Brown's Daily Word 3-28-11

Praise the Lord; it is Monday. It is going to be a brilliant and beautiful day. Thank you Jesus. He blessed us with a full and beautiful weekend. I conducted a service death and resurrection for Shirley Barbin on Saturday. She was the mother of Don Barbin, who formerly came to UCUMC before moving to North Carolina some years ago. Her son sang with his guitar, "Precious Lord take my hand; lead me home". The Lord blessed the service by His presence. The Lord opens the door for us to proclaim the sure and the certain of Resurrection for those who die in the Lord. It is written indeed that those die in the Lord are blessed. Our Saturday March Madness banquet was a huge treat. Lou Pasquel, Rodney Haines, and the team prepared a sumptuous feast. They served to a full house. The presentation of Simon Peter by Dr. James Geer PhD following the banquet was a great blessing. There was a great gathering for the presentation. The Lord blessed us during our morning worship services. I preached at Union Center and my wife Alice preached at Wesley. Our granddaughter Micah called on her way home from the church in Cambridge MA. She was riding with her parents and told me all about her Sunday Worship experience along with her Sunday School experience, and the bagels, cream cheese, and fruit galore following the morning worship. The Gospel Reading for yesterday was taken from John 4, the encounter of our Lord with the woman of Samaria. The King James translation reads, "And He must needs to go through Samaria". I spoke on the "Must-ness of the Gospel, regarding loving the unlovable as our Lord loved us so that while we were yet sinners He died for us. Dr Tony Campollo, shares the story of Ted and Miss Thompson in his book, "Who Switched the Price Tags?" Ted Stallard was a young man who was turned off by school. On a given day his appearance was very sloppy. He was expressionless, unattractive, and slow. Often he would simply sit in class and stare off into space, unresponsive, which was an irritation to his teacher. Miss Thompson enjoyed bearing down her red pen -- as she placed big red X’s beside his many wrong answers. One day Miss Thompson opened Ted's records and read them more carefully. They read: 1st grade: Ted shows promise with his work and attitude, but (has) poor home situation. 2nd grade: Ted could do better. Mother seriously ill. Receives little help from home. 3rd grade: Ted is a good boy but too serious. He is a slow learner. His mother died this year. 4th grade: Ted is very slow, but well-behaved. His father shows no interest whatsoever. Christmas arrived. The children piled elaborately wrapped gifts on their teacher's desk. Ted brought one too. It was wrapped in brown paper and held together with Scotch Tape. Miss Thompson opened each gift, as the children crowded around to watch. Out of Ted's package fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet, with half of the stones missing, and a bottle of cheap perfume. The children began to snicker, but she silenced them by splashing some of the perfume on her wrist, and letting them smell it. She put the bracelet on too. At day's end, after the other children had left, Ted came by the teacher's desk and said, "Miss Thompson, you smell just like my mother. And the bracelet looks real pretty on you. I'm glad you like my presents." He left. Miss Thompson got down on her knees and asked God to forgive her and to change her attitude. The next day, the children were greeted by a reformed teacher -- one committed to loving each of them, especially the slow ones. Especially Ted. Surprisingly -- or maybe, not surprisingly, Ted began to show great improvement. He actually caught up with most of the students and even passed a few. Graduation came and went. Miss Thompson heard nothing from Ted for a long time. Then, one day, she received this note: Dear Miss Thompson: I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating second in my class. Love, Ted Four years later, another note arrived: Dear Miss Thompson: They just told me I will be graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be first to know. The university has not been easy, but I liked it. Love, Ted And four years later: Dear Miss Thompson: As of today, I am Theodore Stallard, M.D. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I am getting married next month, the 27th to be exact. I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive. You are the only family I have now; Dad died last year. Love, Ted Miss Thompson attended that wedding, and sat where Ted's mother would have sat. The compassion she had shown that young man entitled her to that privilege. Every day we come in contact with people like Ted. However, for some, the hurt doesn’t always show on the outside. Some people wear a mask to cover the invisible pain that exists just beneath the surface of their lives. It may be your next door neighbor, a member of your family, a spouse, a friend, the person sitting next to you right now. It is the private pain that they live with every day that eats away at their soul. The pain is often caused by sin and failure. If we would only realize just how much healing we could bring about in the lives of these broken-hearted, hurting people, those that the world, and sadly some Christians, call the unlovable. If we would only learn to respond to their hurt with love and not condemnation, as Jesus did. In order to bring about healing in their lives, first and foremost we must bring them to Jesus Christ. He alone is the healer of invisible pain . In order to do that though we must first learn to become lovers of the unlovable. The event of John 4, bears witness that Jesus was a lover of the unlovable and He calls us to do the same. Since He is our example in all things we need to pay close attention to His leading. There are many who seemed to have it all together. If you would meet them on the street you probably could not know guess the depth of their pain. Behind their masks there may be deep emptiness in their hearts and a sense of failure. Many feel unlovable, unforgivable, and perhaps even forsaken by God. The Samaritan has a "checkered" past. She had 5 failed marriages and now she was living with a man in sin. She was society's outcast, who came to the well at the sixth hour to draw water (in theheat of the day). Perhaps her family and friends had disowned her. She was also a Samaritan of “Mixed Race”, part Jew/part Babylonian. Her life was about to change that day when she meet Jesus Christ. She experienced healing in her life that day, when she met the One who loves the unlovable. In Christ, Brown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoC1ec-lYps Saturday evening worship service. Location: First United Methodist Church 53 McKinley Avenue Endicott Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott Saturday, April 2, 2011 6 PM Coffee Fellowship 6:30 PM Worship Service Worship Music: Aric Phinney and the worship team Speaker: David Hettinger