Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this season of Eastertide. Praise the Lord for the way He displays His splendor all over the world. We had a summer-like day yesterday. It was reported that the high temperature broke the record here in the Southern tier of New York. It was in the mid eighties. The forsythias and the daffodils are in full bloom. I drove into the downtown area, where the flowering trees are in full bloom. It is springtime in New York. It is brilliant and beautiful. Thank you Jesus. Best of all, He is beautiful beyond compare.
One of the most important of all battles was fought on June 8, 1815 in Belgium, at a place called Waterloo. England, under the command of General Wellington joined forces with the Dutch, Belgians, and Prussians to defeat a military genius, a madman by the name of Napoleon. If Napoleon could defeat Wellington and England then he would have most of Europe under his control, his lost empire would be rebuilt, and France would victorious.
The battle raged on and on, and all of England waited for word to come out of Belgium. There were no radios, no phones, and no telegraph. One ship would flash a message via light signals from the battle-front a signal-man who read the signals and then in turn would signal to England. On the final day the ship got as close as possible to the battle and the signal came back to England, where all wondered who was winning the war, as it was getting near the end. Then a dense fog set in just as the message was flashed, "Wellington Defeated". Due to the fog they could not make out the rest of it, so they went to bed that night convinced of defeat and wondering how soon it would be until the army of France would march into the streets of England. However, early the next morning the fog lifted and they could read the whole message, "Wellington defeated the enemy at Waterloo."
On that Judean hillside known as Golgotha or Calvary, Jesus was crucified and the fog was there on Good Friday, but it was clear on Sunday morning. The message was clear. Jesus Christ defeated the enemy at Calvary. He rose from the dead! He had conquered death, and he gives us reason to celebrate. The promise of Jesus is not to add years to our lives, but to add life to our years from our acceptance of Him and the resurrection event.
I am including the song "You Are Stronger" --by Hill Song). Our daughter, Laureen, sang this song during the Easter Morning Worship last Sunday. Indeed, our Lord is mighty. He is stronger.
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv55FMjeMV0
Friday, April 9, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Brown's Daily Word 4-8-10
Good morning,
The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday gathering, with a wonderful meal, great fellowship and wonderful Bible study. We looked at the Resurrection passage from Mathew. The Resurrection should leave no doubt in our minds that all of Jesus claims are true. It is nice to have such a certainty about such a vital issue, especially since so many things in our world are so uncertain. The world, even the world of science, in whom so many place their trust, rarely can say anything with certainty. For example…
Harvard Medical School Has Just Reversed itself again.
1950—salt causes hypertension;
1960—salt does not cause hypertension;
1970—salt causes hypertension;
1980—salt relieves hypertension;
1998—the AMA Journal evaluates 114 separate studies and concludes that salt does not affect hypertension either way.
—Paul Harvey
Unlike the definitive word of Harvard Medical School, the Resurrection is a true and unchanging sign from God of Jesus' authenticity. Jesus made a lot of exceptional and important statements about Himself. He claimed to be the one and only divine Son of God. He claimed to be absolutely the only way to go to Heaven. He claimed to be the one and only true source of life, fulfilling and eternal. He claimed to be completely without sin, the perfect expression of God the Father. Certainly, even a cursory reading of the Gospels will show us that Jesus claimed to be much more than a "good teacher", "spiritual leader", or a "prophet." Jesus did not claim to be one of many ways to God, but said that He was God and that He was the only way to God.
There is an anecdote of an extremely educated man who once said to a little girl who believed in the Lord Jesus, "My poor little girl, you don’t know in whom you believe. There have been so many Christs. In which one of them do you believe? The little girl replied, “I know which one I believe in. I believe in the Christ who rose from the dead!"
Michelangelo once said to a group of artists, "Why do you keep filling galleries with endless pictures on the theme of Christ in weakness, Christ on the cross, and most of all, Christ hanging dead? Why do you concentrate on this passing episode as if it were His last work? That dreadful scene lasted only a few hours, but to the unending eternity Christ is alive; He rules and reigns and triumphs!"
In 1989, an 8.2 earthquake almost flattened Armenia, killing over 30,000 people in less than four minutes. It’s hard to imagine the pain, and suffering that was felt there as a result of a momentary rumbling of the earth. In the twinkling of an eye, worlds were shaken and lives crushed. Surprisingly, such tragedies often bring out the best in people, or at least they provide a wide open window to peek at the contents of each heart. In the midst of the chaos and destruction, a father rushed to his son’s school. Instead of a school, he found a shapeless heap of rubble. The sight of rubble and ruin made him spring into action. He ran to the back corner of the building where his son’s class used to be and began to dig. All he knew was that he had made a promise to always be there for his boy. It was this promise that animated his hands and motivated his heart.
