Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this first day of Autumn. This is the first day of the awesome Autumn season in the USA. It is a brilliant beautiful season. After the devastating floods the Lord is restoring the area to its beauty and splendor. We are so blessed and privileged to be living in this part of the of this wonderful world.
We read in Ecclesiastes 3 that our Lord makes all things beautiful in His time. He makes all things glorious in His mighty power. It is a great blessing to worship Him and serve Him. On our life’s journey we will face many different situations, have many different experiences, and meet many different people. Sometimes we have gains, and we laugh. Sometimes we have losses, and we cry. Sometimes our feelings are hurt, and we isolate. Sometimes our song is played, and we celebrate. Sometimes we really blow it, and we sink. Sometimes we get it right, and we smile.
The Bible says that God takes these collective experiences and eventually makes something beautiful out of all the loose ends.
God knows all about our unfulfilled expectations. He knows all about our experiences. He knows all about reality. He knows that we don’t always “get it right.” Our timing is off at times. We pluck when we should plant. We kill when we should be celebrating birth. We laugh when we should be weeping. We speak when we should be silent. But God knows the proper time. God knows when it is time for us to be born and He knows when its time for us die. God knows when we need to cry and when we need to laugh. God knows when we need to mourn and when we need to dance. God knows when we need to be silent and when we need to speak. God knows everything about the human experience! God knows all the minute details of our lives and He also knows why everything happens. God sees the little picture of the moments and the details of our lives and He also sees the big picture of how everything unfolds in the light of eternity. He has created a heaven, a place untainted by our missed timings and our lost opportunities.
Life in God creates a longing for something more within us. C.S. Lewis said that the very fact that there’s still a little bit of emptiness inside us even after becoming a Christian argues for the existence of heaven, a place where we long for God to make something beautiful out of all our mistakes and failures in life. C.S. Lewis said, "Our Heavenly Father has provided many delightful inns for us along our journey, but he takes great care to see that we do not mistake any of them for home." There is a longing for home, there is a call deep in the human spirit for more than life, as we know it can provide.
There are some things in life we will never know during our lifetimes. We cannot know all the answers to all the conundrums and enigmas of life. I don’t know why God would withhold perfectly noble dreams and ambitions from someone, but He does. There are times when we have to fly in the dark on some things. We are called to live by faith, not by sight. What I do know is that every moment comes to us pregnant with a divine purpose that we may not be able to figure out this side of eternity. These moments are fully understood by a God who transcends time. Furthermore, we were made for eternity, so we will not understand everything in our temporal world. Living with unfulfilled expectations is a part of life. The issue becomes then, am I going to desperately grab for life or will I humbly allow the Lord, the maker of Heaven and earth and the giver of life, to bring life to me and fulfill my expectations if that is His will.
God makes life beautiful in His time. Those who live surrendered to Jesus, the Risen One, according to God’s time and schedule, will ultimately lead a life of beauty.
Today, let us allow the Lord to begin making something beautiful out of our lives. May we find freedom from life’s expectations and failed expectations? Beauty replaces the beast when life happens in His time. He is the Alpha and the Omega. Though His time not ours, now is always the right time to receive His Son. From there, life begins to get into rhythm with the divine Plan for our lives. We grow up, learning to share, making friends, learning His character and His Truth, values that will guide us into a beautiful life. We enjoy the natural things that God has given us to enjoy, rather than manufacturing a false-sense of joy through the accumulation of things.
Quotation: The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
Remember your possibilities; forget your limitations.
Remember your potentialities; forget your seeming restrictions.
Remember your abilities; forget your disabilities.
Remember your assets; forget your liabilities.
Remember your strengths; forget your weaknesses.
Remember your joys; forget your sorrows. William Arthur Ward (1812-1882)
See you in church,
Brown
http://youtu.be/8x4GC0-Z0ZI
Friday 7PM Television Outreach. Time Warner Cable Ch 4.
We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.
September 24.2011
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
Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.
The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer
Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Brown's Daily Word 9-22-11
Good morning,
This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice in the Lord and be glad in Him. When I get up early in the morning for my devotions and readings I glance at the Internet on some of the headlines coming from around the globe. One of the headlines this morning is the sharp decline of the stock markets around the globe. It has been close to two weeks since the historic floods in our region. When I drive around I see the massive piles of debris from houses, placed on the curbs and by the roadside. Once precious possessions of families have become rotten and moth eaten, of no use at all but ready for the garbage dump.
Our Lord Jesus spoke about earthly possessions in Mathew 6, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth...” Jesus tells us that the treasures of earth are destructible. Moths and rust consume them. Earthly treasure is consumable. Earthly treasure is steal-able. Jesus instructs us not to engage in the pursuit of these kinds of savings, but rather... “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
Treasure in heaven is eternal. Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Someday we will all leave this earth. We have all heard of long term investment, but investment in heaven is eternal investment. Even after we have gone and our earthly investments are passed on to another our heavenly investments continue to compound interest. Treasure in heaven is eternal. It can never be taken away. Everything we can lay our hands on is perishable. We can work to get ahead. We can strive to raise our families under the most ideal conditions. We can attempt to be very frugal and careful with our possessions. But everything we have can be laid waste in a second.
On the other hand, that which we invest in God’s kingdom with an earnest and faithful heart can never be taken away. What is given to God is eternal. These are the words of committed discipleship Jesus speaks to his disciples: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Jesus did not say, "For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.”
Let us Check our “bank account” - both our earthly one and our heavenly one. If Jesus were to examine those accounts, what would he say about our treasure? Where would he say our treasure lays? What have we stored up?
Jesus said, "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.”
Emmet Fox put it this way: “The eye symbolized our spiritual perception. Whatever we give our attention to, is the thing that governs our life. If we do not direct our attention consistently to anything in particular - and many people do not - then nothing in particular will come into our life except uncertainty and suspense. If we direct our attention to the worldly pursuits which is in its nature continually shifting and changing, we are bound to have unhappiness, poverty, and ill-health; whereas, if we direct our attention to God; if the Glory of God comes first with us, and to express God’s Will becomes the rule of our life, then our eye is single and our whole body, our embodiment, will be full of light.”
Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters: for either we will hate the one and love the other, or else we will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money...But seek first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”
Laying up treasures in heaven, rather than storing them on earth, means intensified activity in spiritual matters distinct from material ones. Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all needful things will be found to follow upon that. If you are very worried, confused, or very much discouraged, that is the time to read the Bible and pray gently but persistently, until something happens; either something within yourself or something in the outer picture.”
Every choice we make, every dollar we spend, save, or give means favoring one supreme goal over another. The choice is not whether we shall serve, but what or whom we shall serve. Our station in life, the amount of or lack of wealth that we have does not alter the fact that we do, indeed, choose. Poor people can idolize what they don not have, as easily as wealthier people can worship with the dollars they spend.
I heard the story of Sharon Brown. When Sharon was a little girl, she got a dollar each week for her allowance. She heard a message one Sunday that inspired her to send 10 cents to Bolivia to support mission work there. Years and years later, she had the opportunity to go to Bolivia and visit that mission field. One woman shared with her one evening as the group was sharing what a difference the mission support meant for their lives, that the woman whose 10 cents had been. “Choose today who you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/cgwGiF0-mlE
Please pray for our upcoming ministry events:
We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.
September 24.2011
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
Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.
The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer
Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
September 18, we will go back onto the regular schedule with services at both 8:30 and 11 AM and Sunday School at 9:50 AM. Wesley will resume meeting at 9:30 AM.
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.
This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice in the Lord and be glad in Him. When I get up early in the morning for my devotions and readings I glance at the Internet on some of the headlines coming from around the globe. One of the headlines this morning is the sharp decline of the stock markets around the globe. It has been close to two weeks since the historic floods in our region. When I drive around I see the massive piles of debris from houses, placed on the curbs and by the roadside. Once precious possessions of families have become rotten and moth eaten, of no use at all but ready for the garbage dump.
Our Lord Jesus spoke about earthly possessions in Mathew 6, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth...” Jesus tells us that the treasures of earth are destructible. Moths and rust consume them. Earthly treasure is consumable. Earthly treasure is steal-able. Jesus instructs us not to engage in the pursuit of these kinds of savings, but rather... “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
Treasure in heaven is eternal. Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Someday we will all leave this earth. We have all heard of long term investment, but investment in heaven is eternal investment. Even after we have gone and our earthly investments are passed on to another our heavenly investments continue to compound interest. Treasure in heaven is eternal. It can never be taken away. Everything we can lay our hands on is perishable. We can work to get ahead. We can strive to raise our families under the most ideal conditions. We can attempt to be very frugal and careful with our possessions. But everything we have can be laid waste in a second.
On the other hand, that which we invest in God’s kingdom with an earnest and faithful heart can never be taken away. What is given to God is eternal. These are the words of committed discipleship Jesus speaks to his disciples: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Jesus did not say, "For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.”
Let us Check our “bank account” - both our earthly one and our heavenly one. If Jesus were to examine those accounts, what would he say about our treasure? Where would he say our treasure lays? What have we stored up?
Jesus said, "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.”
Emmet Fox put it this way: “The eye symbolized our spiritual perception. Whatever we give our attention to, is the thing that governs our life. If we do not direct our attention consistently to anything in particular - and many people do not - then nothing in particular will come into our life except uncertainty and suspense. If we direct our attention to the worldly pursuits which is in its nature continually shifting and changing, we are bound to have unhappiness, poverty, and ill-health; whereas, if we direct our attention to God; if the Glory of God comes first with us, and to express God’s Will becomes the rule of our life, then our eye is single and our whole body, our embodiment, will be full of light.”
Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters: for either we will hate the one and love the other, or else we will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money...But seek first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”
Laying up treasures in heaven, rather than storing them on earth, means intensified activity in spiritual matters distinct from material ones. Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all needful things will be found to follow upon that. If you are very worried, confused, or very much discouraged, that is the time to read the Bible and pray gently but persistently, until something happens; either something within yourself or something in the outer picture.”
Every choice we make, every dollar we spend, save, or give means favoring one supreme goal over another. The choice is not whether we shall serve, but what or whom we shall serve. Our station in life, the amount of or lack of wealth that we have does not alter the fact that we do, indeed, choose. Poor people can idolize what they don not have, as easily as wealthier people can worship with the dollars they spend.
I heard the story of Sharon Brown. When Sharon was a little girl, she got a dollar each week for her allowance. She heard a message one Sunday that inspired her to send 10 cents to Bolivia to support mission work there. Years and years later, she had the opportunity to go to Bolivia and visit that mission field. One woman shared with her one evening as the group was sharing what a difference the mission support meant for their lives, that the woman whose 10 cents had been. “Choose today who you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/cgwGiF0-mlE
Please pray for our upcoming ministry events:
We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.
September 24.2011
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
Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.
The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer
Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
September 18, we will go back onto the regular schedule with services at both 8:30 and 11 AM and Sunday School at 9:50 AM. Wesley will resume meeting at 9:30 AM.
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Brown's Daily Word 9-21-11
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this Wednesday. We will gather for our Mid-week fellowship and Bible study this evening at 6 PM followed by choir practice at 7:30 PM. All of the pastors in our Binghamton District of our United Methodist Church met with our District Superintendent yesterday to confer with one anther about the ministry of the Lord has called to be engaged in. In the light of recent devastations caused by the floods in our region there is a great open door for ministry. In times of trials and tribulations the Lord gives the testimonies of His grace. There is no "good" time for ministry. The opportunity to minister and love others is something that comes upon us.
In the story of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan was on a business trip. It wasn’t pleasure - he was in the land of those that hated him, but found it convenient to do business with him. The religious leaders had to be somewhere else, at church meetings or whatever… The Samaritan also had plenty to do, but he was a bit more ready to extend love. If we are going to live by the royal law of love then we need to be ready when the Lord is!
We are called to Love People Even When It’s Unprofitable! It cost the Samaritan to care for the man. Besides the discomfort of other people’s looks, he put the beaten man on his own saddle, and walked while the bruised and beaten Jew rode. When they got to town, the Samaritan paid for the man’s room at the inn. He even promised to pay more if it became expedient. In every way love costs. If it doesn’t cost us something then it isn’t love! Great love is very costly. If you doubt that, read once again in the Gospels the message of the cross. It cost God dearly to love our sin away.
We are called to Love People Even When It’s Uncomfortable. The Samaritan could not have been very comfortable with what he did when he took the first step towards that ditch where the wounded Jewish man was lying. You and I also have our personal "comfort zones". Though the Samaritan didn’t LIKE the Jew, he did love him. We will probably experience discomfort when we love - but that’s what happens when we live by the royal law of love.
Favoritism and prejudice are sinfully wrong. Living as a follower of Jesus Christ means a higher road, looking up, loving. As followers of Christ we must live according to the royal law, even when it’s unpopular, inconvenient, unprofitable and uncomfortable. When we love others the Lord changes things. It is part of God's divine scheme in this universe. His rule is that mercy triumphs over judgment. Loving just because Jesus loves you is the way of a winner!
Jesus confused and upset the minds of the religious leaders of the day with the unlikely people whom He chose to become his followers. The group included tax collectors and prostitutes, political extremists and the socially disenfranchised, and the poor and lame. Among them was the woman by the well and the sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. James and John, the Sons of Thunder and even Judas Iscariot followed Him.
His parables made heroes out of people we would never expect, such as the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the poor man Lazarus who had eaten crumbs from the rich man's table? His sayings turned the thinking of the day upside down, or rather right-side up. He said the last would be first, the poor would be blessed, only servants could be leaders, the simple were wise, and those of low position would be lifted to a place of honor. In God’s economy appearances are deceiving because it is an upside down kingdom. What mistakes we make when we judge people by their appearance!
I have been wonderfully surprised at times by people whose outward appearance would lead you to believe that they did not have much to offer, but as they came to Christ the beauty of God flowed out of their lives in remarkable ways. When Mother Teresa worked among the lepers in Calcutta, she was not put off by the stench of the leper colonies, the filthy wounds or rotting flesh of the people there. Instead, she touched them and held them, for she saw Jesus in them. Indeed, she saw Jesus coming to her masquerading as a leper. As she touched them she saw herself touch Christ, in what she said was “his distressing disguise.” It was Mother Teresa who said, “If we don’t accept Jesus in one another, we will not be able to give him to others.”
