Brown's Daily Word 3/28/15

Praise the Lord for this sweet Saturday.  Praise the Lord for Palm Sunday just around the corner.  We will be joining the millions of people around the corner and around the globe celebrating Palm Sunday tomorrow.  This morning we had some of our nieces for a pancake and waffle breakfast.  I was sitting in the living room when looking through the bay window, I saw 6 deer making a triumphant procession across the fields close to the parsonage.  The birds are singing sweetly and deer are looking jubilant and unafraid.  The daffodils are beginning to bud by the parsonage window.  It is time for the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC.  All around the world the church of Jesus Christ is getting ready for celebration.  We will meet for worship at 9:00 AM at Wesley and for the Sunday School hour at Union Center.  We will meet for worship at Union Center at 10:15 AM.  There will be a children's ministry extravaganza with an Easter egg hunt at 11:30 AM, along a church wide banquet at 11:30 AM.

 

    We rejoice.  For it is written in Zechariah 9:9, "Rejoice O daughter of Zion."  We rejoice indeed for Jesus our Lord and King is making His triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem.  It is a remarkable event recorded in all four Gospels.  It is quite unlike anything else recorded about the Lord Jesus in the New Testament.  Up until this time Jesus had been withdrawing himself as much as possible from public notice.  He had retired to the wilderness.  He did not court attention.  He avoided anything that hinted of public display.

    It is written In Matthew 12, ''He did not cry, nor strive, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets.''  In Matthew 16 He charged His disciples that they should, ''tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.''  When He raised the daughter of Jairus, it says in Mark 5 that ''He straightly charged them that no man should know of it.''
When Jesus came down from the mount of transfiguration, He gave orders to His disciples that ''they should tell no man what things they had seen till the Son of man was risen from the dead'' (Mark 9:9).

    In John 6 the Bible says that after feeding the five thousand, ''When Jesus therefore perceived that they (the multitude) would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.''  And when his half-brothers urged him to disclose himself ''to the world,'' He answered, ''My time is not yet come.''

    On Palm Sunday, however, here we see Jesus making a public entry into Jerusalem. There is a huge crowd of people who have come out to welcome Jesus. And the Pharisees say, ''Behold the world is gone after him'' (John 12:19).
This time Jesus is in completely in charge, taking the initiative at every point.  He is the Christ of every situation, and He knows that His time has come and He enters the city of Jerusalem to face the issue of His death.  He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  He desires to enter our hearts, our homes, and our lives to be fully in charge.  His kingdom shall never end.

 In Christ,

   Brown
https://youtu.be/tld1MZ2F4GA

Brown's Daily Word 3/26/15

Praise the Lord for this new day.   It is going to be mild here in Southern Tier of New York, to make it possible for the flowers to bloom luxuriantly.  Some of my friends make maple syrup.  The Lord is ushering in some beautiful weather that the maple syrup growers love... warm in the day time and cold in the night. The Lord blessed us with an awesome Wednesday gathering.  The fellowship was sweet . The study and sharing are always thought provoking and uplifting.
    Our grandchildren who live in Boston get to go to the museums regularly.  Ada, the youngest, visits the Musuem of Fine Arts up to 3 times  a week.  As I have shared, to me the best art, the best music, and the best literature in the world is that which honors Christ.  Some of the best architecture is that which reflects the Glory of the Lord.   

    During this Lenten season, as we get closer to Passion week I would like to invite you to join me to gaze at one of the most famous paintings in the world, The Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci.  Frozen in time before us is the precise moment when Jesus said, "One of you will betray Me."  The expressions and gestures of the disciples clearly show their shock, fear, disbelief, anger, sadness.
Our eyes are drawn to Judas, the second person on Jesus' right, sitting next to young beardless John, who by the way is not Mary Magdalene. (That silliness from DaVinci Code been debunked by all serious art critics. As one of them asked, "If that's not John up there, who can explain why Leonardo left out one of the 12 disciples?")  Next to John, there is Judas, as Jesus is about to say, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with Me will betray Me."

    So here is Judas reaching.  Notice he is using his left hand.  Leonardo was aware of prejudice against left-handed people.  In fact, in Latin, the word for left is sinistra or sinister.  So simply by using his left hand, Judas is now the suspect.  Meanwhile, what is Judas clutching with his right hand? It is a money bag, a purse, a reference to the 30 pieces of silver he would earn for betraying Jesus.  Then there is one more tiny detail: In all the commotion with the use of his hand,  let us notice Judas has knocked over the salt on the table.  Still today there's this superstition that spilling salt leads to bad outcomes.  Also, notice Judas' face is shadowed and darker than the faces of other disciples.  It is written for us in  Matthew 26:20-25:

    "When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.  And while they were eating, He said, 'Truly I tell you, one of you will betray Me.'  They were very sad and began to say to Him one after the other, 'Surely you don't mean me, Lord?'  Jesus replied, 'The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with Me will betray Me.  The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him.  But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man!  It would be better for him if he had not been born.'  Then Judas, the one who would betray Him, said, 'Surely you don't mean me, Rabbi?'  Jesus answered, 'You have said so.'"
    On that night of the Passover, Judas betrayed a Friend.  He loved Jesus.  All the gospel writers preserve the fact that Judas did not want Jesus crucified.  All say he repented.  All say he tried to give back the money and undo what he had done. Why did Judas not appear at the trial?  He would have been the star witness for the prosecution!  Judas was crushed when his arrogant plan went awry, then he took his own life.  Judas had betrayed a Friend.

