Brown's Daily Word 2-8-11

Praise the Lord for the Church. It is the only institution on earth that has been under the same management for over 2000 years. The Lord of the Church has given us word that the gates of hell can not prevail against it. The Church will be here on earth until Jesus comes again. Glory and honor to Him.
Every church I have been privileged to serve has been a great blessing to me and to my family. People at Wesley UMC love the Lord and love each other. They affirm each other. A new congregation is being birthed at the Saturday Evening worship that meets at the Historic First United Methodist Church in Endicott. The people who serve and worship there they are committed to the Lord and to His mission to find the lost and to encourage the found. They believe in miracles and they expect miracles. The people at Union Center love the Lord and love one another, and they are not only hearers of the Word but they are the doers of the Word.
I would make note of few of them this morning. Irving and Orpha are married for 63 years now, both graduates of Clarkson University. Irving was in the Intensive Care almost in a comma for 73 days. The church prayed for miracle and the Lord raised him up. It was 14 years ago that Irving was healed. Irving and Orpha rarely miss being in the house of the Lord to worship Him and praise Him.
Mary Lou Horn, Irene Boyer, and Juna Tinkam are our Church's "Golden Girls". They love the Lord and they serve Him. One of the special blessings is that they share the same birthday, February 3. Shannan Meilunas and her son Joseph share the same birthday (Groundhog Day, February 2). Joyanna Krause will celebrate her first birthday on the 11th of Febrary. She loves to be in the house of the Lord every Sunday with a big smile. People who love the Lord, all over the world of all ages, make up the Church of Jesus Christ our Lord.
In 1 Cor: 2.12-13, 15-16 we read, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."
God wants to bless us. He wants us to have all spiritual wisdom and understanding. He wants to do it for a reason that Peter called the building up of
"a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that [we] should [boldly] show forth the praises of Him who hath called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light". 1 Peter 2.9
A few years ago I met Dr. Calvin Miller in a conference in Birmingham, Alabama. He has grandson adopted from Orissa, India, where I am from. I felt an instant bond with Dr. Miller. Dr. Miller tells an old fable about a traveler going through the night, seeing up ahead of him rising out of the mist a monastery rising with the lights on. Cold and inclement was the weather, and he stopped and knocked on the door. When the abbot came, he said, "May I come in"?
The abbot said, "Not only may you come in, but you may eat with us". The food was wonderful; the monks were warm; it was a beautiful evening, safe and dry and warm. Because the weather was so bad, they asked him to stay the night. He agreed, he said, on the basis that they would supply him with a few things. "What is it you want?" they asked.
He said, "If I spend this night with you, I must have in my own room for myself alone this night a pound of butter, a pair of rubber pants, a poker, a cricket bat, and a bass saxophone". Though it was an unusual request, they scurried around the monastery and found it all.
As they went to sleep that night, they heard the awful progression of halftones and squeaks and squawks coming from his room. Because the weather continued bad, they invited him to stay another night. He did do that, and he asked again for that mysterious list of the same things: a pound of butter, a pair of rubber pants, a poker, a cricket bat, and a bass saxophone.
Each night he requested those things, and each night they heard the awful noises, until finally it was time for him to leave. The old abbot walked him to the door and said, "We were glad to supply all of those things, but would you mind telling me why you asked for them?"
The stranger said, "Well, it is a family secret. It has been in our family for years and years, but if you promise not to tell another living soul, I'll tell you". And so he told the old abbot all his heart, and the abbot, being a man of his word, never told another living soul. And so we shall never know.
Does it leave you kind of empty to not know the secret? It's an inside secret, a family thing. Such is the Gospel, and the wisdom of God. We don't have the choice to say, we believe it when we see it. This kind of inside secret is only the kind that,we will see when we believe it.
Let us take the leap of faith. His wisdom is as close as our heart believing, and our mouth confessing!
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3e95vb3KMA

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 5 PM Gathering: Italian Feast.
6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music .
Speakers: Rev. Brown Naik, and Jeff Vansycle