Brown's Daily Word 12/20/13

    Praise the Lord for this Friday before Christmas.  We are going to attend the Messiah presentation this evening.  Pray for our weekly TV outreach this evening at 7 PM on Time Warner Cable channel 4.  I am speaking on Luke 2.

    Tomorrow, Saturday, December 21, we will gather for our Living Nativity at the Oakdale Mall at 4 PM.  The Living Nativity will be presented fro 4 to 7 PM.  Those of you who  live in the area, please join us.  We are planning for a "Flash Mob" to be  singing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus at 6:30 PM.  Please mark the change of time.  (We were planning for this presentation at 5:15 PM ... now it will be at 6:30 PM.)  Those who have sung in the Messiah and those who would love to sing, please join us.  Yancey Moore will be at the Grand Piano.  This will be a Holy Roar.  This is part of the celebration of Christmas in the Public Square.  Please be praying that the Lord would be glorified and the people will be blessed.  

    In Charles Dickens' Christmas classic, "A Christmas Carol", Mr. Scrooge says, "Humbug!  Merry Christmas?  What right have you to be merry?  What reason do you have to be merry?"  In fact, there is an answer for Mr. Scrooge, and there is an answer for "Scrooges" everywhere this Holy and special season because believers, indeed, have every right to be merry at Christmas.  The reason is simply because Jesus Christ has appeared!  To those who still walk in darkness and have been blinded by the enemy, "Christ has appeared!"

    In  1 John 3, Jesus' appearing is mentioned.  John refers to the first Christmas and he does so to encourage believers, those who have been born anew by the Spirit of God.  He encourages believers to rejoice and celebrate because of this fundamental and simple fact that Jesus Christ has appeared.  He appeared to deal with sin once and for all.  He also appeared to destroy the devil's works.  1 John 3:8, The Son of God appeared for this purpose that He might destroy the works of the devil.  He came not only to deal with sins and sinners, but He came to destroy the works of the devil.  That word "destroy" means "to render ineffective, to rob of power".  When Jesus Christ came He dealt Satan a death blow.  Jesus came to deal with that arch enemy of our souls, the devil who tempts, who inflames, who deceives.

 

    Once a missionary in Africa returned to his house.  When he got inside he discovered a huge python.  He quickly ran outside to his truck, got a 45 pistol, came back in the house.  He was careful, he was quiet, but he got close enough to fire a shot and that bullet hit its mark, and that python was dealt a mortal wound, a bullet right in its head.  But the python didn't die instantly.  It began to thrash around, crashing around that house, knocking things off of tables and counters, wreaking havoc.  The missionary had gone outside to stay away.  Finally, after a while, the noise died down and he came in and found that python dead, but in its death throes it had done a lot of damage.

    When Jesus Christ came, when He died on the cross, He put a bullet in the head of the devil.  The devil is defeated, but he's still thrashing around.  He's still wreaking havoc of one kind or another, but the devil is defeated and there is no reason for us  to accept the devil's lies.  There is no reason for us to follow Satan's agenda. He is defeated.  We are called to follow the one who is victorious, the one who came to destroy the works of the devil.

    And so to Scrooge, with his bah, humbug attitude, with his question, "How can anyone be merry at Christmas?", we say to him, "Jesus Christ has appeared. That's why we're merry.  That's why we rejoice!  That's why we're enthused -- because of His appearing.  So Scrooge, Merry Christmas!"  And Merry Christmas to you because Jesus appeared!

    "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" and still loves us.

 

In Him,

    Brown

http://youtu.be/THg8Yes6zec

Brown's Daily Word 12/18/13

    The Lord blessed us with an awesome evening yesterday as we went caroling.  The snow on the ground was sparkling and friendly.  The wind was gentle.  We had a very blessed time caroling. Many people came to stand in open doors as we sang.  They were receptive to the music.

