Brown's Daily Word 9-26-13

   Praise the Lord for this new day..We are less than three months from Christmas.  I have started listening some Christmas music already.  It is a great thrill to think about Christmas... the music, the message of it , the mystery of it, too.   Praise the Lord the way He ushers in the wonderful Autumn season with so much beauty and so much bounty.  In our area harvest has begun.  Grapes, pears, and apples are already being harvested.  We have peaches and apples in our trees here.  Our grandchildren who live in the city of Boston are coming home this weekend.  I want them to pick peaches and pears with their own hands. There is something magical and mystical when we have the sensory perception first hand. We will make them pick tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, and squash from our little garden that the Lord blessed with a big harvest.

   The Lord blessed us beautiful Wednesday Bible Study gathering.  The sharing and discussion was thought provoking and challenging and life-giving.  We were looking at Hebrews 4.  We all need friends in high places from time to time.  We need someone who can cut through the red tape and help us when we can't help ourselves.  In Hebrews 4:14-16 that Jesus is exactly the friend we need.  Jesus is the friend we need because he is the Right Person with the Right Past in the Right Place.  “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess” (Hebrews 4:14).

    I  prefer the King James rendering of this verse: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Consider that lovely phrase “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”  Jesus is “touched” by the weakness of our feeble flesh.  Whatever touches us, touches him.  To say “I feel your pain” has become cliche today but in Jesus’ case it is true.  He is moved by our sorrow, aware of our tears, and touched by our failure.  He knows what we are going through.

    That’s what the verse means when it says that Jesus is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.  He knows our pain, he sees our weakness, he understands what we are going through.  Because he was a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” he truly knows what we are going through.  How good it is to know that he was tempted just as we are.  The verses  means that Jesus faced every kind of temptation we can face.  Jesus has defeated  the devil.  Where we failed, he succeeded.  Where we gave in, he stood strong.  Where we collapsed under pressure, Jesus obeyed his Father.  He was tempted, yet he never sinned by giving in.  I find great comfort in these words of C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity:

    "A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie.  Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.  After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in.  You find out the strength of the wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down.  A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.  That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness.  They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.…Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means."

    This has enormous implications for our spiritual life.  Because Christ was tempted and never gave in, we may be sure that he is never surprised by anything we say or do.  We gave in too early so we never felt the full force of temptation.  But Jesus let the waves of temptation rush over him and stood like the Rock.  When we pray we don't have to worry that we will somehow shock him.  He has heard it all and seen it all before.  We can go ahead and be totally honest about our failures. He knows about it even before we tell him.

    John Newton expressed this truth in these words from an old hymn: “Thou art coming to a King, large petitions with thee bring; for His grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much.”

     We have a friend in high places.  We have connections in heaven.  We have a friend at the throne of grace who delights to answer our prayers . He’s the Right Person with the Right Past in the Right Place.

  In Christ,

   Brown

http://youtu.be/Xs0LxtqIor0

An Evening Praise and worship ...

    September 28, 2013

    First United Methodist Church, 53 Mckinley Ave., Emdicot

    5.30 PM  Praise and Worship and a time of Testimony.

    Preacher:  Pastor Marshall Sorber.

    Followed by a special banquet.  All are welcome. For Information call 607-748-6329

Brown's Daily Word 9-25-13

    Praise the Lord for this new day.  It is going to be one of the ten best days of September.  It is going to be brilliant and sunny.  We can see the Autumn colors all around us bursting forth with Technicolor.  We can sing, "Heaven Came down and glory Filled my soul.  Praise the Lord how He makes all things colorful and glorious.  After the sweet Summer season He ushers in the stunning Autumn season.  We are blessed to be living in the Northeastern Region of America the beautiful.  The Fall season is indeed spectacular here.  It is also the season for harvesting the apple and grape crops.  It is all Of His grace and mercy. 

    On this beautiful autumn day students all over the country will be gathering around the flagpoles in front of their schools to pray for their schools, teachers, leaders, and administrators.  It is a student-led, student-initiated movement to reclaim our schools for the Lord.  Pray for them as they make this bold statement today.     

