Friday, November 14, 2014
Brown's Daily Word 11-14-14
Praise the Lord for this season of
harvest and Thanksgiving. Praise the Lord from all good and perfect gifts
come. Praise the Lord for this season. Jesus is indeed is the Lord of this
season and He is the Lord of all seasons. We are preparing and are excited for
our Thanksgiving banquet that will be held on Saturday, November 15, 2014. We
will be serving at 5 PM and again at 6 PM. This will be a traditional
Thanksgiving menu with Turkey, homemade apple, pumpkin pies, etc.
We will begin the Advent season
with a very wonderful Christmas banquet that will be held on Saturday the 6th of
December at the Church Fellowship Hall. Chef Justin Clark is preparing a formal
Christmas banquet. The dinner will be served at 5:30 PM, followed by a powerful
Concert by the St. Petersburg Men's Ensemble, from St. Petersburg, Russia, at
6:30.
We are getting ready for our annual
Living nativity presentation that will be held at the center court of the
Oakdale Mall on Saturday the 20th of December, 2014. It will be held from 5 to
7 PM. We will be participating in Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah at
6:30 PM. It will be a "Flash Mob". All musicians and singers are warmly
invited to join. It will be glorious as we sing a part of "Handel's Messiah".
The Down Town Singers will be presenting Handel's Messiah in Binghamton on
Friday the 19th of December at 8 PM. It will be a full length presentation with
full orchestra and gifted soloists. We are so blessed. We get to celebrate
... we get to worship.
We are joining churches around our
great Land in collecting Christmas Shoe Boxes on Sunday the November 16, 2014.
Indeed, we will get to give and share in the work of the Gospel around the
corner and around the globe. Let the Lord provoke all of us rise up as the
shepherds did and go to the Manger where, "the Holy Child of Bethlehem is
born".
Before we get into the Advent
season, let us celebrate Thanksgiving with gladness and gratitude.
Thanksgiving Day was near. The
first grade teacher gave her class a fun assignment—to draw a picture of
something for which they were thankful. Most of the class might be considered
to be from poor families, but still, many would celebrate the holiday with
turkey and other traditional goodies of the season. These, the teacher thought,
would be the subjects of most of her student's art, and they were.
But Douglas made a different kind
of picture. Douglas was a different kind of boy. He was the teacher's idea of
a true child of misery, frail and unhappy. As other children played at recess,
Douglas was likely to stand close by her side. One could only guess at the pain
Douglas felt behind those sad eyes. Yes, his picture was different. When asked
to draw a picture of something for which he was thankful, he drew a hand.
Nothing else. Just an empty hand.
His abstract image captured the
imagination of the other students. The teacher asked the class, "Whose hand
could it be?" One child guessed it was the hand of a farmer, because farmers
raise turkeys. Another suggested a police officer, because the police protect
and care for people. Still others guessed it was the hand of God, for God feeds
us. And so the discussion went—until the teacher almost forgot the young artist
himself. When the children had gone on to other assignments, she paused at
Douglas' desk, bent down, and asked him whose hand it was.
The little boy looked away and
murmured, "It's yours, teacher."
She recalled the times she had
taken his hand and walked with him here or there, as she had the other
students. How often had she said, "Take my hand, Douglas, we'll go outside."
Or, "Let me show you how to hold your pencil." Or, "Let's do this together."
Douglas was most thankful for his teacher's hand.
I have been reading Psalm 145,
which encourages us to think about God's hand in our lives. As we get ready to
celebrate Thanksgiving let's remind ourselves that his hand is always there
for us even when we might not sense it. Of
150 psalms, this is the only one that has the title "A psalm of praise." David
said, "Every day I will praise you." Whether in good times or in dark times
he would offer up praise to God. Psalm 145
reminds us that God's hand touches our lives. We are called to praise
Him.
Our God's mighty acts are
awe-inspiring and his greatness is without limit. Even with intensive search no
one can find its depths. Psalm 145:3, "Great is the LORD and most
worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom." Our God is
able to supply all that we need. He is mighty, loving, forgiving, and His
resources are more than adequate for all our needs.
We are used to limitations in life:
We all have a limited amount of time. We have a limited amount of patience. We
have a limited amount of money. We have a limited amount of strength. We have
a limited amount of insight. God, however, has no limits. We can never exhaust
the depths of his love, mercy, understanding, generosity, and so much more.
A person who recognizes that God is gracious,
loving, and merciful understands God more completely than a person who merely
realizes that God is powerful. God's glory is in his grace to people, his
generosity and goodness. God is gracious, which means he is full of generosity,
kind, good, and his gifts are given freely to his people.
