Brown's Daily Word 8-12-14

Praise the Lord, for He is good and His love endures for ever.  We are planning and preparing  for a great banquet of celebration and thanksgiving on Saturday, August 23, 2014 at 5:30 PM.  It will be held at the Union Center Methodist Church, banqueting Hall,128 Maple Drive, Endicott.  We will be serving various special foods and desserts.  There will be a special musical presentation by our dear friends Aric Phinney and Dave Berry.  You are warmly and cordially invited to come and join us us in this celebration.

    Our "small" family numbering 13 spent three precious days together over last weekend.  All gathered together on Thursday afternoon/evening and departed on Sunday afternoon.  We were blessed to have all of our children and grandchildren together.  The Lord blessed us with His love and kindness.  I attended worship service at the First United Methodist Church, New Berlin last Sunday.  It was a great blessing to be in the House of the Lord with His people on His Day.  I found  the faith of the people fervent and fermenting and contagious.  Their love for the Lord for each other was full of zeal.  Church spent time praying for the persecuted church around the world.   We press on in the midst of persecution and tribulations because the Lord of the Church is mighty and triumphant

    It was the weekend of the Unadilla Motocross event.  Over 30 thousand people were in the town for the sporting event which was televised  worldwide.  The church had a booth selling  BBQ chicken on Saturday at which they sold 500 chickens.  The local churches came together to raise enough funds to restore a beautiful Victorian house for an elderly woman, so that she may live in her own house as long as she is able.  . 

    I was in my study yesterday.  The phone rang.  A man called whom I had last seen as he was in a nursing home battling cancer and facing death.  There we prayed together.  He said, "Jesus is healing me".  When I saw him yesterday he is completely healed and restored.  I was amazed to see him in his restored health.  He shared with me How Jesus our Lord has been so gracious to him.  He is blessing him.  Jesus is restoring his life.  His younger daughter is currently finishing her accounting degree in one of the prestigious universities.  We spent some time in prayer and praise. As he was leaving he gave me a check for $2500.00 for ministry.  Our Lord is faithful and mighty.  He remembers us. We are not forgotten. We are loved.  We are blessed.  Blessed be His Name. 

    Some time ago I read a Facebook message that contained a poignant observation:

"In my heart and mind, we are still innocent, carefree teens at the church.  However, the reality is that we are now middle-aged, and I am noticing that many of our friends on Facebook are dealing with exceptionally difficult illnesses.  Others are losing special friends, mentors, and family members who were at the end of a normal lifespan. It still hurts, as we are such imperfect mortal beings."

    We all know that there is a great amount of hurting going on.  When we are young, we feel invincible.  I have always thought this was a good thing, this feeling of being strong and brave and able to conquer any obstacle, because it gives to the young the courage to attempt great things.  It has often been observed that it is a pity that youth is wasted on the young.  By the time we gain the wisdom that comes from experience, we have lost that innocent and carefree spirit.
    Often I gain  wisdom from my daughters.  They encourage me.  They challenge me and they provoke me to love Jesus and love His people. They remind me of the Lord's faithfulness.  The church bulletin last Sunday had a quotation, "We were born to sing halleluia".  We can see this principle at work in Psalm 136, sometimes called a “Hallelujah Psalm” because it contains no petitions, no complaints, and no problems.  Instead it contains a list of moments where God worked in history, each answered by the refrain “His love endures forever.”  No doubt the worship leader would read the first line of each verse, and the congregation would respond, “His love endures forever."

    The psalm begins this way:

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
            His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods.
            His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
            His love endures forever“ (vv. 1-3).

    These verses offer us three reasons to praise God:
            1. He is good!
            2. He is the God of gods!
            3. He is the Lord of lords! 
    There are “gods” aplenty and “lords” all around us, but there is only one true God, as revealed in the person and the works of Jesus Christ, who rules the universe.  To that great God belongs our best and deepest and highest praise. Because he is both good and the ultimate Lord, we not only trust him, but we also bow before him in praise and worship!
Note the answering chorus in each verse: “His love endures forever.” These simple words remind us that all things display God’s love at work on behalf of His children.  The Hebrew word translated “love” refers to loyal love, faithful love, or you might call it “covenant love.”  It’s love that lasts because it is based on an unbreakable commitment.  It’s the love of a husband for his wife or the love of mother for her children.  God’s love is eternal because his covenant is eternal.  He cannot not love his people! 
    The meaning goes beyond that to say that God’s love endures.
        It outlasts all the problems of life.
        It transcends the troubles we face every day.
        It goes on when our life comes to an end. 

   Charles Spurgeon said it this way:

“No saint shall fall finally or fatally. Sorrow may bring us to the earth, and death may bring us to the grave, but lower we cannot sink, and out of the lowest of all we shall arise to the highest of all.”

In Christ,
 Brown
 http://youtu.be/uFsUehJSosE
"Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed."
Samuel Johnson

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