Brown's Daily Word 2-15-11

Good morning,
The Lord gave us a beautiful and very blessed day yesterday. Snow has begun to melt. Our daughter Jessie and our son-in-law Tom celebrated their first wedding anniversary yesterday.
I conducted a memorial service yesterday for a young man named Steve. Steve died suddenly last Friday at home. He was only 44 years old. Many many family members and friends attended the service. In the face of death we proclaim the Good News of life eternal in Jesus Christ who came, who saw, and who conquered death. One of the powerful passages is found in 1 John 5:1-6, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.” 1 John 5:1-6 (NKJV)
This text reveals that we will face powerful opposition in this world. This opposition is necessary. Helen Keller, famous for the difficulties she overcame being born blind, made the observation that, “The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were not limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.” It is the difficulties in life that give us the opportunity to know what it is like to have victory.
Those who do not know the Lord merely survive in the world. To those who love the Lord and serve Him He has given the authority and power to overcome. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.” There is no way to be an overcomer without a new birth, without being born again. Being an overcomer demands that we be born again. There is not one lost person alive today who can honestly say that they are living joyful, fulfilled, victorious lives. That person does not have the ingredient necessary for a victorious life. “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith." Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is Lord? He is Lord and Savior, who has redeemed us through His blood at the cross. There is mystery and wonder that in and through His death He has given us life and victory.
Let me share about a story, that I have heard in several different forms, “Years ago in London, a liberal minister who didn't believe in the gospel, was visited by a young boy who had been sent by his mother. He said, ‘My mother is dying. Please come and get here in!’ At first he believed the boy meant that his mother was out drunk somewhere so the minister said to the boy, ‘Get a policeman, it is raining out and I don't want to go out. Get a policeman to get her home.’ The boy replied, ‘She is already at home. She’s not drunk; she is at home and she is dying.’ Now the minister was stunned as he understood that she needed words of comfort to face her Maker, so he was worried about what to say. When he arrived at her beside, he told her that she had lived a good life. ‘You've nothing to fear,’ he said, ‘God is Love.’ But his words gave her no hope. The pastor became desperate. All he could remember was a hymn his mother had sung when he was a boy, so he began to sing, ‘There is a fountain filled with blood drawn Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.’ Seeing the woman’s face brighten, he falteringly related what he had been taught in his youth - that Christ took the sinner’s place on the cross. In those moments the dying woman found peace by trusting Jesus as her Savior. Presenting the gospel to her, the minister ‘got her.’ The next Sunday he told his congregation about his experience. He concluded, ‘Not only did it get her in, it got me in too. From now on I’ll preach Christ, and Him crucified."
It is written in Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” (NKJV)
We can overcome the obstacles that we face in this life through the strength that we receive in the Lord. We are reminded in 1 John 4:4, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (NKJV)
If you have been born again, you have already been made an overcomer in Him. We have already been given the victory through the blood of Jesus Christ. Our challenge now is to live in the light of the victory that has already been won.
In Christ,we are more than conquerors.
Brown

This devotion is posted on my facebookpage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymrZO1PZbU4


Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church. Endicott
53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott.
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott


Saturday February 12, 2011
6PM Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music .: Worship Band from Hawleyton UMC
Speaker: Rev. Bill Puckey