    We will meet this evening for a time fellowship and study at 6 PM.  We will be looking at the Song of Simeon, found in Luke 2. followed a by special Choir practice at 7.30PM.  We are going to Handel's Messiah Presentation this Friday at 8 PM.  This is our annual pilgrimage to the majestic presentation of the great oratorio "Messiah". 

    This coming Saturday we will gather for our living Nativity at the Oakdale Mall at 4 PM.  The Living Nativity will be presented fro 4 to 7 PM.  Those of who  live in the area, please join us.  We are planning for a "Flash Mob" to be  singing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus at 6:30 PM.  Please mark the change of time.  We were planning for this presentation at 5:15 PM ... now it will be at 6:30 PM.  Those who have sung in the Messiah and those who would love to sing, please join us.  Yancey Moore will be at the Grand Piano.  This will be a Holy Roar.  This is part of celebration of Christmas at the Public Square.  Please be praying that the Lord would be glorified and the people will be blessed.

    As part of celebrating Christmas I read, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. I love how the Christ of Christmas,  the Hound of Heaven can find us where we are and can transform our lives as we say Yes to Him.  Sometimes we come to Him kicking and screaming, but when we come to the crib and the cross, He offers us grace upon grace... Salvation so full and so free.

    Ebenezer Scrooge was really rattled by his visit from the Spirit of Christmas past.  He knew there would be a next visitor -- the Spirit of Christmas Present, and he braced himself.  He would not be surprised.  Dickens wrote that, now, "nothing between a baby and a rhinoceros would have astonished him very much".  What he met was a great robed figure with a huge holly wreath on his head and all awash in ivy and mistletoe and turkeys and geese and suckling pigs and sausages and oysters and pies and puddings and fruit and a steaming punch bowl. "Look at me," the spirit said. "You've never seen the like of me before!"

    "Never" said Scrooge. "What have you to teach me?"

    "And in a flash they were off looking at sailors on the seas and miners who dug in the earth, and each one in some way celebrating Christmas -- the advent of hope.  In sick-beds and foreign lands and jails and hospitals, they saw people who recalled that it was Christmas and marked it in some modest fashion.  They looked in on Ebenezer's nephew, Fred, with his family and friends playing children's games after dinner -- Blind Man's Bluff and other games -- "for it is good to be children sometimes," wrote Dickens, "and never better than at Christmas.

And, finally, at the end of the journey, from under his great green robe, the Spirit of Christmas Present produced two children -- two ragged, malnourished children, pinched and shriveled by monstrous need.  "The boy is Ignorance ... the girl is Want" said the spirit. "But where do they belong?"

    "They belong to humanity" was the answer.

    And Scrooge recalled how, that very day when they came to his business to ask for a donation to help the poor, he had run them off with words like, "Are there no prisons?  Are there no workhouses?"  Now he understood.  These gaunt children will wind up there -- ignorance and want will put them there -- unless somebody comes to help at the front end of their lifetime.  That pattern is with us yet, and not to be forgotten. 

    But the heart of this part of the story, to me, is the visit to the Cratchitt home. "They were not a handsome family," says Dickens, "not well-dressed; their shoes were far from being waterproof; their clothes were sooty -- but they were happy, grateful, and contented with the time."  For the Cratchitt family, reality was pretty harsh: five children in a four-room house, surviving on Bob's meager wages. 

    And on Christmas Day, Mrs. Cratchitt dressed in her best, twice-turned gown, bedecked with ribbons.  Ribbons are cheap and they dress up an old gown.   

    The goose was pretty scrawny, but everyone agreed, "Oh, such a goose!" Nobody says that the pudding is much too small for a large family. 

    But the Cratchitts celebrate Christmas! "God bless us," said Bob. "Everyone," added Tiny Tim.  They even toast Ebenezer Scrooge, the founder of their meager feast (although Mrs. Cratchitt has to be coaxed into that!).  But the Cratchitts look reality squarely in the eye and see blessing.

   And Tiny Tim, coming home from church on Christmas Day, told his father that "he hoped the people saw him in that church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember ... who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.

