Brown's Daily Word 5-1-13

Praise the Lord for this First day of May. It is another cloudless but colorful Spring day here in NY. We still have an abundance of blossomed daffodils. The tulips are almost ready to burst with color. The fruit trees in the garden are clothed in the blooming garb of Spring. It is going to be a gorgeous day. The Lord of creation and our redemption lavishes us with His beauty and splendor. He pours upon us His love that never ends and His mercy that is new every morning.

We will gather for Wednesday fellowship and study at 6:00 PM. One of the chefs of the church is making some special soul food this evening. We will be looking at 1 Corinthians 15. Choir practice will begin at 7:30 PM.

Our second daughter, Sunita, celebrates her birthday today. She was born on this May day in a tiny hospital in Susquehanna County, PA. She has grown up to be a sweet servant of Jesus. She loves to travel all over the world, serving Christ among the various people groups of the world. She was in the Republic of Georgia in April and also visiting Albania. She and Andy are traveling to Cyprus this month, and she traveling to Israel in June. She provokes me to love Jesus and serve Him with joy and obedience. We praise Jesus for the life and witness of Sunita a sweet servant of Jesus our Lord.

In the late sixties I read a paperback book by Ruel Howe. He wrote in this book, "God made people to be loved and He made things to be used, but because of our sin and depravity we love the things and use people to get things that we love". Sunita challenges me to love people and use the things the Lord has blesses us with to bless people. In the Book of Acts we read about a wonderful Christian who was a follower of Jesus, named Barnabas. He loved Jesus and His Church. He used the things the Lord had given to bless the Church. His name means "the son of encouragement". May the Lord propel us and anoint us to be the sons and daughters of encouragement today.

Across Northern Africa stretches the largest desert in the world -- the Sahara, almost as large as the United States. From east to west, it spans 3,200 miles, farther than the distance from New York City to San Francisco. Mile after mile of scorching, shifting sand dunes make up the Sahara, where temperatures reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer -- so hot that breathing is nearly impossible. Yet at the eastern edge of this mammoth oven lies one of the richest, most fertile valleys known to humankind -- the beautiful Nile Valley. Flowing through the valley is the great Nile River, its 4,160 miles making it the longest river in the world. It's not the river alone that makes the valley so abundantly fertile, but the fact that the river overflows each year, generously depositing all over the valley layer upon layer of rich tropical soil, washed down from the jungles of Central Africa.

Like the River Nile, the mere flow of life is meaningless in this desert world of today. It's when our heart generously overflows that we provide rich fertile soil for growth in the Lord's work.

There is nothing for sale here -- everything is free, yet one effect of accepting God's gift of salvation is that our lives turn to giving. We know we must give to live. All true living is giving. It is God's gift to us that frees us to give ourselves to others.

"All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors.” John Calvin

In Christ,

Brown

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Brown's Daily Word 4-30-13

To all of our friends and family around the corner and around the globe,, greetings Name of our Lord and Savior who makes all things glorious and beautiful in His time. Once again it is beautiful and majestic Springtime in New York. I can see a glimpse of heaven all around us. I am trying to be a bird watcher and listen to melodious sonnets that the birds make. Our dear Missionary friend Bruce Henry, who now is with the Lord, was a wonderful wildlife artist. He highlighted wild bird life. I have been watching and listening to some of brilliant spring birds who are carefree and joyful. Spring flowers and flowering trees like the magnolias and crab apple trees are in full boom. Thank you Jesus.

I am reflecting on the power of the Risen Lord who transforms the sinners into saints. He specializes in recovery missions. He rescues the perishing and gives life to the dying. He finds the lost and encourages the found.

The Lord's is at work in the lives of men and women in every generation. I am reminded this morning about the wonderful testimony of Rahab, who was rescued from the world's oldest profession. Not only is she mentioned in Hebrews and James, but she also ends up in a remarkable section of Scripture. Her name, the name of this woman of sin who sided with God's people, ends up memorialized in Matthew 1. There we read her name listed as the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth, and as the great-great-grandmother of King David; she's in the direct lineage of the Savior of the and Lord Jesus Christ. The world that is in unbelief, that would have accused her for her sins is not be worthy of her, says the Lord. There are rich blessings of God to be found for us in this woman of God.

 

Because faith in Jesus Christ our painful past is no indicator of a painful future. In fact, the Lord will redeem our painful pasts and use them to send us into glorious futures. As the prophet Joel spoke to a people recovering from the judgment of God against their sin, a people who had been ravaged by the locusts, "I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten (Joel 2:25)."

 

Our Great Lord's wonderful grace moves even today across the landscape of our generation, which has been so devastated by pain, seeking what the world has disregarded. This Lord of grace locates the broken spirits, the twisted stories of family lives, the abandoned dreams of lost people, the poorest of the poor who are but pieces of junk to a world that prizes beauty and fame, and He takes them to Himself.

 

The story of Rahab is here for us all, for Christ Jesus, who redeemed Rahab and put her in the royal line of the Savior, will redeem us also and make us heirs of the Kingdom of Christ. In a deeper sense, we are all Rahab. We are not only born sinners as sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, but we have all prostituted ourselves: sold ourselves into sin by our malicious hearts toward others, our pride before God, the lusts of the eyes and lusts of the flesh. "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned (Romans 5:12)."

 

Thank God a Savior has come into our camp. A free offer of salvation is here. All who will call upon the name of Jesus Christ will be saved. No fiery judgment will touch us, though it rages over the universe. A righteous God shall surely bring down the walls of this world, but the destruction shall not touch us if we are in Christ. Not even death can destroy us. There is a scarlet cord hanging in the window of the house of every harlot who professes faith in Jesus Christ. That cord is the blood of a Savior sealing that house. That cord is the sign that we, unworthy sinners in the eyes of the world, have come into the covenant of grace. God now calls us His own.