One of the unspoken commentaries on how this world views people was evidenced when Mother Teresa died. In God's divine comedy, she went home to her reward the same week that Princess Diana was killed. The world grieved and mourned the Princess who had become the icon of pop culture. People cried as though they had lost a close personal friend. All the networks covered the story, and they did so endlessly. Though her life was immoral and shallow, she was beautiful, sophisticated, famous, and wealthy. The networks carried the news of Mother Teresa’s death almost as an afterthought, as though they were embarrassed that it had to interfere with the real news. People forgot for her life was enormous and that her contribution to the world was incalculable, that she did not run a charitable organization in sterile fashion from a luxurious home in England, but got her hands dirty washing the festering sores on what remained of a leper’s foot, and that soiled her robe holding them close to her breast. They forgot that she had a heart as big as the sky and touched people’s lives so that they wanted to love God and be better people. It was forgotten that she brought hope and love to people who had neither, as an old, shriveled up, celibate nun. She would have been very out of place in London’s night clubs, but she was very much at home in a leper colony — and in the kingdom of God.
The Bible says, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:5). It says, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you”
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/KmpLEe-BY-M
Please pray for our upcoming ministry events:
We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.
September 24.2011
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
Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.
The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer
Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
September 18, we will go back onto the regular schedule with services at both 8:30 and 11 AM and Sunday School at 9:50 AM. Wesley will resume meeting at 9:30 AM.
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.
Praise the Lord for this Wednesday. We will gather for our Mid-week fellowship and Bible study this evening at 6 PM followed by choir practice at 7:30 PM. All of the pastors in our Binghamton District of our United Methodist Church met with our District Superintendent yesterday to confer with one anther about the ministry of the Lord has called to be engaged in. In the light of recent devastations caused by the floods in our region there is a great open door for ministry. In times of trials and tribulations the Lord gives the testimonies of His grace. There is no "good" time for ministry. The opportunity to minister and love others is something that comes upon us.
In the story of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan was on a business trip. It wasn’t pleasure - he was in the land of those that hated him, but found it convenient to do business with him. The religious leaders had to be somewhere else, at church meetings or whatever… The Samaritan also had plenty to do, but he was a bit more ready to extend love. If we are going to live by the royal law of love then we need to be ready when the Lord is!
We are called to Love People Even When It’s Unprofitable! It cost the Samaritan to care for the man. Besides the discomfort of other people’s looks, he put the beaten man on his own saddle, and walked while the bruised and beaten Jew rode. When they got to town, the Samaritan paid for the man’s room at the inn. He even promised to pay more if it became expedient. In every way love costs. If it doesn’t cost us something then it isn’t love! Great love is very costly. If you doubt that, read once again in the Gospels the message of the cross. It cost God dearly to love our sin away.
We are called to Love People Even When It’s Uncomfortable. The Samaritan could not have been very comfortable with what he did when he took the first step towards that ditch where the wounded Jewish man was lying. You and I also have our personal "comfort zones". Though the Samaritan didn’t LIKE the Jew, he did love him. We will probably experience discomfort when we love - but that’s what happens when we live by the royal law of love.
Favoritism and prejudice are sinfully wrong. Living as a follower of Jesus Christ means a higher road, looking up, loving. As followers of Christ we must live according to the royal law, even when it’s unpopular, inconvenient, unprofitable and uncomfortable. When we love others the Lord changes things. It is part of God's divine scheme in this universe. His rule is that mercy triumphs over judgment. Loving just because Jesus loves you is the way of a winner!
Jesus confused and upset the minds of the religious leaders of the day with the unlikely people whom He chose to become his followers. The group included tax collectors and prostitutes, political extremists and the socially disenfranchised, and the poor and lame. Among them was the woman by the well and the sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. James and John, the Sons of Thunder and even Judas Iscariot followed Him.
His parables made heroes out of people we would never expect, such as the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the poor man Lazarus who had eaten crumbs from the rich man's table? His sayings turned the thinking of the day upside down, or rather right-side up. He said the last would be first, the poor would be blessed, only servants could be leaders, the simple were wise, and those of low position would be lifted to a place of honor. In God’s economy appearances are deceiving because it is an upside down kingdom. What mistakes we make when we judge people by their appearance!
I have been wonderfully surprised at times by people whose outward appearance would lead you to believe that they did not have much to offer, but as they came to Christ the beauty of God flowed out of their lives in remarkable ways. When Mother Teresa worked among the lepers in Calcutta, she was not put off by the stench of the leper colonies, the filthy wounds or rotting flesh of the people there. Instead, she touched them and held them, for she saw Jesus in them. Indeed, she saw Jesus coming to her masquerading as a leper. As she touched them she saw herself touch Christ, in what she said was “his distressing disguise.” It was Mother Teresa who said, “If we don’t accept Jesus in one another, we will not be able to give him to others.”