    David Ring is a man who was born with cerebral palsy.  He has a speech impediment that is so bad that you have to struggle to understand him.  In spite of this he holds audiences spellbound with his great heart and great attitude: "They said I'd never ride a bike, but I did.  They said I'd never get married, but I did — I've got five kids to prove I did okay.  They said I'd never preach but I've preached 265 times this year.  And I got cerebral palsy.  What's your problem?"

    Our problem might be that we expect advantage without adversity, power without pain, wisdom without weakness.  Yet Paul wrote that God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He also wrote, "For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10).

    What David Ring has learned as he struggled through the adversities of his life, we all must learn.  Do we want to gain some advantage?  We can, but not without adversity.  Do we want to be somebody?  There's nothing wrong with that, but we have to remember this: God delights in making somebodies into nobodies so He can make the nobodies into the somebodies He had in mind!   We will gather for our Wednesday Evening gathering at 6 PM with a special meal followed by Bible Study and Choir Practice.

    Blessed be the Name of Jesus of our Lord.

      Brown

http://youtu.be/BAo2iZ9vWHg

An Evening Praise and worship ...

    September 28, 2013

    First United Methodist Church, 53 Mckinley Ave., Emdicot

    5.30 PM  Praise and Worship and a time of Testimony.

    Preacher:  Pastor Marshall Sorber.

    Followed by a special banquet.  All are welcome. For Information call 607-748-6329

Brown's Daily Word 9-24-13

    Praise the Lord for this new day, a gift from the Lord indeed.  It is a great day to be alive and to live standing on the promises of Jesus.  One of the readings for last Sunday was taken from Jeremiah 8:18 ff.  Jeremiah, who was chosen before he was born to be the servant of the Living Lord, was known as the weeping prophet.  We read Jeremiah's self disclosure in the Book of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah 8:18 ff: "My grief is beyond healing, my heart is sick within me.  Is there is no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there?"  To the question raised by Jeremiah and echoed by the countless others in pain and sorrow the answer is indeed, "There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.  There is a Balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole". 

    Sunita called and shared with me that her pastor, who is from Ireland, also preached from Jeremiah 8.  They had a prayer time remembering the innocent people, many of them Christians killed my the Moslem terrorists in Nairobi, Kenya, and remembering the innocent and defenseless Christians including women and children last Sunday in a church in Pakistan, killed by the hateful Moslem terrorists.  The Confused media has covered  the terrorist attack in Nairobi, but has barely reported on the massacre of Christians in Pakistan, because to report of  the massacre of Christians by the Moslem terrorists is not "Politically Correct".  I was moved, deeply moved, by some of the survivors of the massacre in the church in Pakistan... blood soaked and stained, lamenting and grieving, yet announcing the forgiveness to the terrorists.  I saw Jesus, the Crucified and the Risen One, the one who is the Wounded healer, present in these dark and depressing, deadly places and moments. 

    In his book, "When God Interrupts", Craig Barnes (who will be installed next month as the President of Princeton Theological Seminary), tells the story of how he was trying to prepare a sermon, settle staff conflict, and basically save the world in one week.  He had one more thing to do before going home: he had to lead a Communion Service at a nursing home.  He said, "It was the last thing I wanted to be doing." He was in the "blue funk" that sometimes settles over the pastorate.  That is when he met Mrs. Lucille Lins.  I read from his book:

    "Mrs. Lins was almost blind and very hard of hearing.  She had gradually become shut off from the world. Her health was slipping away, and now she is confined to a small room, having given up her house years ago.  She has outlived her husband and close friends.  Very few people in our church still remember her. She has lost almost everything but life itself" (p. 147).

    Dr. Barnes wrote that it was a humble scene.  He muttered the words, "This is my Body broken for you.  This is my blood poured out for you."  He fumbled his way through and guided her shaking hand to the bread and the cup.  Then she spilled the juice on his slacks.  He thought to himself, "Just one more thing that isn't going right!"  He patted her on the back, said a prayer and was leaving when he heard her so clearly: "Thank you, God, for being so good to me.  Thank you that I am not forgotten.  Thank you for always loving me."  Her words were his healing that day.

    Her insights are that of the Psalmist in Psalm 41.  In the darkest moments of life, when we are at the very end of our lives, shaking and maybe even confused, our loving and the Living Lord is there.  When we are speechless and deaf to the world, when we may even be spilling our salvation all over ourselves, Christ is just beyond the veil.  In Christ, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, in the love of a Father who will never let you go, God is good and God is there.

