Brown's Daily Word 9-21-11

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this Wednesday. We will gather for our Mid-week fellowship and Bible study this evening at 6 PM followed by choir practice at 7:30 PM. All of the pastors in our Binghamton District of our United Methodist Church met with our District Superintendent yesterday to confer with one anther about the ministry of the Lord has called to be engaged in. In the light of recent devastations caused by the floods in our region there is a great open door for ministry. In times of trials and tribulations the Lord gives the testimonies of His grace. There is no "good" time for ministry. The opportunity to minister and love others is something that comes upon us.
In the story of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan was on a business trip. It wasn’t pleasure - he was in the land of those that hated him, but found it convenient to do business with him. The religious leaders had to be somewhere else, at church meetings or whatever… The Samaritan also had plenty to do, but he was a bit more ready to extend love. If we are going to live by the royal law of love then we need to be ready when the Lord is!
We are called to Love People Even When It’s Unprofitable! It cost the Samaritan to care for the man. Besides the discomfort of other people’s looks, he put the beaten man on his own saddle, and walked while the bruised and beaten Jew rode. When they got to town, the Samaritan paid for the man’s room at the inn. He even promised to pay more if it became expedient. In every way love costs. If it doesn’t cost us something then it isn’t love! Great love is very costly. If you doubt that, read once again in the Gospels the message of the cross. It cost God dearly to love our sin away.
We are called to Love People Even When It’s Uncomfortable. The Samaritan could not have been very comfortable with what he did when he took the first step towards that ditch where the wounded Jewish man was lying. You and I also have our personal "comfort zones". Though the Samaritan didn’t LIKE the Jew, he did love him. We will probably experience discomfort when we love - but that’s what happens when we live by the royal law of love.
Favoritism and prejudice are sinfully wrong. Living as a follower of Jesus Christ means a higher road, looking up, loving. As followers of Christ we must live according to the royal law, even when it’s unpopular, inconvenient, unprofitable and uncomfortable. When we love others the Lord changes things. It is part of God's divine scheme in this universe. His rule is that mercy triumphs over judgment. Loving just because Jesus loves you is the way of a winner!
Jesus confused and upset the minds of the religious leaders of the day with the unlikely people whom He chose to become his followers. The group included tax collectors and prostitutes, political extremists and the socially disenfranchised, and the poor and lame. Among them was the woman by the well and the sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. James and John, the Sons of Thunder and even Judas Iscariot followed Him.
His parables made heroes out of people we would never expect, such as the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the poor man Lazarus who had eaten crumbs from the rich man's table? His sayings turned the thinking of the day upside down, or rather right-side up. He said the last would be first, the poor would be blessed, only servants could be leaders, the simple were wise, and those of low position would be lifted to a place of honor. In God’s economy appearances are deceiving because it is an upside down kingdom. What mistakes we make when we judge people by their appearance!
I have been wonderfully surprised at times by people whose outward appearance would lead you to believe that they did not have much to offer, but as they came to Christ the beauty of God flowed out of their lives in remarkable ways. When Mother Teresa worked among the lepers in Calcutta, she was not put off by the stench of the leper colonies, the filthy wounds or rotting flesh of the people there. Instead, she touched them and held them, for she saw Jesus in them. Indeed, she saw Jesus coming to her masquerading as a leper. As she touched them she saw herself touch Christ, in what she said was “his distressing disguise.” It was Mother Teresa who said, “If we don’t accept Jesus in one another, we will not be able to give him to others.”
One of the unspoken commentaries on how this world views people was evidenced when Mother Teresa died. In God's divine comedy, she went home to her reward the same week that Princess Diana was killed. The world grieved and mourned the Princess who had become the icon of pop culture. People cried as though they had lost a close personal friend. All the networks covered the story, and they did so endlessly. Though her life was immoral and shallow, she was beautiful, sophisticated, famous, and wealthy. The networks carried the news of Mother Teresa’s death almost as an afterthought, as though they were embarrassed that it had to interfere with the real news. People forgot for her life was enormous and that her contribution to the world was incalculable, that she did not run a charitable organization in sterile fashion from a luxurious home in England, but got her hands dirty washing the festering sores on what remained of a leper’s foot, and that soiled her robe holding them close to her breast. They forgot that she had a heart as big as the sky and touched people’s lives so that they wanted to love God and be better people. It was forgotten that she brought hope and love to people who had neither, as an old, shriveled up, celibate nun. She would have been very out of place in London’s night clubs, but she was very much at home in a leper colony — and in the kingdom of God.
The Bible says, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:5). It says, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you”
In Christ,
Brown

http://youtu.be/KmpLEe-BY-M

Please pray for our upcoming ministry events:


We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.
September 24.2011
Praise and worship service:
First United Methodist Church , Endicott
Sponsored by Union Center UMC
6PM Gathering- Coffeee- Fellowship
6.30PM Worship
Music: Jane Hettinger
Speaker: Dave Hettinger



Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.

The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer

Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
September 18, we will go back onto the regular schedule with services at both 8:30 and 11 AM and Sunday School at 9:50 AM. Wesley will resume meeting at 9:30 AM.
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.