Brown's Daily Word 5.23.14

    Praise the Lord for this Friday.  We are getting ready for this Memorial Day weekend.  Those of you who live in the area, join us on Time Warner Cable channel 4 at 7 PM this evening.  Women of the church will gather for a great time of food and fellowship tomorrow at noon at the Church hall.  Julia Kellaway, from the Family Life Network, will be the speaker for the event.  Our men are preparing and serving a very special meal.  We will gather for worship at 8:30 and 11:00 AM at Union Center and at 9:30 AM at Wesley. In America, the Beautiful, it is  Memorial Day weekend.  We praise the Lord our great nation, the best place on earth to live.  May Jesus, the King of kings and the prince of peace, shed His grace and peace on us.  May we worship and serve Him with joy and gratitude.  

    Sunita called from Cyprus yesterday.  The Lord is blessing her family in Cyprus.  I talked to Micah and Simeon yesterday in Boston.  Jessica and Tom are coming home from Philadelphia today for the long weekend.  Laureen will also be home for the weekend.  We are blessed and grateful.  We are getting ready for our Annual Conference of our church that will meet in Syracuse next week.  We are blessed to have Bishop Mark Webb as our Bishop.  Bishop Webb loves the Lord and loves to serve Him.  We are excited about the Kingdom of Jesus, which is Eternal and unshakable.

    I was looking at one verse  from Psalm 86, “Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name” (Psalm 86:11).  Eugene Peterson (MSG) gives us this colorful rendering: “Put me together, one heart and mind; then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear.”  I like this because it sounds like the way I often pray: “Put me together, Lord, because right now my life is scattered in a thousand directions.”  Most days my heart doesn't seem “undivided,” and it certainly feels like it needs some kind of “uniting." So I like this phrase both ways:

    “Unite my heart to fear your name.”
    "Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”
    The first speaks of my need.  The second speaks of my desire.  Because my heart is so often divided, I need the Lord to unite it somehow so that I might worship him with nothing held back.  That is the situation many of us face.  Our hearts are fragmented because we are pulled in so many directions at once.

    Sometimes we treat trinkets as if they were treasure.  Often we all battle with the narcissist in all of us.  A narcissistic person is unable to commit to anything outside of himself.  He flits from one relationship to another, from one job to another, from one friendship to another, from one church to another, from one promise to another, never staying in one place long enough to make anything stick.  He promises and then makes excuses.  He says, “I’ll call you tomorrow,” and then forgets and apologizes later, or maybe he never remembers at all. 

    The Word of the Lord depicts some men who had undivided hearts, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and like their friend, the daring Daniel.  1 Chronicles 12 describes some warriors who had undivided loyalty.  We read about some  soldiers who came to David’s aid when he was in Ziklag and later in Hebron. These soldiers from various tribes in Israel realized that even though David was not king over Israel yet, God’s hand was upon him and he was bound to replace Saul sooner or later.  We read the list of men from Benjamin, Gad, Manasseh, and so on.  Perhaps the most famous are the men of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12:32) who “understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”  They are described as "experienced soldiers prepared for battle with every type of weapon, to help David with undivided loyalty" (v. 33.. 38).

    This was a great host of trained soldiers who came to David ready to fight.  They showed up in full battle gear, with shields, spears, and bows, ready to go to battle at a moment’s notice.  That, however, was not their finest quality.  There is something even better to be said about them, that they were men of “undivided loyalty.”"  Single Mindedness".  They were prepared to follow David wherever he led, to join the battle at David's word, and to serve only at his command.  Three thousand years after the men of Issachar came to David, we remember them not for their military prowess (which must have been great) but for their hearts. 
    This brings me  back to the beginning, back to Psalm 86:11, “Unite my heart to fear your name” and “Put me together, Lord.”  As Spurgeon contemplated this verse, he offered this succinct summary:

A man of divided heart is weak, the man of one object is the man.