As he began to dig, well-meaning parents tried to pull him out of the rubble saying, "It’s too late!" "They’re dead!" "You can’t help!" "Go home!" "There’s nothing you can do!" Then the fire chief tried to pull him off the rubble by saying, "Fires and explosions are happening everywhere. You’re in danger. Go home!" Finally, the police came and said, "You’re angry, distraught, but it’s over. You’re endangering others. Go home. We’ll handle it!"
The determined dad continued to dig for eight . . . 12 . . . 24 . . . 36 hours. Then, in the 38th hour, he pulled back a boulder and heard his sons’ voice. Immediately, he screamed, "ARMAND!" Back came the words, "Dad!? I told them! I told the other kids that if you were still alive, you’d save me! You promised me you’d always be here for me! You did it, dad!" A determined father, a promise kept, and a stone rolled away to reveal life and give freedom.
The story of Armand’s dad reminds me of the events of that first Easter when the Heavenly Father kept a greater promise by rolling away a much more difficult stone. With the rolling away of that stone, came eternal life, and true lasting freedom in Christ! Our Heavenly Father is still in the business of rolling away stones.
Jesus is Risen. He is the Risen Rock..
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il94HoX5rRo
The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday gathering, with a wonderful meal, great fellowship and wonderful Bible study. We looked at the Resurrection passage from Mathew. The Resurrection should leave no doubt in our minds that all of Jesus claims are true. It is nice to have such a certainty about such a vital issue, especially since so many things in our world are so uncertain. The world, even the world of science, in whom so many place their trust, rarely can say anything with certainty. For example…
Harvard Medical School Has Just Reversed itself again.
1950—salt causes hypertension;
1960—salt does not cause hypertension;
1970—salt causes hypertension;
1980—salt relieves hypertension;
1998—the AMA Journal evaluates 114 separate studies and concludes that salt does not affect hypertension either way.
—Paul Harvey
Unlike the definitive word of Harvard Medical School, the Resurrection is a true and unchanging sign from God of Jesus' authenticity. Jesus made a lot of exceptional and important statements about Himself. He claimed to be the one and only divine Son of God. He claimed to be absolutely the only way to go to Heaven. He claimed to be the one and only true source of life, fulfilling and eternal. He claimed to be completely without sin, the perfect expression of God the Father. Certainly, even a cursory reading of the Gospels will show us that Jesus claimed to be much more than a "good teacher", "spiritual leader", or a "prophet." Jesus did not claim to be one of many ways to God, but said that He was God and that He was the only way to God.
There is an anecdote of an extremely educated man who once said to a little girl who believed in the Lord Jesus, "My poor little girl, you don’t know in whom you believe. There have been so many Christs. In which one of them do you believe? The little girl replied, “I know which one I believe in. I believe in the Christ who rose from the dead!"
Michelangelo once said to a group of artists, "Why do you keep filling galleries with endless pictures on the theme of Christ in weakness, Christ on the cross, and most of all, Christ hanging dead? Why do you concentrate on this passing episode as if it were His last work? That dreadful scene lasted only a few hours, but to the unending eternity Christ is alive; He rules and reigns and triumphs!"
In 1989, an 8.2 earthquake almost flattened Armenia, killing over 30,000 people in less than four minutes. It’s hard to imagine the pain, and suffering that was felt there as a result of a momentary rumbling of the earth. In the twinkling of an eye, worlds were shaken and lives crushed. Surprisingly, such tragedies often bring out the best in people, or at least they provide a wide open window to peek at the contents of each heart. In the midst of the chaos and destruction, a father rushed to his son’s school. Instead of a school, he found a shapeless heap of rubble. The sight of rubble and ruin made him spring into action. He ran to the back corner of the building where his son’s class used to be and began to dig. All he knew was that he had made a promise to always be there for his boy. It was this promise that animated his hands and motivated his heart.
As he began to dig, well-meaning parents tried to pull him out of the rubble saying, "It’s too late!" "They’re dead!" "You can’t help!" "Go home!" "There’s nothing you can do!" Then the fire chief tried to pull him off the rubble by saying, "Fires and explosions are happening everywhere. You’re in danger. Go home!" Finally, the police came and said, "You’re angry, distraught, but it’s over. You’re endangering others. Go home. We’ll handle it!"
