Praise the Lord for this Fabulous Friday. It is going to be another brilliant and beautiful Autumn day. Alice and I walked three miles last night under the brilliant starry sky illumined with abundant moon light. It will be a blessed and winsome weekend for serving and worshipping the Lord. I am conducting two weddings and two funerals this weekend. Every time and every place we gather in the Name of Jesus we declare His Lordship and His majesty. Alice is driving out to Boston tomorrow to spend some time with Micah, Simeon, and Ada. Our friend Kelly Johnson flying in from Memphis tomorrow to be here to enjoy the beautiful New York Fall Foliage and get ready for the prayer conference starting on the 14th of October. Please pray for our weekly TV outreach this evening at 7 PM on Time Warner Cable channel 4. We praise the Lord for so many who are serving as the servants of Jesus in our region in the ministry of flood recovery. The Lord is still performing miracles. He calls us to be partners in His miracles.
Someone wrote a few years back: “A basketball in my hands is worth about $19. A basketball in Michael Jordan’s hands is worth about $33 million. It depends whose hands it’s in. A baseball in my hands is worth about $6. A baseball in Mark McGuire’s hands is worth $19 million. It depends whose hands it’s in. A tennis racket is useless in my hands. A tennis racket in Pete Sampras’ hands is a Wimbledon Championship. It depends whose hands it’s in. A rod in my hands will keep away a wild animal. A rod in Moses’ hands will part the mighty sea. It depends whose hands it’s in. A sling shot in my hands is a kid’s toy. A sling shot in David’s hand is a mighty weapon. It depends whose hands it’s in. Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in my hands is a couple of fish sandwiches. Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in God’s hands will feed thousands. It depends whose hands it’s in.”
Jesus’ hands transformed everything he touched. A blind man once lived in a black vortex, but when touched by Jesus’ hands color and movement flooded his life. A leper’s body was diseased and rotting, he was covered with shame and no one would come near him out of fear — that is until Jesus touched the untouchable and his body was made whole and his relationships were restored. A widow’s son died, and his death meant excruciating loss to her in every way. But as they carried the young man’s body on a stretcher, taking it to a dark tomb while his soul was taking its place in the realm of the dead, Jesus’ hands held him and he smiled at his mother as life pulsed through his body once more. The funeral procession stopped and a dance began.
In Mathew 14 Jesus’ hands took common bread and a couple of fish, and as He touched it, it multiplied. He broke the bread for all to see and eat. Before that moment, the crowds could only stare at the few loaves and fish, as they drooled with the thought of having a few bites. But there was not enough for 5,000 or even 50. (Actually, the number of those present may have been more like 15,000 or 20,000, because there were 5,000 men, not counting women and children. Women and children weren’t important to most people, but Jesus wasn’t "most people".) Here was God, not just looking down on the world trying to see what he could get from his subjects and control them, but God who was genuinely touched by human need.
Thousands of people gathered around our Lord. They spent the whole day with Jesus. By evening they were in need of physical food. The disciples understood this and said to Him: “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” This would have been a great way to get rid of the crowds and have a little down time. No one would have questioned it. But instead Jesus was moved with compassion for the people.
Jesus turned to his disciples and said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” The startled disciples said, “We have nothing here but five loaves of bread and two fish.” They lived in a small world of limited possibilities, but Jesus lived in a world of unlimited possibilities. They realized they had very limited resources, and the crowd had unlimited need. They knew they had nothing to offer. But then Jesus, referring to the five loaves and two fish, said, “Bring them here to me.” Who would have dreamed what he was about to do. Certainly not the disciples. Even in the very next chapter, when Jesus fed another 4,000 people, the disciples seemed perplexed about what to do, for they said, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” Where indeed!
We really are no different from the disciples. We still see impossibilities when God is wanting us to see possibilities. We, like the disciples, need to see that the situation is not in our hands, but in His hands. When Jesus takes charge of the situation everything changes. We look at our meager resources and say to God: “But what are these among so many?” He responds, “Bring them here to me.” He places His hands upon our pitiful resources and everything changes. This is the formula: We bring God our meager offering and He places his hands on our small gift and causes it to grow thousands of times over. We never have the resources to meet people’s needs. We have nothing that is sufficient to solve the problem, so all we can do is bring our nothing to Jesus and have Him turn it into something.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/zlA5IDnpGhc
Saturday, October 8.2011
Praise and worship service:
First United Methodist Church, Endicott
Sponsored by Union Center UMC
6 PM Gathering - Coffee Fellowship
6:30 PM Worship
Music: Laureen Naik
Speaker: Jim Nedlik
PRAYER CONFERENCE:
Union Center United Methodist Church:
128 Maple Drive, Endicott, New York 13760
Friday, October 14 through Sunday, October 16, 2011
Need hope?
Need a reason to continue?
Need joy?
Need peace?
Need an answer?
Need rest?
" COME TO JESUS AND LIVE "
Need NEED LIFE?No matter what you need…
JESUS says “Call to Me & I will Answer!”
~ Jeremiah 33:3
Join us for a weekend of Hope, Joy, Peace & Life!!
Friday Oct. 14 – 6:00 pm: Opening session at Union Center UMC with Kelly Johnson from Two By Two Ministries
Saturday Oct. 15:
9 am – Noon at Union Center UMC: Open Prayer Time: A refreshing time of personal prayer and community prayer for any storm you’ve weathered. Prayer teams available to pray with those who desire it.
5:30pm – Community Dinner at Endicott First Methodist
6:30pm – Worship service with Kelly Johnson at Endicott First Methodist.
Sunday Oct. 16 – 8:30 & 11:00 am at Union Center UMC– Join us for morning worship with guest speaker Kelly Johnson.
***Please note our two locations for these events***
Union Center United Methodist Church is located at 128 Maple Dr. Endicott
Endicott First Methodist is located at 53 McKinley Ave. Endicott
For information please call 607-748-6329-748-1358 or 427-4359
If you are unable to come but have a need you’d like to have us pray for, please email it to umcgospel@aol.com or you can mail it to the Union Center UMC address listed above attn: Prayer Team
We praise the Lord for the following who will be leaders in the Prayer conference:
Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
Sunita and Andy from Washington, DC
Rob and Jenn from Washington, DC
Melanie from Baltimore
Laureen from Binghamton
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment