Brown's Daily Word 1-23-13

Praise the Lord for this Wednesday. We will gather for our Mid-week gathering at 6 PM for a special dinner prepared with much love and served with much joy, followed by our study at 6:30 PM, and then by Choir practice at 7:00 PM. The Lord of the Sabbath blessed us with a full and wonderful weekend. All our children and the grandchildren were home for the weekend. It was a treat to have our full house. Micah,Simeon, and Ada are growing like weeds. They are a great blessing. They are very loving and very lovable. We praise the Lord for each one of them. They all came to celebrate my wife's birthday. We had another dinner reception with special Indian and Italian foods. One of the couples that came were Alice's pastor and his wife, who pastored in Alice's church when Alice was a teenager. The Pastor's wife played for our wedding in 1975. It was a treat.
We all attended worship last Sunday together. I preached from Ephesians 2:8: We are saved not by good works but we are saved for good works. We are blessed to be a blessing. The Westminster Confession is helpful to me at this point. In Chapter 16 of the Confession entitled "Of Good Works" the Westminster Theologians, with scriptural footnotes after each phrase, clearly show the place of good works in the Christian life: "Good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith." It goes on to say that by them we manifest our thanksgiving to God for our salvation. Now. Can good works be accomplished by unbelievers? Again, the Confession of Faith deals mainly with questions about faith; but here we learn that while there are works that bring good and benefit mankind, they are not good works because their end is not the glory of God.

Perhaps John Calvin put it best when he said, "It is faith alone that justifies, but the faith that justifies is not alone." Taken as a whole, and not out of context, the teaching clearly establishes the relationship of God's grace and God's intent that we should be engaged in good works. We read in verse 10: "For we are His workmanship". The force of the passage is that regenerate human beings are masterpieces of a gracious God. Thinking about it from our use of the word, we could say that the life of a believer is poetry and designed to be poetry in motion.
Good Works Reflect Christ's Ministry (10a: "His workmanship"). The reason we are to be about good works begins with the fact that we have been made in the image of God. We are "His workmanship," and the very fact that we exist shows that God is not concerned with philosophical interests but He is interested in red-blooded men and women. If we are a "piece of work" belonging to God, then we should naturally reflect Him in our own lives; and to reflect Christ is to be about good works.
The early church father John Chrysostom wrote: "Mercy imitates God and disappoints Satan." We are His workmanship, made in His image; and so we are most like Him when we serve others and give our lives away for the sake of the gospel. Most of us can understand giving our lives away to God, but Paul shows us that we give our lives away to God as we give our lives away to others: "Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" (2 Tim. 2:10).

To give your life away to someone who will never thank you, who will even mistreat you, is to be more like Jesus. That is being His workmanship. We are His workmanship, made in His image, and we are most like Him when we are creative and productive.

John Calvin taught during the Reformation is that work is holy. Ministry is not only serving at church on Sundays but also giving your best for your fellow man in the marketplace. Whether you are a homemaker, a teacher, a businessman, a student in elementary school or high school or college, the way we approach our work reveals our hearts.

To be His workmanship means to do good works of obedience. We are His workmanship, made in His image, made for ministry, and we should reflect His image in mercy. Good works include sharing the gospel in whatever we do. Good works include, for the believer, bringing the gospel to bear in our families, our vocations, in all of our relationships. This is the great and final work of our Savior.

" Let your heart be broken for a world in need; feed the mouths that hunger, soothe the wounds that bleed, give the cup of water and the loaf of bread—be the hands of Jesus, serving in His stead.

Blessed to be a blessing, privileged to care, challenged by the need—apparent everywhere. Where mankind is wanting fill the vacant place; be the means through which the Lord reveals His grace. Bryan Jeffrey Leach, "Let Your Heart Be Broken" In Christ, Brown http://youtu.be/VDQ1bfG2SWo

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