Brown's Daily Word 6-6-13

    Thanks be to Jesus for another dayon earth and in His Kingdom.  Today is the anniversary of the D.Day.  On 6 June 1944, D-Day, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France.  This successful action signalled the beginning of the end of the Second World War ...The forces of evil and oppression were defeated.  Praise the Lord for the valor and gallantry of so many young people who became known as the "Greatest Generation". 

    The Lord blessed us with beautiful Wednesday evening Gathering of fellowship and Bible study.  I was visiting a woman who had been taken ill suddenly and will be going in for major surgery.  She shared about her doubts and how she is wrestling regarding her faith in the Lord.  She was born and raise in a beautiful Christian home by committed Christian parents.  In my own faith journey I remind myself that this world is not a playground; for the Christian it is a battleground. 

 
    C.S Lewis wrestled with the Christian faith.  In his wrestling with the Lord of grace and power C.S. Lewis discovered the battlefield connection that underlies Christianity.  He came about that insight in a very personal way.  When he was nine years old, his warm and loving mother contracted cancer.  Within a very short time she was confined to bed, enduring harsh treatments, in terrible pain, and stinking because of the sores and horrible wasting of her body.  At night she would cry out in anguish, and young Jack (as he was known) hid in terror under his covers.  He had heard the minister say that God answers prayer, so he begged God for his mother’s deliverance, but to no avail.  She died gasping and screaming, and his belief in God went with her.

    Years later, as an Oxford professor, he began to rationally think through the possibility of Christian belief.  Lewis finally understood what was going on in his mother’s painful illness.  He came to see that this world is a battlefield between the kingdom of God and the powers of evil, and that Christianity was true precisely because it took this conflict seriously.

    Our Lord Jesus told a series of parables in Mathew 13.  One of them, the Parable of the Net, reminds us of our marching orders in the kingdom of heaven.  We are not saved so that we may politely pat ourselves on the back and smile at one another in the tiny corners we occupy.  No, we are part of a net that seeks and engages the fish of this world who might be swimming to their own destruction. We Live in Confidence.

    Our Lord's parables in Mathew 13 remind us that we are on the winning side in the battles of life.  When Jesus told the Parables of the Seed and the Yeast (Matthew 13:31-35), He presented a picture of the kingdom of heaven that grows and dominates until it is the primary factor shaping the world.  The tiny mustard seed morphs into a tree that provides a home for the birds, and the bit of yeast transforms the entire loaf until it is utterly and completely changed.  It is important to note that these things happen rather automatically.  The change takes place from within the seed and from within the grain of yeast.

    In other words, the kingdom of heaven has the winning power within itself, and we are invited along on the journey.  We do not create the kingdom, but the kingdom creates us.  Even though it appears to be insignificant at the start, the essence of greatness and the confidence of success lies within.

    Scripture is filled with testimonies to this fact.  One in particular from the Old Testament is the scene in Jeremiah 32 where the prophet bought a field.  Normally this would seem like an ordinary transaction, just another day at the real estate office, but Jeremiah and the salesperson were both holed up inside the walls of Jerusalem, while the battering rams of Babylon’s armies were pounding the gates and walls to rubble.  In the prolonged siege of Jerusalem, the invading armies had killed and burned every living thing for miles, and made waste of whatever farmland there had been in the region.  Added to that is the sure promise of God, spoke through Jeremiah himself, that Babylon would be successful and the city of Jerusalem, along with the Temple, would be destroyed.

    If there was ever a bad time to invest in real estate, this was it.  The land itself was worthless, the currency inflated, the threat of destruction obvious and the future about as grim as any could be.  Yet Jeremiah bought the field because he knew the power of the seed of the kingdom of God.  He knew that God would have his way, even beyond the threat of Babylon. He knew that in spite of the waywardness of the people, God’s kingdom would rise again and thrust itself to the heavens until even the Babylonian vulture would nest in its branches.

    When we read Jesus' words as He spoke of the kingdom of heaven, we recover our sense of values and outcomes in the quagmire of daily events.  We carry the passport of heaven.  We live as those who are under orders to be and do and make a difference, and we know Who writes the last chapter.

   In Christ the Victor.

      Brown

http://youtu.be/31nt2fsMORU

Brown's Daily Word 6-5-13

    Praise the Lord for this first Wednesday of June.  I drove around some of the countryside yesterday, feasting on the beauty of our Lord displayed with majesty and mercy.  Some of the wild spring flowers are in full bloom.  You can feel the sweetness of its fragrance all around.  The other day Alice and I walked in one of the beautiful parks of the area that is the by the river banks.  We saw many Canadian goslings, 2013 Spring Edition.  They were care free and jubilant ,living not in loneliness  but in "community".  What a lesson this is about living as the "Body of Christ".  The Lord has turned His Humungous Air Conditioning Apparatus over the entire region.  It is so beautiful and invigorating and, best of all,  it is all free.  In fact, all best gifts in life are free.  Thank you Jesus.  We will meet  for our mid week gathering for study and fellowship this evening at 6 PM with a very special meal.  We will looking at 1 Peter Chapter 2.

