Brown's Daily Word 8/30/13

   Praise the Lord for all His promises.  Praise the Lord that He is the Resurrection and the Life.  Praise the Lord for the life and witness of my mother-in-law Cora Maynard.  She went to be with Jesus on Thursday, August 28.  She was 86 years of age.   

    I first met my mother-in-law for the first time 40 years ago on the 5th of September, 1974.  She was a committed and faithful servant of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Together with her husband David Maynard, my father-in-law, they served the Lord joyfully and fervently.  The never missed Sunday worship.  In fact Sunday was the great day of the week as it was the Lord's day.  Mom played the organ for worship every Sunday.  She was the Sunday school teacher of the teen girls. She was involved in the mission outreach of the church globally.  She and my father-in- law loved the pastors and the missionaries.  Their home was frequently opened to house guest speakers and singers.  They had a ministry of hospitality which they eagerly extended to a great number of persons.  They also gave sacrificially and joyfully for the work of the kingdom.  They were blessed with two daughters and three sons. 

    The Maynard families were mostly dairy farmers.  Three farms were purchased by my wife's paternal grandfather William Maynard, who had migrated to America from Somerset county, England in 1906.  The three adjacent farms stayed in the family, with the David Maynard farm sandwiched between the other two. 

    Cora Maynard (Tiffany) was born Cora Bell Northrup on March 13, 1928.  After the untimely death of her young father, she and her three brothers were raised by the Ross family of North Norwich.  At 15 she hired out to be a live-in housekeeper in Smyrna.  While living there she attended a local youth group at church and met her future husband, David John Maynard.  They were married just one week after her high school graduation and were utterly devoted to each other until she was widowed in 1980.  Though she would have liked to become a nurse she was instead a wife, companion, co-worker, and much, much more, raising a family of 3 boys and  2 girls.  She loved her crafts, from knitting to quilting, to plastic canvas or crocheting.  There was also much music, singing, and play in the Maynard household.  Cora had a dimple in her cheek and a twinkle in her eye that spoke to her love of life.   

    My mother-in-law loved to travel, and so took her children on numerous adventures around the country.  In 1998 she joined my wife and I on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Israel.  Then, in 2000, at the age of 72 she joined our family in traveling to Europe for the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany.  At her retirement community in Hamilton, NY she loved to go on day trips and overnight trips to various places.  She delighted in taking pictures on her digital camera and showing them to her friends. 

    My mother-in-law was a devoted wife and loving mom, as well as being a doting grandma and wonderful great-grandma.  She loved her family.  All of our children and the grandchildren were able to visit her a few weeks ago.  Mom Maynard died well.  She died peacefully.  "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints"  Psalm 116:15 

    For those who live in the area the calling hours will be on Monday, September 1 at Burgess/Tedesco Funeral Home on Main Street in Sherburne, NY from 2-5 PM.  A service of death and resurrection will be held a 1 PM on Tuesday at Smyrna Baptist Church, located on Main Street, along NY Route 80.

    In all the world there is only one source of authoritative information about the afterlife, and that is the Bible. The Lord has promised that in heaven there are no tears, there is no sorrow … no regret … no remorse.  Bitterness is gone forever, failure left far behind, suffering redeemed and rewarded.  Many of us remember  the name Chet Bitterman.  He was a Wycliffe missionary in Columbia, taken captive by guerrillas in early 1981.  He was held for 48 days until March 8, when his body was found in Bogota with one bullet through his heart.  Speaking of it later, his father said, “We have eight children.  One is heaven.  Seven are on earth.”
    To the unbeliever such words seem either sentimental or simply incredible.  But to the one who accepts God’s Word, they are nothing less than the sober truth.  If Jesus Christ can be trusted, then heaven is a real place.  If heaven is real, then this life is not the end.  There really is a city “with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” 
    The Bible is filled with promises about heaven.  Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go, I will come back to take you to be with me that you may also be where I am” (John 14:3).  The last two chapters of the Bible are a description of heaven.  Millions of believers have died believing in the reality of heaven.  Romans 8:18 says that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” 
    Several hundred years ago the French philosopher Pascal put forth his famous wager regarding the Christian faith. It’s an imaginary conversation between a Christian and a non-believer. . .  Suppose that atheism is right and Christianity is wrong.  In the end, I have lost nothing by believing in Christ since my faith gives me hope and comfort in this life and the atheist has gained nothing because he believes that death ends all.  But suppose that Christianity is right and atheism is wrong.  Who wins and who loses?  The Christian wins everything because he goes to heaven.  The atheist loses everything because he goes to hell.
    If we are wrong, we lose nothing at all.  If we are right, we go to heaven.  But those who reject Christ run a terrible risk that hell is real because if it is, that’s where they are going.