One of the unspoken commentaries on how this world views people was evidenced when Mother Teresa died. In God's divine comedy, she went home to her reward the same week that Princess Diana was killed. The world grieved and mourned the Princess who had become the icon of pop culture. People cried as though they had lost a close personal friend. All the networks covered the story, and they did so endlessly. Though her life was immoral and shallow, she was beautiful, sophisticated, famous, and wealthy. The networks carried the news of Mother Teresa’s death almost as an afterthought, as though they were embarrassed that it had to interfere with the real news. People forgot for her life was enormous and that her contribution to the world was incalculable, that she did not run a charitable organization in sterile fashion from a luxurious home in England, but got her hands dirty washing the festering sores on what remained of a leper’s foot, and that soiled her robe holding them close to her breast. They forgot that she had a heart as big as the sky and touched people’s lives so that they wanted to love God and be better people. It was forgotten that she brought hope and love to people who had neither, as an old, shriveled up, celibate nun. She would have been very out of place in London’s night clubs, but she was very much at home in a leper colony — and in the kingdom of God.
The Bible says, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:5). It says, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you”
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/KmpLEe-BY-M
Please pray for our upcoming ministry events:
We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.
September 24.2011
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
Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.
The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer
Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
September 18, we will go back onto the regular schedule with services at both 8:30 and 11 AM and Sunday School at 9:50 AM. Wesley will resume meeting at 9:30 AM.
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Brown's Daily Word 9-20-11
Good morning,
Though it is only Tuesday we are already eager for the weekend. Our oldest daughter, Janice, will be coming in this weekend with Jeremy and Ada, wile the older "grands" get a weekend with their other grandmother. We look forward to the time to be spent with them.
In the Parable that is recorded in Mathew 20:1 and following, our Lord elucidated about the mystery, wonder and even scandal of grace. Certainly, the Christian faith is supremely a religion of grace. Yet, even so, grace is frequently not well understood and often not really believed. We use the word a great deal but rarely think about what it means.
In his book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace,” Phillip Yancey points out that part of our problem is in the nature of grace itself. Grace is scandalous. It is difficult to accept, hard to believe, and hard to receive. Grace shocks us in what it offers because it is truly not of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners. Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the not-so-bad, but God would save the worst. God starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. That’s why God alone gets the glory in our salvation. Jesus did all the work when he died on the cross.
In the end grace means that no one is too bad to be saved. God specializes in saving really bad people. Grace also means that some people may think themselves too good to be saved. That is, they may have such a high opinion of themselves that they think they don’t need God’s grace. God’s grace cannot help us until we are desperate enough to receive it.
Grace has an edge to it. It’s challenging and even disturbing. If we are honest, we must admit that grace even scandalizes us. Grace is not the way we normally do things. Grace reminds us that God’s favor is a gift. Referring to the parable of the day laborers, John MacArthur put it this way, “The charge of unfairness was not grounded in a love for justice but in the selfish assumption that the extra pay they wanted was pay they deserved.”
Many of us identify with the employees who put in a full day’s work, rather than the add-on laborers who came in at the end of the day. We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers and the employer’s strange behavior baffles us. But let’s not miss the point of the story. That is, God dispenses gifts, not wages.
If it’s a wage that we want from God, the Bible says that our salary is already figured out for us. If we want to be rewarded for our merit, if we want to be compensated for our work, then Romans 6:23 spells out how we will be paid: “For the wages of sin is death…” On the other hand, if we want to receive what God wants to freely give us, then the last part of this verse offers us something far better then just compensation: “but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In other words, God’s favor is a gift. Grace keeps us from looking down on ourselves. How many of us ever struggle with feelings of incompetence? Are we ever discontent? Do we ever wished for a greater gift or a more important status?
Think for a minute about those who were not hired until 5:00 p.m. They watched and waited while the other workers were hired. They knew that they would probably not get paid that day and that they probably wouldn’t be able to buy any food for dinner that night. All day long they had been passed over.
This story shows us the Lord’s passion for the forgotten. Usually the best and strongest are first picked. These workers were the leftovers, the least skilled, the least likely to be picked. These workers really represent each one of us. When we think about it, what do we have to offer the Lord? Does He need our intellect, our strength, or our money. Does the Lord need our good deeds? No.
Let our confidence and joy in this life be based not on what we have or do not have. May it also not be on what we do or don’t do. Rather, our confidence is on WHO we have! Grace makes us equal to everyone else in Christ. Grace offers us a fresh start. The Christian life is really a series of new beginnings. Thanks be to Jesus for this new day with fresh new beginnings with His Fresh Grace.
In His Grace,
Brown
http://youtu.be/DSKnkqAOhpA
Please pray for our upcoming ministry events:
We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.
Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.
The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer
Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
September 18, we will go back onto the regular schedule with services at both 8:30 and 11 AM and Sunday School at 9:50 AM. Wesley will resume meeting at 9:30 AM.
