Brown's Daily Word 4-27-12

Praise the Lord, who has blessed beyond belief. We are blessed because the Lord has created us in His own image. We are blessed because, when we sinned and rebelled against Him fell into bondage, sorrow, and death, He redeemed us. It is written in Ephesians 1:3 ff, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." Indeed, we are truly blessed.

Our daughter Laureen spent a few days over the last week in Boston with Janice and Jeremy, and with Micah, Simeon, and Ada. She is in the Philadelphia area with Jessica and Tom this weekend. Sunita and Andy are going to Albania in the early part of May for six weeks with Sunita's work. They are excited to go to that part of the world to share in the mysteries and the wonders of Jesus' Kingdom.

We are getting ready for a very special worship tomorrow evening at the First United Methodist Church, Endicott and for the worship services Sunday morning.

at Union Center and at Wesley. Plan to be in the House of the Lord this weekend wherever you might be.

I have been looking at the Beatitudes, which we find in Mathew and Luke. Dallas Willard wrote, “Jesus did not say, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit because they are poor in spirit.’ He did not say, ‘What a fine thing it is to be destitute... It makes people worthy of the kingdom.’ ... Those poor in spirit are called ‘blessed’ by Jesus, not because they are in a meritorious condition, but because, precisely in spite of and in the midst of their ever so deplorable condition, the rule of the heavens has moved redemptively upon and through them by the grace of Christ.” (The Divine Conspiracy, p.102).
In other words, being poor in spirit is not a virtue in and of itself, and it is not because a person is poor in spirit that he/she is rewarded with the kingdom as though they especially deserve it; rather, it is because through Christ, the kingdom has been opened to all of us.
Almost all of these promises of the beatitudes are actually in the future tense:
Those who mourn will be comforted.
Those who are meek will inherit the earth.
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.
Those who are pure in heart will see God.
All of the rewards are in the future tense, except two: to the poor and the persecuted. The promise they are given is in the present tense and the promise is the same for both of them: “...for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The Kingdom is already here, and the advantages and the privileges of that kingdom are here and now – forgiveness, peace and the presence of the Father. We live between the now and the not yet – between the kingdom inaugurated by Jesus and the kingdom realized in God’s new world where all the promises of God will come true.
Warren Wiersbe once said, “Nothing is harder to heal than a broken heart shattered by experiences that seem so meaningless. But God’s people don’t live on explanations; God’s people live on His promises.”
C. S. Lewis wrote: “At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door... But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so.”
We have a future. e are not just living for this present world and its pleasures and comforts. Even if we are in need of much, we realize that we have much coming.
Some say that we have a “pie in the sky” religion, and they laugh as we sing about “the sweet by and by”. However, there is nothing wrong with having this kind of faith if there actually IS a future, eternal reward that outlasts and outshines anything this world has to offer.
Observe the lives of individuals who supposedly have it all. People in show business, the music industry, or politics who have all the fame, money, privilege, looks and all the rest are trying to fill the terrible emptiness of their meaningless lives. There is a new world coming, and it is Christ's world, where the Risen Lord lives and reigns. He said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Luke 9:23-25
As Christians, we do not look to gain the world, but we look to gain the kingdom. C. S. Lewis said, “Live for this world and its pleasures and you get neither, live for God’s kingdom and you get both.” He wrote in another place: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Jesus has given us an instrument panel to guide us and help us to distinguish between heaven and earth. That is what the Beatitudes are for. This is what Jesus intended, to get us headed in the opposite direction of what we think (and everyone is saying) is the right direction. The beatitudes help us to remember that we are headed for another world and that the rules are different. We cannot rely on our gut feeling about what is right or wrong, up or down. We need to believe in the instrument panel we have been given to guide us as we live in another kingdom.
Then only will the Scripture be fulfilled that says, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” Matthew 25:34

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/qtU1c5JZf0k

Friday April 27, 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, April 28, 2012

Speaker: Jason Garen from Davis College

Special Music by the Praise Band of the Cross Point Church, Binghamton.

