Brown's Daily Word: 6/17/12

Friday, June 22, 2012

Brown's Daily Word 6-22-12

Praise the Lord for this Friday. Sunday is coming. Praise the Lord for these summer days. The Lord has placed an open door that we might worship and serve Him.

The Church of Jesus Christ affirms, "I believe in the communion of saints." The Bible tells us that we are all called to be saints. If you have come to Christ for forgiveness and newness of life then, in spite of your imperfections, you are in the family of the forgiven, and you are a saint. Saints are mentioned 60 times in the New Testament, and each time this term applies to ordinary Christians who have turned their lives over to Jesus Christ, and who are living for him in their own imperfect way. The Greek term for saint is hagios and comes from the word meaning “to be holy”. In biblical use when something was holy it meant that it was “set aside” for a special purpose. Objects in the temple were said to be holy, but a candle stick is not a moral being. These objects were holy because they were set apart exclusively for God’s use and purposes. We are saints, not when we reach perfection, but when our lives have been set apart for God to be used exclusively for his purposes. We celebrate our life In Jesus Christ. We praise the Lord the way we can share the gift of Christian life and fellowship with those love Christ and serve Him around the corner and around the globe.

Sunita and Andy will be arriving back to Washington today after being away for six weeks. They had a blessed time doing life in Albania because of Christ who is all over the world. During my travels around the world I have been so privileged to meet people who have put their faith in Christ and love Him and serve Him.

For a short time today, we are going to host a young Christian family from Colorado, who will be visiting Cooperstown, NY. They are flying in to the Greater Binghamton Airport. Alice is preparing Home Made New York Pizza for this family. We have never met them before. I just saw their family picture on Face Book last night. Praise the Lord for the church of Jesus Christ around the corner and around the world.

The early church had a spirit of love and caring that we still strive for today. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them....” (Acts 4:32-34). The Bible says that they enjoyed the favor of all the people (Acts 2:47).
In the second chapter of Acts we read: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (2:42).

The times when I have grown the most have been those times when I have been in worship, or a small group, when someone has asked for prayer because of some besetting sin, some persistent temptation or failing, some fault or shortcoming, because it dawned on me that I was not the only one who had problems in those areas.

The Bible describes what our privileged relationship with other Christians should be like: “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). If you are walking in the light, if you are having fellowship with other Christians, if the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you from your sin then you are a saint, and a member of the family of God.
The Bible says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24,25).

See you in church,

Brown

http://youtu.be/molBcp8S_Ng

Super Summer Music Festival

Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 6:30 PM

Location: First United Methodist Church

53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott

Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church

Musicians include: Aric Phinney, Yancey Moore,

David Berry, Emma Brunson, Dianne Glann

Weekly Television outreach:

Friday 7:00 PM

Time Warner Cable Channel 4.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Brown's Daily Word 6-21-12

Praise the Lord! Summer is here with a full blast. It is going to be another scorching day here in New York. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday evening gathering. It is always refreshing to look at the Word of the Lord together with others who love His Word. It is always refreshing to know that "the grass withers, the flower fadeth, but the Word of our Lord endures for ever".

I have been thinking about living a life for an audience of One living life for Jesus and leaving all the rest up to Him. He has said, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord,’ plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’” (Jeremiah 29:11-13). Again, the Bible tells us what it is all about. “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12). We see that truth in the headlines every day.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, in one of his great poems, wrote:
THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness...
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs-
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Life opens up to those who look upward rather than inward. Fulfillment and fruitfulness come to those who do not try to find life by filling it with things or the acceptance of the crowd. Life surprises with joy those who refuse to live as though the world revolves around them. Life is aflame for those who live with eyes to see that the Lord is at work all around us. He is alive and well. We serve and live under a captain who has never lost a battle. Blessed be His Name.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/OLP1pqNx0v4

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Brown's Daily Word 6-20-12

This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. It is going to be one of the hottest days of June. We will gather for our mid-week service this evening at 6 PM with a special meal followed by Bible Study at 6.30PM. We will be looking at Acts 3 and 4.