    "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." T. S. Elliot
In Christ,
 Brown

Brown's Daily Word 8/28/14

   Praise the Lord for another day filled with the faithfulness of our Lord.  We are enjoying some very warm days in this last week of August, 2014.  Alice canned 9 quarts of tomatoes from our garden.  The garden is by the picture window of the house.  I gaze at the plants every morning.  The varied vegetables look colorful and beautiful.  Our Lord is brilliant.  He makes our lives colorful and beautiful by His grace and love.  

    The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday of gathering, food, fellowship, and study.   I met several people yesterday who blessed my heart.  These  are the moments we cherish and know that we are loved and cherished by the One who holds the world in His hands.  One of the men I met was a teenager whom I had known in church.  Many years later I had spoken to him while he was in a teen challenge center recovering.  The Lord has fully restored him.  He is married and has his own business and his own home in the country.  He and his wife are blessed with five children.  Their son is studying computer science at RIT and his daughter is studying nursing at Roberts Wesleyan.  The family loves the Lord and serves Him faithfully.  Praise the Lord that the young people we knew as teens are now grown up and have their families and serving the Lord and living for Him. 

    As I have shared on several occasions that I have been blessed by the British writers, poets theologians, and missionaries.  British playwright George Bernard Shaw spoke about life in this way:

There are two tragedies in life.  One is to lose your heart’s desire, and the other is to gain it.  We don't look at it that way.  In our eyes gaining your heart’s desire is the very purpose of life itself.  But how many people have achieved their dreams only to be ruined in the process?  Success can be just as big a temptation as failure, perhaps more so since success tends to make us take life for granted.  While it is true that God speaks to us both ways, we tend to listen more when God speaks through sorrow, pain, loss, and personal failure.  Success tends to make us complacent but failure cannot be denied.

    A colleague coined the phrase,  "the sacrament of failure".  Indeed, failure can be sacramental especially when it  breaks our sinful self-confidence and brings us to the place where we acknowledge that God is God and we are not.  In our study last night we looked at Daniel 4.  That’s the lesson King Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way.   From this story we learn how God humbled a pagan king.  Daniel 4, unlike other chapters in Daniel, was written by the king himself.  In fact, the first few verses and the last few are written in the first person singular.  Reading this chapter is almost like reading the king’s personal diary.  Again Daniel 4 describes in great detail the king’s most humiliating experience.  It would be as if your personal journal were posted on the Internet so that your innermost thoughts and the hidden secrets of your life were revealed for everyone to read.

    Daniel  chapter 4 contains an extraordinary story.  What happened to Nebuchadnezzar happens to all of us sooner or later, and for many of us, it may happen more than once.  The story began at a time when King Nebuchadnezzar was on the crest of a wave.  He was contented and prosperous, and at the height of his glory; Nebuchadnezzar was king over the greatest empire the world had ever known.  Truly the king had every reason to feel secure, safe, and satisfied.  Who in all the earth could dare to challenge him?  But one night he had a strange and troubling dream. 
    The dream had   distinct parts.  First, the king saw a vast tree, with leaves and branches stretching as far as the eye could see.  Birds nested in the branches and animals found shade under its leaves.  Second, the tree was cut down and stripped and the stump bound with iron and bronze.  Then somehow the stump became a person who lived among the animals for seven years.  Evidently this person lost his mind completely. 

    When Daniel heard the king’s dream, he knew exactly what it meant.  For a long time he stood silently, not wanting to tell the king the awful truth.  After summarizing the first part of the dream, Daniel came to the bottom line: “You, O king, are that tree!” (Daniel 4:22).  He went on to say that God had ordained that the king would become like a beast of the field: “You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven.  Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes” (Daniel 4:25).

    The key word in this passage is “until.”  This divine judgment was disciplinary, not merely punitive.  For seven years  the king would live as a wild beast, having lost his mind.  He would live with the beasts “until” he acknowledged that God alone is sovereign.

    The rest of the story unfolds quickly.  Verse 28 tells us that “all this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar.”  First, for twelve months the king had time to change his ways, though evidently nothing Daniel said sank deeply into his soul.  Perhaps he didn’t believe him or perhaps he thought he had plenty of time to repent.  Perhaps he made excuses for his behavior, or perhaps he got so caught up in his glamorous life that he paid no attention.  Whatever the reason for his behavior, there came the fateful moment that changed his entire life: “As the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, ‘Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?’” (Daniel 4:29-30). 

    “Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled.  He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle.  His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird” (Daniel 4:33).  This is all that is said about his seven years of insanity.  One moment he was surveying his royal kingdom, the next he was ripping off his clothing, making strange snorting noises, and galloping on all fours down the main street of Babylon, totally naked and stark, raving mad.  What happened to Nebuchadnezzar was a kind of spiritual parable for all of us.  It shows what can happen when a man tries to become like God and instead becomes instead like the animals.

