Brown's Daily Word 5-30-13

  Praise the Lord.  This is going to be another summer-like day.  It will be reaching to almost 90 F.  I got an e-mail from Sunita.  She and Andy are blessed beyond belief being in beautiful Cyprus and others parts of Greece.  The temperature in that region reaching 90 F too.  Sunita shared that the days and times they are spending in Greece are a very gracious gift of Jesus to them.  They will be flying back to Washington, DC this Saturday  evening.

    I will be attending our Annual Conference of our Church in Syracuse today.  We have new bishop, Bishop Mark Webb, who is in his forties.  Bishop Webb loves Jesus and he loves the church.  He and his wife have two sons. The oldest son attends Grove City College in Pennsylvania, where our three daughters Janice, Laureen and Jessica graduated from.

    I am reflecting on how  the Lord has blessed me in so many ways.  One of those blessings is that I have been lavished by His kindness all the days of my life.  We had a preacher from Mississippi, Rev. Cecil Williamson, for special services in April, 1991.  In one of his small group presentations he used the verse from Ephesians: "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32).

    "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy" (Titus 3:4-5).

    In a sense, kindness almost has become a novelty in our culture that has gone astray from Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  It is increasingly a culture of rudeness, self-seeking self-promotion, and self-centeredness.

    The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary translates the Hebrew word for kindness, chesed, as "compassion" and "faithfulness to one's obligations, as well as to relatives, friends and to slaves."  According to The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, the New Testament word for kindness is translated from the Greek word chrestotes.  The dictionary says, "This word can describe gentleness, goodness, uprightness, generosity and graciousness.  The New Testament [also] describes kindness as an attribute of God (Titus 3:4).  Kindness is [also] a characteristic of true love (1 Corinthians 13:4).  The Lord's people should possess kindness and not refuse to dispense it to others" (Matthew 5:7; Acts 20:35; Romans 15:2-5; Ephesians 4:32; 1 Peter 3:8; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 3:17).

    King David, in spite all his faults and frailties, is known as the man after God's own heart.  One of the reasons  for this description is that David showed kindness.  One of the most profound Old Testament accounts of this kindness is the story of David and Mephibosheth.  David had made a promise to his best friend, Jonathan, that he would show kindness to his family should anything happen to him.  In 1 Samuel 20:12-17, we see Jonathan's request and the covenant between him and David: "'But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord's kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth.'  So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, 'May the Lord call David's enemies to account.'  Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself."

    After Jonathan died in a bloody battle alongside his father, King Saul, David took the throne.  As king David could have done what a king traditionally did, which was to kill the sons and families who would be a threat to the throne and kingship. David did the opposite.  He kept his covenant with Jonathan and showed kindness to Jonathan's son Mephibosheth (see 2 Samuel 9).  We see David's kindness and kind intentions in 2 Samuel 9:1 when David asked: "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?"

    David found Mephibosheth and showed him great kindness and the highest of honors when he gave him his grandfather's land and a place at the king's table. The story ends with 2 Samuel 9:13: "And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king's table."  What awesome kindness!  

    We have also received this kindness and have been invited to eat at the King's table.  In fact, King Jesus is Host at the Great Banquet.

   Brown

    http://youtu.be/-08YZF87OBQ

Brown's Daily Word 5-29-13

    Praise the Lord.  It is raining torrentially.  It reminds me  of the unceasing blessings that the Lord, from whom all blessings flow, lavishes upon us all the days of our lives.  We will gather for our Wednesday evening study and fellowship this evening at 6 PM.  Praise the Lord for the way He makes  us the  receivers of His blessings and, at the same time, He makes us the dispensers of His blessings.

    A minister took his daughter with him one night to a small church where he had been invited to preach.  At the entrance of the church building, they passed a little table with a box on it and a sign which read "Alms Box."  Reaching into his pocket, the preacher took out $10 and dropped it in.  When the service was over, one of the deacons approached.  "Preacher," he said, "we have a custom in this church of paying our evening minister the contents of the alms box."  Whereupon he removed the lid, poured the money into the preacher’s hand, and you guessed it! There lay one lone $10 bill.
    As they made their way to the car, his daughter turned to his father and said, "Hey, dad, I just thought of something.  If you'd put more in, you’d have got more out."

    There is an ancient Scottish legend - a shepherd boy tending a small flock of sheep on the side of a mountain.  One day as he cared for his sheep he saw at his feet a beautiful flower, more beautiful than any he had ever seen in his life. He knelt down upon his knees and scooped the flower in his hands and held it close to his eyes.  As he held the flower close to his face, suddenly he heard a noise and looked up.  There he saw a great stone mountain opening up right before his eyes.  There inside the mountain, he saw a sprinkling of the beautiful gems and precious metals that it contained.

    With the flower in his hands, he walked inside.  He laid the flower down, & began to gather all the gold and silver and precious gems he could in his arms.  Finally with all that his arms could carry, he turned and began to walk out of that great cavern, and suddenly a voice said to him, "Don’t forget the best."
Thinking that perhaps he had overlooked some choice piece of treasure, he turned around – put down a few of the gems - and picked up other pieces of treasure that caught his eye.  Then, with his arms literally overflowing with wealth, he turned to walk back out of the great mountainous vault.  Again the voice said, "Don’t forget the best."

