Brown's Daily Word 3-16-12

Good morning,

Praise be to Jesus our Lord for this glorious day. It is going to be a glorious weekend to rest in the Lord, and to worship Him and serve Him, for He is our Life and He is our peace. He is our Eternal Hope. He comes into the dead places of our lives and situations; He brings Life and He breathes His peace into the places of despair and gloom.

I was reading from Mark 5:21- 43 the other day. Jesus is the Christ in every crisis. He is captain at every battle we face. In this passage, Jesus was on the way to a home where death had visited. On the way He encountered a a woman who was dying because of a seemingly incurable, chronic illness; a little girl already had died. A father stood helpless, completely at a loss. He stood face-to-face with death, facing the loss of his beloved little daughter.

Among us, not only when we are threatened by a serious illness, not only when we stand beside the grave of someone we love, but each day, there is death. Death meets us, not only in the grim face of our doctor, informing us of the onset of some dreaded illness, but also in the faces of the one who told us that we were not needed anymore at our job.

Again, In Mark 5 one woman's entire life has been caught and dominated by a terrible, life-demanding illness. There are also a distraught father, a little girl whose young life is being cut short, the baffled disciples, and the crowd who doesn't know what to think of all this. Yet, intruding into the story is another face, the strong, life-giving face of Jesus, our Lord. As we read in Mark, Jesus was forever intruding into fixed, settled, hopeless situations and bringing life. Let us listen to His strong voice speaking over the laments and dirges in today's gospel? Hear him as he calls to the little girl, "Get up!"

I think Jesus is calling to each of us to "Get up!" His voice is strong, commanding, and vital. "Get up!" We have, perhaps, heard His comforting, soft voice before, stilling the waves of the storm, bringing peace to troubled waters. Now we hear His other voice, that strong, shattering, enlivening voice. It is the same voice that evoked "fear and trembling" (verse 33) in all who heard it that day, it may do the same for us. Life is frightening, when it intrudes into the realm of death.Let us hear His voice now. I think it is a shout. There is so much death. We are asleep with death so it takes a loud voice to wake us. Left to our own devices, we are caught, trapped, dead. But Jesus does not leave us alone. Jesus came to raise the dead. "The only qualification for the gift of the Gospel is to be dead. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be good. You don't have to be wise. You don't have to be wonderful. You don't have to be anything...you just have to be dead. That's it." (Robert Farrar Capon).

In all our caught-ness, in the depressing fixedness of the world, Jesus comes to us, calls to us, raises us up, brings us life. It is all because of His Grace. Let us come to Jesus and live.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/PANiveIKVX0

Friday March 16, 2012

Television Outreach

Time Warner Cable Channel 4

Time 7:00 PM

Saturday Evening Worship Service:

Location: First United Methodist Church

53 McKinley Avenue

Endicott, NY

Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church

Time: 6:00 PM gathering for Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service

Date: Saturday, March 17, 2012

Speaker: Rev William Puckey

Special Music by Hawleyton United Methodist Church Worship Band.

For information, call 607-748-6329

Brown's Daily Word 3-15-12

Good morning,

Praise the Lord, for He is the Maker of Haven and Earth. He decorates the earth with His matchless beauty and splendor. The Lord blessed us with a Wonderful Wednesday. Sweet Spring has already arrived here in New York. It is beautiful. The Lord blessed us with a great Wednesday gathering for study and fellowship. The food was delicious and plentiful. The Bible Study time was sweet. We talked about the Healing Christ offers to us. We read about the healing Christ performed that is recorded in John 4.

It is written that this healing was the second sign Jesus performed, according to St John. Can sickness, even sickness unto death, be such a blessing for a Christian? On the surface it would seem not. How can a Christian do God’s will if he is lying in bed, flat on his back? How can pain, discomfort, medical treatment and surgery as well as the compounding effects of medication be in any way a blessed state?