In spite of all the wrong that I
have done, the Lord is gracious and compassionate to me. As the father of the
prodigal son welcomed him home after his rebellion, so God welcomes home his
children.
During a British conference on
comparative religions, experts debated what, if any, belief was unique to
Christianity. They began eliminating possibilities. The Incarnation? Other
religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form.
Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from the dead. The
debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's
the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were
discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis
responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace." After some discussion, the others had
to agree.
The notion of God's love coming to
us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of
humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish
covenant, and the Muslim code of law, each offer a way to earn approval. Only
Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional. God's grace sets us free
from trying to earn God's forgiveness. Common sense tells us that we can never
meet the standards of God's holiness. Grace tells us that everything is all
right in spite of so much in us being so wrong. God is patient and does not
punish us as we deserve. He is compassionate with those who are weak, make
foolish mistakes, and are discouraged. Our Lord God is powerful. He is
gracious and He is faithful. He is with us in prosperity even as He is with us
in adversity. He has promised never to desert
us. God has proven throughout history that he is faithful. God keeps his
promises. God lifts up those who have fallen. God sustains those who are ready
to fall. God provides for our needs and desires. In Psalm 94:18 we read, "When
I said, 'My foot is slipping,' your love, O LORD, supported me." And again in
Psalm 37, "The steps of the godly are directed
by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble,
they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand." Our Lord God is near
to us. He is Emmanuel ... God with us.
Our Lord is nearby to each of us and attentive to our special needs. God is near to all who call upon him. If we were to draw a picture of what we are thankful for this Thanksgiving would we draw an open hand like little Douglas? Psalm 145 encourages us in a very personal way to think about God's hand in our lives. On this Thanksgiving let's remind ourselves that his hand is always there for us even when we might not sense it. This year at Thanksgiving let us remember that God is to be praised. God is mighty—he can be your strength. God is gracious—he loves and forgives you. God is faithful—he can supply what we need. He is with us. All that we desire is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
In Christ,
Brown
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Brown's Daily Word 11/12/14
Praise the Lord for this
wonderful Wednesday. It will be a glorious day. We will gather for our
Wednesday Evening gathering for fellowship and study at 6 PM. We are currently
studying the Book of Joel. Praise the Lord for His promise, While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat,
and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.Genesis 8
It is a glorious season here in America. We get to celebrate the season of Harvest and Thanksgiving, paving the way for Advent and Christmas. Praise the Lord that we get to end the year with great celebration and jubilation.
We are planning for our community wide Thanksgiving banquet
this coming Saturday. We will have two seatings, at 5 and at 6 PM. We will be
showing a full length movie "Faith Like Potatoes' in the sanctuary. Our Church
Fellowship Hall will be transformed in to a banquet hall once again. Chef Lou
Pasquale and the team are preparing this banquet with so much love. Praise the
Lord for the way He provides for His ministry indeed. Praise the Lord for so
many of our people who are excited in participating in this event. There are
several who will be preparing the turkeys. Two women are going above and beyond
the call of duty. One is preparing two turkeys and baking 7 pies. The other
is preparing three turkeys and baking 10 pies. They are the Marthas of the
church. We praise the Lord for His faithfulness and for His generosity.
As we enter the Thanksgiving
season I am pondering on the Ten lepers who were healed by the Lord as we read
about it in Luke 17. Bill Griffin tells the story of the leper in Mark
1:40 this way: "'Hello, I'm a leper!' A man popped out from behind
a building and stood right in front of Jesus. 'Please don't run away,
Jesus!'
"'What's the matter with
your skin?' asked Jesus.
"'Can't You see I'm covered
with runny sores and crusty scabs?' No one wants to look at me, my face is so
horrible.'
"'What do you want Me to
do?'
"'You can make me better.
I know You can,' said the man, falling on his knees in front of Jesus. 'If You
don't, I'll scratch myself to death.'
"Jesus felt sorry for the
poor man.
"'Don't touch me,' said the
man. 'That's how you get it.'
"'I'm not afraid to touch
you.' Jesus reached down and took hold of the man's arms and pulled him to his
feet. The itching was gone. The sores started to dry. The scabs began to fall
off.
"'Thank You, thank You,
thank You!' shouted the man. 'What can I do to thank You?'
"'You can go to the temple,
show yourself to a priest and say a prayer of thanks to God.'
"'Yes, yes; I will, I
will!' promised the man hurrying off.
"'One more thing,' said
Jesus.
"'Anything, anything,' said
the man.
"'You don't have to tell
anyone what I just did.'