    Judas used Jesus as a means to an end, a way to achieve a desired goal. At first, all the disciples saw the prospect of Jesus becoming an earthly king.  All were looking forward to government jobs.  John and James jockeyed to be the ones sitting on Jesus' right and left when He became king.  These two, along with the other disciples, though, eventually surrendered to Jesus' own vision of His kingdom, but it was not so with Judas.

    I believe that,  like all of us, at the heart of it all Judas would not let Jesus be Lord over his life.  He really thought he was smarter, more world-wise, than Jesus.  A.W. Tozer once said, "Inside every human heart are a cross and a throne.  Whenever I put myself on the throne, I put Jesus on the cross."  That is the Judas whom I too often see in my mirror.  I enthrone myself, lord of my own private kingdom.  With me on the throne, there is no other place for Christ in my life except that I put Him on that cross.

     The apostle Paul said in Galatians, "I have been crucified with Christ.  The life I now live is no longer my life, but the life Christ lives within me."  A.W. Tozer has said to be crucified with Christ means three things: "The person on the cross is facing in only one direction.  Second, he's not going back; and third, he has no further plans of his own."

    Judas had many plans of his own, and so do we, but when we go to the cross, we die to our plans.  We surrender the managerial control of our own lives and relinquish all outcomes to Christ alone.  As I transition to a different phase of my life I am praying that the Lord would grant me His grace to take over my plans .

    Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman described what it's like to let God be in control:

    "Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away.  If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.  My sickness, my perplexity or sorrow may be necessary causes of some greater end, which is beyond me.  He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life.  He may shorten it; He knows what he is about.  He may take away my friends.  He may throw me among strangers.  He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sick, hide my future from me—still He knows what He is about.  I ask not to see—I ask not to know—I ask simply to be used."

    As someone has wisely said, "God is management".  We are in sales.  He's doing His job.  Lord, in these moments, we vacate our thrones and invite You into Your rightful place.  Be with us as we go to the cross in love, service and surrender to You. 

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/sQeIGbKqiw8

Brown's Daily Word 3/25/15

Praise the Lord for this brand new day the Lord has made.  It was a sunny and brilliant day yesterday.  The spring birds are back in droves to their familiar habitats.  I see the spring flowers are beginning to bud.  The Lord visits the earth again; the valleys blossom again.  Blessed be His name.  We will meet for our Wednesday Evening Study and fellowship with a special time with children this evening starting at 6:00 PM.  The choir will met at 7:30 PM.  Let us all get ready and excited to worship Jesus on this coming Palm Sunday around the corner and around the globe.  One year ago on Palm Sunday our team was in G.Udayaygiri, Phulbani , Orissa India, for the centennial celebration of the coming the Gospel to the area where I was born and brought up.  It was  a momentous and historic celebration for the team that traveled from the USA.
     Jesus our Lord declared in the Gospel of John that He is the Way, the Truth, and the life.  Furthermore He declared that we will know the Truth and the Truth shall make us free.  Just hours before Jesus died for us, the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?”  Jesus was on trial before this pagan judge who had the power to sentence Him to death.  Pilate asked, “Are you a king?” Jesus replied, “Yes, and I came into the world to testify to the truth.”  Pilate responded, probably with cynical derision, “What is truth?”

    For Pontius Pilate, truth was whatever the Roman emperor said it was.  Romans believed Caesar was divine.  Therefore, when Christians boldly declared Jesus as Lord, they were saying Caesar was not.  The word lord refers to one’s ultimate allegiance, and a person can have only one lord at a time.  Therefore, when Christians declared Jesus as Lord, they were saying Caesar was not lord, and many Christians were killed for clinging to that truth.  There was no room for dueling lords in the Roman Empire.

    Our Bible is a counter-cultural document.  Some people do not like the Bible’s definition of marriage, so they are trying to invent a different one.  Some  do not reverence the holy name of God, so they use that name as a common expletive.  Many destroy their own unborn babies if those unborn babies are deemed to be inconvenient.  Absolute truth is defined as “unchanging truth from God that is applicable to all persons in all situations.”  Jesus said, “I came into the world to testify to the truth” (John 18:37) and “If you hold to my teaching…then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

    Our culture has trouble with Jesus’ words about truth because the cultural referees worship at the altar of relativism.  The Bible is an absolutely unique book. Millions of people during thousands of years have proved by experience this truth: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul” (Psalm 19:7).  After 2,000 years, no expert in any field has disproved a single statement from the Bible, but that shouldn’t surprise us because “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16) or inspired by God.

