Brown's Daily Word 10-21-11

Praise the Lord for this Friday. We had a soul full weekend last week. This coming weekend will be another weekend full of His faithfulness and grace. It is a great thrill of worshipping and serving the Risen Lord. Sunita arrived in Israel safe and sound and is resting at night under Bethlehem skies.
We are watching, live, some of the bloody events that are happening in the Middle East. The Bible Speaks about, "How the mighty have fallen". We serve a Savior who reigns and rules. His Kingdom shall never fall. We have His promise on that. That thrills our hearts with Holy zeal and confidence in running the race that is set before us always looking unto Jesus the author and the pioneer of our faith.
During our prayer conference our speaker shared about how ministry takes place "along the way". Often our ministry takes place along the way. The Lord just shows up.
The Bible records the story about a woman who met Jesus. She was suffering for 12 years prior to that meeting. The best of the story is that Jesus was "passing by". He was passing by her, whose name we do not know. She had already used all resources for her healing. She was exhausted and burned out. When our life takes a turn in that direction, I believe we often find ourselves, like the woman who had been ill for 12 years, trying everything to fix our problems. We try resolve after resolve. We make promise after promise. We coax, we cajole, we bargain with God. We try every fix we can think of until we are depleted, empty, lifeless, and hopeless.
To learn from this experience is to bypass all that, plunging into the healing power of Jesus before desparation sets in on us, having that incredible faith driven by Christ, driven by love, driven by a personal relationship, not driven by desperation. Still, we will find our faith at its greatest clarity often during the desperate momements of our life. Some of us know this first hand.
There is, however, another side to our faith, and that is seeking Christ. We cannot simply touch the hem of Christ’s garment and expect to come away with no one the wiser. Touching Jesus isn’t just a check list to check off. It's not just a hoop to jump through. The woman had incredible faith that made her willing to break with what was expected of her by others. We are called not to analyze it nor to reason it away, but to believe with child-like innocence in the miraculous power, of Jesus to make us well, to heal us, to make us whole, and to restore life.
There is a story about John Wesley shortly after his return from Georgia in the American Colonies. The Americas had been nothing like what he expected. He returned from there feeling like his ministry had been an utter failure. On top of that, there was a terrible storm at sea on the trip back to England, and John Wesley had feared for his life. On the same ship there was a group of Christians who had a sense of calm John Wesley didn’t have. They had assurance that their fate rested in God’s hands whether they lived or died.
Upon his return to London, Wesley discussed his concerns with a German minister named Peter Bohler. He could see the lack of faith on Wesley’s part. Wesley, an ordained minister, had knowledge of salvation, but no assurance of his own. He knew all about Jesus, but didn’t know Jesus in his heart. Peter Bohler gave Wesley this memorable advice, “Preach faith until you have it, and then because you have it, you will preach faith.” Can we believe in the miracuolous power of Jesus in our own lives?
Later in Mark’s record of Jesus’ life, another father brought his son to Jesus for healing. He asked Jesus to heal him, if He was able. Jesus basically responded, “You mean if you can. Everything is possible for the person who has faith.” “I do believe,” replied the father, “but not enough! Help me to have for faith!” We, too, find ourselves often not having enough faith, but the words of Jesus resound,
“Everything is possible for the person who has faith.”
I challenge each of us to follow Peter Bohler’s prescription: to believe even when we want to doubt, to believe Jesus can perform miracles in our lives, even when logic and reason wants to tell us otherwise. I challenge us to hope and believe even in the impossible, because even the impossible can happen through Christ Jesus.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/8K8XbLNwOp0


Saturday , October 22.2011
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
UPCOMING EVENTS:

OCT. 22 Serving at 12.noon. A Fish Dinner with home made pies at Wesley United Methodist Church, 1000 Day Hollow Road. Endicott.

Chef: Lawrence McMillan . Donation: $7.00 All the proceeds will be used for the feeding ministry in Endicott.

All are invited. Come, Share and Rejoice. For info: call 607-748-1358, 607-748-6329



OCT. 29, 6:30 PM at First United Methodist Church, Endicott, Special evening of musical praise and worship. Various Christian musicians will be participating in this special evening as they offer their gifts and talents to the Lord. A love offering will be received that will benefit needy families in
the community. Some of the musicians are Aric Phinney, Grant DeGaramo, Vin Rosenbarker, Dianne Glann, Laureen Naik, Yancey Moore, others.