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.
Though it is only Tuesday we are already eager for the weekend. Our oldest daughter, Janice, will be coming in this weekend with Jeremy and Ada, wile the older "grands" get a weekend with their other grandmother. We look forward to the time to be spent with them.
In the Parable that is recorded in Mathew 20:1 and following, our Lord elucidated about the mystery, wonder and even scandal of grace. Certainly, the Christian faith is supremely a religion of grace. Yet, even so, grace is frequently not well understood and often not really believed. We use the word a great deal but rarely think about what it means.
In his book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace,” Phillip Yancey points out that part of our problem is in the nature of grace itself. Grace is scandalous. It is difficult to accept, hard to believe, and hard to receive. Grace shocks us in what it offers because it is truly not of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners. Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the not-so-bad, but God would save the worst. God starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. That’s why God alone gets the glory in our salvation. Jesus did all the work when he died on the cross.
In the end grace means that no one is too bad to be saved. God specializes in saving really bad people. Grace also means that some people may think themselves too good to be saved. That is, they may have such a high opinion of themselves that they think they don’t need God’s grace. God’s grace cannot help us until we are desperate enough to receive it.
Grace has an edge to it. It’s challenging and even disturbing. If we are honest, we must admit that grace even scandalizes us. Grace is not the way we normally do things. Grace reminds us that God’s favor is a gift. Referring to the parable of the day laborers, John MacArthur put it this way, “The charge of unfairness was not grounded in a love for justice but in the selfish assumption that the extra pay they wanted was pay they deserved.”
Many of us identify with the employees who put in a full day’s work, rather than the add-on laborers who came in at the end of the day. We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers and the employer’s strange behavior baffles us. But let’s not miss the point of the story. That is, God dispenses gifts, not wages.
If it’s a wage that we want from God, the Bible says that our salary is already figured out for us. If we want to be rewarded for our merit, if we want to be compensated for our work, then Romans 6:23 spells out how we will be paid: “For the wages of sin is death…” On the other hand, if we want to receive what God wants to freely give us, then the last part of this verse offers us something far better then just compensation: “but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In other words, God’s favor is a gift. Grace keeps us from looking down on ourselves. How many of us ever struggle with feelings of incompetence? Are we ever discontent? Do we ever wished for a greater gift or a more important status?
Think for a minute about those who were not hired until 5:00 p.m. They watched and waited while the other workers were hired. They knew that they would probably not get paid that day and that they probably wouldn’t be able to buy any food for dinner that night. All day long they had been passed over.
This story shows us the Lord’s passion for the forgotten. Usually the best and strongest are first picked. These workers were the leftovers, the least skilled, the least likely to be picked. These workers really represent each one of us. When we think about it, what do we have to offer the Lord? Does He need our intellect, our strength, or our money. Does the Lord need our good deeds? No.
Let our confidence and joy in this life be based not on what we have or do not have. May it also not be on what we do or don’t do. Rather, our confidence is on WHO we have! Grace makes us equal to everyone else in Christ. Grace offers us a fresh start. The Christian life is really a series of new beginnings. Thanks be to Jesus for this new day with fresh new beginnings with His Fresh Grace.
In His Grace,
Brown
http://youtu.be/DSKnkqAOhpA
Please pray for our upcoming ministry events:
We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.
Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.
The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer
Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
September 18, we will go back onto the regular schedule with services at both 8:30 and 11 AM and Sunday School at 9:50 AM. Wesley will resume meeting at 9:30 AM.
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Brown's Daily Word 9-19-11
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day in His Kingdom. He blessed us with a full weekend of ministry, fellowship, and worship. One of our ministry teams prepared and served meals at the First United Methodist Church, Endicott, Saturday noon. It is always a great blessing to break bread in the Name of our Lord. I performed a wedding for young couple Saturday afternoon and then we gathered for our Saturday Evening worship at 6:30 PM that evening. I use the wedding ceremony and celebration to offer Christ and the way He performs miracles of grace in a marriage where He is invited to be the Lord and Savior. The Good News of marriage is that almost 60% of all marriages last for ever. Thank you Jesus.. Furthermore, statistically, married people live longer than the single people. The death rate among the singles is almost double at earlier ages than that for those who are married. The moral of the story is that it is better wed than dead..
The Gospel Reading for yesterday was taken from Mathew 20:1 ff.. In this parable Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner that went out and hired workers for his vineyard. Some he hired early in the day, telling them that he would pay them the usual daily wage. He went back at various times of the day and found more workers waiting to be hired. Each time he hired those that were there, telling them that he would pay them what was right.
At the end of the day the landowner came to pay the workers. He began with the ones most recently hired and he paid them the usual daily wage. That excited the ones who had been there all day. They thought that surely if he paid the late ones that much he obviously would pay them even more for all their hard work. Their excitement was short lived. In fact, they were pretty upset when they got the same pay working all day as what people got who only worked an hour. When the landowner heard them grumbling, he tried to explain that he wasn’t unfair at all. He gave them what they had agreed upon, but it was his money and he could be generous if that is what he chose to do.