I love to read the story of Daniel in the lion's den as it is recorded in Daniel 6. Humanly speaking, Daniel’s situation was without hope. Verse 16 tells us that he had just been thrown into the lions’ den. Every precaution was taken to make sure that the deliverance of Daniel was humanly impossible. No one could rescue him.
In verse 16b we read that the king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” That is quite a statement. Verse 18 says that “the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep.”
Every one of us is acquainted with that type of experience, when we can’t sleep because we are so deeply worried or troubled, or when we are so close to someone that we can’t sleep because of what they are suffering through. We probably are not in a literal lions’ den, however. I know from conversations with people and from the e-mails I receive that many of us are facing some personal trials, which often seem like impossibilities. Many are on the verge of giving up. Some of the trials and temptations we wrestle with seem to be getting worse.
Whatever lions’ den we may find ourselves in, now or in the future, sooner or later we must come face to face with human limitations. The truth is that it is the most spiritually productive place we could ever be! God brings us into the lions’ den because he loves us. He does so because he knows that it is only when we come to the end of ourselves that we will ever be able to taste the joys of truly knowing his presence and power in our lives. It is only in dying to ourselves that we can come alive to Christ.
In verses 19-22 we are told that “at the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’ Daniel answered, ‘O king, live forever! My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king.’”
Note that Daniel was talking to the king while he was still within the den of lions. The lions were still all around him. (If you had been there and the king had come with a rope ladder under his arm and called out your name, don’t you think you would probably have crawled out first before you talked about the experience?) The king and Daniel talked back and forth as if they were meeting on a street corner somewhere. Daniel had no fear, for he had seen the angel of the Lord come and shut the lions’ mouths. We don’t know what exactly happened in the den. All we are told is that the lions’ mouths were shut. That must mean they had been open previously! Now they were as tame as kittens. We can imagine Daniel leaning up against the wall of the den with these massive lions lying all around him keeping him warm through the night. D. L. Moody said he envisioned Daniel actually using one of the lions as a pillow that night. Whatever actually happened Daniel experienced, first hand, the all-powerful hand of God.
The Lord takes great pleasure in taking the most difficult situations in life—those that seem humanly impossible to us—and using those impossibilities as a way of increasing our faith in his unlimited capability. In verse 23 we read that “the king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. When Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.” This last clause is the most important clause in this entire narrative. It reads, “He had trusted in his God.”
Throughout the Scriptures we learn that temptations and trials of life are to be responded to, not by running from them, or trying to avoid them, or trying to meet them in the power of our own abilities, but by drawing near to God in faith.
Hebrews 11:33 tells us about those “who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions. . . .”
First Peter 5:8-9 says, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith. . . .” First John 5:4 says, “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”
The life of Daniel is really a model and an example of how God’s people can live in difficult conditions and come through victoriously. Even as the Jewish people were living in Babylonian captivity, so Christians today are pilgrims and sojourners in a foreign and hostile culture. We, like Daniel, must exercise our faith in God’s purposes and leading for our lives. We too must resolve in advance that we will not be defiled by the world. Whether or not our God delivers us from the lions’ den, we will remain faithful to him.
Philip P. Bliss wrote many songs and hymns, one of which is titled “Dare to be a Daniel.”

Dare to be a Daniel;
Dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
Dare to make it known.

May God help each one of us to dare to be a Daniel.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/c9zHn4QSH-8

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Brown's Daily Word 6-19-12

Praise the Lord for new day. It is going to be one of the brilliant days of June. Thank you Jesus. We read in Hebrews 6: “And so after longsuffering, Abraham received what was promised.” God made a great promise to Abraham, but in order to receive it, Abraham had to go through longsuffering. This is life, even with the promises of God. Endurance and faith are the keys, and these things are only possible because of the promises and faithfulness of God. The Bible says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19).
I am praying for one young mom who is battling serious psychological problems, another man who is going through deep depression, a young woman who is a cocaine addict, another young mom who is an alcolic. These people are dearly loved by their families. Somebody said " Every addict is some one's beloved". These persons who are loved by Jesus are in the midst of storms. The storms of life are raging in them and around them.

As the disciples of Jesus were with Jesus, He was in their midst. In spite of His presence the disciples were encountering a very raging storm. They asked the question, “Jesus, don't you care if I drown? Are you aware of what I am going through?” They were in a storm. They were frightened, and they could not understand how or why this was happening.