"'I won't tell a soul,'
said the man as he skipped toward Jerusalem; but the man was so happy and the
walk to the temple was so long that he forgot and told everyone he met. Then
all the other lepers along the road began to look for the wonderful Man with the
healing touch." (Calvin Miller, The Family Book of Jesus, Bethany
House, 2002.)
The story well told of the
gratitude of good lepers. Good lepers are those who are healed and never forget
the disease they once had. They remember how good clean feels. Bad lepers, on
the other hand, are those who are healed and go on acting as if they never had
the disease.
Ninety percent of all the lepers
in Luke
17 are ingrates — bad lepers pretending
they never met Jesus. What a shame! They were so completely healed that there
was not a smidgen of their former state of decay left to them. They were so
healed, they headed back to the social centers of their communities.
However, for all the joy of their
cleansing, we never would have known about them at all, except for the 10
percent of their group who knew the art of gratitude. One of the 10: "when he
saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at
Jesus' feet and thanked Him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked a most
perplexing question: 'Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was
no one found to give praise to God except this foreigner?'" (Luke 17:15-18).
"Thou hast
given so much to me. Give me one thing
more—a grateful heart. by
George Herbert (1593-1633) ...
In
Christ,
Brown
Brown's Daily Word 11/11/14
Praise the Lord for
this Veterans Day that is observed in America the Beautiful. Praise the Lord
for the brave and gallant men and women who have fought for freedom and have
made the ultimate sacrifice. I had breakfast and lunch with two veterans
yesterday and today. They shared their deep love for this great country and
great nation.
The
Lord blessed us with a warm and summery day today. Alice has started decorating
the house for Christmas. She has started putting up her collection of Christmas
trees and donning the Christmas quilts. Soon the house will be transformed into
a Christmas House. She has started listening to all Christmas music and has
been watching all Christmas movies. Praise the Lord that we are privileged to
celebrate the birth of our Lord once again. It has been such a warm day that we
saw dandelions and forsythias, and roses in full bloom. We walked almost 4
miles this evening at sunset, and then under the majestic and starry sky.
Praise the Lord for the splendor and the wonder of His brilliant creation. The
Lord is on the move around the corner and around the world.
It was
25 years ago this month that the Berlin Wall fell. The Alquaeda and the ISIS of
old Communist Russia came unraveling without any bullet ... without any weapons
of mass destruction. It was the Lord God who sits upon the throne who blew the
powers of darkness and oppression away. He is fermenting His Church around the
corner and around the world. He calls us rise up and join Him in His divine
enterprise.
One of
the most famous sermons ever preached was the sermon by Jonathan Edwards
entitled, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." It is a remarkable sermon,
designed to stir a complacent congregation. In it Edwards warns his audience
that they are in danger of being cast into Hell at any moment. "Your wickedness
makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and
pressure towards hell," Edwards says, "and if God should let you go, you would
immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into bottomless gulf, and your
healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and
all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you
out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock." The
picture Edwards paints is not a pretty one. "Were it not for the sovereign
pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden
to it …."
In the
face of world calamities and deadly dangers we have a Savior and Lord who is
compassionate and merciful. The Psalmist tells us that although God's wrath is
real, it is not quickly stirred. He is "slow to wrath." But more than that,
the Psalmist says God is "rich in love." This is the committed love of God that
compels him to keep his promises even when we do not keep ours. It is faithful
love that is often expressed in the form of a covenant. Amazingly, it is an
attribute of God's faithfulness that is often emphasized in contexts where God's
people have been unfaithful.
In
Exodus
33,
after Israel has committed the great sin of worshiping the golden calf, Moses
asked God to show him his glory. The Lord said to Moses, "I will cause all my
goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your
presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion. But," he said, "you cannot see my
face, for no one may see me and live." The Lord hid Moses in a cleft in a rock
and covered him with his hand. Then, according to Exodus
34:6-7, as the Lord passed in front of Moses, he
proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to
anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and
forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty
unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the
fathers to the third and fourth generation."
Like
Moses we, too, come to see God's glory—not directly but indirectly. We see his
grace in sharp contrast to our sin. We see his patience displayed in stark
relief over and against our impatience. We see his compassion in contrast to
our self-centeredness and narcissism. We awake in the morning feeling a sense
of cold indifference toward him, yet he demonstrates his unfailing love in
unexpected and undeserved ways all day long. It is not a pretty lesson, at
least in what it reveals to us about ourselves, but it is a necessary
one.