Tony Campolo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Campolo prayed boldly for the man’s healing. That next week he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, “You prayed for my husband. He had cancer.” Campolo thought, when he heard her use the past tense verb, that his cancer had been eradicated! Before he could think much about it she said, “He died.” Campolo felt terrible. But she continued, “Don’t feel bad. When he came into church that Sunday he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence. But the lady told Campolo, “After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the best days of our lives. We’ve sung. We’ve laughed. We’ve read Scripture. We prayed. Oh, they’ve been wonderful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing.” And then she said something incredibly profound. She said, “He wasn’t cured, but he was healed.” (Tony Campolo, “Year of Jubilee”, Preaching Today Tape #212.)
Jesus died so we might be healed of our sins. We may not be cured, but we are now healed from the penalty, power, and eventually, the presence of sin. God does all things well.
Every time time I read the story of Father Damien, I get challenged and blessed. in 1873, a young, brave Catholic priest Father Damien volunteered to spend his life serving the people secluded on the island of Molokai, Hawaii, which was a leper colony. When he arrived, he was startled to see people who were not only suffering physically, but socially, and emotionally, and spiritually. In the leper colony he saw extreme drunkenness, immorality, abuse, and an overall sense of hopelessness. What he saw were people who desperately needed to know the answer to a question we all ask... where is God? They needed God’s presence in their life. So, in 1873, Father Damien lived among the 700 lepers. Knowing the dangers, realizing the inevitable results of so much personal contact with a highly contagious disease. He built a hospital, clinics, and churches, and he also built some 600 coffins. The whole time he was giving them the answer to that question... where is God?
Whenever a church service was held, Father Damien would stand up in front of the lepers, and he would warmly and lovingly address them as "my dear brethren." Then, one morning in 1885, at the age of 45, in a calm clear voice, instead of "my dear brethren," he began with, "My fellow lepers, I am one of you now."
It was out of love that a humble priest became one of the them. Out of love he gave those lepers a gift that would change their life for all of eternity. He shared with them the answer to the ever-present question... "Where is God?" The only way he could give them the answer was by becoming one of them.
Jesus came to die for sinners like you and me. He became sin for us that we might have the opportunity to live in Him. He took our place that we might have a place with Him.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/SkvCWeqKVEQ

Friday March 16, 2012

Television Outreach

Time Warner Cable Channel 4

Time 7:00 PM

Saturday Evening Worship Service:

Location: First United Methodist Church

53 McKinley Avenue

Endicott, NY

Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church

Time: 6:00 PM gathering for Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service

Date: Saturday, March 17, 2012

Speaker: Rev William Puckey

Special Music by Hawleyton United Methodist Church Worship Band.

For information, call 607-748-6329

Brown's Daily Word 3-14-12

Good Morning,

This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Alice and I drove down to Washington, DC, Monday afternoon and spent overnight with Sunita and Andy. We went to Johns Hopkins for my doctors appointment yesterday. I will be going back for another visit in June. It was a very warm day (even hot) yesterday in Washington. The Spring Season already has sprung in Washington. Alice and Sunita took a morning walk in the National Arboretum in the morning yesterday. The magnolias and the other flowering trees are in full bloom. On the way to Baltimore we saw several magnificent patches of daffodils on the way along the Interstate. Praise the Lord for the way He decorates the earth with His beauty and His majesty. While in Washington we spent some time in prayer with Sunita and Andy, along with their very good friends and neighbors, Jenn and Rob.

Tonight we will be meeting at 6 PM at the church for a meal, followed by Bible study and a time of prayer, beginning at 6:30 PM. Choir will practice at 7:30 PM. All are welcome.

As we walk with Jesus our Lord during this Lenten Season I have been blessed as I reflect on the various prophecies and passages that deal with the Suffering Servant. I also share with people special times of prayer and praise. I was talking with one young mom the other day and she was sharing with me that the Lord has laid in her heart during the 40 days of Lent to send forty letters to 40 people who have been the Lord's blessing to her. The Bible says, “He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed.” (Isa 53.5) This is a very powerful passage that portrays the suffering of Jesus our Lord at the Cross. It also portrays that His suffering brought something good and powerful to us. His suffering brought to us wonderful salvation, wonderful healing and wholeness, and wonderful freedom.

