita had to return to Jerusalem to continue her work in grant proposal writing.
Praise the Lord that in the face of disasters and calamities the Lord uses His church to bring the Good News to the broken hearted. The Church is at work in Haiti, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ in word and deed. Even before the disaster there, the Church has been at work in Haiti. Praise the Lord for the Witness of the Gospel. In the words of Charles Wesley, "The Sign of Jesus here". A group short term missionaries from my friend's Church (Trinity United Methodist Church" in Hope, New Jersey, was in Haiti when the disaster struck. The Lord protected all the members of the group, and they now are all home safely. Many of Sunita's friends and colleagues are in Haiti, and they are all safe. Some of the leaders of UMCOR, the Relief Agency of our Church, died in earthquake, including the executive director of UMCOR. We praise the Lord the brave and courageous servants of Christ who are on the front lines in the mission of Jesus Christ, our Lord. We heard from our friend Karen Woods, who is in Madras, India with the team that is preparing for the Franklin Graham Festival in Madras, India. May the Lord energize and ferment His church through out the world to impact the nations of the world with the Good News of the Kingdom.
The Lord blessed us with a wonderful day in His House yesterday. One of the readings for yesterday was take from John 2. Jesus, our Lord, was invited to a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Our Lord loved to bring joy to His people. He is the Christ in every crisis. According to John's Gospel it is the first miracle Christ performed. Mary, like a typical Jewish mother tried to control the situation. Jesus gently told her, "Madam, what have you to do with it; my hour has not come yet." These words were no sooner out of Jesus’ mouth than Mary turned to the servants to say, “Do whatever he tells you.” What follows is extraordinary; it is unexpected, miraculous, extravagant, new and good.
Six very large, empty stone jars were standing by, each able to hold the equivalent of some twenty to thirty gallons, normally used to store water for the purification washing ritual. Jesus told the servants to fill the stone jars with water, and they did so to the brim. Then Jesus told them to draw some water out and take it to the chief steward. Tasting the water, the steward was flabbergasted – it was very good wine, the best wine yet. Miraculously, they had the best wine, in extraordinary abundance, well more than was needed for the extended, week-long wedding feast. Had not Jesus told Nathaniel, just two verses earlier in John, that in following Jesus he would see new and great things? The miracle at the wedding of Cana was just the beginning. The reign of God was beginning to unfold in Jesus’ person as revealed in this sign. Had not the prophets used the image of an abundance of good wine as a sign that the new age, the age of God’s reign has begun? The absurdity of the numbers, of the sheer gallons of superb wine can mean nothing less. It seems that Jesus’ hour had begun. Certainly, it wass not the ultimate sign of his ultimate hour, his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. But his ministry had begun and in that, the reign of God had broken into human life.
The unexpected, the miraculous, the extravagant, the new, and the good, are the marks of God’s gracious presence in life. The crisis was resolved, but not even the host was aware of its resolution nor of the person responsible. In fact, not even the cast of supporting characters could begin to comprehend what had taken place. It was an act of sheer grace, offered anonymously, which revealed the character of the one who did it. He is miraculous, extravagant, unexpected, new, and good.
Out of the old came the new in unexpected ways. From the waters of purification comes wine to make our hearts glad. From a world concerned with sin, comes one whose purpose is not only the redemption of sinners, but also the news that God is searching for them to bring them new life. Like the new wine, he is not only good, but better than anything or anyone who has come before. John ends this story by telling us that “Jesus did this, the first of his signs... and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” As always, in John’s gospel the signs are there for us to see God’s glory in Jesus so that we might believe in him.
Thus began the gospel of John as he witnessed to us that in Jesus is about the business of addressing our needs with abundant and generous grace. Further, this first sign suggests that God not only has the capacity to address our crisis and need, but often is doing so long before we know they exist. More often than not God does so anonymously. Good luck? Never! The phrase needs to be stricken from the Christian’s vocabulary. Providence? Always -- God works to provide for us in generous ways just as Jesus went to work to provide for the host of the wedding feast in Cana in generous ways.
God is at work in our lives right now in ways that we can neither conceive nor identify, ways that are miraculous, extravagant, unexpected, new, and good. God is doing it so that you and I might have life, and have it more abundantly!
When the wine of life runs out, look to Jesus and do whatever he tells you to do. When the joy of life runs short, look to Jesus and do whatever he tells you to do. When the power for living your life with integrity and sobriety fails you, look to Jesus and do whatever he tells you to do. When the meaning of it all disappears, look to Jesus and do whatever he tells you to do. He is the one who has the capacity to do something about your need. In fact, the good news is that he is already working at it on his own, anonymously, just as he worked on the wedding host’s problem. He is miraculous, extravagant, unexpected, new and good.
In Christ the Maker and the giver of New Wine.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9zHn4QSH-8
U.S. Churches Look for Own in Haiti
By SUZANNE SATALINE, KEITH JOHNSON And THOMAS M. BURTON
While many churches and aid organizations have been scrambling to send whatever help they can to Haiti, others are searching for information about their own members who were caught in last week's devastating earthquake.
Friends and relatives of nuns with the Daughters of Mary, a Catholic religious order, have sought information for days since learning that the nuns' house in Port au Prince was destroyed. Julienne Jules of Lawrenceville, Ga., said she has heard that as many as 17 nuns may be dead, with several more injured and missing, including her 84-year-old aunt. "We know several are under the debris and we are trying to get someone to go in and rescue them," Ms. Jules said. "They need machinery to get them out."
