Brown's Daily Word 12-2-11

 

Good morning,

    Praise the Lord for this first Friday of December.  We are excited and thrilled that the Lord has brought us to another Advent - Christmas season.  We know there are many who did not get to see this Advent season.  It is a season of greater adventure with Jesus our Lord.  It is He who has orchestrated the whole event of Christmas.  We are just the recipients of that great gift of grace. 

    My wife Alice becomes like a child again during this season.  We walked for over 4 miles last night.  She said how the Lord spangles the sky with brilliant stars and gentle Moon.  When the nights are the darkest the Lord shines on with His Light.      

    Pray for our weekly Tv outreach this evening o Time Warner Cable Channel 4 at 7 PM.  I am preaching from Isaiah 7.  Tomorrow, Saturday the 3rd of December, we will gather for a spectacular Evening of sacred and classical music at the Historic First United Methodist Church, Endicott.  The music will be presented by four Russian Men from St. Petersburg, Russia.  They are gifted and talented.  Those who live in the area, join us.  Do not miss it.  The concert starts at 6:30 PM.

    We come to Christmas thinking of Christmas as the time that sets everything right.  Christmas is the time to come home, to return to that time in our memories when all was warm, and good and right, when everything that's is upside down in our lives is set, at least for a couple of days in December, right side up.  Yet, in the Bible, Christmas was that time when everything was turned upside down.  It wasn't about a loving, family-value mother caring for a conventional child.  It was about Mary, an unwed mother, expectant in a most unconventional, upside down way. The message came not through the official, governmentally sanctioned communication channels; it was delivered in song by angels.  The good news came not to the learned and the powerful; in fact, shepherds working the night shift first got the gospel.  It was not a message delivered to biblical scholars poring over the sacred texts in Jerusalem, but to Magi, who were Gentile outsiders, pagan astrologers.  Apparently the star appeared to outsiders rather than insiders.  The Babe whose birth we sing lay in a cattle feed trough, not an expensive baby nursery.

    When Mary got the news from the angel, telling her that she was going to have a baby, Immanuel, Messiah to bless the world, she sang a Christmas carol.  It's about, "An Upside Down Christmas:"  We commonly call it the Magnificat.

    "My soul magnifies the Lord,

    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

    for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

    Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

    for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name.

    His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.

    He has shown strength with His arm;

    He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

    He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty."

    Mary sang of a world turned upside down, of those who are high and exalted being brought low, of those who are poor and hungry being filled, all by the advent of a baby.  Mary got her life turned upside down by that angel Gabriel and then she sang of a child in her womb who was going to dislodge, disrupt, disturb.  In years to come one of the charges against Christians, followers of the babe, was, "These people are turning the whole world upside down" (Acts 17:6).

    Let us think of Christmas as a time when God began turning things upside down.  Jesus comes to our world to turn it right side up and upside down.  May the Holy Spirit provoke us to surrender our upside down  lives to Him.  He alone is able to turn us right side up.

   Thank you Jesus .

       Brown

http://youtu.be/4PBhYLr7-Ws

Dugudi Hostel Students - Christmas Blessing

Dear Friends ,

       Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King.  Praise the Lord for the wonderful season when we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.  It is a wonderful season of giving and receiving.  It is also a wonderful season of proclamation that our Lord and Savior has come and that He will come again in victory and majesty. 

    Last summer, some of my family members and I  spent some time in Orissa , India visiting the family and also visiting the churches and the work of the Gospel there.  As you all know, the church in Orissa, went through a tremendous season of persecution in 2008.  Over 100 Christians were martyred, many of whom were pastors and evangelists.  I witnessed  how the pastors and evangelists continue to proclaim the Gospel in the face of great opposition.  I have seen  their work first hand.  We would like to bless them during this wonderful Christmas season.  We would like send $50 each to 20 pastors and evangelists. We also like to bless 30 young girls who are residing at the Dugudi Children's home.  I am attaching their pictures with this note.  We would like to send $25 for each of the girls.  That money will be used to buy them a special Christmas gift including a set of new clothing. 

    This is an invitation to you join us prayerfully and joyfully to bless the pastors and the children.  You can sponsor one pastor or one child or both, or give in any way that you can, according to the blessings the Lord has bestowed on you.  It will be a tremendous blessing to them.  Perhaps your church can sponsor a couple of pastors.  

    Please you  make checks payable to:

        Union Center United Methodist Church.

        Memo: Orissa Christmas Project.

    Mail your gift to Union Center United Methodist Church, 128 Maple Drive, Endicott,  NY 13760

 

  Joy to the world, the Lord is come.