    Dealing with some of the most depresseing moments and places of life there are no 12 step programs.  There are no simplistic answers.  But there is one step.  It is the step that God took when He left heaven and came to earth.  God's Word reflects what we all sometimes experiences, and then guides us to the Gospel, and He is there.

    If He is not to you, as the Psalmist says, "the God of my life," then this morning would be the right time, to call Him Lord.  For all who seek to follow Him, sometimes even through the fog of life, we cling to the promises and we may even sing in the night:

    What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!

    What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!

    O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,

    all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!

    Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?

    Precious Savior, still our Refuge — Take it to the Lord in prayer.

    Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer;

    In His arms He'll take and shield thee, Thou wilt find a solace there.

  In Christ,

   Brown

 

  http://youtu.be/NRb5blYUQpc

    An Evening Praise and worship ...

    September 28, 2013

    First United Methodist Church, 53 Mckinley Ave., Emdicot

    5.30 PM  Praise and Worship and a time of Testimony.

    Preacher:  Pastor Marshall Sorber.

    Followed by a special banquet.  All are welcome. For Information call 607-748-6329

Brown's Daily Word 9-23-13

   The Lord blessed us with a wonderful weekend.  It was great blessing to prepare and share special meal at the First United Methodist church this past Saturday noon.  It was another thrill to be there at Annual Apple Fest of Endicott for much Saturday.  The Lord blessed in His house yesterday.  One of the readings for yesterday was taken from 1 Timothy 2 .

     In this chapter, the church is charged that prayers be made for those in authority.  We are charged to pray in order that Christians may lead a quiet and peaceable life. Human government provides an authoritative cover under which the church may carry out the great commission.  It follows then, that we should pray for the government.  We will join in praying for the Church in Pakistan.  Taliban terrorists attacked Christians yesterday as they were leaving the church after worship, killing 78 people including children and injuring 141 others.  It is occurring around the world that Christians have become the target of persecution and terror.  We will pray for the Lord to grant His grace and courage to His people and soften the hearts of those who are so filled hatred and violence.  We will pray for the governments of the nations they might pursue peace and justice for all.

    It may surprise us to know that government is part of the way the gospel goes forth in our lives.  However, it shouldn’t really surprise us because, once more, human government is a divinely ordained authority.  Here we see that we pray for human government so that we can live out the gospel.  Christianity has survived under duress.  Christianity has gone forth under Communism, Totalitarianism, and even under hostile Atheism.  

    One man who demonstrated and taught this in a great way was the Dutch pastor Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920).  Kuyper was a theologian, scholar, journalist, educator, and, from 1901 to 1905, Prime Minister of the Netherlands.  He taught that the Bible forges a distinctive world view where Christ is Lord of all.  His most famous saying summed up his understanding of the Lordship of Christ: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”

    This is a mandate we all have.  Is that characteristic of your life today, or is there an area of your life that you have compartmentalized away from God?  Jesus Christ wants to be God in every area of your life — your family, your vocation, every area. 

    Another word that defines the relationship between biblical faith and human government is submission.  "Jesus said to the them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.'  And they marveled at him" (Mark 12:17).  In Mark, the religious leaders wanted to trip up Jesus in this area.  But Jesus said to render unto Caesar what is his (in this case it was taxes)  and to God the things that are His.  Paul was teaching the same thing in Romans 13, where we read, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.  For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."  Human government is an institution of God.

    “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” (Romans 13:7).  Even though the Roman Empire was an oppressive agent, Paul sought to work within the system to get the Gospel out.  The Word of God clearly teaches that God has established human authorities and that, as believers, we are to submit to those authorities.  To be a Christian is to be a slave to Christ, and a slave to others for the sake of Christ.

    Is there ever a time when it is not right to obey human government?  Yes.  When human government orders believers to do what is contrary to God, we must obey God.  This is what happened to the early church.  When we look inActs 5:27 we find the following: “And when they had brought them, they set them before the council.  And the high priest questioned them, saying, ‘We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.’  But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men’” (Acts 5:27-29).

 In Christ,

   Brown

http://youtu.be/zNjdpdiK24I