Brown's Daily Word 8-26-11

Good morning,
Praise the Lord, for this is Friday. Sunday is coming. Here in the United States we are getting ready for the storm "Irene". We are trusting and praying for protection and shelter from the storm. Christ alone is our refuge and shelter. In Hebrews 10, the early Christians are encouraged to embrace a life of faith - to accept Christ as their Savior, to believe with all of their heart. They are encouraged to hold fast to the hope of promise in Christ for salvation, and to do so by encouraging one another in ministry to one another and to the world by continuing to gather together.
We need to be encouraged to believe in Christ, to hang on to hope when difficult days come, and to remember to gather together to encourage one another. The Hebrews Christians were becoming discouraged and complacent. Some of them who had been faithful in their attendance at first had stopped gathering together. When anything else in our society has a pull on our time and attention away from worship, whatever it is often gets first priority and our attendance at church goes by the wayside.
“Don’t give up,” the writer of Hebrews tells us. Don’t neglect to gather together and encourage one another all the more, as the Day of our Lord approaches.”
On December 11, 1934, a man by the name of Bill Wilson found himself on the steps of Charles B. Townes Hospital in New York City. He went there to dry out - he was drunk. He had been there before. This time he met there his old friend, Dr. Silkworth, who had an interesting idea. He believed that Alcoholics had an obsession to drink and an allergy to it at the same time. The inevitable result of continual exposure to the allergen is death. That was the direction he saw Bill Wilson taking. He was killing himself by his drinking.
It happened that at this same point in his life, Bill came in contact with a school friend of his by the name of Ebby, who was also an alcoholic. Ebby had become active in a Christian spiritual group called Oxford Groups. Oxford Groups believed in absolute honesty, absolute purity, and absolute love. In other words, they cultivated holy habits in their lives.
Both Ebby and Bill saw the attractiveness of these groups. They wanted to have different lives. They wanted to be different people. With the principals of the Oxford Groups they brought together one more element both of these men shared that eventually empowered these men to turn their lives around. Two individuals with the same disease were able to come together and receive from one another the inoculation they needed to combat their allergen through spiritual time together. The principals from the Oxford Groups were incorporated and expounded upon to become the 12 step program and the new group that would eventually form would come to be known as Alcoholics Anonymous. It began as two sick people coming together regularly to hold one another up and to hold one another accountable. It is the injection they needed to combat the allergy they lived with. AA has changed the lives of millions of people all over the world.
Seventeenth century theologian Martin Luther puts its this way, “The church does not provide salvation; God does. But the 'saved' one can’t fulfill what it means to be a Christian apart from the church.” Christians are saved by grace. We are forgiven sinners. Christians are called sinners anonymous, forgiven, redeemed, restored, who gather together as the Body of Christ, for worship, for praise , for prayer and to ascribe majesty and honor and praise to Jesus. When the sinners and saints anonymous gather for worship of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Satan trembles.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/QoYdQa6Cprc

Saturday Evening Worship Service
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott, NY
Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church
Time: 6:00 PM gathering for Coffee Fellowship
6:30 Worship Service
Date: Saturday, September 10,2011
Speaker: Rev. Earle Cowden
Special Music by various praise teams

Come! Share! Rejoice!

Brown's Daily Word 8-25-11

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the way we can came to Jesus just as we are, with all of our bloopers and blunders, our hopes and fears, our sins ands our sorrows, our defeats and our triumphs. Jesus seeks us even before we seek Him. This is called prevenient grace. This is the Good News.
In Luke 19 we read the account of a man whose life received an extreme make-over by Jesus our Lord, who makes all things glorious and beautiful. Jesus was in Jericho, the oldest city on earth. There was a contagious crowd surrounding Him. Zacchaeus, a notorious personality in that city, was in the crowd. He was too short to see Jesus over the heads of the people in the crowd, but Zacchaeus, consumed with his desire to see Jesus, took off running. In that day, grown men didn't run in public. It was degrading. Worse yet, Zacchaeus, a prominent member of Jericho society, actually had the gall to climb a tree in front of all those people. He climbed a sycamore tree so that he could better see this Jesus. Then a most amazing thing happened. Far down the road, the noise of the crowd got louder. . . Jesus must finally be coming by.
Everyone forgot about the Zacchaeus, looking expectantly down the road, looking for Jesus as he made His way toward them. People must have cried out to Jesus and clambered around Him, trying to touch Him. As Jesus made his way through Jericho, he saw, up in a sycamore tree, a grown man, clinging to the branches, looking towards him. Then Jesus reached the foot of the sycamore tree, looked up at Zacchaeus, and called him by name! “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down! For I must stay at your house today!”
Can you imagine? Jesus knew him by name. Jesus knew Zacchaeus’ deepest wrongs and knew his deepest desires. He knew Zacchaeus. Furthermore, the rumors were true, that Jesus did eat and hang out with sinners and people no one else liked. Zacchaeus couldn’t believe his ears. Jesus had just said he was coming home with Zacchaeus today.
What sort of images come to your mind when you hear that word - home? I still think of my childhood home as I was growing up in Orissa, India. I visited the site during my trip to India. Sometimes I still dream about it and I'm back there remembering a place that is so much a part of who I am.
Home also brings to my mind this home, here in Union Center. I think of the family we have discovered here. I think of the joy we have discovered here, the love from the people who have become our family, and the deepening love that comes from Christ Jesus, a love that is present with us.
Many people today are up a tree looking longingly, expectantly down the road, hoping beyond hope that what they have heard about Jesus is true. When Zacchaeus took Jesus home with him, a transformation began. Jesus changed the person Zacchaeus was and changed the way in which Zacchaeus interacted with other people. Zacchaeus became a very generous person and a person of integrity. Where Zacchaeus had become an outsider and a despised individual, Jesus gave him back his worth and his dignity.
Jesus put it this way: “Today, salvation has come to this house.” Zacchaeus, who was lost to the world, was found and saved by Jesus.
Zacchaeus’ story reminds us of that part of who we are. His story reminds us that someone is always in the sycamore tree, hoping and praying not to be an outsider anymore, hoping to find meaning and purpose to life. Zacchaeus’ story reminds us to be looking for those individuals. As Christ’s disciples we are called to invite them down from the tree, to travel to their home as Christ’s representative, and to invite them to find a home here amongst ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Brown
http://youtu.be/5kX8xlW04jQ