     In His Joy,

       Brown

http://youtu.be/TN5BaOGTmGs

 

 

Brown's Daily Word 12-1-11

    Praise the Lord for this First Day of December.  One of the repeatedly given invitations in the Christmas narratives and accounts is, "Fear Not".  We, as human beings, fear the unknown. We're terrified of going beyond the known.  Our fear often keeps us from exploring new frontiers, or even from growing in our life with the Lord.  I was reading about how, In ancient times, before the entire earth had been explored and navigated, there were mapmakers — cartographers — who used the instruments and the knowledge available to them to map the known world.  Some did rather well, but they all engaged in a common practice.  That is, when they reached the limits of their knowledge — and their worlds were rather small back then — they would mark any undocumented areas on their maps with these words: "Beyond this there be dragons!"

    The ancients assumed that any place beyond the known world must be a place of danger and death.  They didn't mean death by natural causes, but a ghastly, grisly death after being eaten by dragons.  It is important to notice that the mapmakers were not stating an objective assessment of the unknown.  They didn't write: "What lies beyond here is unknown."  They had no legitimate reason to assume that the unknown was disastrous. They could just as logically have written "Beyond here lies something beautiful or wonderful, but they didn't.  They assumed the worst.

    Our secular society has that same kind of terror of the mysteries of Christmas.  I find humor in the ACLU's attempts to squelch Christmas.  It is extremely absurd that we have a holiday on our federal calendar called Christmas, which requires young people to be let out of school, yet the meaning of this holiday cannot be discussed in school?  By means of comparison, students prepare for the Martin Luther King national holiday next month by including the study of King's life and impact in their curriculum.  Never mind that Jesus has had more influence on the secular world than any other human who ever lived; schools would rather semi-educate our children.  Even today, society's rulers are still terrified of the little baby Jesus.

    As with the innkeeper, there is "no room" for One who doesn't fit neatly into our preconceived notions of reality.  Rather than let the mystery of Christ's birth stand as what it is, many in our society calls out the dragons.  Many rush to dismiss the virgin birth as superstition, "foolishness made up by primitive people who didn't understand the laws of nature."  When I hear someone say that, I always laugh and answer, "Yeah, right, Joseph didn't understand the laws of nature . . . is that why he 'resolved to divorce Mary quietly'?  If Joseph could come to believe in the virgin birth, why can't we ?"  The incarnation of God in human flesh is the miracle at the heart of Christmas.

     Paul tells us in Colossians 1:15: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation; for by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together . . .  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or in heaven . . . "

    In Christ,

      Brown

 http://youtu.be/19ZISWVW60I

 

The St. Petersburg (Russian) Men's Ensemble will be in concert onSaturday, December 3, 2011 at 6:30 PM

Location:  First United Methodist Church,53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott, NY
Sponsored by the Union Center UMC
128 Maple Drive, Endicott, NY
More Information available at (607) 748-6329

Brown's Daily Word 11-30-11

Good morning,

    Praise the Lord for this last day of November.  We will gather for our Mid-Week gathering at 6 PM for fellowship and Bible Study followed by the choir practice at 7.30PM.  During Advent and the Christmas season we are reminded vividly that the Lord orchestrated on His own the event of Christmas.  It was His doing.  Because God made all the arrangements that first Christmas, Jesus came at the right time, in the right way, to do the right thing.  His love never fails!  The good news of Christmas is that OUR LORD STILL MAKES ALL THE ARRANGEMENTS TODAY!  He always comes at the right time, in the right way, to do the right thing.  His love never fails!

    1 Corinthians 13:8-13 says this: "Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away…now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known…And now these three remain:  faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love." (NIV)  When we look at our lives today, we see things only as a poor reflection.  We know only in part.  It's hard, if not impossible, to understand what happens to us, when it happens, and why it happens.  We struggle, we doubt, we question, we ask our "Why?", but amid the dimness and the darkness shines the resounding promise of Christmas that God still makes all the arrangements today!  That baby who was sleeping in a manger in Bethlehem is now the King of Kings and Lord of Lords reigning upon a throne in Heaven.  He rules in perfect wisdom, perfect power, and perfect love.  He is always working on behalf of His followers, always bringing good even from the darkest and most difficult of circumstances in His children's lives.  This is our faith, this is our hope, this is our love, and His love never fails!

    All the people, the presents, the productions, the products of Christmas as the world knows it will sooner or later fade away and fail you.  If you put your faith, your hope, and your love in these things, you will end up greatly disappointed.

    There is a story of a 90-year-old grandmother who was struggling with the hectic pace of Christmas shopping and made a decision.  She would no longer send presents to her family and friends.  Instead she would send Christmas cards and include a check with each one so that they could purchase their own presents.  So she carefully prepared the card and wrote in each one:  "Buy your own present."  Then she sent the cards off in the mail well before Christmas.  Strangely, no one ever made any mention of having received a card.  When some of her family visited her, she asked them if they had received her cards.  They were polite, but not enthusiastic.  They barely even thanked her.  A year later, as she was preparing to send her cards again, she made a rather disturbing discovery.  Underneath the pile of Christmas paper, she found all of the checks.  She had failed to include any of the checks in the cards.  Instead, each of her family and friends received a card with nothing inside it but these words, "Buy your own present."