Brown's Daily Word 4-26-12

This is the day the Lord has made. He blessed us with a beautiful evening of fellowship and Bible study yesterday. Alice and I walked over 2 miles in the late evening yesterday. It was a star studded night. While gazing at the stars I was reminded of the vastness of our Lords creation. I was reminded of His immmense genorosity. I was reminded of His Wisdom and power. He is so transcendent and in Christ our Lord He is imminent. He is the Lord of beauty. He is the Lord of Joy and ecstasy. Blessed be His Name. Jesus our Lord blessed all simple gifts. He shared meals and banquets with many common people. Even after His Resurrection He blessed meals with His presence.

In Mathew 22, Jesus described the kingdom of heaven as being like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. The story is more than a story; it is a parable. The characters of the story represent real people. In this case, the king represents God the Father, and the son represents Jesus. The servants represent the prophets who called the people to God throughout history. The banquet represents the marriage feast of the Lamb at the end of the age, which was spoken of in the book of Revelation: “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear....’ Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”’” (Revelation 19:6-9).
The truth that the parable is relating to us is that God is going to throw a huge party at the end of the age. In fact, the preparations have already begun and drinks and hors d’oeuvres are being served. It is going to be a party in honor of his Son and all those who love and belong to him. So, the first thing we notice about this parable is that God’s invitation is a summons to joy. God’s call is an invitation to a party! There will be feasting, dancing and great joy. There will be nothing lacking at this party. The food and drink will never run out. There will be friends and loved ones there, and best of all the King and his Son will be present.

Jesus’ hearers were probably shocked at this story, because those who were invited did not want to come. In the parable, people found excuses. They had other things to do. More than that, they did not want to be invited to the king’s party and became angry at those who were inviting them. Jesus’ audience could not imagine people failing to accept the invitation to a king’s banquet. The story bordered on the absurd, because no one would turn down such an invitation. The parable points to the staggering sin of indifference. Some of the people ignored the invitation. They had other things on their minds. They wanted to get caught up on their work or some trivia pursuit, and the invitation was interfering with their plans. What Jesus was doing in this parable was attacking the appalling apathy that looks at God’s gracious invitation to life and joy, and merely sighs with indifference. The call of God, in contrast to people's misconceptions, is always an invitation to ecstasy and life. Jesus said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). He also said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

How is it then that the world looks at God’s invitation to a party like it is an invitation to a funeral? This is a King’s feast, a once-in-a-lifetime experience! How can God’s good news be thought of as bad news? Worse yet, how is it that it is treated as no news at all. The response of indifference is sickening. C.S. Lewis wrote the provocative Screwtape Letters, a satire in which the devil briefs his nephew, Wormwood, on the subtleties and techniques of temptation. The goal, he counsels Wormwood, is not wickedness, but indifference. Satan cautions his nephew to keep his client comfortable at all costs. If he should become concerned about anything of importance, he is to encourage him to think about his dinner plans instead. Then the devil gives him this chilling piece of information: “I, the devil, will always see to it that there are bad people. Your job, my dear Wormwood, is to provide me with the people who do not care.”
The feast is prepared. The invitation is extended, the banquet table is set, and God’s arms are open wide. The only question that remains is whether or not we will accept the invitation. More than that, the question is whether we will remain dressed in the filthy rags of our own "righteousness" or accept the King’s garment of salvation, the robe of his righteousness.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/UilrmC1M1s4

Friday April 27, 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, April 28, 2012

Speaker: Jason Garen from Davis College

Special Music by the Praise Band of the Cross Point Church, Binghamton.

Brown's Daily Word 4-25-12

Praise the Lord for this Wednesday. We will gather for our mid-week fellowship and study this evening at 6 PM. There will be a meal at 6 followed by Bible study at 6:30. Adult choir practice begins at 7:30.

