Brown's Daily Word 5-31-12

This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in Him. He blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday evening gathering for fellowship and study. We revisited the passage from Acts 2. God is at work in all ages in accomplishing His mighty deeds. In Exodus 19 we read about the sights and sounds. There was a powerful storm, and a dense cloud. There was a blast from a ram’s horn. The whole mountain was covered with smoke as from a furnace, because the Lord was there in fire. The mountain shook violently, the sound grew louder, and finally the Lord’s voice was heard from the midst. T he glorious presence of the Lord appeared on Mt.Sinai in full force, revealing to His people His power and purity.

After Jesus had been lifted from the earth for 10 days, and the day of Pentecost had come. The disciples were in one accord, of one heart and mind, together in the Upper Room. Once again the presence of God showed up, almost with the same effects. In the Old Testament, tradition had always associated storms, fire and a voice with the presence of God. A mighty wind like a storm, fire that looked like tongues resting upon each person there, and other languages, speaking God’s words to different people groups. Pentecost was an updated Mt.Sinai.
I t was also upgraded, too. The fire on Mt.Sinai was only for Moses, everyone else standing at a distance. Only Moses got the fire of God in His life. Only Moses got God’s power. Only Moses understood God’s presence. Beginning with Pentecost, however, God’s power, God’s purity, and God’s presence are for all believers.
Ephesians 2:22 says, “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” This shows that the Spirit is not just for the occasional believer. The power, the mighty rushing wind, is for each of us. That fire is the refining fire of God. It changes us. It cleanses us. It makes us like Him. It was prophesied in the OT. Malachi 3 says, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.” That refining fire will burn away the excess stuff in our hearts. John the Baptist described Jesus’ ministry with these words: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

Though we are stubborn , unforgiving, bitter, selfish, secluded, complaining, ungrateful, and faithless, the Lord Jesus forgives us and the Holy Spirit gives us the power over sin, to live victorious lives. Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” The work of the Holy Spirit is Jesus at work now in our lives and through our lives. He produces the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of the believer here and now.

The late Bill Bright used to tell this story. During the Depression, a field known as Yates Pool, was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn’t able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy.
Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.
At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.
Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he’d been living on relief. He had been a potential multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem was that he didn’t know the oil was there, even though he owned it.

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."
2 Peter 1:3 NIV

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/CmWVY4n_-wY

Brown's Daily Word 5-30-12

Blessed be the Name of our Lord, who surrounds us with so much love and grace in all seasons. Praise the Lord for various seasons that we celebrate in the life of the church. The Lord has given us various festivals so that we can celebrate and recount all His promises and His blessings. Last Sunday was the "Day of Pentecost" in the life of the Church. The Lord sent the Holy Spiri,t as He had promised, to His disciples. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples with a mighty wind and with fire. It was both audible and visible. As the disciples began to declare about the mighty deeds of the Lord Almighty, the people gathered from various parts of the world with diverse languages heard the proclamation in their own languages and understood the message.

We will meet at 6:00 PM today, for our Mid-week gathering for food and fellowship, and Bible Study. We will be looking at Acts 2.

We read about Babel in Genesis 11, how the Lord confused the people. The proud and the arrogant got confused. They could no longer understand each other. We read about the Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples in Acts 2. Pentecost reverses Babel. When the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, who were then dispirited and discouraged, they became bold and courageous. They became galvanized and unafraid. Their lives were turned upside down and right side up.