    Yes, the people, the presents, the productions, the products, the arrangements of Christmas as most people know it sooner or later will fail.  Let us not  put our faith, our hope, our love in these things.  Instead, let us  put our faith, our hope, and our love in Jesus Christ!  He still makes all the arrangements today.  Though now we see things in a mirror dimly, the day will come when we will see things face to face.  Though we  now know in part, the day will come when we know fully even as we  are fully known.  Then we will see then that even in our darkest and most difficult moments, Jesus always came at the right time, in the right way, to do the right thing.  His love never fails!

  In Christ,

    Brown

http://youtu.be/C6yIgN54R7k

The St. Petersburg (Russian) Men's Ensemble will be in concert onSaturday, December 3, 2011 at 6:30 PM

Location:  First United Methodist Church,53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott, NY
Sponsored by the Union Center UMC
128 Maple Drive, Endicott, NY
More Information available at (607) 748-6329

Brown's Daily Word 11-29-11

 

Good morning,

     Praise the Lord for this Advent season.  I love to read various Old Testament passages that deal with the Promise of the Birth of our Lord Jesus.  One of those passages is found in Isaiah 2.
    There is nothing in all creation that is as majestic and mighty as a mountain.  I was born in a village in India surrounded by mountains.  We live here in New York close to a majestic mountain region.  One summer, as a family, we drove to the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire.  In 2000 we spent part of the summer in the Alps of Europe.  To look at the mountains from the lower vantage point was to behold a daunting trek to the top. 

    The LORD took Isaiah away into a future place through the Holy Spirit and showed him something awesome.  God showed him the glory of Mount Zion. 
 “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills…” (2:2). Mount Zion is not much of a mountain. It is a hill among some other taller hills that could be called mountains. Something very important is going to happen here if Zion, not Sinai, is to be the chief mountain.
    Mountains played an important role in the religions of those times.  To the primitive mind, it was on the mountain that heaven and earth came together.  It was thought that the gods could be reached on mountain tops, so they built altars and temples in the heights.  The Parthenon in Athens was built on a mountain top as an offering to the gods.  

    Mount Zion became the center of the universe.  In other words, Yahweh is to  become the focal point of everyone’s attention in the world.  Does the mountain literally rise?  No, but it becomes chief among the mountains as the place to meet with God.
    “…and all nations will stream to it” (v. 2).  Here we find another oxymoron: a stream that runs uphill.  This is the picture the Isaiah painted for us. People from all nations will drop their patriotism to stream like a river to Yahweh on Mount Zion.  They will be joined into one throng of people, a people of God.  This Mount Zion will attract a great number of people, as Isaiah wrote: “Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob’” (2:3).
    There was something very radical about Mount Sinai.  We can read in Hebrews: “You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words, so that those who heard it begged no further words be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: ‘If even an animal touches the mountain it must be stoned.’  The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, ‘I am trembling with fear’” (12:18-21).  This was Mount Sinai, the untouchable mountain where God lived.  Don’t touch the mountain.  While God was there only Moses could go up and talk to God.  Don’t touch the mountain.  It was a frightening time in Israel’s history. 

    In Isaiah there is a monumental shift in how these mountains are perceived.
“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.  You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.  You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24).
    A dramatic shift occurred, and This is what has changed so dramatically, and Isaiah saw a time when people could come to God without terror.  This was Isaiah's vision.  Coming to the Mountain of the LORD became something to be no longer feared because of our inability to keep the law of the Lord.  Now we come to a mountain where we can approach the presence of God without fear.  “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob.  He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths” (2:3).
    Isaiah saw a pilgrimage to the mountain of the LORD where people would learn a Godly way of life.  The law would not frighten them away; grace would invite them to come.  This is why Isaiah saw a stream running uphill – it was the magnetism of the LORD, drawing people to himself in an inspired momentum.
    As the people come to the mountain of the LORD Isaiah saw an outflow coupled with this inflow.  “The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (2:3).  Think of all those excited people on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit performed this amazing work on the disciples.  They went home to their own countries and told their countrymen about this Jesus.  Jesus commanded his disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
    Mount Zion, the holy city, the New Jerusalem is a metaphor for the presence of God.  As stated in Hebrews you have come to this mountain, to the angels singing, to the church of the firstborn, to God himself.  We know this in part for we are still in the last days, but we will know it fully when Jesus comes again: “I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them’” (Rev. 21:2-3).   John saw what Isaiah saw, the glory of the LORD in the presence of his people.  The Prophecies in the Book of Isaiah speak about the peace that the Prince of Peace offers to those who come to by faith and through His grace.
    Even though disease my ravage our bodies and throw us down as we  have never been thrown before, we  can know peace.  I have witnessed people dying who knew this peace.  “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:1-5).
    This is what Isaiah saw; this is his vision of Mount Zion.  This is the gospel of Jesus Christ according to Isaiah.  One day it will be fulfilled in the coming of Jesus; swords and bombs will be gone.  No one will train for war anymore.  We will know peace.

Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

   In Christ,

     Brown

 

http://youtu.be/MS3vpAWW2Zc

The St. Petersburg (Russian) Men's Ensemble will be in concert onSaturday, December 3, 2011 at 6:30 PM

Location:  First United Methodist Church,53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott, NY
Sponsored by the Union Center UMC
128 Maple Drive, Endicott, NY
More Information available at (607) 748-6329

Brown's Daily Word 11-28-11

Good morning,
    The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Thanksgiving Day Celebration.  Jessica and Tom came for an extended weekend, and Laureen joined us for an extended weekend also. My sisters, brothers, and their families joined for the Thanksgiving banquet.  We had two other friends from the area joined us for dinner and a time of sweet fellowship.  Alice baked seven pies.  Praise the Lord for His Bountiful blessings.  We delivered some pies and sumptuous home made breads to some families. It was a great times of sharing in the blessings.  Janice and her family stayed in Boston, with Jeremy's mom joining them.  Sunita and Andy stayed in Washington, hosting several members of Andy's family.  Alice and Jess took off on Black Friday early in the morning, for shopping and meeting people.  Praise the Lord for the simple gifts and all other precious gifts of grace that money cannot buy. 
    The Lord blessed us with a full weekend of worship and celebration including Saturday evening  and Sunday morning worship services.  It is a great thrill to worship the Savior and Lord.  The Union Center UMC is fully decorated inside and outside.  We have a full Nativity setting in front of the Church with trees and lights in full display.  It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you look.  In the Church Calendar the Advent season began yesterday. The term "advent" comes from the Latin adventus, meaning "coming" or "appearance."  Advent is the season marking the four Sundays before Christmas.  It has developed as a way of helping Christians prepare not only to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in his First Coming but also to help them look forward to his second coming.

     Jesus comes to invade this world with Truth and Grace.  He comes for us and transforms the grim reaper.  This theme is illustrated in an Advent hymn which  goes like this: “Wake, awake, for night is flying; the watchmen on the heights are crying.  Awake Jerusalem at last.”  The story of this hymn illustrates that God comes for us even in the midst of terrible and horrible suffering and surprises us with grand glory even when the times are ugly.
    This hymn, “Wake Awake,” was written by Philip Nicoli in the year 1598.  He was a Lutheran pastor in Germany.  During six months in 1597-1598, 1300 of his church members died.   I had conducted funerals in two weeks recently.  This was the time of the Bubonic plague across Germany.  It was one of the worst times of human history.  To help himself live with the awful suffering around him, Pastor Nicoli wrote meditations.  He wrote the following words, “There seemed to me nothing more sweet, delightful and agreeable than the contemplation of the noble, sublime doctrine of eternal life, obtained through Jesus Christ.  In my heart, I dwelled on this day and night and searched the Scriptures as to what eternal life meant.  Then, day by day, I wrote out my meditations.  I found myself wonderfully well comforted in heart, joyful in spirit, and truly content.”  1300 funerals. 1300 deaths. 1300 moments of mourning.  In all of that awful suffering at one of the worst moments in history, he composed a hymn based on his meditations about everlasting life.  He wrote, “Wake, awake, for night is flying, the watchmen on the heights are crying, Awake Jerusalem at last.”  He wrote: "Now the night is past and the bridegroom has come at last.”  He wrote not about a Grim Reaper for 1300 people, but the Mighty Messiah who brought his people home.
    Wake up.  Be alert.  Don’t fall asleep .. There is so much evil surrounding us.  Best of all, there are so many miracles all around us.  Wake up. Eyes, ears, minds, and hearts, wake up.  See the world around you.  See the blessings upon blessings of God surrounding our lives, grace upon grace that follow us.  His goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives.  Wake up.  Watch.  Jesus has come.  Jesus is near.  He is coming again in glory and Majesty.
  In Christ,
  Brown
http://youtu.be/RmknWYFr6Xk

 

The St. Petersburg (Russian) Men's Ensemble will be in concert onSaturday, December 3, 2011 at 6:30 PM

Location:  First United Methodist Church,53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott, NY
Sponsored by the Union Center UMC
128 Maple Drive, Endicott, NY
More Information available at (607) 748-6329