That’s why David prayed, “Unite my heart, O Lord.”  We, also, should, “O Lord, take the scattered fragments of my heart and unite them so that I may praise you.”  Only God can do this, but God can and will do it if we will come to him in humility and sincerity. 
These lines from Come, Thou Fount speak to our deepest need:
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
If the first two lines describe our need, then the last two lines describe our prayer.   May God take our scattered hearts and unite them, seal them by his grace, that we might serve him with joy on earth as one day we will serve him in heaven.
    Unite our hearts to fear and honour  your name. Amen.

http://youtu.be/imGO5KUEZo4

Brown's Daily Word 5.22.14

  Praise the Lord for this new day.  He blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday Evening gathering.  The fellowship was sweet and sharing the Word of the Lord was a great blessing.  While in Calcutta recently I visited some of the mission work dating back to the days of William Carey, who sailed to India in 1793.  He labored there for 7 years, having not a single convert.  The Lord brought for one convert at the end of seven years of labor of love.  From that small beginning  the good news has spread  like a wild fire.  I came to put my faith in Christ some 160 years after Carey came to India.  I am sure William Carey experienced discouragement, having not seen fruit of his labor for 7 years. 

 

    Consider the discouragement of a young missionary named David Brainerd (Ruth Tucker, "From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya", pp. 90-93).  In the 1700s David Brainerd felt called to bring the message of Christ to the native Americans.  Brainerd faced constant discouragement as he tried to share Christ’s love with the native Americans; they had seen too much American greed and abuse to believe Brainerd’s message of grace.  Brainerd wrote in his journal, "My heart sunk.  It seemed to me that I’d never have any success among the Indians.  My soul was weary of my life.  I longed for death."  For two years nothing happened, as he constantly battled one discouragement after another. Finally, three and half years into his work, he saw about 150 native Americans come to faith in Christ.  Though that is not much by today’s mass evangelism standards, it was a real start.  Unfortunately, David Brainerd died a year later, at the age of 29, and his work seem to stop completely.

    This is not the end of Brainerd's story.  Someone published his journals that he had kept during those times of discouragement.  Those journals fell into the hands of a man named William Carey the man widely known as the father of modern missions because he ignited the modern missionary movement that continues to this day.  Carey’s efforts and inspiration have been the impetus for literally millions and millions of people coming to faith in Christ.  When someone asked William Carey what inspired him to devote his life to missions, he pointed to the journals of David Brainerd.  God used David Brainerd beyond every limit.

    Several years ago Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia had to turn away a little girl named Hattie May Wiatt from children’s ministry because of overcrowding there.  That day Hattie May Wiatt started saving her pennies to help the church make more room in their children’s ministry.  Two years later, Hattie May tragically died.  In her pocketbook next to her bed her parents found 57 pennies and a piece of paper with a note saying that the money was to help the church build a bigger children’s ministry.  At Hattie May’s funeral, her mother gave that 57 cents and the note to Pastor Russell Conwell, the pastor of Grace Baptist Church.  That Sunday, Pastor Conwell shared Hattie May’s story with his congregation.  People’s hearts were touched; a realtor give the church a piece of land to expand the children’s ministry, asking for 57 cents for a down payment.  A local newspaper carried the story, and soon news about Hattie May Wiatt’s 57 cents spread across the country. The pennies grew far beyond Hattie May’s initial 57 pennies.  Grace Baptist Church not only built a new children’s ministry wing, but also a new ministry center, today seating over 3,000 people.  Out of that movement of generosity from Hattie May’s example the church built Temple University in Philadelphia, and Good Samaritan Hospital.  In fact, you can visit Temple University today and find a picture on the wall of Hattie May Wiatt, a little girl who’s 57 pennies were used by God far beyond the limits of her life.