    No one in modern history has dispensed the truth more widely or to more people than Dr. Billy Graham.  Now in his nineties and in frail health, he still devotes every day to exalting the truth of Christ.  In Dr. Graham’s great autobiography Just as I Am, he describes the turning point in his ministry.  The year was 1949.  Billy was 30 years old.  He was about to begin an evangelistic crusade in Los Angeles, but he was troubled.  A friend had said to him, “Billy, you’re 50 years out of date.  People no longer accept the Bible as being inspired the way you do.  Your faith is too simple.  Your language is out of date.  You’re going to have to learn the new jargon if you’re going to be successful.”

    At that time, Billy was staying at a retreat center in the San Bernardino Mountains.  Unable to sleep one night, he got up, picked up his Bible, and took a walk in the woods.  He found a tree stump and made it his altar.  Placing his Bible on it, he fell on his knees and prayed: “Oh, God!  There are many things in this book I do not understand.  There are some areas in it that do not seem to correlate with modern science.  But Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—by faith! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word.”

    Billy got up off his knees, his eyes stinging with tears.  He wrote, “In my heart and mind, I knew a spiritual battle in my soul had been fought and won.”
As they say, the rest is history!

    May we also build our lives upon Jesus who is the Way, The Truth, and the Life.

In Christ alone,

  Brown
https://youtu.be/d_24IdbJ0Tw

Brown's Daily Word 3/23/15

Praise the Lord for this Holy season of Lent. The Lord blessed us in His House yesterday with His love and grace. It became sunny and brilliant in the afternoon. Alice and I walked on one of the local trails, listening to the birds and gazing at the sunset in the colorful and majestic western sky.
 Sunita is flying to Seattle, Washington today for her work. Please keep her in your prayer.
 Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, leading into Passion week. I am, in my devotions, in reflection on the Cross and the last days of our Lord on earth. In his book "Once upon a Tree", Calvin Miller writes about an experience years ago when he went to a movie. This was in a day (that some of us don't know existed) when people dressed up for movies, and at the intermission they go out just like they do at the theater or a concert. He was attending an epic biblical movie that came out in the sixties. He writes, Just before the intermission the crucifixion was presented in breathtaking color and drama. As Jesus died on the screen there in that movie, a terrible dark storm formed behind him. The camera caught rivulets of blood flowing from the wounds in Jesus' hands. The rivulet of blood would flow down the cross and into a depression in the stone at the base of the cross. Then the rain began to fall. The rain accumulated in that small basin and mingled with the red. Soon the pool filled to overflowing and began trickling down the mountainside. The small red rile combined with other torrents of rushing water, and finally it became a great crimson tide for this world's salvation. But more than that, for my salvation.
    Suddenly it was the intermission, and Miller jostled his way to the theater lobby. In the lobby men laughed and chattered as though nothing had happened. Jewelry-bedecked women tossed their heads with lighthearted caprice. Children clamored for a drink at the water fountain. A noisy line formed at the concession booth. It was not that I had gone to that lobby expecting everyone to be collected in little prayer groups or hear them singing "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Most people who see the cross are not impressed with it. They can see it and walk away and forget it.
    There is mystery and wonder that surround the cross on which the Prince of Glory died. We can not fully comprehend or can we understand all that transpired at the cross. It is written 1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
There are untold millions around the globe and around the corner , through out the ages have experience the grace, mercy and the power that is associated withe cross. Because of the empty Cross and the empty grave we have been given life, life eternal and the victory over the grave.
  One of my favorite books is "The Pilgrims Progress " by John Bunyan. During the Lenten season I love to read it. As I read this timeless classic I am provoked to love the Lord and serve with zeal and fervor. I love the way John Bunyan describes the efficacy and the power of the cross in the life of a Christian, "Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which CHRISTIAN was to go was fenced on either side with a wall; and that wall was called "Salvation". "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks." Isaiah 26:1 Up this way, therefore, did burdened CHRISTIAN run; but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a Cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre.
So I saw in my dream, that just as CHRISTIAN came up to the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble; and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was CHRISTIAN glad and lightsome, and said, with a merry heart, "He hath given me rest by his sorrow, And life by his death." Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him, that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.
"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." Zechariah 12:10
Now, as he stood looking and weeping, behold three shining ones came to him, and saluted him with, "Peace be to thee!" so the first said to him, "Thy sins be forgiven thee"; "When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." Mark 2:5 the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment; "And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." Zechariah 3:4 the third also set a mark in his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" Ephesians 1:13 which he bade him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the Celestial Gate: so they went their way.
Then CHRISTIAN gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing: Thus far did I come laden with my sin, Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in, Till I came hither. What a place is this! Must here be the beginning of my bliss! Must here the burden fall from off my back! Must here the strings that bound it to me crack! Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be The Man that there was put to shame for me"
In Christ, Brown
https://youtu.be/H5-yTzY1dn4