When we are in the midst of storms, the enemy, the accuser of the " Brethren" comes to us bringing in the seeds of doubt , despair and fear. A storm in our lives does not mean that the Lord does not love us. It does not mean that He is angry with us, or that he is paying us back for something. Sometimes the storms that happen in our lives are self-made, but often storms just happen, so trying to analyze what happened or assign blame is a fruitless activity. We live in a fallen world. As Jesus said, “[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). In other words, good and bad happen to all. The important thing is whether or not we are prepared for them.
Jesus is with us in the storm. If we are going to be in a storm, the one person we want your boat is Jesus. Jesus could have stayed on the shore and let the disciples take all the risks by themselves, but he did not do that. Where they went, he went.
The problem for the disciples was that though he was with them, he was asleep. They interpreted His sleep as a lack of caring. It is interesting that this is the only place in all the Bible that we read of Jesus sleeping. The disciples wondered how he could sleep through the storm, and how he could sleep when they were in danger. They expected him to be attentive to their needs even in his sleep.
We have all been in such situations. While we are in the middle of a crisis it seems like God is off somewhere taking a nap. At such times He doesn’t seem very responsive to our need. (At least we know that we are in the same boat as the disciples.) Let's consider Jesus’ response when He is awaken. After He rebuked the storm, he then rebuked his disciples by asking two questions: “Why are you so afraid?”, and “Do you still have no faith?”. Fear and faith are incompatible. We may have expected that Jesus would be more compassionate here.

It is only in the storm that we truly understand who Jesus is. Perhaps the most amazing part of the story is the disciple’s reaction to Jesus. When Jesus calmed the storm, according to the Bible, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’” (Mark 4:41). They were afraid of the storm, but they were terrified of Jesus. It is quite something to be confined in a small space with One whom you suddenly realize is the Lord of the universe. Your knees give way and you begin to tremble. You find it difficult to breathe. Your insides are shaking and you cannot stop.
In his book, "The Unnecessary Pastor", Eugene Peterson writes: “My two sons are both rock climbers, and I have listened to them plan their ascents [up a mountain]. They spend as much or more time planning their climbs as in the actual climbing. They meticulously plot their route and then, as they climb, put in what they call ‘protection’— pitons hammered into small crevices in the rock face, with attached ropes that will arrest a quick descent to death. Rock climbers who fail to put in protection have short climbing careers. Our pitons or ‘protection’ come as we remember and hold on to those times when we have experienced God’s faithfulness in our lives. Every answered prayer, every victory, every storm that has been calmed by his presence is a piton which keeps us from falling, losing hope, or worse yet, losing our faith. Every piton in our life is an example of God’s faithfulness to us. . . . As we ascend in the kingdom of God, we also realize that each experience, each victory is only a piton — a stepping stone toward our ultimate goal of finishing the race and receiving the crown of glory.”

In Christ,

Brownhttp://youtu.be/jNjq54fgkhU

Super Summer Music Festival

Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 6:30 PM

Location: First United Methodist Church

53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott

Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church

Musicians include: Aric Phinney, Yancey Moore,

David Berry, Emma Brunson, Dianne Glann.

Weekly Television outreach:

Friday 7:00 PM

Time Warner Cable Channel 4.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Brown's Daily Word 6-18-12

Praise the Lord for new day. Sweet summer is here. The temperature will be reaching the mid-nineties this week. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Lord's day yesterday. We gathered for sumptuous breakfast early morning yesterday. Women of the church prepared a healthy breakfast. Dr Rodger Summers from Binghamton University spoke. Dave Hettinger preached during the 8:30 AM worship. I preached at the 11:00 and at Wesley at 9:30. I was asked to speak at the Baccalaureate service at one of our area High Schools. The service was held at 7 PM. It was high honor for me to speak to the graduating class of 2012, their parents, teachers, and administration.

Dr. Summers spoke during the Men's breakfast gathering about the Lord's faithfulness. Dr. Summers is wrestling with some health concerns in his own life. In the face of it and in the midst if he spoke about the blessings and the faithfulness of Jesus. It was great joy to be together yesterday all day magnifying the Lord and being in His presence, basking in His grace and love. After listening Dr Summers share his testimony in the midst of suffering I was contemplating on health and on suffering in the light of Jesus and His power. Laureen shared that they were praying for a woman who was suffering with cancer. The Lord has answered the prayer. The woman is fully healed. Thanks be to Jesus. When we are in the middle of some struggle it is easy to think that there are only problems. When we face evil or tragedy, it is easy to focus on these and only see what is wrong in the world. It is easy to despair and to believe that the world is so messed up that there is no hope for us.