    By that time his arms were filled and he walked on outside, and all of a sudden he heard a great noise.  He looked around in time to see the great stone mountain closing its doors again.  A third time he heard the voice, and this time the voice said, "You forgot the best.  For the flower was the key to the vault of the Mountain."
    

    When Jesus comes into our lives, when we decide to give Him all of life, He becomes the best gift to us.  All the rest is a bonus.

  

Blessed be His Name.

    In Him,

       Brown

http://youtu.be/86ODphPjmTA

Now why would we settle for raindrops, when God has promised to shower us with blessings?

Brown's Daily Word 5-28-13

    Praise the Lord for all the manifold blessings of Jesus that money cannot buy.  I have been blessed beyond belief with so many women in my life.  My mom, who is partially bed-ridden, is a woman of great and abiding faith.  My wife is a woman of deep faith.  All of four daughters are women of deep faith who walk with Jesus in faith. 

    Today I have been looking at the Canaanite woman and her faith as it is recorded in Matthew 15. There it tells about the "great faith" of a Canaanite woman.  This woman was unique in two ways.  She was the only Gentile woman Jesus healed in Matthew's gospel, and she is the only person Jesus said had "great faith." Compare that with the five times he reminded the disciples of their "little faith," and we can see how unique she is.

    The story doesn't begin with us knowing about her great faith, but with her desperation, where great faith often begins.  The Canaanite woman, whose name we never hear, had a daughter whom she described as "cruelly possessed by a demon."  We don't know exactly what this meant, but it easily could have meant she was afflicted with violently insane behavior, like the man who lived among the tombs in Matthew 8, or that she had terrible seizures, like the boy who often fell into the fire in Matthew 17.   Whatever her symptoms, her mother was desperate for her to be healed - to be free from this terrible state.  Her desperation led to hope - not hope in the folk cures and remedies she probably had tried before, not hope in the best medical advice of the day, but hope in the God of Israel, hope in the Messiah, God's Chosen One.

    This hope led to a faith without shame.  Many times we can be afraid to let our faith be known.  Sometimes we don't want to stand out; Sometimes we just don't want the added scrutiny that comes when people realize we're followers of Jesus Christ.  This woman was different; she lived out a faith that came from having nothing left to lose, a desperate faith.  She approached this band of disciples and their leader, Jesus.  She screamed out to them from a distance, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David!"  ( We are reminded here of blind beggar Bartimaeus).  She didn't just shout; she screamed, her cries as desperate as the faith she had that Jesus was the One who could make a difference.  She didn't care that the disciples didn't approve.  She didn't care, even as a woman approaching men who were strangers, that she would stand out like a sore thumb.  She didn't care about the things that often make us ashamed.  She had the faith of a desperate mother - a faith without shame.  This should make us think about our faith.  Does it come out of desperation?  Does our faith rise out of a confidence that Jesus is the only One who can bring meaning to our lives, the only One who can bring true spiritual and emotional healing, the only One to whom our lives are worth devoting?  The Canaanite woman's faith was without shame because she knew Jesus was her only hope and she didn't care what others expected. 

    It is interesting to note the encounter of this woman with Jesus our Lord.  She cried out, but Jesus didn't say a word - He maintained  complete silence.  At this point, the disciples got a little uncomfortable, as most of us would have been.  It is revealed in the Word of the Lord that the divine  delays are not denials.  Jesus our Lord was delaying His response.  In every situation He has the last word.  Jesus said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  How do you think they would have responded?  Would they have been shocked that Jesus said this?  We then see something more about her faith.  Not only does she have faith without shame, but her faith was without fear.  She was not afraid of Jesus or the disciples.  She threw herself down at Jesus' feet in total worship.  With nothing to lose, she showed a relentless dependence on Jesus.  Without shame and without fear, she fell at Jesus' feet and asked again, "Lord, help me." 

    Is this the kind of utter devotion we have, or are we afraid to pray and ask God something because we might be told no? This woman didn't let Jesus' lack of response stop her, and we must not either. 

    On top of a faith without shame or fear, she showed a faith without stopping, a faith that wouldn't quit.  As she bowed down at Jesus' feet, He told her something very strange.  He said, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."  Everyone there knew what Jesus meant, both the disciples and the woman.  He was saying in effect: It isn't good to take the blessing meant for Israel and give it to the Gentiles.  Who do we stand with when we hear this?  Do we stand with the disciples, who probably agreed and said, "Jesus has a point; we should take care of our own," or do we find ourselves at Jesus' feet with the woman saying, "Jesus, master, as always You're right, but even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall off the master's table."  In other words, on her face in worship at the feet of Jesus the woman said, in effect, "Lord, I know Your blessings are for the entire world.  I know Your blessing is so great that I'll gladly take the leftovers and be satisfied."  At this final response from the woman whose faith would not quit, I can see the scene.  Jesus' serious face broke into a smile; He reached down, grabs her by the hands, helped her off her feet, looked her in the eye and said, "Great is your faith woman, your daughter is healed!"

In Jesus alone,

    Brown

http://youtu.be/6XIT06R-r5g