Brown's Daily Word 1-18-13

Praise the Lord for this Friday. Sunday is coming. Plan to be in the House of the Lord wherever you might be this coming Lord's day for worship, for witness, and for celebration. When the Redeemed gather to worship and praise Jesus, Satan trembles. When those believe in Christ and belong to Him, proclaim in word and deed that Jesus is Lord, Satan trembles.

We are excited for this weekend. Janice, Jeremy, Micah, Simeon and Ada are coming home from Boston tomorrow morning, Lord willing. Sunita and Andy are coming home Washington, Jessica and Tom are coming in from Philadelphia. Laureen is coming home from Binghamton. We praise the Lord for our children. We praise the Lord for our grandchildren. They are the perfect grandchildren for us, or, at least, we find them to be perfectly grand. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. We are planning to party all weekend, including Sunday.

The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from John 2.1-12. I love this passage. In these verses our Lord performed His first miracle in John's Gospel in a wedding setting. Jesus must love parties. At least, Jesus was at a party! The most joyous time in the life of a first-century Jew was a wedding feast, because that was all they had. A wedding feast was not just something that lasted for an hour on the night of the wedding, or the night before the wedding. The wedding feast, like the one described in John 2:1-12, often lasted for a whole week. It was the happiest and most wondrous party that was given in the first century in Judaism. I am certain that I know some Christians who would come to Jesus, while He was at this wedding feast, and say, "Jesus, you shouldn't be here. The whole world is lost and dying and here you are at a party. Jesus, people need to be healed. The dead need to be raised. There are broken hearts out there. And you are at a party! You ought to be about Your Father's business." I think His reply would be. "This is my Father's business."

If you think that nobody would say that kind of thing to Jesus, check out Matthew 11:18-19: "(Jesus said) John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The son of man (I) came eating and drinking and they say, 'Behold, a glutton and a drunkard...'"

Jesus was in a place where people laughed. You will still find Him at places like that. Jesus was present at a wedding celebration. He was probably dancing. He is the Lord of the dance. He taught by example how to live, how to dance, how to die well, and how to rise again.

While Jesus was at the party He helped out some friends so that their party wouldn 't be a flop. How about that? We always picture Jesus helping the broken hearted, the lonely, and the fearful. And he does. We see Him healing the sick and raising the dead. He does that, too, but how often do you picture Him making a good party better? How can we gauge the spiritual depth of a church? By how easily they laugh. When Jesus gives joy, it is real joy.

One of the most godly men I ever knew had the most infectious laugh I have ever heard, and nobody would think of having a party without having him there. Jesus' mother said to a slave, "Jesus says fill up those jars with water." and that slave says to another slave, "Why do we want to fill up the jars with water? We already have water." But Mary said, "Do it because He says do it." So they filled the jars with water. Then she said, "Take a cup of water to the steward?. . . He's not thirsty. He didn't ask for a cup of water. What are we going to do that for?" Mary said, "Do it." So the slave took a cup of water over to the steward and saw a surprised look cover the steward's face as his taste buds started working. "Wow! "That's good wine! That's the best wine! You're supposed to serve the best wine first, not last."

This is what the servants were doing. Jesus was standing over in a corner laughing. That's the methodology of Jesus. I can just see Jesus and the disciples as they left the marriage feast at Cana: "Did you see the expression on that steward's face when he tasted and the water was wine?" Do you see it? Jesus could have very simply changed water into wine, but His methodology was one of humor. "This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him..."

What happened in the midst of the laughter, and the fun, and the jokes and the party? People were converted! In the midst of the laughter the name of Jesus Christ was glorified. We don't think about that always, do we? We think He gets glorified in a prayer meeting, or a worship service, but did you ever think that the name of Christ is glorified when we laugh? Did you ever think that people are changed and converted when our joy catches fire in their lives? Empty pious-ness will kill a church faster than apostasy.

Rubens, the seventeenth century artist, once said that with a single stroke of his brush he could change a weeping child into a laughing child. Jesus does that, too, with the brush stroke of forgiveness. The brush stroke of freedom. The brush stroke of love. The brush stroke of power. The brush stroke of eternal life. The brush stroke of acceptance. In one brush stroke He changes the frown and tears into laughter. Even at the funeral service of Lazarus, as it is recorded in John 11, Jesus our Lord turned "Mourning into Dancing".

Wow! Come to Jesus and live.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/3MJ4VqfCRZI

Union Center UMC
Saturday Night - Worship, Fellowship and Witness
Saturday, January 26,.2013
5.30 PM at First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott, NY, 13760
Music: Dave and Jane Hettinger
Preaching and Testimony: Pastor Marshall Sorber
Chef: Joe Walker
Menu: Roast Beef, Roasted Potatoes and homemade Desserts
Sponsored by:
Union Center United Methodist Church
128 Maple Drive, Endicott, NY 13760
For information call (607)-748-6329