One of the most dramatic examples of this is the life of William J. Murray, the son of Madeline Murray O’Hare, the famous atheist who was responsible for the Supreme Court ruling which removed prayer and Bible reading from public schools in the United States. He tells in his book, My Life Without God, about living in a home where there was constant rage and violence. His mother could not keep a job because of her frequent angry outbursts. She never married either man who fathered her children, and lived with her parents and brother in a small row house in Baltimore. Murray’s grandmother read Tarot cards, his grandfather was engaged in illegal activities, and his uncle kept stacks of pornography in his room. William Murray was told by his famous mother that since there was no God, nothing was really right or wrong. She taught him that the most important things in life were food, drink and sex, and he took her advice and fully indulged himself. This began to change in 1980, when he sought help for his drinking problem through a Twelve Step program. It was his first encounter with anyone who talked about a loving God. Yet this loving God had no name. He read a novel that told the story of Luke in the New Testament. It talked about Luke’s relationship with God and finding God’s love. There began to be a stirring and yearning in his heart for that kind of experience, but he had no idea how to come into contact with this God. Then one evening, on January 25, 1980, as he was sleeping in his apartment in San Francisco, he says that the Holy Spirit came upon him and told him to seek the truth in the Bible. That was the one place he had never looked before, for that was the very book his mother had removed from our nation’s schools by her lawsuit in 1963. Murray states that the true reason for his mother filing the suit was her deep personal hatred for followers of Christianity. He told how his mother’s zeal against Christianity was so great that it had “taken over her life and rendered her incapable of seeing other people (himself included) as anything but either enemies or people who agreed with her every ideal.” Murray committed his life to Christ and has never looked back. O’Hair called her son a traitor and cut off all communication with him. O'Hair died few years ago penniless, and homeless and died in utter obscurity ... Murray experienced the love of God he was longing for and now goes all over the world telling his story. He was the chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition in Washington, D.C. Pentecost reversed the Babel in his life.
That is the purpose of Pentecost. Pentecost gives new purpose. It changes chaos and confusion into understanding. It turns us from rebellion to love and obedience through the power of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost turns despair into hope and brings a new love into our hearts that wants to reach out to God and others.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/i2Iz4cS1PF8

Brown's Daily Word 5-29-12

Praise the Lord for this new day. I trust you all had a great Memorial Day celebration yesterday here in " America the Beautiful". Jessie and Tom came for the weekend, and Laureen came for whole weekend. Janice, Jeremy, Micah, Simeon, and Ada went away for a camping vacation in central Massachusetts. We were also able to talk to Sunita in Albania via Skype. She and Andy are being blessed by the Lord in Albania as they serve Him there.

The Lord gave us very hot, humid, and brilliant day. It broke the record heat for the day yesterdat. The reading was 92 degrees as I drove to town in the later afternoon. We had a BBQ cook out yesterday. Some family members, along with some friends. joined us for a great time of food and fellowship.

Praise the Lord for the Memorial Day celebration. I watched some of the World War 2 footage last evening. I was deeply moved at great sacrifice and bravery of so many who gave their lives for the sake of freedom for the defeat of tyranny and oppression.

The Bible is full of memorials. The words remember, remembrance, and memorial are found more than 230 times within the Bible. God instructed his children in the Old Testament to remember that they were once slaves in Egypt. He commanded them to observe the Passover, as well as other holy days, as a “day of remembrance.” In the New Testament Jesus said that every time we approach the His Table we are to do it in remembrance of Him.
This, and every Memorial Day, is important to us as Americans and as Christians. As Americans, Memorial Day is an opportunity to remember those brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives defending our country. Jesus once said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13 NLT).
As Americans, we can rejoice in the freedom that we have in this country.
One of the most prominent symbols of freedom in the United States is the Liberty Bell, which hangs today in the historic district of Philadelphia. It has been called an icon of liberty and justice. Its most famous ringing was on July 8, 1776, when the sound of the Liberty Bell rang out from the tower of Independence Hall summoning citizens to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon. In that historic moment the Liberty Bell fulfilled the purpose designated by its inscription: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” That inscription, of course, is taken from Leviticus 25:10.
The purpose of the bell flows out of God’s Word . God has the same purpose for our lives today—to proclaim liberty that is only available through Jesus Christ throughout the world. No matter where we live in this world—whether we are American, African, Australian, or Asian—Paul reminds us we have a common need for the free gift that God gives in Jesus Christ. Paul wrote, “God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same: Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard, and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift. They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ” (Romans 3:22-24 NCV). As we remember those who fought and died for the cause of freedom, this is the message that Christians everywhere need to ring out this Memorial Day and every day.
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the American statesman Patrick Henry uttered the famous phrase, “Give me liberty, or give me death.” It became a slogan for the revolution. Liberty or death were the only options. As Christians we take our freedom seriously but also joyously, so we celebrate Memorial Day not only as day to remember those who gave their lives to give America her freedom, but as day to remember, rejoice and ring out the message of Jesus Christ, who gave His life to guarantee our eternal freedom. This freedom in Christ calls us to celebrate it, to share and to live it out each day. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/yNbLtiG2dWU