Brown's Daily Word 8-23-11

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for His sufficiency. Praise the Lord that He covers us with His anointing and His matchless grace. Having been back home I take few days to get back to sleep patterns due to jet lag. In these times, I have been thinking about the nature and the character of our wonderful Savior, who is in the world today. It is a great thrill knowing Him and serving Him.
Alice and I have begun our 22nd year of ministry here in Union Center this summer. This is the longest that we have been in one home. In fact, during my school and college years I lived a nomadic life, a couple of years here or there. Most preachers live nomadic lives. I praise the Lord that He has lavished upon us His grace through His people, through His Church, like all of you, that we have been kept to serve in one place for this extended time. Still, our witness and service reach around the corner and around the globe. Great is His faithfulness; marvelous and wonderful is His grace and favor.
We are celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary today. It is also the third anniversary of the ruthless persecution that broke our against Christians in Orissa, India. As I pause and ponder anew on who the Lord is and what He has done, I am filled with a deep sense of gratitude and thanksgiving. On my trip to India it was exhilarating and thrilling to see the Lord at work in the midst of tragedy and trials. Once again I reiterate that we serve under a Captain who has never lost a battle. He turns our tragedies and trials into His testimonies and His triumphs.
Dr. Shadrack Meshack Lockeridge was one of the greatest black preachers America. In 1976 he preached a sermon on trusting God… A portion of that sermon follows:
“God is greater than all the superlative statements of supremacy ever shared. No far reaching telescope can bring into focus the shoreline of his unlimited supply. No deep digging dredge can discover the depth of His determination to deliver you–You can trust Him!
"He doesn’t need me and He doesn’t need you. He stands alone on the solitary pinnacle of His omnipotence. He is enduringly strong; and He is entirely sincere; He is eternally steadfast; and He is impartially merciful. He is unparalleled and unprecedented; He is unique and unescapable. He is the cornerstone of all civilization; He is the central doctrine of all truthology–He is God’s Son, our Savior and you can trust Him!
"He can meet all your needs and He can do it simultaneously. He gives you hope when you’re hopeless; Help when you’re helpless; peace when you’re in pain; strength when you struggle; rest when you’re restless; and courage when you cry. He sees and He sympathizes; He guards and He guides. He heals the sick; cleanses the leper; sets the captives free; and forgives sinners. I’m telling you, Church, you can trust Him!
"He is the key to knowledge; the wellspring of wisdom; the doorway of deliverance; and He’s the pathway of peace. He’s the roadway to righteousness; the highway to holiness; and He’s the gateway to glory–and you can trust Him!
He’s the master of the masters; the captain of the conquerors, the head of the heroes and the leader of the legislators. He’s the governor of governors, the prince of the princes, He’s the Lord of all Lords and He’s the king of all Kings and you CAN trust Him.
"I wish I could describe Him to you–but He’s indescribable, He’s irresistible, He’s irreplaceable, He’s indisputable, He’s invincible! His Word is all you need, and His love never ends. His grace is sufficient and His mercy never fails; His yoke is easy and His burden is light. I tell you, you can’t outlive Him and you can’t live without Him. Pilate couldn’t stop Him; Herod couldn’t kill Him; death couldn’t handle Him; and, praise God, the grave couldn’t hold Him! He’s alive forevermore and forevermore you can trust Him!"

In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/vO_bKR2Wzhk