Lynn University, a private school in Boca Raton, Fla., is continuing to search for four missing students and two missing faculty members, part of a 12-person team from the university that arrived in Haiti just hours before the earthquake struck, to offer housing and food aid to the poor. The other six have returned safely to Florida. Two university staff members who were vacationing in Haiti are also unaccounted for.
The university has contracted two search-and-rescue teams to look through the ruins of the Hotel Montana in Port au Prince, the last known location of university students and faculty. Lynn University students are holding candlelight vigils. Lynn staffers are also scouring hospital and embassy rolls in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the university said. The university said Sunday it had no additional details regarding the missing persons.
The missing faculty members are Dr. Patrick Hartwick, dean of the Ross College of Education, and Dr. Richard Bruno, assistant professor in the College of Liberal Education.
One of 12 missionaries from a Dallas church working at an eye clinic in Haiti died from injuries sustained in the earthquake. Jean Arnwine, who was on her first visit to Haiti to work in the eye clinic the Highland Park United Methodist Church established in 1985, was rescued from the quake area but died Friday in Guadeloupe. One other member of the mission remains in Guadeloupe, while the remaining 10 have returned home.
Two high-ranking officials with the United Methodist Church died as a result of the quake. Rev. Sam Dixon, head of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, was caught in the collapse of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince.
Also caught in the rubble was Rev. Clinton Rabb, a member of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and part of the church's mission volunteer unit since 2006. He died Sunday in Florida from injuries sustained after 55 hours trapped in the hotel rubble.
Chicago-based charity Friends of the Orphans said two young volunteers had also died in the quake. It said Molly Hightower, 22, of Port Orchard, Wash., and Ryan Kloos, 24, of Phoenix, had perished. Ryan's sister, Erin, was rescued and is in a Florida hospital, the group said.
Friends of the Orphans is the Chicago fundraising arm of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, a Catholic-affiliated nonprofit.
Yet some groups got happier news. A church outside Detroit, Christian Faith Ministries of Garden City, Mich., received text message last week that its mission in Port-au-Prince was safe and no one injured. "The entire two-acre compound is still there," said the Rev. John Hearn Jr., who is heading there with an additional group of seven this week. "The houses around us fell, but our compound is still there." The group had even just filled two wells and thus has water for drinking and cleaning available.
Compassion International, a children's relief organization based in Colorado Springs, Colo., says that one contractor, David Haynes, is still missing, presumably in the rubble of the Hotel Montana.
Spokeswoman Kathy Redmond said that the organization has people on the ground trying to pinpoint Mr. Haynes' location, and that voices were still being heard in the rubble as of Sunday afternoon.
She said her understanding is that heavy equipment is being used to move large debris at the hotel site, parts of which were just "pancaked," she said.
She added that 73 of 74 Haitian staff of Compassion International had been accounted for, though many have lost family members. Another spokesman said the group's staff was working in a parking lot because of structural concerns about the building that normally houses its offices. This spokesman, Stephan Archer, said late Sunday that "as many as 50" of the group's 230 child development centers had been affected. The centers, housed in local churches, offer food, water, education and medical services to children.
Samaritan's Purse, an international evangelical relief organization based in Boone, N.C., is providing names to a local Haitian radio station of Americans whose family and friends have not heard from them, a spokeswoman said. The broadcast recites the list of names daily at 9 a.m. and the Americans named are being asked to contact the aid organization to let people know that they are fine and have been accounted for.
Ms. Jules, whose aunt is among the missing Daughters of Mary nuns, has been sending emails and calling, but said she has received no reply from the nuns. Ms. Jules, 50, teaches high-school French. She says she contacted outside organizations, including news organizations and a Haitian Democracy nonprofit. A Catholic food organization promised to send someone to the convent to dig for the missing women. Meanwhile, some of the nuns have been taken in by another religious order, but that group has no food or water, Ms. Jules said.
No one could be reached at the sisters' mother house, in Belgium, nor their Brooklyn, N.Y., house. The order's Web site said in a message posted Saturday that the "Daughters of Mary are very affected by the earthquake.''
Ms. Jules has strong ties to the order in Haiti. Born there, she and her two sisters went to live with the sisters in 1970, attending the boarding school there, after their mother died. She said she saw her aunt just last summer. "She's my world," she said.
Members of Catholic orders said several schools were especially hard hit. At least 200 and as many as 500 students and staff at an educational complex run by the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Catholic religious order, died in the rubble, said a spokeswoman for Salesian Missions USA, the order's fundraising arm. The dead include more than 200 young women studying to be teachers at the complex's technical school, the National School of Arts and Trades. The Salesians tried to pull survivors from the rubble, and had succeeded rescuing just a few, according to the order. Without working phones, Salesians abroad were trying to get word of who else had died in a complex that includes a primary school, a youth center and kitchen that feeds thousands of children each year.
Some organizations were trying to provide care with what little they had. More than 200 people were camping on the grounds of the damaged guest residence of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Port au Prince, said Sister Kesta Occident, the congregational leader of the order, based in Montreal. The sisters have no food or electricity, so there is no water to pump, she said. "If we can do something, we will do it," said Sister Occident, who lost an aunt and half sister in the quake. "If you have food you share with them. This is the way people used to live in Haiti."
The school affiliated with the Church of St. Gerard in Port au Prince collapsed, killing most of its 300 students and teachers, according to the website for the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province, a Catholic religious order affiliated with the parish. The order also reported that the major seminary in Port au Prince, which serves all the dioceses in Haiti, was completely destroyed, while several Catholic schools and colleges lay in ruins.
Write to Suzanne Sataline at suzanne.sataline@wsj.com, Keith Johnson at keith.johnson@wsj.com and Thomas M. Burton at tom.burton@wsj.com
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