Brown's Daily Word 10-25-11

Praise the Lord for this new day full of His promises and grace. May He be glorified in our lives , in our witness and in our work today. We are just two months away from Christmas Day. WOW! My wife has already started planning for decorating her Christmas trees. The Old Testament readings for last Sunday were taken from Deuteronomy 34, where it records the death of Moses, the servant of God. Moses died well though the life of Moses also was marred by failures. We preachers like to call it the sacrament of failure. Someone once spoke of, "the blessings of failure".
In the late seventies, firefighters in England went on strike. Thus, the British army was required to take over emergency fire fighting. One day, a squad of soldiers received a call from an elderly woman in London to come and rescue her cat, Bittsy. Poor Bittsy had gotten stuck in a tree. They arrived quickly and without much trouble saved Bittsy from her high perch. As they were getting ready to leave, the woman invited her heroes in for a victory spot of tea. (Very British of her) After the tea break, and many fond farewells and waving of hands, the soldiers hopped on the fire truck. But, as they drove away, they ran over sweet little Bittsy and killed her.
That’s embarrassing but we can all relate. We all have those moments when we fail. Despite our best efforts, things come crashing down on us. The Bible is full of people who have, at times, made a mess out of their lives. Yet, these people have seen their lives reconstructed by God for His purposes and for His glory.
For instance, Moses was a big, capital “F” failure. He had left Egypt a failure and a disgrace. While still a Prince of Egypt, he had witnessed an Egyptian beating a Jew. Moses had, as we would say today, anger management issues. He murdered the Egyptian, put him in a car, and dumped both in the Nile. No one saw him. It was the perfect crime, or so he thought, but the next day Moses came upon two Jews having a major disagreement. Taking the role of the "mighty Prince Moses” he tried to break it up. One of the men stared him down and said, “what are you going to do, Moses, kill one of us.” Moses thought he had gotten away with it, but he hadn’t, so he fled to the desert of Midian. There he got a job as a sheepherder and married the boss’ daughter. Whoever coined the phrase, “How the mighty have fallen”, might have been thinking of Moses.
We can learn from Moses that even a lifetime of failure can be turned into something beautiful. After forty years of tending sheep he came upon a bush on fire; it was burning, yet not consumed. He encountered God’s presence there. There Moses discovered that God is Holy. “Take off your shoes for this is a holy place.” It was holy because God is holy. This is the most important quality of God.
In a survey, people were asked to list God’s qualities in order of importance. Most started with love, then wisdom, power, mercy, and, finally, truth. At the bottom of the list was holiness. Yet, in examining the Bible, we would discover that of all of God’s qualities, Holiness gets mentioned the most - 900 times. James Boice said, “The Bible does not refer to God as Loving, Loving, Loving! Or Wise, Wise, Wise! Or Merciful, Merciful, Merciful. But, again and again, we hear and the angels sing that God is “Holy, Holy, Holy.” In Hebrew poetry, in order to emphasize something, the Hebrew writers didn’t use words like “very” or “extremely.” They would repeat the word to emphasize the point. To say God is “holy, holy, holy” is to say God is ‘really, really, really Holy.”
Because God is holy He wants to make us holy. We are to be a holy people. In the New Testament, Christians living on earth were people like you and me. We are the saints. Saint comes from the Greek word “hagios” which means “holy one.” We become holy because God makes us Holy.
When we first encounter the holiness of God, we feel inadequate, dirty, sinful. When Peter realized Jesus was indeed the Son of God, he fell to his knees and cried, “Lord, keep away from me, for I am a sinful man.” He was in the presence of the Holy. Moses has the same kind of reaction. God had a job for Moses, “You will go to Egypt and rescue My children.” Moses' reaction was, however, “Who am I? I’m a nobody.” Yet, it is in this emotional state where we can truly encounter God.
Jesus said, “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.’ It is only when we are poor in spirit that we are willing to give up control of our lives and turn to Christ. This is what happened with Moses. He had a heart transplant in the truest sense. Moses’ first approach had been independent approach. As a Prince of Egypt, everything was done under his own authority, his own understanding, and his own power. He set out to be the savior of his people and ended up really making a muck of things, killing an Egyptian in the process. At the burning bush we find a humble man who had a changed heart. He had finally become teachable, and God can use a person like that.
If we are honest with ourselves, whenever we fail it is most likely that we also have taken the independent approach. We do things under our own power and in our own understanding. In fact, one biblical definition of sin is “to go your own way.” Only in humility, confessing our sins to God, to we find new life and new direction.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/EduKNYVBKH8

An Evening of Music Festival, sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church :
Saturday OCT. 29,2011 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, Emma Bronson and others.