    That's our story for Advent -- that whatever our present moment looks like, if we  look by faith to Jesus Christ, we can find some strength, we will discover grace upon grace, blessings upon blessings... We will dicover the faithfulness and mercies of our Lord God.

    From the outside, the Gospel looks weak and under qualified.  It's as vulnerable as a baby in a cave-barn ... The power of Christmas is not brute force meeting the brute force of our world -- that sort of strength doesn't change anything much.  The Christ who enters our history as a fragile baby.  He enters silently yet with meekness and majesty.  He comes to the dung hills of our lives and transforms them in to the hills of beauty.  He walks into deserts of homes and by Him they blossom again.  He makes all rough places plain.  Joy to the world the Savior is born.

  Joy to the world. 

   In Jesus.

   Brown

http://youtu.be/QIvH5GdY4JE

Brown's Daily Word 12-17-13

   Praise the Lord.  Jesus is the Christ of Christmas.  He is the one in whom we live, move, and have our being.  His birth has set the world on the move.  His birth causes traffic jams along Fifth Avenue of the New York City.  His birth has caused the carolers go out singing Christmas carols.  His birth has caused the composition of the some of the best music in the world.  His birth has caused some of the best musicians orchestras to perform "Handel's Messiah" all over the world during this season.  He is worthy if of all our celebration, all our singing, all our worship, our giving, our receiving.  

 

    We brought home our Christmas tree yesterday.  It is beautiful - over nine feet tall. It is almost perfect. We get our tree every year from one of the local farmers who is committed Christian.  The Lord has blessed him with very large farm.  It is a multipurpose farm where he also produces maple syrup.  He was telling me that they had one of the best years of sapping in 2013, so they had a surplus of maple syrup.  They sold over two barrels to Vermont.  Vermont buys maple syrup from New Work, bottles it, and sells it as "Vermont Syrup".  (This is my rendition on the Vermont Maple syrup).  This is part of the Christmas miracle.  it's all good.  The owner of Christmas tree farm, who is 94 years old, told me that he also got a good size dear during  hunting season. 

 

    We will meet this evening at 5 PM at the Wesley United Methodist Church, 1000 Day Hollow Road, Endicott.  We will meet at  5 PM for some exotic Christmas foods and go on caroling.  The friendly snow is all around.  Come, share, and rejoice.

 

    Christmas time is a time of great joy.  It is also for some a time of loneliness and sadness.  I know of several saints of Jesus who love Him and serve Him who are battling with some severe health problems.  When we go through some chronic and debilitating life situation we often ask, "Lord, where are you in this?".  My daughters remind me of the great faithfulness of the Lord.  Even in times of long silence our Lord is at work. 

 

    The Bible says that God was at work, even in years of silence.  When we look at the Salvation History we discover that there was a period of 400 years of silence between the prophecies of Malachi and the birth of our Lord Jesus.  The people might not see it at the time, but looking back from the ministry of our Lord, the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 4:4-5, “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son.”  God was at work, preparing, making ready until just the right moment, when the time had fully come.

    At the time of Jesus’ birth, a great part of the world spoke one language, Greek, thanks to the conquests of Alexander the Great.  At the time of Jesus’ birth, Rome had built new roads for travel and established commerce between continents.  At the time of Jesus' birth and ministry, and the mission of the early church, it was possible as never before in history to spread the gospel around the world.  “When the time had fully come,” wrote Paul, “at just the perfect moment, Christ was born.” God was not absent but working, not only for the birth of the promised messiah, but the birth of the promised prophet who would prepare his way and the birth of a church that would spread the gospel to the uttermost parts of the world.

    The people of Israel had no trouble believing that God had acted in history and could even accept that God would one day act in the future.  What was hard was to believe God was present, active, involved, and working in their world in the present.  It took faith to trust that God was there when God seemed to be completely silent.  We’re no different, are we?