I will be conducting a service of death and resurrection for Leila Kretchik, who died on April 21. She was taken to the hospital on Good Friday. Her husband had died on April 21, 2004. Leila died the very day and the very month that her husband died 8 years ago.

In the face of death the Bible makes an audacious claim and proclamation: 1 Cor 15:51-57: "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have a new hobby - Bird watching. There are so many birds that migrate to this region during Spring Season. There are also so many flowers that bloom during the spring season in this region. The Lord makes our souls full by His beauty and splendor that surround us. He reveals His glory and beauty all around us. Like Jacob, we wake up to the real world and say, “Surely the Lord was in this place and I did not know it.” Gen 28
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s well-known lines remind us:
"Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries."

The only thing that keeps us from seeing and hearing is a heart that is dead or dulled by the struggles of life. That is why we need a new heart, the heart that is "Born Again", transformed by the grace and power of the Risen Lord, so we can see the bush afire with God; so we can see the stairway to heaven; so we can hear the voice of the Risen Lord. The Risen Lord will give us a heart that is fully alive if we ask him to do so. It was St. Irenaeus who said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Paul wrote: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
I cannot imagine what it would be like to go through life and never understand that there is more than meets the eye, to be so absorbed in the material world that you never meet the Risen Lord, to have been surrounded by his glory and majesty all around us and yet be totally clueless — sleepwalking through life.
Someone has written: “There are two birds that fly over our nation’s deserts: One is the hummingbird and the other is the vulture. The vultures find the rotting meat of the desert, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. Each bird finds what it is looking for. We all do.” What are you looking for?
Jesus said that there is a difference between those who have been transformed by the Spirit of God and those who live only in the natural world. He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. . . . ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes” (Matthew 13:11-15). God has promised that he can transform our hearts if we come to him. He said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
The Bible puts it this way: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV). The day is coming when the dark glass will be removed, and all that can be seen will be seen. We will see with new eyes, hear with new ears and feel with new hearts. But it can begin now, as we open our hearts to the world of God.
Spain once controlled both sides of the Mediterranean Sea at the Straits of Gibraltar, an important and powerful position for any nation with a navy. The Straits of Gibraltar became the symbol and pride of Spain. The Spanish aristocracy had their coins minted depicting the two Pillars of Hercules — the name given to the projections of rock on either side of the strait. On the coin, they placed a scroll over the pillars that read, “ne plus ultra,” which means “no more beyond.” Eventually, however, courageous Spanish sailors made their way through the Straits of Gibraltar and headed for the high seas. They sailed south to Africa, then around its horn to Asia, and eventually across the Atlantic to the New World. It opened up a whole new world. They understood what they never thought possible before. A radical shift in their world view took place. As a result, they forged a new set of coins. T hey were like the old coins, except for one thing: one word had been left off — the word “ne.” It no longer read, “ne plus ultra” (No more beyond), but simply and more realistically, “Plus ultra” — More beyond.
There is more beyond our world as we know it, but only those with new eyes will see its wonder, only those with new ears will hear its music, and only those with new hearts will experience its ecstasy.

In Christ,

Brown


http://youtu.be/byIpfEVxhs4

Friday April 27, 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, April 28, 2012

Speaker: Jason Garen from Davis College

Special Music by the Praise Band of the Cross Point Church, Binghamton.

Brown's Daily Word 4-24-12

Praise the Lord for the beauty of the earth. Praise the Lord for the blessings and the beauty of Easter Season. Praise the Lord for the way He makes all things beautiful in His time. We have two crab apple trees in front of the parsonage which are in full bloom. One tree was planted by Howard and Dorothy Woodward in 1969. The other was planted much more recently. We have planted several fruit trees in back of the parsonage, where we used to have a vegetable garden. The yard is in luxuriant bloom. Springtime in New York is out of this world. "Wish you were here". We have several bird feeders behind the parsonage. When our grandchildren were here they filled each of the bird feeders. We see lots of birds of diverse colors, shapes, and sizes flocking at the bird feeders. It is a wonderful sight to see carefree birds that sing and feed from the bird feeders with great mirth and song. Jesus our Lord taught us how to be "Bird watchers and star gazers".

