Brown's Daily Word 7-3-14

    Praise the Lord for this good day, indeed a gift from the Lord.  The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday Evening gathering of fellowship and study.  I spent part of the day yesterday visiting some people.  Laureen, Sunita, Andy, and Gabe are with us for the whole week.  It has been great blessing being together.  We are enjoying spoiling Gabe for these few days.  We have also enjoyed some face time with Micah and Ada in Boston. 

    A young couple that I married over 21 years ago, who now live in North Carolina, will be joining us lunch today.  They are blessed with three children including one adopted from China.  They love the Lord and serve Him with great joy. 

    Alice and I took a brisk walk last evening, looking at some of the brilliant and colorful cloud formations.  On the way home we watched as there were many lightning flashes through one of the cloud formations.  Our garden by the house is bursting with all kinds of vegetation.  The Lord is good and His compassion never fails.  I was looking at Eugene Peterson's amazing rendition of Ecclesiastes 9:7-10:

"Seize life!  Eat bread with gusto,
Drink wine with a robust heart.
Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!
Dress festively every morning.
Don't skimp on colors and scarves.
Relish life with the spouse you love
Each and every day of your precarious life.
Each day is God's gift.  It's all you get in exchange
For the hard work of staying alive.
Make the most of each one!
Whatever turns up, grab it and do it! (Eccles. 9:7-10).

    This is a beautiful, bountiful world, and we were designed to enjoy its beauties and blessings, so we must make the most of every day.  Derek Kidner says that God alone "is the source of all the gifts of earthly life: its bread and wine, festivity and work, marriage and love." Every blessing comes from the God of all blessing, and therefore it should be received with thanksgiving and praise.  Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote: "Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes."  Do you see all the gifts that God has given to you, and then respond with holy praise?  For people who enjoy as many blessings as we do, the words "Thank you, Father," should never be far from our grateful lips.

    This is especially true for everyone who knows the grace of God through the saving work of Jesus Christ.  One of the best ways for us to enjoy life with Jesus is by sharing in his blessings.  All of the good things mentioned in Ecclesiastes 9 symbolize the gifts of his grace.  Jesus gives us our daily bread (see Luke 11:3). He makes our hearts glad with the bread and the wine of the Lord's Supper.  He has anointed our heads with the oil—the oil of the Holy Spirit.  He has invited us to the wedding supper of heaven,  ( Revelation 19:7, 9).  He has promised to give us spotless white to wear in his eternal kingdom, where we will join the celebration that never ends (see Revelation 7:9, 14).

    In the meantime, Jesus has given us good work to do—the work of his kingdom. We should do this work as well as we can, for as long as we have the opportunity, because, as the Preacher of Ecclesiastes reminds us, our days are numbered.  Every earthly joy is the foretaste of a better life to come, in the Heaven where God has promised us pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/KxvAaq9q5Kw

Brown's Daily Word 7-2-14

    Praise the Lord for sweet and sizzling summer days here in America, the Beautiful.  The temperature climbed into the nineties here in New York.  Sunita, Andy, Gabe, and Laureen are with us this week.  Friends of Sunita and Andy, that is Jenn, Rob, and Hannah from Washington, DC will be joining us for the weekend.  We will meet  for our Wednesday Evening fellowship and study at 6 PM.  We will gather for a very sweet, summer soul food at 6 PM followed by the Bible Study at 6:30 PM, when we will be looking at Acts 2 and 3.

    I love summer days.  It is the time for summer parties, graduation parties, family reunions, and July 4th celebrations.  We have so much to celebrate.  Our Lord Jesus loved to go to parties.  He taught us how to celebrate.  In Matthew 9:9 we read that as Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew, sitting at his tax collector's booth.  When we hear the phrase, "sitting at his tax collector's booth," mentally we might translate that to "sitting at his bank teller counter," or "sitting in his gray IRS office."  When the people in Jesus' day heard that statement  it carried with it an emotional resonance.  Because as soon as they heard "tax collector," they knew this person was not just rich, but filthy rich, because he was making his money destroying other people's lives.  Just like scandal driven IRS of today the taxcollectors were scandlous and corrupt, greedy and exploitative.

    You could make loads of money as a tax collector by extorting from your own people.  The poor, working class people were just trying to get by, but every time they caught fish, the tax collectors taxed the fish, taking some of them.  Every time they grew crops and were happy because they wouldn't go hungry, the tax collectors took most of the good crops from them.  When it says, "Matthew was sitting in a tax collector's booth," it's saying, "He was greedy.  He was a sellout.  He was a betrayer of his people."

    What did Jesus say to somebody like that?  Did He say, "Clean up your life, man. You've got to get it together"?  Did he say, "I see potential in you.  If you will enter a four-year training program, I think I can do something with you"?  No, Jesus said, "Follow me, and be my disciple."  Jesus looked at a greedy, sellout-of-a-person, and said, "I want you as one of my 12 closest friends.  I want you as one of the most influential leaders in this new movement of God that I am bringing to the world."  Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.  Matthew invited people like that because good people refused to be seen with him.