I was reading about a man named Ray Burton who was made whole by Jesus Christ as he put his faith in Him, he received by faith through His grace full and free salvation. He served the Lord with great joy and obedience. Ray Burton was wheel chair bound, but he knew that there were no wheel chairs in Heaven. Heaven is about wholeness, ultimate wholeness. He had 18 surgeries. Vascular disease was eating his body away; his legs were gone – he was a paraplegic. A simple man, Ray was embarrassed a bit by his smoking. Yet, there was something about Ray Burton – his body was no longer whole, but there was a wholeness in his spirit that was rare. He had tasted something. Ray was loved by his family. He was one of the sweetest, gentlest, most godly men. He kept a prayer journal, although folks in his church didn’t know about it until after he died. He was a bit embarrassed by it – parts were typed, parts handwritten, filled with scratches and misspellings. It contained 50 pages single spaced, with multiple columns of names of people he prayed for every day. Four hours a day, five days a week, for twelve years he prayed for others. He said, "there’s nothing else I can do, so I pray". His body was broken, but still Ray was more whole than many of us.
Real wholeness isn’t about a beautiful body, or a balanced budget, or a beautiful wife and perfect kids, or an enviable social circle. Real wholeness isn’t about temporary things. Real wholeness isn’t found in things our world pursues so obsessively.
Jesus said, “I came that you might have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10.10) “My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.” “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” It’s more than patching up our sins and giving us a better self image, and restoring our peace with God. It's about real love, and it’s about real joy, and it's about real peace and real purpose. These are the kinds of things that will last forever.
Because He emptied himself of all but love, we can be filled. Because His body was broken, our life can be whole. Because he was forsaken, we will never be alone. Because He was buried for us, we can be raised. Because He reached down to us we don’t have to work our way up to Him. Because He became sin, We can experience ultimate wholeness and receive His Righteousness.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/jY-NV7eyA38

Friday March 16, 2012

Television Outreach

Time Warner Cable Channel 4

Time 7:00 PM

Saturday Evening Worship Service:

Location: First United Methodist Church

53 McKinley Avenue

Endicott, NY

Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church

Time: 6:00 PM gathering for Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service

Date: Saturday, March 17, 2012

Speaker: Rev William Puckey

Special Music by Hawleyton United Methodist Church Worship Band.