The Bible is the Book of Grace. As it is woven with a scarlet thread we see the grace notes of our Lord in every page. I was reading the story of Jacob, running away as a fugitive. The Hound of Heaven was pursuing him as we read about it in Genesis 28. The story of Jacob and his brother Esau is a tangled one, filled with deceit, intrigue and animosity. Esau despised his birthright and sold it to Jacob for a pot of stew. Jacob then deceived their father and got him to bless him as the ruler and chief heir of the family. Thus tensions ran high between the two men. Those problems continued until Jacob eventually had to leave home. Jacob feared for his life so, taking his belongings, he packed up and left his home and went far away to stay with relatives in the east.
Jacob did not seem to have much time for God. We never read of any conversations about God or with Him before he left home. We never read about him worshiping, nor any encounters with God in all of his life up until his moment of crisis. Jacob had little time for God, because he was too busy scheming and planning how to get ahead. Too much of his time was wasted thinking only of himself. There was no time for God, and there was no time for anyone else but himself. But God was about to dramatically interrupt Jacob's self-centered life.
Jacob had been on the move all day, running from his problems. Finally, night came and Jacob fell asleep, with a rock for a pillow under his head, and above his head, the open heavens. As he slept, God revealed himself to Jacob. In his dream there was what appeared to be a large ladder, or staircase of light, the top of which reached to heaven and the very throne of God. On it the messengers of God were traveling up and down between heaven and earth. They were delivering people’s petitions to God and bringing God’s help to the people of the earth. Jacob was one of the privileged few who saw with his own eyes the workings of the kingdom of God and the spiritual activity of heaven itself. God was revealing Himself, and He gave His promise to Jacob that Jacob would be the heir to the promises which God had made to his father, and his father before him. The Lord repeated those promises to him personally saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth... All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:13-15).
Jacob called the place Bethel, which in Hebrew means ‘House of God.’ This special place seemed to him to be the very dwelling place of the Lord. Jacob met God. He wasn’t expecting to meet him. He wasn’t even thinking of God. It was purely grace. It was probably the last thing on his mind. He was only thinking of getting away from his brother, his mind full of thoughts about where he was going and what was ahead of him, but God broke into Jacob’s self-absorbed world in an amazing way. God came to Jacob even when Jacob was not seeking God. God opened his world to Jacob, even when Jacob had closed his world to God.
This whole incident tells us something very important about the Lord. Isaiah, the prophet, quoted God as saying, “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I’” (Isaiah 65:1). God is full of surprises. Just when you do not expect to meet Him, he comes to you. God can interrupt our self-centered lives in the most amazing ways. Think of times in the Bible when God came into people’s lives in surprising ways. Moses would say: “The funniest thing happened as I was taking a walk one day. I was walking by a bush that caught fire and God spoke to me out of it.” Moses was not expecting to see God, and he was sure that God was not interested in seeing him, but God had a surprise for Moses. Paul, on the Damascus road, had only hate on his mind when the Lord stopped him in his tracks and changed his life. Gideon was busy with his job, threshing wheat, when the Lord came to him and announced that he was going to use his life in ways that Gideon had never dreamed of. The list of Bible characters could go on and on, but there is enough evidence to show us that God sometimes interrupts the ordinary in our lives to come to us in extraordinary ways. And He is still doing it today.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/vcmXgqK4klU

Friday April 27, 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, April 28, 2012

Speaker: Jason Garen from Davis College

Special Music by Praise Band of the Cross Point Church , Binghamton.