    I have been blessed and nurtured by many British Missionaries, Theologians, poets, and literary figures.  One of those is Gilbert K. Chesterton, the British poet, essayist, novelist, and journalist.  G. K. Chesterton was once dubbed "The Prince of Paradox."  Chesterton was a professed Christian and he once made the spiritual observation that in the house of life many people are content to live in the cellar.  In fact, they seem to assume that the cellar is the only room in the house.

    I think we know exactly what he was saying.  There are many who live out their lives in the dusty, musty chambers of the basement of life.  They live where there is little vision of what life is really all about, but when someone becomes a Christian, they are moved upstairs to enjoy the quarters of the Heavenly Father.

    Out of the life of the great Scottish preacher, George H. Morrison, there comes a story of a woman who lived in the cellar when she first went to hear him preach.  He was one of the great preachers of all time, and a great expositor of the Word.  As she listened, she became converted.  Sometime later, someone noted that she had moved to an upstairs flat.  In her well kept yard she not cultivated flowers.  A song regularly came from her little flat.  When someone asked her about her move out of the cellar, she replied in her rich Scottish brogue, "Well, you can't live in a cellar and listen to George Morrison preach!"

    This is exactly what the Apostle Paul was talking about in Colossians 3.  He had  turned from proclaiming the teachings to the practical application in the Christian life.  It is not enough to believe in Christ; our lives must demonstrate His life.  This is in contrast to the pagan religions of Paul's day and our own which said little to nothing about the personal transformation of the believer.  A person who worshiped a pagan idol could drop down and pray, then give his offering and go right back out into sin.  What a person believed had no direct bearing on how he behaved.  We must live "upstairs" because Jesus' resurrection makes it possible.

    Since we have received His Holy Spirit when we became a Christian, we are empowered to live the new life in Christ.  Paul used the term "Hidden with Christ in God."

"And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, 'Oh, that You would bless me indeed,

and enlarge my territory,

that Your hand would be with me,

and that You would keep me from evil, That I may not cause pain.'

So God granted him what he requested." (1 Chronicles 3:10)

That's living upstairs.

In Christ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/Te0hy2YcLgg

Brown's Daily Word 6-4-13

    Praise the Lord for this new day.  We had some summer-like days in spring.  Now, our Lord's power and mercy has blanketed the region with free air conditioning.  The temperature in Nevada is reaching 110 tp 113 this week.  It is just like it has recently been in Orissa, India.  The temperature today is cool and very comfortable here in New York.  The school days for my wife are coming to an end in few days.  She has 3 instructional days, including today.  Praise the Lord for the closing out of another year and the promise another year.  Blessed be the Name of Jesus.

    In the Book of Exodus we read about a diabolical and oppressive government.  The people of the Lord were experiencing tyranny and injustice.  The people prayed and cried out.  As I look at closely at the story of the exodus, the children of Israel prayed, and then things got a lot worse before they ever started to get better.  In Exodus 5, Moses told Pharaoh, "Let my people go!"  The Pharaoh's response was not to say, "Thank you, Moses, for bringing this gross injustice to my attention.  I'll start the paperwork to expedite their release right away."  Instead, his response was to take away the straw that the Hebrews had used to make bricks.  Moses's career as a labor union negotiator did not get off to a brilliant start.  Pharaoh became more hard-hearted and oppressive than ever.  Right before the ultimate deliverance at the Red Sea, Israel was between a rock and a hard place — the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them.  God chose not to answer fully and finally until things were as bad as they could possibly be.  

    Our God has the freedom to answer our prayers in ways that we don't anticipate or understand.  In the words of Jerry Sitser that prayer does not normally "send an arrow straight to the target" but rather more often than not "shoots an arrow that curves and ricochets and even appears to fall short." 

    We can pray for our children to come back to the Lord and they become more determined than ever to go the other way.  We can pray for God to deliver a friend from an addiction and observe the addiction grip them more tightly.  We can pray for God to meet our needs and then watch our bank account get smaller.  We may become frustrated or resentful (or perhaps even stop praying) in these situations because we erroneously believe that God's promise to answer prayer is our guarantee of a smooth and easy life with no bumps in the road.  The reality is, however, that God sometimes responds to prayer by bringing more difficulty into our lives.  Adversity deepens character, develops faith, and drives us to more desperately seek God.  The difficulty may even become the means by which God answers our prayers, just as it was for the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. We need to remember that unanswered prayer is not an indication of God's lack of power.

    The delay in Israel's answer to prayer had nothing to do with God experiencing a power outage.  God's power is demonstrated throughout the book of Exodus.  In the contest between Moses and Pharaoh, there was first a battle of dueling words.  In Exodus 5:1, Moses went to Pharaoh to announce, "This is what the Lord says — 'Let my people go.'"  Then in Exodus 5:10, Pharaoh's response through his messengers was, "This is what the Pharaoh says — "No more straw to make bricks for these lazy Hebrews.'"  