What the landowner did know about is grace. The workers that came at the end of the day didn’t get what they deserved; they got mercy. That is grace. Of course in the parable the landowner is God, the workers are us, and the pay is the kingdom of heaven. As we study this parable, we can quickly see that it is about grace. First of all, the parable indicates that grace is to be received, not deserved. For all of us who are people of faith, we know that we do not deserve God’s grace. Nothing that we can do will put us in a position of deserving God’s grace. All we can do is receive the gift that God offers to us.
David Seamands ( who has entered the Eternal City now) ends his book "Healing Grace" with this story. For more than six hundred years the Hapsburgs exercised political power in Europe. When Emperor Franz-Josef I of Austria died in 1916, his was the last of the extravagant imperial funerals. A processional of dignitaries and elegantly dressed court personages escorted the casket, draped in the black and gold imperial colors. To the accompaniment of a military band’s somber dirges and by the light of torches, the somber group descended the stairs of the Capuchin Monastery in Vienna. At the bottom was a great iron door leading to the Hapsburg family crypt. Behind the door was the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna.
The officer in charge followed the prescribed ceremony, established centuries before. “Open!” he cried. “Who goes there?” responded the Cardinal. “We bear the remains of his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, Franz-Josef I, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Defender of the faith…” the officer continued to list the Emperor’s thirty-seven titles. “We know him not,” replied the Cardinal. “Who goes there?” The officer spoke again, this time using a much abbreviated and less ostentatious title reserved for times of expediency. “We know him not,” the Cardinal said again. “Who goes there?” The officer tried a third time, stripping the emperor of all but the humblest of titles: “We bear the body of Franz-Josef, our brother, a sinner like us all!” At that the doors swung open, and Franz-Josef was admitted.
No matter who we are, what titles we have, or how much we have, none of it can open the way to God’s grace. Grace is given freely. It is left for us to openly receive that grace.
Second, God’s grace is about mercy, not about fairness. What would have been fair would be to pay the later workers less that the daily wage or pay those who had worked all day more than the daily wage. That would be fair. When we talk about grace, however, it is about something different than fairness. It is about mercy. God loves us and mercifully gives us more than we deserve.
Christian financial consultant and author Larry Burkett ( who has also entered the Eternal City), told in "Business by the Book" about going the extra mile, going beyond fairness. In 1984 he leased an office in a building that proved to be a nightmare. The foundation had not been properly constructed, and the office building was literally sinking several inches a year into the ground. After more than three years of putting up with assorted problems, including power failures and several weeks without water, Burkett moved his business to another location.
Two months later Burkett received a call from his former landlord who demanded that Burkett remodel and repaint his former office space. Burkett said no, feeling he had already been more than fair with the landlord, but the former landlord continued to call with his demands. Burkett consulted an attorney who agreed that Burkett had fulfilled his responsibility and should not do anything further.
Burkett went on to say that his son offered him some different counsel. The son reminded Burkett that the landlord and his wife had lost their only child a few years earlier and still suffered from that tragedy. Burkett had often commented that he would like to help them. The son suggested that this might be an opportunity to do just that by not doing what was fair, but what was merciful. Burkett said he considered that and had to agree with the conclusion. He decided to commit several thousand dollars to restore a virtually non-usable building. That is going beyond fair, to merciful. It is exactly what God’s grace is all about.
Third, God’s grace is for the last as well as the first. It is easy for us to say that we deserve more because we are the people who have been faithful. God doesn’t work that way. Today and everyday God wants a relationship with everyone, from those hired first thing in the morning to those that only managed to put in an hour at the end of the day. That is what Grace is all about.
In His Grace,
Brown
http://youtu.be/SHBG7NfZF0w
http://youtu.be/UvYIjFtPQEk
Please pray for our upcoming ministry events:
We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.
Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.
The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer
Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
September 18, we will go back onto the regular schedule with services at both 8:30 and 11 AM and Sunday School at 9:50 AM. Wesley will resume meeting at 9:30 AM.
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.
Praise the Lord for this new day in His Kingdom. He blessed us with a full weekend of ministry, fellowship, and worship. One of our ministry teams prepared and served meals at the First United Methodist Church, Endicott, Saturday noon. It is always a great blessing to break bread in the Name of our Lord. I performed a wedding for young couple Saturday afternoon and then we gathered for our Saturday Evening worship at 6:30 PM that evening. I use the wedding ceremony and celebration to offer Christ and the way He performs miracles of grace in a marriage where He is invited to be the Lord and Savior. The Good News of marriage is that almost 60% of all marriages last for ever. Thank you Jesus.. Furthermore, statistically, married people live longer than the single people. The death rate among the singles is almost double at earlier ages than that for those who are married. The moral of the story is that it is better wed than dead..