The determined dad continued to dig for eight . . . 12 . . . 24 . . . 36 hours. Then, in the 38th hour, he pulled back a boulder and heard his sons’ voice. Immediately, he screamed, "ARMAND!" Back came the words, "Dad!? I told them! I told the other kids that if you were still alive, you’d save me! You promised me you’d always be here for me! You did it, dad!" A determined father, a promise kept, and a stone rolled away to reveal life and give freedom.
The story of Armand’s dad reminds me of the events of that first Easter when the Heavenly Father kept a greater promise by rolling away a much more difficult stone. With the rolling away of that stone, came eternal life, and true lasting freedom in Christ! Our Heavenly Father is still in the business of rolling away stones.
Jesus is Risen. He is the Risen Rock..
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il94HoX5rRo
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Brown's Daily Word 4-6-10
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. It is going to be a warm Spring day here today, with a chance of thunderstorms and weather in the seventies, but like Summer here tomorrow, with sun and eighty-plus temps. The forsythias and the daffodils are in full bloom, and the crab apple trees are budding brilliantly. It is beginning to look a lot like Spring all around. Praise the Lord that He is the Lord of all seasons and He is the Lord in every season. He is beautiful beyond compare and beyond our description. He makes beautiful all things in His time.
In Rudyard Kiplings', "The Jungle Book", Mowgli, the man cub, asks the animals what is the most feared thing in the jungle. He is told that when two animals meet on a narrow path that one must step aside and let the other pass. The animal that steps aside for no one would then be the most feared.
Mowgli then wants to know what kind of animal would that be? One tells him it’s an elephant. Another tells him it’s a lion. Finally the wise old owl exclaims, “The most feared thing in the jungle is death. It steps aside for no one.”
We find this statement to be so true. It matters not how physically strong, financially rich, fantastically popular, or overwhelmingly powerful we may appear to be. Death comes as easily to the strong as to the weak, to the rich as to the poor, to the popular as to the outcasts of society. Death is an absolute truth for all of us. No one is exempt.
Hebrews 9:27 states, "It is appointed to all men once to die and after that the judgment." Death, however, was not the ultimate destiny of Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord that Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the life, who triumphed over sin, death, and the grave. He is alive and well and He is at large in the world, changing lives, transforming each one who comes to Him by faith through His grace.
One of the brilliant Christian writers alongside of C.S. Lewis is Malcolm Muggeridge. Malcolm Muggeridge, who hails from Great Britain, was a Marxist before he found Christ. During the Cold War he traveled to Russia to write a story about the Communist party and the decline of religion in that atheistic regime. After conducting a series of interviews with officials in the Kremlin, he attended a Russian Orthodox Easter service. The church was packed. At the close of the service the priest announced, “Christ is risen”, and the people shouted back, “He is risen indeed!” Muggeridge looked into their faces and instantly realized that they were right and that Stalin was wrong. He said it was the reality of their joy that tipped the scales of his soul toward Christ. The reality of Christian joy is compelling!
Easter is about victory over death. We have joy in knowing that Jesus holds the keys of death and hell. Because Christ is alive and upon the throne we can live with renewed peace, joy, hope, and a firm sense of mission, which can affect our entire outlook on life. We become purpose-driven to serve Christ with joy and obedience.
He is Risen,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN77HjfAc8k
Praise the Lord for this new day. It is going to be a warm Spring day here today, with a chance of thunderstorms and weather in the seventies, but like Summer here tomorrow, with sun and eighty-plus temps. The forsythias and the daffodils are in full bloom, and the crab apple trees are budding brilliantly. It is beginning to look a lot like Spring all around. Praise the Lord that He is the Lord of all seasons and He is the Lord in every season. He is beautiful beyond compare and beyond our description. He makes beautiful all things in His time.
In Rudyard Kiplings', "The Jungle Book", Mowgli, the man cub, asks the animals what is the most feared thing in the jungle. He is told that when two animals meet on a narrow path that one must step aside and let the other pass. The animal that steps aside for no one would then be the most feared.
Mowgli then wants to know what kind of animal would that be? One tells him it’s an elephant. Another tells him it’s a lion. Finally the wise old owl exclaims, “The most feared thing in the jungle is death. It steps aside for no one.”
We find this statement to be so true. It matters not how physically strong, financially rich, fantastically popular, or overwhelmingly powerful we may appear to be. Death comes as easily to the strong as to the weak, to the rich as to the poor, to the popular as to the outcasts of society. Death is an absolute truth for all of us. No one is exempt.