    God likes using us beyond our limitations because He gets the glory for it.  He likes taking a temple ( Haggai) that seems pathetic in comparison to the first temple, and visiting that second temple with His Son.  He likes using a faithful servant like David Brainerd to inspire others to share Christ.  He loves using people like Hattie May Wiatt to inspire the rest of us to a new level of generosity and giving toward God’s work.  When we stay focused in the midst of our discouragement, God uses us beyond our limitations.

 In Christ,

   Brown

http://youtu.be/GI2dXQ3Eckg

Brown's Daily Word 5.21.14

Praise the Lord for this new day.  We will meet for our Wednesday gathering at 6 PM today with a special meal.  We will be looking at John 21," Risen but not Recognized."

    I have been praying  with some this week who love the Lord and yet face danger and disease.  I am praying for the Sudanese woman facing death for her faith in Christ.  In the times of State-sponsored terror against Christians all around the world, I love to read about the three faith giants: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Because of their faith, these three young men are unquestionably biblical heroes.  The writer of Hebrews says, "through faith … [they] quenched the power of fire" (Hebrews 11:34).  With great courage they expressed their faith by refusing to bow to the image of gold.  Yet, when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's obedience put them on the brink of the king's fiery furnace, they did not pretend to know what was going to happen to them.  They did not claim to know what their circumstances would hold or what their God would do.  Even though they affirmed that God was able to deliver them, they added, "But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods" (3:18).

    Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said that even if God did not deliver them from death, that they would only serve Him.  Their words tell us that faith is not measured by the strength of our expectations but by the strength of the conviction that "whatever my God ordains is right" (Samuel Rodigast, 1676).  Biblical faith calls for each of us to acknowledge that God's provision is sufficient, loving, and good, even if it falls short of, or contradicts, immediate desires that cannot fully anticipate his plans or fathom his wisdom.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego trusted their God because time after time he had delivered their forefathers from enemies, despite Israel's sin and rebellion (   Daniel2:23).  God had been faithful even when his people had not.  God even had promised that He would save his people from their captivity in Babylon (2:44).  Although things looked awfully grim in the immediate, the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was not shattered, because it was not rooted in present circumstances but in the nature of their God—a God whose purposes are loving and eternal can be trusted (3:17).

    This can be our great confidence, too, when we express faith that tragedy does not mean God has vanished; danger does not indicate that he has failed; difficulty does not imply that he is weak.  Our Risen Lord is in control.  Difficulties may still arise, but He enables us to surmount them.  Grief may still come, but He gives strength to bear it. His hand is never capricious or clumsy.  True faith simply acknowledges that God knows and does what is right.

    To trust God as He desires, we must believe that we can entrust ourselves to His care.  To do this we need to know that God is worthy of our trust.  Biblical faith is not merely the confidence that our God is able; it also requires the confidence that our God is good.

    Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego affirmed God's goodness when they removed all doubt from their assertion of their ultimate rescue from Nebuchadnezzar.  They affirmed that God was able to deliver them from the fire, but they did not say that He would.  "But if not …"

  In Christ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/3qEjRLlL9iE

  Praise the Lord for the spectacular and stunning spring season.   Yesterday I was examining the several fruit trees we have planted.  My soul is full to see that trees bearing cherries, pears, peaches are bringing forth fruit.  While In India I was walking almost every day by the mango groves looking at the mangoes.  I got to some early mangoes and luscious lychees before my departure to the States.  We are getting our garden spot ready for planting by Memorial Day weekend.  Alice and I walked over three miles yesterday afternoon in one of the gorgeous parks of Broome County, New York.  I love this time of the year when we have the long day light, with the sun setting after 8:30 PM.  Praise the Lord for the way He decorates the earth with His beauty and majesty.

    Praise the Lord for this Easter tide.  I have been privileged and blessed to see the work of the Kingdom around the corner and around the world.  This is the power of the Risen Lord at work.  Greater things He has done and greater things He is going to do in and through His Church.  We are blessed to be His people, called out and called in from every nation and from every people group. 