For information, call 607-748-6329

Brown's Daily Word 3-12-12

Good morning,

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. He blessed us with a glorious weekend of worship, witness and rest. It was a glorious day yesterday, the Day of the Lord. One of the readings for yesterday was taken from 1 Corinthians 1:18 ff. This passage speaks about the foolishness of the Cross. "The Word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but it is the power of God to those who are being saved." The Lord uses the things of the world which are weak and may sound foolish and may run counter-culture to accomplish His divine and holy purposes. Our society values those who have the right looks, wear the right clothes, and flaunt great talents and abilities. That’s the kind of people that the world invests in.
The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, said that God chooses the seemingly foolish, weak, and insignificant (as the world sees them). They’re the ones whom He calls. In fact, He calls NOT MANY wise, NOT MANY mighty, NOT MANY noble. Why does God choose the weak and foolish? Verse 29 tells us - “so that no flesh should glory in His presence”. God’s looking to invest in people who, when all is said and done and He’s used them to His purposes, successfully, will say “IT WAS ONLY BY YOUR GRACE THAT WE MADE IT. We couldn’t have achieved one iota without You!”
This is the message of these verses. It’s a great encouragement that God can gain the MOST glory by using ordinary people like you and me. Yet, as you know, there are many Christians who are intimidated by their feelings of inadequacy. We ALL know our own weaknesses and limitations better than anybody else does. We tend to think that because our resources are so small we could never do anything for God. “Leave it to those talented people; those ‘Super-men and women’ who have it all together”.
Those so-called ‘super-people’ don’t really exist! Underneath it all those really talented, seemingly ‘all-together’ people, are just human beings like the rest of us, with the same feelings of inadequacy about themselves that we all share.
As a young man Moses found himself perfectly positioned to be able to help his people - the Israelites. He had the ear of Pharaoh himself. He had been delivered from death, and brought by the hand of God to an incredible place of opportunity. Surely he was born to be a man of destiny. Then, in a moment, everything changed for Moses. In one rash moment of anger, he seemed to throw it all away. Moses spent the next 40 years tending another man’s sheep in the wilderness. The dream was smashed. Destiny lay in ruins. He was a young man when he fled Egypt; 40 years is the best part of a lifetime - seemingly wasted because of one rash act! Then, one day, Moses came upon a burning bush - it was on fire, but it wasn’t being consumed - it was still green. Moses said: “I will turn aside and see this great sight!”
For 40 years Moses had been living day to day, just maintaining the status quo. Sometimes when we are so locked into the status quo, believing that this is our life’s lot and nothing’s ever going to change, God has to step in dramatically and get our attention. That’s precisely what God did with Moses at the burning bush.
Moses encountered God at that bush after 40 years spent in the wilderness. There God said the most outrageous thing to Moses, “GO BACK and bring My people out of bondage in Egypt.”
Moses' response must have been, “Lord, it’s too late! Surely! If you had asked me 40 years ago it would have been a different story - I was well positioned then - I had youthful energy then - I was well-spoken. Lord, most of my conversation over the past 40 years has been with SHEEP. I don’t conduct myself very well around people any more - and I’ve almost forgotten how to SPEAK Egyptian! How an I going to talk to Pharaoh? What about the Israelites - why should they listen to me? Lord, it’s too late. I had my chance and I blew it! I have nothing left to offer. Find someone who has the ability.”
At that moment God asked Moses thewonderful question, “WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR HAND?” Some people are always dwelling on the failures, the mistakes, the wrong decisions of the past, all of the "if only's".
“Moses, WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR HAND?”
Moses looked down, and what was in his hand? A ROD. A simple shepherd’s staff. A walking stick, and a tool for scruffing sheep. That was all he had in his hand. It was the legacy of 40 wasted years! Then God indicated, “THAT’LL DO JUST FINE - we can use that!” God said: “Throw it on the ground Moses. You are in the presence of God - now cast it before ME!” Moses threw it down, and immediately it turned into a snake, right before his eyes. God said: “Pick it up again”. Moses took it and it became a rod again in his hand.
Can God use a simple shepherd’s rod? Of course He can. With MOSES it was a rod; with David it was a SLINGSHOT; with SAMSON it was the jawbone of a donkey. It does not matter what the object is because “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” “It’s not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.”
It was that most ordinary and plain old rod of Moses that God used to baffle the magicians of Pharaoh’s court; it was that same old rod that God used in Moses’ hand to unleash ten plagues over the land of Egypt; it was that same old rod that Moses extended over the Red Sea to part the waters; it was that same old rod that Moses used to strike the rock in the wilderness and provide water for the Israelites.
“WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR HAND?” It’s not too late. God doesn’t throw people away. “What do you have in your hand?” You may not feel like you have very much at all, but God wants to take your weakness and give you His strength.
I love the way J.B. Phillips: translates (1 Corinthians 1:26-31), “For look at your own calling as Christians, my brothers. You don’t see among you many of the wise (according to this world’s judgment) nor many of the ruling class, nor many from the noblest families. But God has chosen what the world calls foolish to shame the wise; He has chosen what the world calls weak to shame the strong. He has chosen things of little strength and small repute, yes and even things which have no real existence, to explode the pretensions of the things that are - that no man may boast in the presence of God.”
You don’t have to be some super-gifted genius in order for God to use you. God takes the most unlikely candidates to use for His glory. He doesn’t look so much for great ability - but rather He looks for great AVAILABILITY.
In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/8welVgKX8Qo