Brown's Daily Word 9-29-11

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the gift of this new day. Praise the Lord for the gift of life in and through Jesus Christ our Lord. Praise the Lord for those who have gone before us loving and serving the Lord with all their bloopers and blunders. It is written that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Abraham is known for his faith. Samson is known for his strength, David is known for his heart. Hebrews 11:8, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."
"In the New Testament Paul spoke of Abraham and commended the faith of Abraham to us as “Only believe.” Genesis 12:1 God’s first words to Abram were leave and go. Leave your country. Leave your people. Leave your father’s household. Step out of your comfort zone. Leave everything that is familiar to you. Abandon your desires. Leave your preferences. Turn your back on your daily routine. "Go to the land that I will show you." Go to the unknown, the unfamiliar. Go to the place where you will have to trust Me in a way that you have never trusted Me in your whole life. Go where I will have to provide everything for you. Go, letting Me be your road map, your atlas. Go, allowing Me to be your provisions, your Bread of life and your living water. Go Abram and watch Me be your all in all through it all. Go and I will bless you.
When God called Abram he called him alone to a journey. Isaiah 51:2 later notes this point but Abraham did not go on alone. Instead He took all his excess baggage with him - his family, his nephew Lot, his material possessions, and all the responsibilities of being a patriarch. He did not yet realize that it is hard to hold on to the Lord when our hands are full of everything that have given us security and comfort. It was the antithesis of the very thing that sounded so simple and straightforward at the start of our story - God called and Abram went. God, however, called Abram to rip himself away from all of these things so that he could find out that God, and God alone, is the source of security and comfort. He is our provider and He alone can supply us with the things that will endure throughout time.
When we really look deep into the story what we really find is not a story of a super human saint but a story of the hesitant, faltering, first steps of a man who doubted God, who was not perfect, who made mistakes, who sinned, who did not trust God to protect him or to fulfill his promises. Very quickly we find Abram paying the price for not following God’s directions more explicitly. Slowly God stripped away the things that kept Abraham from getting closer to Him and to His will.
Abram and Lot quarreled over possessions and land (perhaps Abram should have left Lot behind), so they split and go separate ways. A severe famine struck the land and Abram needed to search for food and help in a foreign land. There
Abram lied about his wife, telling the Pharoah that Sarai was his sister. Afraid for his own life, he did this not once but twice! Abram doubted God’s promise to give him a child by Sarah so he takes Sarah’s handmaiden Hagar and had a child by her, whom he named Ishmael. When God ultimately fulfilled his promise, Ishmael and Issac were at odd’s with each other, separating the family.
When the Lord commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, we notice that Abraham actually set out to offer his beloved son, Isaac. Abraham had come a long way in the road of obedience to the Lord. All along the way Abram learned many things, got closer and closer to his God given goals, mission and quest but he did not live to see it complete fulfilled or finished. He died before he could see God’s plan fulfilled, and yet, despite Abram’s failures, doubts and hestitancy, God still claimed and upheld him as a man of faith.
Genesis 15:6 "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." Four times this is repeated in the New Testament, in Romans 4:3, and 22, Galatians 3:6, and James 2:23.
Did Abram struggle with believing God and trusting Him? Yes! Yet, Abram ultimately placed his trust in God. God is calling us each of us out of our personal Comfort Zone into service for his kingdom.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/QJCxt2DjZK0

Saturday , October 2.2011
Praise and worship service:
First United Methodist Church , 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, October 1,2011 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.