Hebrews 9:27 states, "It is appointed to all men once to die and after that the judgment." Death, however, was not the ultimate destiny of Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord that Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the life, who triumphed over sin, death, and the grave. He is alive and well and He is at large in the world, changing lives, transforming each one who comes to Him by faith through His grace.
One of the brilliant Christian writers alongside of C.S. Lewis is Malcolm Muggeridge. Malcolm Muggeridge, who hails from Great Britain, was a Marxist before he found Christ. During the Cold War he traveled to Russia to write a story about the Communist party and the decline of religion in that atheistic regime. After conducting a series of interviews with officials in the Kremlin, he attended a Russian Orthodox Easter service. The church was packed. At the close of the service the priest announced, “Christ is risen”, and the people shouted back, “He is risen indeed!” Muggeridge looked into their faces and instantly realized that they were right and that Stalin was wrong. He said it was the reality of their joy that tipped the scales of his soul toward Christ. The reality of Christian joy is compelling!
Easter is about victory over death. We have joy in knowing that Jesus holds the keys of death and hell. Because Christ is alive and upon the throne we can live with renewed peace, joy, hope, and a firm sense of mission, which can affect our entire outlook on life. We become purpose-driven to serve Christ with joy and obedience.
He is Risen,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN77HjfAc8k
Monday, April 5, 2010
Brown's Daily Word 4-5-10
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the Good News from the Graveyard on Easter Morning. Jesus our Savior, who was crucified and buried, rose again on the Third Day from the grave, victorious and triumphant. The Lord blessed us with a glorious Easter weekend. All of our family came home for Easter: Janice, Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon came in on Thursday afternoon. Jess and Tom arrived Thursday Evening. Sunita and Andy came Friday Evening.
The Lord blessed us with an anointed Good Friday Service. Saturday was a glorious day, brilliant and very bright. Children gathered at Church grounds for an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning, with 240 eggs hidden around the church grounds. It was a special joy to watch the children as they eagerly raced around, searching for eggs.
Easter Sunday was glorious. It was a wonderful privilege to join the people of the Lord around the world in worshipping the Risen Lord. Praise the Lord for the way He came, He saw, and He conquered death and He is alive for evermore. "We all are raised up in Christ and because of Christ."
A story has been told of an Illinois man who left Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife, who was on a business trip, was planning to meet him the next day. When he reached his hotel he decided to send his wife a quick
e-mail. Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it from memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter, so his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor, dead. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
Dearest Wife,
Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.
Your Loving Husband.
PS: Sure is hot down here.
What could be more powerful than news from the other side of death? Easter is that and more.
It is not an email message, but a living message.
It is not from man, but from God.
It is not from hell, but from heaven.
It is GOOD NEWS !
God’s Word speaks of this hope as “an anchor for the soul.” It is often the unspoken strength that allows us to rise each day and face the uncertainties of life. In the midst of our losses and let downs, we can anchor our souls with divine strength. The hope of Easter is not the hope of a naive fool or nagging optimist, but, rather, it is the hope that meets us in the real world.
The Resurrection, as recorded by John, one of the eye witnesses of the event, BEGAN AT DAWN WHEN IT WAS STILL DARK… It began with an individual, Mary. Perhaps as fascinating and encouraging as anything God chooses to do, He who focuses on the greatest events, (events of cosmic proportions) focuses on ordinary individuals.
Mary was not what you would call a traditionally religious person. She was from the city of Magdala along the sea of Galilee. According to Christian tradition, Mary was a scarlet sinner. She had at one time been oppressed by spiritual powers that bound her within. Jesus had freed her from that horrible oppression. When Mary came to the tomb she came in love, but ALSO IN DARKNESS. It was not just the darkness of the sky, but the darkness of her soul. Her love may have been strong but her hope could not see anything left to hold onto. Jesus was gone and the world without Him was dark. It was dark around her and dark within her.
Easter begins where life on this planet finds us. The world is not always safe, sane, and satisfying. It is, rather, a world where the love of family and friends can fall short and prove frail and fragile. Ours is a world where people we love leave us far too soon. Easter enters just such a world. The love of God is a deep love that seeks us in the darkness, not the love of fairy tales or forced devotion. Rather, it is a love that reaches into the real world.