Brown's Daily Word 4-23-12

Praise the Lord for this new day. The Lord blessed us with a full weekend ministry of sharing, fellowship, and worship. I preached from Luke 24:13 ff yesterday. This is the record of the post-resurrection appearance of our Lord on the way to Emmaus. The Lord is Risen but not recognized. It is written that two of the Lord's disciples were going to Emmaus. It was the evening of the First Easter day. These men who were walking along were dejected, depressed, and disillusioned. Jesus, the Risen Lord drew near to them as they journeyed to Emmaus. Rather than proclaiming a message of a victorious and risen Savior, we find that these two disciples were in retreat, leaving Jerusalem, scared, dejected, and perplexed. It was a walk of sadness and gloom, of frustration and doubt; a walk filled with deliberation and discussion, but without answers and understanding, without comfort and without a sense of mission and purpose.

“And it came about that while they were conversing” shows us that right in the middle of their plight of perplexity, the Lord Himself came on the scene. Here, then, we see the love and desire of the Savior to draw near and to draw us to Himself, to make the things of Christ dear and real to us. He brings comfort and change to our countenances, but more importantly, He wants to change our lives and make us like Him. Christ is not in the grave. He is risen, but even as the risen Lord who has ascended, He is still never remote to us though we may not be relating to His love and presence. He is always near and interested in us wherever we go whether in the city, in the country, on the road, in the garden, in the church, in the home, at work, every place. Matthew 28:20, “… Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”

As the men draw near the village the stranger seemed to be going further. The disciples then invited the stranger to come to stay with them. We entertain angels unaware, and they entertained Jesus unaware. As they sat down for the meal: “… He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it he began giving it to them.” How interesting! They had invited the Savior to come in to abide with them in their home, but as He did, in keeping with who He is, He assumed the position of host and not just a guest. It was He who took the bread, broke it, and gave it to them. The Lord Jesus is not just the unseen guest in our homes. He is always to be much more. He comes in to be the unseen host. He comes in to take charge and to lead in our fellowship that He might minister, lead, feed and sustain. He leads, we follow.

This was the same truth, though presented through a different figure, in Joshua 5:13-15. There Joshua was suddenly faced with a man with his sword drawn, none other than the pre-incarnate Christ, who had come on the scene not to take sides, but to take over as the Commander of the Lord’s Army.

“And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him . . .” We then read that “He vanished from their sight.” Literally it is, “He became invisible.” “And they said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?’”

“while He talked with us on the road,” showed they learned He is our Companion in the Way. The disciples reflected on the fact that it was Christ Himself who talked to them as they traveled along the road. Who was speaking with them? The Christ of the cross? Yes, but more. It was Christ who had now entered His glorified state and body. He was neither remote nor lacking sympathy with their needs and distress. On the contrary, He came to them in their need and distress, even in their retreat, and from this encounter we learn a wonderful lesson, the lesson of His availability. He pursued us and shows sympathy with us as our kindred, as one made like unto His brethren. He is our faithful High Priest who is intimately interested in us and interceding for us (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 2:17-18; 4:14-16).

No wonder the author of Hebrews spoke of our “so great salvation” (Heb. 2:3 ff). What love, what faithfulness! Christ cares, and He wants to come alongside and minister to our lives,, to bring forgiveness, strength, purpose, and joy as the companionable Christ.

Jesus walked with them and He talked with them. “While he was speaking to us on the road." How we need to capture the significance of these words “in the way” or “on the road.” He is not only the Christ of heaven , but indeed, He is the Christ of the way, the Christ of our daily walk whether on the road, in the office, or at home, wherever. Indeed, we can’t do without Him in the heavenly sanctuary at God’s right hand, but how wonderful to know he is also the companionable Christ, the Christ of the way, the Christ of our everyday path, with all our trials, frustrations, sin and failures, victories and joys.

Let us, therefore, with the perception of His presence, walk with Him, talk with Him, depend on Him, worship Him, and go, tell, and teach others about Him.

In Christ, the Risen Saviour.

Brown

http://youtu.be/9p4G2GbPYQA

Friday April 27, 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, April 28, 2012

Speaker: Jason Garen from Davis College

Special Music by Praise Band of the Cross Point Church , Binghamton.