    That’s not the end of the story.  Seven years later the king’s life took another dramatic turn: “At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored.  Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever” (Daniel 4:34).  Just as suddenly as he lost his mind, he regained it in an instant. We know he was truly changed because of what he said when he came to his senses: “His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation.  All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.  He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.  No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:34-35)

    The once-pagan king now openly declared the praises of God.  He truly got the message.  God can do anything he wants to do, and no one can stand against him. Earthly kings rule by God’s permission and they stay on the throne only so long as it pleases God to give them power and authority.  Nebuchadnezzar has learned the truth the hard way and proclaimed it for all the world to hear.

Timeless Truth for all of us today:

“Those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”  Whenever we think we can live without God, he reaches down from heaven and begins to shake the things in which we place our confidence.  Because God is entirely righteous, he will not stand idle forever while his children live in sin.  Sooner or later he will intervene.

    In Daniel 4, I find great hope and abundant grace.  There is hope for all of God’s children because God will not allow us to live in our sin forever.  God loves us too much to let us go on in our sinful rebellion forever.  Sooner or later, he intervenes, sometimes in ways both public and painful, to bring us back home again.  There is hope for those who are far from God today.  Nebuchadnezzar was 100% pagan. He neither knew God nor worshiped him.  Yet when God got through with him, he sounded like a  brilliant theologian and a passionate preacher. . .That’s what God can do, and only God can do it.

In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/qWOqINa80C4

Brown's Daily Word 8/26/14

   Praise the Lord for this last Tuesday of August.  It is still summer in America, the Beautiful.  The temperature will reach close to 90 here in the Southern tier of New York and it will be reaching in to 115 or so in the Midwest of the USA.  It is all sweet summer.  Our daughter Laureen spent a week in sunny Florida attending a conference on prayer and healing.  She said that it was awesome in so many ways.  She spent a day in beach yesterday with her friends.  Micah and her family spent a day in the beach in Massachusetts as well, and are planning some mountain climbing in New Hampshire this week.

    It was eight  years ago that severe persecution broke against Christians by the militant Hindus in the State of Orissa, India.  Over 100 Christians, some of whom I knew personally, were massacred.  Though we live in a dangerous world, we are loved and cherished by the One who is in control and has the last word in the transactions and the affairs of the world.  Though the world is one of wars and rumors of war, because of Christ we get to celebrate.

    We are blessed with a wonderful banquet last Saturday.  It was held at the Fellowship Hall of the Union Center United Methodist Church.  The Fellowship Hall was transformed into banquet hall once  more.  So many people came that we had to add 6 more tables.  The menu for the banquet included:  Turkey, Ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, lasagna, sweet corn, baked beans, homemade rolls, fried rice, chicken curry, beef curry, sweet breads.  The dessert included humongous carrot cake, cookies, and an ice cream sundae bar.  Indeed, it was a banqueting table with food galore.  The banquet was followed by an amazing musical presentation by our friends Dave Berry and Aric Phinney, who are both gifted and anointed musicians.

    Jesus, our Lord, spoke of the Kingdom of God as a banquet.  How strange Jesus' words must have sounded to the people back then.  Nobody then thought of the kingdom of God as a party.  In fact, the Pharisees saw the kingdom of God as a vast courtroom in which the good would be vindicated and the wicked obliterated by God.  Even today I hear people say things that portray a pharisaical understanding of the kingdom, as though the kingdom were a dreary courtroom instead of a joyous banquet.  Nowhere did Jesus ever speak of the kingdom as an awards banquet to which we must earn entrance by feats of moral heroism. Instead, He offers us a simple invitation to come and enjoy the feast and share in His joy.  In fact, Mark's gospel says that when Jesus called the disciples, he called them "that they might be with Him."  Jesus our Lord declared the Kingdom of God  as God's gracious invitation to the banquet of life.  Sadly, many ignore the invitation.  Others read it, but fail to respond.  However, those few who accept God's invitation discover the hope, joy, and peace that come from knowing Christ as Lord and Savior and realizing the ultimate gift of God as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

    We are told that there is no shortage of food in our world.  It is reported that currently there is more than enough food to feed every person on the planet, yet there are millions who are starving.  The problem is not in supply; it is in distribution.  Likewise, spiritually speaking, there is more than enough mercy, grace and love in the heart of God to supply the world and yet many people are starving for the those basic requirements for spiritual sustenance.  Again, the problem is not supply; it is distribution; PLUS, the willingness of those needy recipients to accept what they need.

    There is a great line from the musical production, "Auntie Mame", which describes this condition, "All the world's a banquet and most poor fools are starving to death" - a pretty good description of the spiritual state of much of the world.  The gospel invites everyone to the banquet of life.  God, in Christ, came into this world of sin and sorrow to show us a better way of living and to tell us about a future with hope.  God loves us more than we can possibly understand.  God forgives us more than we could possibly deserve.  The message of Jesus is God's INVITATION TO THE BANQUET OF LIFE: LIFE HERE AND NOW AND LIFE THAT IS ETERNAL.

In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/PzCKNnlK7lo