    While In India I was involved in a preaching mission.  During my visit there healing services were being held in the area.  Several hundreds of people were attending these services.  Many Hindus who were attending these services were healed in the Name of Jesus.  I talked to some people who had experienced  and received amazing miracles in their lives.  I was visiting a family, a couple who was married for 15 years, childless, but they kept on believing and praying.  After fifteen years the Lord gave them a boy and girl, their own children.  I met a father who shared about his son who was born crippled.  He was taken to a healing service, and there he was healed.  I met this young man, who now has jubilant feet, fully healed. 

    I was visiting  yesterday, a sweet servant of Jesus who was going in for a very intricate and complicated biopsy.  He had a smile.  He has previously undergone several  major surgeries.  He shared that  the Risen Savior has given him , blessed assurances.  It is a great blessing to live  in the afterglow of Easter.  It is the power of the  Risen Lord.  It is His authority.

    I was in graduate school in Bangalore, India  in 1973.  There we had several international students and professors.  I remember one of the students was from Uganda, a man who had a contagious faith in Jesus, the Risen One.  An amazing story came out of Uganda on April 22, 1973, Easter Sunday.  The nation of Uganda was at the time a nation under the absolute rule of Moslem dictator Idi Amin.  At that time Kefa Sempangi was a pastor in that tortured land.  Under the growing shadow of Amin, Uganda was becoming a land of terror.  Still fresh in Sempangi's memory was a face burned beyond recognition, the sight of soldiers cruelly beating a man, and the horrible sound of boots crushing bones.  Sempangi was exhausted and wondered what difference his sermon that morning could make.  He prayed for wisdom and strength and then delivered his sermon to 7,000 people.

    Afterward he made his way to the vestry, tired but joyful. Five men followed him into the small building and closed the door behind them.  Sempangi turned around to find five rifles pointed at his face.  He had never seen any of them before, but immediately recognized them as the secret police of the State Research Bureau — Idi Amin's assassins.  Their faces were full of pure hate and rage.  "We are going to kill you," said the leader. "If you have something to say, say it now."

    Sempangi stood there feeling himself lose control.  He thought of his wife and child and began to shake.  Somehow he managed to speak.  "I do not need to plead my own cause," he said.  "I am a dead man already.  My life is dead and hidden in Christ.  So if I die, I'll be alive.  It is your lives that are in danger; you are dead in your sins. I will pray to God that after you have killed me, He will spare you from eternal destruction."

    The leader looked at him with curiosity.  Then he lowered his gun and ordered the others to do the same.  "Will you pray for us now?", the leader of the assassins asked.  Though fearing it was a trick, Sempangi asked them all to bow their heads and close their eyes.  "Father in heaven," he prayed, "You who have forgiven men in the past, forgive these men also.  Do not let them perish in their sins but bring them unto yourself."

    Sempangi lifted his head, waiting for the men to pull the triggers.  But then he noticed their faces.  Gone was the hate and rage, and when the leader spoke, it was without contempt.  "You have helped us," he said, "and we will help you.  We will speak to the rest of our company and they will leave you alone.  Do not fear for your life.  It is in our hands and you will be protected."  Relief and joy flooded Sempangi's heart.  God's love had given him the strength to say a simple prayer — one that changed the lives of those five men forever.  Sempangi's life was changed forever.  A church of 7,000 people was changed forever.

    I'm glad Jesus was not in the tomb on Easter Sunday 1973.  I'm glad He went on to Galilee in Uganda.  I'm also glad Kefa Sempangi followed Him to that Galilee in Uganda.  I'm glad lives were changed that day.  Oh, I'm so glad Jesus is still in Uganda.  Idi Amin is gone for ever.  Jesus is alive and well all over the world and right here with us now.  That's the Good News of Easter and it's news worth telling. The tomb?  The grave?  He's not there, but thank God He's here!  The Risen  Christ is always out there ahead of us, leading and guiding His followers into new lands, new ventures, and new challenges.  He's not there in the empty tomb.  He's on the move.