The Gospel Reading for yesterday was taken from Mathew 20:1 ff.. In this parable Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner that went out and hired workers for his vineyard. Some he hired early in the day, telling them that he would pay them the usual daily wage. He went back at various times of the day and found more workers waiting to be hired. Each time he hired those that were there, telling them that he would pay them what was right.
At the end of the day the landowner came to pay the workers. He began with the ones most recently hired and he paid them the usual daily wage. That excited the ones who had been there all day. They thought that surely if he paid the late ones that much he obviously would pay them even more for all their hard work. Their excitement was short lived. In fact, they were pretty upset when they got the same pay working all day as what people got who only worked an hour. When the landowner heard them grumbling, he tried to explain that he wasn’t unfair at all. He gave them what they had agreed upon, but it was his money and he could be generous if that is what he chose to do.
What the landowner did know about is grace. The workers that came at the end of the day didn’t get what they deserved; they got mercy. That is grace. Of course in the parable the landowner is God, the workers are us, and the pay is the kingdom of heaven. As we study this parable, we can quickly see that it is about grace. First of all, the parable indicates that grace is to be received, not deserved. For all of us who are people of faith, we know that we do not deserve God’s grace. Nothing that we can do will put us in a position of deserving God’s grace. All we can do is receive the gift that God offers to us.
David Seamands ( who has entered the Eternal City now) ends his book "Healing Grace" with this story. For more than six hundred years the Hapsburgs exercised political power in Europe. When Emperor Franz-Josef I of Austria died in 1916, his was the last of the extravagant imperial funerals. A processional of dignitaries and elegantly dressed court personages escorted the casket, draped in the black and gold imperial colors. To the accompaniment of a military band’s somber dirges and by the light of torches, the somber group descended the stairs of the Capuchin Monastery in Vienna. At the bottom was a great iron door leading to the Hapsburg family crypt. Behind the door was the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna.
The officer in charge followed the prescribed ceremony, established centuries before. “Open!” he cried. “Who goes there?” responded the Cardinal. “We bear the remains of his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, Franz-Josef I, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Defender of the faith…” the officer continued to list the Emperor’s thirty-seven titles. “We know him not,” replied the Cardinal. “Who goes there?” The officer spoke again, this time using a much abbreviated and less ostentatious title reserved for times of expediency. “We know him not,” the Cardinal said again. “Who goes there?” The officer tried a third time, stripping the emperor of all but the humblest of titles: “We bear the body of Franz-Josef, our brother, a sinner like us all!” At that the doors swung open, and Franz-Josef was admitted.
No matter who we are, what titles we have, or how much we have, none of it can open the way to God’s grace. Grace is given freely. It is left for us to openly receive that grace.
Second, God’s grace is about mercy, not about fairness. What would have been fair would be to pay the later workers less that the daily wage or pay those who had worked all day more than the daily wage. That would be fair. When we talk about grace, however, it is about something different than fairness. It is about mercy. God loves us and mercifully gives us more than we deserve.
Christian financial consultant and author Larry Burkett ( who has also entered the Eternal City), told in "Business by the Book" about going the extra mile, going beyond fairness. In 1984 he leased an office in a building that proved to be a nightmare. The foundation had not been properly constructed, and the office building was literally sinking several inches a year into the ground. After more than three years of putting up with assorted problems, including power failures and several weeks without water, Burkett moved his business to another location.
Two months later Burkett received a call from his former landlord who demanded that Burkett remodel and repaint his former office space. Burkett said no, feeling he had already been more than fair with the landlord, but the former landlord continued to call with his demands. Burkett consulted an attorney who agreed that Burkett had fulfilled his responsibility and should not do anything further.
Burkett went on to say that his son offered him some different counsel. The son reminded Burkett that the landlord and his wife had lost their only child a few years earlier and still suffered from that tragedy. Burkett had often commented that he would like to help them. The son suggested that this might be an opportunity to do just that by not doing what was fair, but what was merciful. Burkett said he considered that and had to agree with the conclusion. He decided to commit several thousand dollars to restore a virtually non-usable building. That is going beyond fair, to merciful. It is exactly what God’s grace is all about.
Third, God’s grace is for the last as well as the first. It is easy for us to say that we deserve more because we are the people who have been faithful. God doesn’t work that way. Today and everyday God wants a relationship with everyone, from those hired first thing in the morning to those that only managed to put in an hour at the end of the day. That is what Grace is all about.
In His Grace,
Brown
http://youtu.be/SHBG7NfZF0w
http://youtu.be/UvYIjFtPQEk
Please pray for our upcoming ministry events:
We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.
Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.
The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer
Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
September 18, we will go back onto the regular schedule with services at both 8:30 and 11 AM and Sunday School at 9:50 AM. Wesley will resume meeting at 9:30 AM.
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.
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