We
praise the Lord because he has not dealt with us as our sins deserved.: "The
Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has
made." "All you have made will praise you, O Lord; your
saints will extol you. They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of
your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious
splendor of your kingdom." God is at work in the world today: "Your kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations." The
idea of "God's kingdom" is one we find in the New Testament as well. It is
important that we recognize that it has both a narrow and a broad sense. We
wait for the kingdom in the narrow sense as we wait for Jesus Christ to come
back and reign from Jerusalem. We are waiting for a literal kingdom that can
only be ushered in by the return of Jesus Christ. There is also a kingdom in a
broader sense. That is the sense we mean whenever we pray the words of the
Lord's Prayer: "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven."
In the
waning days of the Nazi terror, as allied bombs rained down on the shattered
city of Stuttgart, Lutheran pastor Helmut Thielicke preached a remarkable series
of sermons based on the Lord's Prayer. One of his most powerful — his sermon on
the petition "Thy Kingdom come" — was interrupted by an air raid. After the
bombs had fallen, Thielicke had to finish the sermon at a nearby school because
his own church lay in ruins. In that sermon Thielicke describes a moment of
discouragement, when all he had done for God seemed to have gone to pieces. His
flock was scattered, and he was utterly desolate. As he looked down into the
concrete pit of a cellar in which fifty young people had been killed by a bomb
blast, a woman approached him. "My husband died down there," she said. "His
place was right under the hole. T he clean-up squad was unable to find a trace
of him; all that was left was his cap. We were there the last time you preached
in that cathedral church. And here before this pit, I want to thank you for
preparing him for eternity."
"In
this world of death," Thielicke says in his sermon, "in this empire of ruins and
shell torn fields, we pray: 'Thy Kingdom come!' We pray it more than
ever."
In
Christ,
Brown
Monday, November 10, 2014
Brown's Daily Word 11/10/14
Welcome to a new week. We had
a beautiful weekend of worship, celebration, and rest. Jessy and Tom were
visiting us from Philadelphia, and we had a blessed time. Our Jess is blessed
with the gift of winsome humor, and she blesses us every time we are together.
We were also able to celebrate our nephew's 19th birthday this weekend, with a
variety of traditional Indian dishes. Jess and Tom took my wife and Jess's
cousins out for dinner and a movie on Saturday evening.
In the worship services this
weekend I spoke on the old masters. I spoke on Joshua, who finished his race on
earth well at the age of 110. He was one of the original trailblazers, whom
the Lord used to pave the way for the pilgrims, like us, who came after him. We
are called to serve the Lord faithfully and fervently and, above all, joyfully,
and leave this world not as "flickering wicks" but as blazing and brilliant
sunsets. No matter how old we are the Lord empowers us to finish the race well
by His grace and with His authority.
America the beautiful will
observe Veterans Day tomorrow the November 11. This day is the anniversary of
the signing of the armistice which ended the World War I hostilities between the
Allied nations and Germany in 1918. Veterans
Day is intended to honor and thank all military personnel who served the United
States in all wars, particularly living veterans. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 an armistice
between Germany and the Allied nations came into effect. On November 11, 1919,
Armistice Day was commemorated for the first time as President Wilson proclaimed
the day should be "filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in
the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory".
In the movie Saving Private
Ryan, an army captain named John
Miller is given a mission; he and a small squad of soldiers are sent behind
enemy lines to rescue a soldier named James Francis Ryan, whose three other
brothers have already been killed in action. Their mission is to find Private
Ryan and get him out of harm's way, so he can return to his grieving mother back
in the States. They accomplish their mission, but it costs Captain Miller and
many others their lives. That was the price of saving Private Ryan. In a
similar way, God sent his Son to earth to find us, to take us out of harm's way,
and to restore us to relationship with our heavenly Father. He accomplished
that mission, but it cost him his life.
Romans 8 says: "The
creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed, for the
creation was subjected to frustration in hope that the creation itself will be
liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the
children of God." Some day everything on earth and in heaven will be restored
to its original splendor, to all that God had in mind when he created it in the
first place, for his glory and for our good. All this is possible because our
God is a Redeemer
We live in world made by our Lord
God. There is beauty and blessings all around us. Our Lord reigns and rules.
We also recognize that Satan, though defeated, is still alive and not well.
When we realize that, in spite of our highest hopes and our best intentions,
there's something fundamentally wrong with us and with our world, that's when
any old belief system won't do. That's when saving ourselves won't cut it.
That's when we need a Redeemer, someone who can rescue us from the mess we've
made of things, someone willing to pay the price for that rescue, someone who
can restore us to the people we were meant to be and to the world we were meant
to live in.
You and I were created to be
caught with the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit and run the race
well.. But something happened along the way. We got lost. Things were ruined,
and we've been taken captive. We need a Redeemer and, praise God, there is one:
Jesus Christ, our great redeemer and Lord.
In Christ,
Brown
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