    There was a battle of dueling powers in the story of the plagues in Exodus 7-Exodus 13.  The plagues were not merely Hollywood-style special effects; they were carefully designed polemics to emphasize the greatness of our Lord over the gods of Egypt.  The Egyptians believed that Hapi protected the Nile, and so God turned the Nile into blood. They believed that Ra was the god of the sun, and so God turned out the lights.  They believed that the Pharaoh was a god incarnate, and so God took the life of his firstborn son. 

    Finally, at the Red Sea in Exodus 14, in a battle of dueling warriors, God the Divine Warrior, utterly destroyed the Egyptian army.  The most powerful army on earth in that day was no match for the Lord.  Pharaoh found out the hard way who had real power.

    Unanswered prayer doesn't void or negate the omnipotence of God.  There is nothing we can ask our Lord, that is beyond his ability to accomplish, but the greatest demonstrations of His  power are often found in His unexpected answers to our unanswered prayers. 

    I was reading about a man named Bob Mitchell  who prayed for the safety of five young missionaries who went to the jungles of South America in order to share the gospel with the Auca Indians, but Jim Elliott and his four companions were brutally murdered.  Years later, Mitchell attended a conference in Europe and met an evangelist who was one of the Auca Indians that had murdered Elliott and the other missionaries.  Only God could orchestrate that kind of answer to an unanswered prayer. 

    In the exodus the power of God was not something placed at Israel's disposal with the flip of a switch or the pull of a lever.  The how, where, and when of God's answer is determined by what brings Him the greatest amount of glory.  When God answered, it was done in a way so that even Pharaoh himself could not deny that Yahweh was God over all. 

    We pray to the same God as these Hebrew slaves.  Whether God's answer to our prayers is "Yes," "No," or "Wait," his answers are always the perfect expression of his love and power in our lives. "Lord , listen to your children praying".

In Him who answers when we pray:

  Brown

http://youtu.be/F1FQqSGxBso

Brown's Daily Word 6-3-13

    Praise the Lord for this new month.  Sunita and Andy returned back to Washington, DC after being away for over two weeks in Cyprus.  They came blessed beyond belief.  I talked to Sunita the moment she landed at the airport.  She was thanking Jesus profusely for the gift he gave her and Andy to be in  Cyprus and other parts of the Historic, beautiful, great Mediterranean Region.  Andy has remarked that ever where you go "Jesus has the best view".  Blessed be the Name Jesus our Lord who makes all things beautiful. 

    I attended the Annual Conference of our United Methodist Church that was held in Syracuse last week.  In our conference  we have 968 local churches, both small and large.  Over 3000 delegates attended the conference that was held at the Oncenter in Syracuse.  The City of Syracuse is, of course, the home of Syracuse University, which was founded by the Methodist Church.  The conference was a  time celebration and proclamation.  The Lord of the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit is doing something new and  powerful around the corner and around the globe.  I came home inspired, blessed, and committed to serve the Lord with joy and zeal. 

    Yesterday, we had a sweet Sunday conversation with our dear granddaughter, Micah.  She was on her way home after their first swim of the season at Walden Pond.  Our grandchildren are so excited to be coming this way in two weeks to spend some time at "Grandpa/Grandmom Camp" while their parents take photos at a wedding, and we are so excited as well.  It is one of our great blessings when we get to run, laugh, and play with our dear grandchildren.   

    I had a wedding to perform Saturday noon and I preached during three worship services yesterday.  It was a great thrill and blessing.  One of the readings for yesterday was taken from 1 Kings 18.  Throughout the Bible are recorded the stories of people who chose between faith in God and faith in something else. , King Ahab and his wicked wife, Jezebel(  The First Lady) had turned Israel to worship of the false god, Baal.  Then God sent Israel over three years of drought and famine. Though the people called upon Jehovah to deliver them, they continued to worship Baal. On top of Mt. Carmel, Elijah confronted Israel for wavering between a commitment to God and a life yielded to a false deity.  He called them to decide whom they would serve.  Just as in Elijah’s day, there are many that are uncommitted and unaware that their indecisive straddling is hazardous to their spiritual health. 

    There is a fable of a hungry donkey that was put between two bundles of hay. It looked first at the one, then at the other, and could not decide which to eat first, until it finally died of starvation. 

    1 Kings 18:21, "And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions?  If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.  And the people answered him not a word."
 

    George Barna,  in his book, "The Frog in the Kettle", (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990, 35.) wrote, "Commitment is viewed negatively because it limits our ability to feel independent and free, to experience new things, to change our minds on the spur of the moment and to focus on self-gratification rather than helping others. People willingly make commitments only when the expected outcome exceeds what they must sacrifice as a result of that commitment."

    It is written in Joshua 24:15, "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
It is written in Deuteronomy 30:19, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:"

  We choose to worship and serve Jesus our Lord,

      In Him,

        Brown

http://youtu.be/HcnfT4arZtI