    Imagine for a moment that you and I being invited to a party with "disreputable sinners."  Jesus was invited to just such a party.  It shocked the Pharisees to see this, so they said, "Why does your teacher eat with such scum?  Do you not realize, Jesus, that by attending, you are condoning what they're doing?"  According to verse 12, "When Jesus heard this, He said, 'Healthy people don't need a doctor.  Sick people do.'"  Our culture of tolerance insists that nobody is really evil or ill.  Jesus, however, said that there are two reasons to be in a hospital: either you're sick or you're a doctor.  It's more pleasing to God for you to be there serving the sick, than to separate yourself from the sick.

    Verse 13 is the heart of Jesus' message.  "Then Jesus added, 'Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture,'" and He proceeded to quote from the prophet Hosea: "I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.  For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous but those who know they are sinners."  In Hosea 6:6. God says to the prophet Hosea, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." 

    One of my daughters reminds me from time to time about the unmerited mercy of the Lord to those who are most undeserving.   Somebody has said, "As important, and as awesome as sacrifice is, there's something even more pleasing to God: mercy."  Mercy for the messy is more pleasing to God than religion for the righteous.

    We could take this a step further and say that, as important as it is for you and me to get our spiritual lives together, it is even more pleasing to the heart of God that we show mercy to people who don't have their spiritual lives together.  The good news is that God has already provided you with a way to please him by showing mercy to others.  Everyone has somebody messy who has been bequeathed to them by God, so we don't have to go far away to find what is pleasing to God.

  In Christ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/Rm5kx3xqmg0

Brown's Daily Word 6.30.14

    Happy summer day.  Thank you Jesus.  We attended the High School graduation ceremony for nephew Bernard and niece Shelly this weekend.  It was held in the Arena of the Beautiful City of Binghamton.  We had a reception for the graduates after church yesterday.  Sunita, Andy, and Gabe are home for whole week.  Laureen is home for the week too.  We attended three Graduation parties this weekend.  It is all good. Thank you Lord indeed.  The temperature will reach into the 90's F here in the Southern tier this week.  It is summer time, indeed.  It is the time to celebrate the blessings and the  beauty of the Lord.  He gives us "Soul full".    

    The Apostle Paul, writing from Prison, made an audacious claim  and very bold affirmation in (Philippians 4:11), "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."  Many graduating seniors, like so many others in our world, are hoodwinked by a Christ-less, corrosive culture, misled to think that life is a nonstop, unceasing, search for happiness  and pleasure.

    Walter Kerr, in his book titled, "The Decline of Pleasure", analyzed the discontentment of our age.  He pierced through the superficiality of much we do. He noted that the very things that we do that should be pleasurable for us are void of joy.  We do not treat them as enjoyable in and of themselves but, rather, we use them as a means to an end.  He wrote, "We are all of us compelled to read for profit, party for contacts, lunch for contracts, bowl for unity, drive for mileage, gamble for charity, go out for the evening for the greater glory of municipality, and stay home for the weekend to rebuild the house."

    What a rat race life can become!  Sadly enough, many Christians are also caught up in this same restlessness.  We, too, become discontented with our lives or our circumstances.  Contentment, however, is not based on the outward circumstances of life.  Paul lived a life of sufficiency and contentment in the Lord.  He had just received a gift from the church at Philippi so he wrote to express his appreciation for the money, putting it in these words, "I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me.  Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it" (Phil. 4:10).  Then he paused,  and thought a moment, before he continued writing his letter.  This time he shared words of caution, "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want" (Philippians 4:11-12).

    As much as Paul appreciated his material possessions, he wanted to make it clear that there is a contentment which goes beyond financial security.  There is an internal quality, a serenity which you and I can have.  It goes beyond outward circumstances.  One can be up or down in finances, romance, health, or friendships, and still have the stabilizing influence of a contented outlook, an internal sufficiency.  Contentment is something which is learned.

    Contentment does not happen overnight.  Paul said, "...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances" (Philippians 4:11).  "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."  One translation of these words from the Greek is, "I have found the secret of life."  Another says, "I have been initiated through the experience of life to know how to be content."

    This is Paul, the veteran, speaking.  This man had been around. He says, "I can bear any extreme. I can get good out of the ups and downs of life.  When I have a hungry stomach, I learn what it feels like to be without food.  Through this, there comes a new discipline of body and mind.  When I have a full stomach, I realize how much I have for which to be thankful.  Every circumstance has its lesson to teach.  When I look back over life, I see that somehow I have been brought through this all.  I have learned much. I have much for which to be grateful."

    Our Lord  never promises us an easy life.  Jesus said that in this world you and I will have trouble.... tribulation.. but He also clearly taught us, "Be of good cheer, for  I have overcome the world".   Loving and serving the Lord is exciting and challenging.  It can also become at times risky.  Lloyd Ogilvie coined the phrase  "Risky Christianity."  Paul was willing to risk his safety sacrifice his comfort, for the sake of Jesus Christ.  No cost was too great to hold him back from his evangelistic efforts.  He was a man in Christ.  Paul saw the risk of Christian living as being one he could not afford not to take.  He had to do it!

    In the process, Paul uncovered an exciting principle.  That is, you and I are not really free persons until we are willing to lose everything.  There is no true contentment until you have been set free from the bondage of your possessions, your status, your reputation, and your goals.  When Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior of our lives, He sets us free to high-risk living, which doesn't depend on artificial props.

In Christ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/bIQf5dD7Y9k