Praise the Lord for this day, just a week away from THANKSGIVING DAY. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday gathering for fellowship and study. One of the blessings of servings Christ is that the Lord has blessed me with many wonderful settings and occasions to meet some of faithful servants of Jesus from around the world, including Arch Bishop Michael Ramsey , Bishop Leslie Neubegin, Ravi Zacharias. I have been in conferences with Billy Graham and Kenneth Chafin, Charles Allan, and many more notable servants of Christ. My life has been deeply blessed.
Kenneth L. Chafin told of a memorial service at which he officiated for a Dr. Ray Collins of Houston. For sixty years, Dr. Collins had practiced medicine. He had reared his children in the church and watched his grandchildren into adulthood to give him great-grandchildren. When, at age 94 after two very difficult years, he passed on, the family experienced a sense of gratitude for his life and the fact that the suffering was over. Chafin describes driving in the procession to the cemetery for the interment. The Collins plot was in the same cemetery where the late Howard Hughes is buried. Chafin writes, "As the procession passed the Hughes grave I thought of the difference between his life and Dr. Collins'. Howard Hughes was perceived as the richest man in the world, but he died alone without support of family or friends and is remembered chiefly by the courtroom struggles for his money. Dr. Collins was a man whose life God had enriched, and it was a kind of wealth which lasts forever."
Paul wrote, "I give thanks to my God always for you because. . .you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 1:4-7). Each of us has great untapped resources. We have tremendous potential. Sometimes, I complain and grumble, until I am reminded of those words, "Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father above." How blessed you are. How blessed am I. I am a trustee of these tremendous endowments, these gifts God has invested in me as an individual. God has given us everything we need. We do not lack any spiritual gift that we need. What you as an individual may not have, those gifts are realized in this larger community known as the Church. We need each other and we must rely on one another, or we will fail to adequately appropriate those gifts that are ours, not realizing our potential. May God forgive you and me if we let His potential, His gifts, His spiritual gifts slip through our fingers.
I thank God that He has given us assurance that we will be blameless in the Day of Judgment. Paul wrote, "I give thanks to my God always for you. . .that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 1:4-8).
Very few, when they read a mystery novel, read the last chapter first. Some feel that it spoils the story. This is not the case with the Christian life. God has made us blameless in Jesus Christ. Even in our imperfections, we know the conclusion. He Himself bore your sins and mine on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. We are made blameless before Him. There is nothing we have ever done or ever could do that is unforgivable, as long as we come in repentance to that One who is our Savior and Lord.
Paul wrote, "I give thanks to my God always for you because. . .God is faithful; by Him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:4-9).
I cannot ask for anything better than to know that God is always faithful. In an age of unfaithfulness, when some of us have had our hearts broken by the unfaithfulness of others, God is always faithful. Great is His faithfulness. Amazing is His grace.
In Christ,
Brown
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