 

           "When the arches fall

And the creditors call

And the best you can say

On your 401K

Is you might not lose it all . . .

God might not feel all that near."

 

At times we struggle with the question of where God is right now, in our time of need.    Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

 

There are times when the only way we can move ahead is through the eyes of faith.  When we  don’t hear Him, we know by faith that God is there. When we can’t see the results, we know by faith God is still at work.  That’s what this season of Advent is all about.  We know that the God who acted in the past and gives promise for the future is with us even now.

 

In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/ZuGSOkYWfDQ

"A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home."

House of Christmas:  G.K. Chesterton   

Brown's Daily Word 12-16-13

    Praise the Lord for this glorious season of peace, hope, joy, and love.  This is the season of anticipating the best. We have had one of the snowiest December Sundays in many years.  We had ample snow blanketing the fields and the hills, the highways and the byways.  It was great day to be in the house of the Lord yesterday singing Christmas carols and reading the Christmas prophecies. 

    Laureen spent the weekend in Washington visiting Sunita and her family after spending an afternoon and evening with Jess and Tom in Philly.  Laureen will be driving back to Binghamton today.  Sunita flew to London last evening on her work. She shared with me that for the first time on her International flight she traveled with only carry on luggage.  Our grandchildren called this weekend.  They picked out their Christmas tree at a stand nearby, and then the children brought it back to their place.  Alice and I picked out our 9 feet tree. We will bring it in today. Alice and I attended  the play, "A Christmas Carol" at our local theater, the Cider Mill Play House.  It is all good.  It is all about celebration.  It is my prayer and desire that we make room for celebration, for worship, for witness and for sharing and rejoicing. 

    I heard about a Jewish lady named Mrs. Rosenberg who, some years ago, tried to get a room at a very exclusive hotel on Cape Cod.  This particular hotel was run by some haughty Protestants from Boston, and it excluded Jews.  So, when Mrs. Rosenberg gave her name to the desk clerk, he said, "Sorry, we're all booked up." "But," she said, "You have a vacancy sign out front."  The clerk stammered a bit and finally confessed, "Sorry, but we don't cater to Jewish persons."  Mrs. Rosenberg stiffened noticeably and then said, "It may surprise you to know that I have converted to Christianity."  "Is that so?" responded the clerk.  "Let me give you a bit of a test.  Where was Jesus born?"  "In a stable in Bethlehem," she replied.  "Who were his parents?"  "Mary and Joseph," she answered.  "Why was he born in a stable?" he asked.  Rather loudly Mrs. Rosenberg replied, "Because a jerk like you wouldn't give a Jewish lady a room for the night."

    May the Lord of Christmas bless us with a deeply meaningful, peaceful, joyful celebration of Jesus' birth.

    There is a story about a boy who really understood what Christmas is all about. Jimmy was in the 8th grade, but because of his mental limitations, he couldn't really do all of the 8th grade work. The teacher in that class planned a Christmas play. Jimmy wanted very much to be in it.  The teacher doubted that he would be able to memorize his lines, but all the students wanted to include Jimmy.  Thus, he was assigned the role of the Bethlehem innkeeper, primarily because that character had only two words to say: "No room."  Then after Mary begged for special consideration, he was supposed to say those same words again, "No room."

    Eventually the day of the performance came. Lots of family and friends were in the audience.  Mary and Joseph approached the inn and knocked on the door. Jimmy opened the door and said flawlessly, "No room."  Then Mary said, "But I'm very tired and I'm going to have a baby real soon.  If I don't find a safe place for my baby to be born, I'm going to cry."

    Jimmy paused for a moment, and then said, "I know what I'm supposed to say . . . but you can have my room."  Jimmy was willing to violate a script in order to follow the higher impulse of love.  We are called  to violate the cultural script about Christmas if we want to truly glorify the Savior.

 In Christ,

  Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-atTCxbSb4&feature=share&list=PL6c_cod5oKzeMjRew03Yd8VWECDOL-O_b&index=1