 In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/S_OTz-lpDjw

Brown's Daily Word - 5.19.14

    Praise the Lord for this spectacular and stunning Spring season here in New York.  The flowering trees in the church grounds and fields are past their full bloom, though some of  the daffodils and tulips are still brilliant. Alice and I walked on one of the local walking trails, bidding hello to some fat woodchucks and listening to the sharp trill of blackbirds.  The birds full of mirth.  The multicolor honeysuckle bushes are in full bloom.  Praise the Lord for the way He makes all things glorious in His time.  The Lord blessed us in His House yesterday.  I shared through a power point about the mission trip to India. 

    Since I have been home I have been able to talk to with grandchildren in Boston. I have also heard from Sunita, who spent 3 days in Rome with Andy and Gabe.  The Lord blessed them in Rome, Italy with great  and generous hospitality from friends.  They will be in Cyprus for some time. 

    We are planning for an amazing gathering of women for luncheon Saturday noon.  This will be held at the Church Fellowship hall.  Those who live in the area, please join us.  Please call the church office at 607-748-6329 to reserve a place at the table.  Julia Kellaway, from the Family Life Network, will be speaking.  This is still the Easter Season in the Church Calender. 

    This was the First Easter Sunday I was away from the pulpit here in the USA.  As part my Easter celebrations in Orissa , India, I attended a early morning Easter parade consisting mostly of youth. I attended an adult baptism service that was held in a river.  Several young believers were baptized by two local pastors.  It was time of great rejoicing.  I preached in  two churches that day, one in the morning and the other at an afternoon celebration.  It was a great thrill and great treat.  It is indeed a great privilege that we get to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus our Lord.

    It is written in the Gospel according to Mark that on the first Easter, the women went to the tomb to pay their last respects to Jesus, who was dead.  To their alarm, the body of Jesus was not there.  A "young man, dressed in a white robe" told them, "You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified?  Well, he isn't here.  He is raised.  He is going ahead of you to Galilee."

    Galilee is an out of the way sort of place.  It's where Jesus came from, but that's about its only claim to fame.  Jesus spent most of His ministry out in Galilee, the "out back" of Judea, getting ready to go up to Jerusalem.  All of Jesus' disciples seem to have hailed from the Galilee.  Jesus spent most of His time in Galilee getting His disciples prepared to leave Galilee and go up to the capital city with Him.  There, in Jerusalem, He was crucified and there He rose, but almost the moment He rose from the dead, He headed back to Galilee.

    One might have thought that the first day of His resurrected life, the risen Christ might have gone straight for the palace, to the seat of Roman power, and appeared there.  Yet, He didn't go to the palace, the White House, the Kremlin, the Capitol.  He went back to Galilee.  Nobody special lived in Galilee, nobody except the followers of Jesus, people like us.  The resurrected Christ went back to, and appeared before, the very same rag tag group of people who so disappointed Him, misunderstood Him, forsook Him and fled into the darkness.  He returned to His betrayers.  He returns to us.

    In the Bible, the "proof" of the resurrection is not the absence of Jesus' body from the tomb; it's the presence of Jesus to His followers.  On Easter, and in the days afterward, the risen Christ showed up among those who were at work out in Galilee -- when He "appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.  Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, then to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all . . . He appeared also to the great persecutor and murderer of the church, Paul.   All the time the risen Christ was only doing what the crucified Jesus always did: He came back to us.

    Jesus is the Good Shepherd  who doesn't just sit back and wait for the lost sheep to head back home.  He goes out, risks everything, beats the bushes night and day, and finds that lost sheep!  On Easter, He came back, back to the very ones who had forsaken, betrayed, and crucified Him.  He came back to us.

    A student, asked to summarize all the Gospel in a few words, responded: In the Bible, it gets dark, then it gets very, very dark, then Jesus shows up.

    In life, in death, in life beyond death, this is our hope.  The risen Christ came back to us.

 In Him ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/6_KXsMCJgBQ