Dr. Larry Crabb, a Christian psychologist, wrote in Decision magazine (October, 2005): “I could wish with all my heart that it could be done differently. But when suffering comes, which we don’t orchestrate but which God providentially allows, it really is a profound opportunity to believe that God is doing what is central in His heart. One thing I think we need to recognize is that God is not committed to giving me a comfortable life. If He were, He could be doing a better job! He has the resources, and I have a few suggestions — which He doesn’t seem terribly open to. So I presume He has a higher goal. Either He is not very good, or I have to redefine what His goodness means. And obviously it is the latter.”

As Christians, we believe that God is up to something — something wonderful — even when we don’t always see it — even when we don’t always like it. Even when it seems like the world is going to the devil, our Risen Lord is doing something. He knows what he is doing, and he is in control — even when what he is doing seems to us like it is insignificant and not always impressive. A friend of mine wrote recently: “If we are confused, that is what we are supposed to be. The confusion is temporary. We shall see. The lesson, the purpose, shall reveal itself in time — its own time. It will all make perfect sense — later.”

The parable told by our Lord in Mathew 13 tells us that it doesn’t have to be something big to be something which can change the world. Suzanne Guthrie, writing in Christian Century (May2, 2001), tells this story: “A friend of mine who served in the military during World War II (and is now a nun) was once at a conference with two men, a German and an American. As they wiped dishes one evening after dinner they exchanged stories about the war. The American told of the horror he felt as a young pilot during a particularly savage bombing of a city in Germany. He had orders to bomb the hospital, which he would know by the huge red cross painted on the roof. The second man — after regaining his composure — revealed that his wife had been giving birth to their baby in that very hospital when it was being bombed. My friend tiptoed out of the room as the two men fell into each other’s arms weeping. Imagine being in heaven, at the end of the world, where we might fall weeping upon one another, waves of reconciliation breaking upon us as we adjust ourselves to this dimension of pure love.”

In the end, that single reconciliation may be more powerful than all the bombs dropped in all the wars the world has known. This is where the world is headed, and it is in God’s direction, happening in God’s way. It is where God intersects the world and the finite is touched by the infinite. The yeast is permeating the dough. This is what God is doing in secret, hidden ways that the world does not see or appreciate. God is taking the world somewhere. It doesn’t seem like much is happening sometimes, but it is not about appearances; it is about the unseen power of a God who will never give up on redeeming the world. The yeast is unseen, but it powerfully effects every part of the dough. The mustard seed is not seen as it germinates underground and puts down its roots, but in the end it is large enough for the birds to perch in. The treasure is hidden in the field and must be found. The oyster must be opened, or the markets searched, to find the pearl of great price. What appears to be is not always what is.

So, what would our lives look like if we really believed this and lived as though this were true? We would live lives of hope, joy and expectation. We would trust God even when things seem to be as bad as they could be. We would believe that God is at work, even when the world is upside down. We would believe that it does not matter how things look and that God really is bigger and more powerful than any personal problem we have. We would praise God no matter how large any world problem is that looms over us, because we would believe that God is quietly working out his sovereign will. We would want to be a part of what God is doing and join in his redemptive work, by giving ourselves to others and being a witness to his grace and faithfulness. Our Lord is in the business of deliverance, redemption and renewal. Let us continue to believe him Trust him. Let us be joyful and not afraid.

Chalmers Smith wrote the great hymn that says,
Immortal, invisible,
God only wise,
In light inaccessible
hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious,
the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious,
thy great name we praise. . .

We blossom and flourish
as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish,
but naught changeth Thee.

Great Father of glory,
pure Father of light,
Thine angles adore Thee,
all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render:
O help us to see
‘Tis only the splendor
of light hideth Thee.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/mZsSRaaHKGA

Super Summer Music Festival

Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 6:30 PM

Location: First United Methodist Church

53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott

Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church

Musicians include: Aric Phinney, Yancey Moore,

David Berry, Emma Brunson, Dianne Glann.

Weekly Television outreach:

Friday 7:00 PM

Time Warner Cable Channel 4.