Brown's Daily Word 3-31-11

Good morning, Praise the Lord for this last day of March. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful mid-week gathering last evening. The food was delicious, and the study and sharing were sweet. As we journey with Jesus to Jerusalem we look at His humility and grace. In Philippians 2 we read, "He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a Name which is above every Name". There was no mistake in Jesus’ humility, sacrifice, and sufferings. In C.S.Lewis' Narnia, before Aslan suffers he tells Susan and Lucy that his sufferings must be done, and so it was with Jesus. It was the LORD’s will to crush Him and put him to grief ( Isaiah 53). When Aslan rises he tells Susan and Lucy about a deeper magic that was never told to nor known by the White Witch – that when someone who had done no treachery willingly offered himself as a sacrifice for blood the stone table would crack and even death would work backwards. Jesus' sacrifice meant that life would be lived under God’s grace and not under the curse of the Law. When we by faith appropriate the death and sacrificial offering of Christ at the cross we are adopted by Him and we share His eternal life as an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished. We are empowered by Him to storm Satan’s house with Him and breathe God’s words on those enslaved to Satan because of their sin and call people back from the coldness and deadness of condemnation to the warmth and vitality of communion with God. (When Aslan was raised from the dead and breathed life on those who had been turned to stone by the White Witch and they became Aslan's army against her.) It is written in Hebrews that Jesus endured His cross because of the joy set before Him. Jesus sees us standing sinless and righteous before God (just as sinless and righteous as He is). In the same way, in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", Aslan went through the anguish of death in order to see Edmund the Traitor as Edmund the Just and Narnia released from the power of the White Witch for good. Because Jesus bore our iniquities and offered Himself for our sins God will reward Him with riches and Jesus will divide the spoil with His people just as victors divide up plunder when they conquer a kingdom. In Lewis' classic tale the White Witch was defeated and how all in Narnia celebrated the reign of Aslan. He caused Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy to sit upon thrones and made them rulers of his domain. God says that one day we shall wear a crown and sit with Jesus and reign with Him under new heavens and on a new earth where righteousness dwells. Amazingly, we can be royalty and the only reason this promise is secure is because of Jesus. When He exposed His soul to death, Jesus was numbered with the rebels but He was there to bear your sins and mine. In Christ, Brown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOY0mjjmx8Y 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