Brown's Daily Word 9-28-11

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. We will gather for our Wednesday gathering this evening at 6 PM for a meal and for study and prayer at 6:30PM followed by the choir practice at 7.30PM
We all love the story of Jacob. We all can identify with Jacob along our own life's journey. As Jacob returned home after so many years, he wrestled with the Lord along the way. It was an all night battle. We wonder about the idea of wrestling with God, and whether it is better in God’s eyes to ask the questions and embrace the struggle, rather than not to seek God at all, or to have a shallow faith without depth.
Throughout the Bible, there are countless stories of Bible heroes who would seem to be less than deserving of the name. Yet God appears to desire people with fire and vibrant personalities who seem to get it wrong almost as often as they get it right. Jacob was just one of those vibrant personalities. He was filled with passion - a passion for life, a passion for success, a passion for getting ahead at all costs, a passion for everything he did. Through this struggle, this all night battle, he developed a passion for God.
Within the struggle we see the self-limitation of God, who meets us on our own level and within the manner of our personality. Another thing that makes us uncomfortable is the idea that God appears to be unable to prevail in this wrestling match, and vulnerable to the coming of daylight. I suggest that what we really see is a choice on God’s part to be vulnerable. At any moment God could have chosen to overpower Jacob and win the wrestling match. However, God chose, before the struggle had even began, to limit himself in such a way as to be equal to Jacob. As long as Jacob would remain to struggle, God would remain to struggle with him.
I also find it interesting that God would choose this method, this timing, in order to engage Jacob. Why would He wrestle with Jacob in the middle of the night?
Perhaps because it was a method of which Jacob could understand. His whole life has been a struggle of one kind or another. Each scenario - from his brother, to his father, to his father-in-law, and now to God - had been about finding a way to triumph in any given situation. In some respects, this struggle was invitational to Jacob in ‘language’ that Jacob could understand. The invitation was to enter a relationship with God, which Jacob did in way familiar to him. It also cannot be over looked, that it occurred at his most vulnerable moment - while he was alone, removed from all that he has to depend upon, frightened and in the dark. It was then that God began the encounter with Jacob. It is often takes such times before we will let God in to begin to work in our lives.
Anytime we engage in struggle with God, we are indeed changed. When daylight came and the struggle was over, Jacob left changed. He left with a new name and a new identity, but he also leaves with a limp, a new humility, and a new respect for what God can do. He left limping so that, from now on, he could live and walk, by leaning on the Lord alone. Jacob had stolen the blessings of his father. We never can steal blessings from God. Blessings are freely given as signs of the grace of the Lord.
Jacob uttered desperately to the Lord, "I will not let you go until you bless me". I believe that it was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Pre-Existent , with whom Jacob wrestled all night. The Lord blessed him and gave him a new name. Jacob was born again at that moment and a new name given to him. The Lord offers the very same gift of grace to every one who comes to Jesus and surrenders his or her life to Him, saying, "I give up. I surrender." Then and there we are born again. We are given a new name and a new identify. WOW!
The encounter Jacob had with God mirrors one yet to come when he would meet his brother face-to-face. How would he handle that struggle? Jacob learned and began to realize that whatever would come his way, whether by his own hand or by another way, he could prevail because of his encounter with God.
Kathleen Norris sees the Jacob story as a story about grace. She concludes the discussion of this story most eloquently: “As Psalm 139 puts it, darkness is as nothing to God, who can look right through whatever evil we’ve done in our lives to the creature made in the divine image. I feel as awe-struck as Jacob, because I realize that this is how God looks at us, staring onto our faces in order to be delighted, to see the creature God made and called good, along with the rest of Creation.
“God loves to look at us, and loves it when we look back at him. Even when we try to run away from our troubles, as Jacob did, God will find us, and bless us, even (and I would add - especially) when we feel most alone, unsure if we’ll survive the night. God will find a way to let us know that God is with us, in this place, wherever we are, however far we think we’ve run. "
Maybe it's time to wrestle with God. Maybe it's time to stop running and engage in the struggle, to determine whose going to be in control of the issues and parts of our lives we’ve yet to deal with. Maybe it's time.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/7x2IpLSfqp8

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.
Saturday , October 1.2011
Praise and worship service:
First United Methodist Church , 53 McKinley Ave Endicott
Sponsored by Union Center UMC
6PM Gathering- Coffeee- Fellowship
6.30PM Worship
Music: Laureen Naik
Speaker: Rev William Puckey


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".
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.