In Hebrews 12:1-2. the writer makes the transition from Chapter 11, with its Hall of Heroes of the Faith, to show us how we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses in order to run the race of faith. We see them around us: Abraham and Sarah, Rahab and David -- all of them -- great sinners who called on a great Savior and became great people of faith. All of this is given that we might be free from the accusations of self, Satan and the world. What God has called clean let not man call unclean. We are saved. Let us not allow sin to have dominion over us. We must not let our past sins accuse us as we run the race of faith.

 

"Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).

 

We will not advance in our faith by looking back at the pain of our past, but by looking at the greatness of Jesus: Jesus, the great, great One who led the captives free and who now rules a Kingdom of recovering sinners whom He calls saints from His throne in heaven. When we reach the heavenly shores, we will be met by the Risen and glorious Savior, the Lord who came from the lineage of Rahab. We will then, to the glory of Jesus, come into the company of Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Paul, Peter and all of the nameless and countless others who by faith in Jesus Christ became people "of whom the world was not worthy."

In Christ,

Brown

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Brown's Daily Word 4-29-13

Praise the Lord for this the last Monday of April. It has been a very chilly start of spring here in New York. After the morning worship we drove in some parts of the beautiful Broome County in the evening. Some of the spring flowering trees are in luxuriant bloom. We heard the morning doves singing evening songs. Blackbirds, along with all the spring birds, were full of mirth and joyful song. I love the sweet spring season. It gives us a little glimpse of heaven.

The Lord blessed us with a full weekend of celebration and joy. One of our ministry teams prepared and served a very special sumptuous dinner at the First United Methodist church on Saturday Evening. The dinner was preceded by time of worship, praise, and testimonies. The Lord blessed us yesterday in His House . One of the readings for yesterday was taken from Revelation 21.1-6. In this passage Heaven is described as a place of joy. Heaven is a place of joy because our joyous Lord there. Scripture clearly states that heaven will be a place where God will wipe away every tear and there will be no more crying. So often when we see scenes of heaven in the Bible there are great exclamations of joy and glorious singing.

I think we often pass over the ecstasy of heaven. We see the holiness of heaven and the glory of God, but we miss the ecstatic joy. We understand that there will be no more pain and no more evil. I believe there will be meaningful and purposeful activity. I believe there will be indescribable joy. When Jesus was on earth he said that his purpose in coming was, “so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). If that was His desire and purpose on earth, how much more it is His purpose in heaven. He said that there was great joy in heaven when one sinner repents (Luke 15:7). There is great joy over the repentant sinner, because there is one more person who will share in the glories of heaven. Part of the joy of heaven for God and for us is that you will be there. The Psalmist talked of the joy and pleasures in heaven when he wrote: “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11).

Heaven is described as a city. What this means is that it will not be just you and Jesus. You will be part of a city. A city is a city only because it is filled with people.
Randy Alcorn, in his book simply titled, "Heaven", says, “Consider what it will be like to see the Masai of Kenya, the Dinka of Sudan, the Hmong, Athabaskans, Tibetans, Aucans, Icelanders, Macedonians, Moldovans, Moroccans, and Peruvians. Hundreds of nations, thousands of people groups, will gather to worship Christ. And many national and cultural distinctives, untouched by sin, will continue to the glory of God. Isaiah 60:11 gives us biblical basis to suppose that the best culture, history, art, music, and the languages of the old Earth will be redeemed, purified, and carried over to the New Earth.” I think that is beautiful and exciting. The Bible says that Jesus has, “purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

Heaven takes seriously the difficulties we are facing now. The Lord said, “To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (Revelation 21:6-7). The Lord understands that in this present world there is a thirst for something new, a world where our longings are met and fulfilled.

Lee Elcov says, “We focus on heaven not as a respite from real life, but to gain strength for real life.” We focus on heaven because we need to remember that this is not heaven here and now, and was never intended to be. We don’t expect what life cannot give. We don’t demand something from this world which it is incapable of giving. We know that day is coming, but it is not now. So we do not lose heart.

Like Spring sunshine at the end of a long, hard winter, heaven will break like the dawn of a new day — a day of joy and celebration that we cannot at the present time begin to grasp. Jill Carattini writes: “In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian and the Interpreter along their journey come across a man with a muck rake in his hand. Steadily raking filth from the floor, the man ‘could look no way but downwards’ and so, could not see the celestial crown being offered him from above.” Like that man, we can look down at the muck, or we can look up. This is the gift that God is offering, but we have to look up to see what is being offered. We have to open our eyes to the God who seeks to embrace us and take us to his eternal reward.

The Bible says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. . . . But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Peter 3:10,13). The old earth will pass away and God will create a new earth which will be the home of righteousness.

Dallas Willard assures us that “The life we now have as the persons we now are will continue in the universe in which we now exist.” It will not be a strange apparition, but the real world we have known, only new and better.

T. S. Elliot wrote:
"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

    C. S. Lewis in his great book, "The Problem of Pain", struggles with the problems caused by the pains of life. In writing, he says, “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.” I think he is right. Home is on its way, but it is not here yet. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it is. And when it gets here he will make “everything new.”

In C. S. Lewis’ wonderful books. "The Chronicles of Narnia", the characters who have lived in Narnia have completed their time and work there. In a closing chapter entitled “Further Up and Further In,” Aslan, the lion who represents Christ, has come for them in order to take them home. They are headed away from Narnia and are about to enter Aslan’s land. But they are met with familiar scenes. One of the characters cries out: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.” I believe that when we enter the real heaven, we will say, “This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.

 

In Christ,

Brown

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