What Mary saw that Easter morning would change her life forever and it can change ours also. Jesus came to Mary because she needed him. We all need him. He knew better than she did that we all need a risen Savior. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.” Hebrews 6:19-20 [NIV]
Murdo Ewen MacDonald, a prisoner of war in Germany and chaplain to American soldiers, told how he learned of the Normandy invasion. Early on D-Day, he was awakened and told that a Scotsman in the British prisoner-of-war camp wanted to see him. MacDonald ran to the barbed wire that separated the two camps. The Scot, who was in touch with the BBC by underground radio, spoke two words in Gaelic, meaning "They have come." MacDonald ran back to the American camp and spread the news: "They have come . . . They have come." And everyone knew the allied troops had landed at Normandy. The reaction was incredible. Men jumped and shouted, hugged each other, even rolled on the ground. Outwardly they were still captives, but inwardly they were free. That’s the hope that changes life !!
Christ is Risen
He is Risen indeed.
In Him,
Brown
Rembrandt van Rijn: Resurrection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnHksDFHTQI
Praise the Lord for the Good News from the Graveyard on Easter Morning. Jesus our Savior, who was crucified and buried, rose again on the Third Day from the grave, victorious and triumphant. The Lord blessed us with a glorious Easter weekend. All of our family came home for Easter: Janice, Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon came in on Thursday afternoon. Jess and Tom arrived Thursday Evening. Sunita and Andy came Friday Evening.
The Lord blessed us with an anointed Good Friday Service. Saturday was a glorious day, brilliant and very bright. Children gathered at Church grounds for an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning, with 240 eggs hidden around the church grounds. It was a special joy to watch the children as they eagerly raced around, searching for eggs.
Easter Sunday was glorious. It was a wonderful privilege to join the people of the Lord around the world in worshipping the Risen Lord. Praise the Lord for the way He came, He saw, and He conquered death and He is alive for evermore. "We all are raised up in Christ and because of Christ."
A story has been told of an Illinois man who left Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife, who was on a business trip, was planning to meet him the next day. When he reached his hotel he decided to send his wife a quick
e-mail. Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it from memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter, so his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor, dead. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
Dearest Wife,
Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.
Your Loving Husband.
PS: Sure is hot down here.
What could be more powerful than news from the other side of death? Easter is that and more.
It is not an email message, but a living message.
It is not from man, but from God.
It is not from hell, but from heaven.
It is GOOD NEWS !
God’s Word speaks of this hope as “an anchor for the soul.” It is often the unspoken strength that allows us to rise each day and face the uncertainties of life. In the midst of our losses and let downs, we can anchor our souls with divine strength. The hope of Easter is not the hope of a naive fool or nagging optimist, but, rather, it is the hope that meets us in the real world.
The Resurrection, as recorded by John, one of the eye witnesses of the event, BEGAN AT DAWN WHEN IT WAS STILL DARK… It began with an individual, Mary. Perhaps as fascinating and encouraging as anything God chooses to do, He who focuses on the greatest events, (events of cosmic proportions) focuses on ordinary individuals.
Mary was not what you would call a traditionally religious person. She was from the city of Magdala along the sea of Galilee. According to Christian tradition, Mary was a scarlet sinner. She had at one time been oppressed by spiritual powers that bound her within. Jesus had freed her from that horrible oppression. When Mary came to the tomb she came in love, but ALSO IN DARKNESS. It was not just the darkness of the sky, but the darkness of her soul. Her love may have been strong but her hope could not see anything left to hold onto. Jesus was gone and the world without Him was dark. It was dark around her and dark within her.
Easter begins where life on this planet finds us. The world is not always safe, sane, and satisfying. It is, rather, a world where the love of family and friends can fall short and prove frail and fragile. Ours is a world where people we love leave us far too soon. Easter enters just such a world. The love of God is a deep love that seeks us in the darkness, not the love of fairy tales or forced devotion. Rather, it is a love that reaches into the real world.
What Mary saw that Easter morning would change her life forever and it can change ours also. Jesus came to Mary because she needed him. We all need him. He knew better than she did that we all need a risen Savior. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.” Hebrews 6:19-20 [NIV]
Murdo Ewen MacDonald, a prisoner of war in Germany and chaplain to American soldiers, told how he learned of the Normandy invasion. Early on D-Day, he was awakened and told that a Scotsman in the British prisoner-of-war camp wanted to see him. MacDonald ran to the barbed wire that separated the two camps. The Scot, who was in touch with the BBC by underground radio, spoke two words in Gaelic, meaning "They have come." MacDonald ran back to the American camp and spread the news: "They have come . . . They have come." And everyone knew the allied troops had landed at Normandy. The reaction was incredible. Men jumped and shouted, hugged each other, even rolled on the ground. Outwardly they were still captives, but inwardly they were free. That’s the hope that changes life !!
Christ is Risen
He is Risen indeed.
In Him,
Brown
Rembrandt van Rijn: Resurrection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnHksDFHTQI
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