Brown's Daily Word 4/16/15

Praise the Lord this new day.  It is going to be brilliant . . . sunny and stunning.  Some friends in India are posting the pictures of the mango trees which are loaded with green mangoes.  We were in Orissa last year at this time  participating in the Centennial celebrations and other annual Christian camp meetings.  It is almost summer in Orissa, India.  Praise the Lord.  I preached in two churches, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, last Easter in Orissa, India.  Praise the Lord for the Church  around the corner and around the globe. 

 

    The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday Evening.  There was food galore with lots of desserts.  The Lord always prepares a banqueting table before us.  The study and sharing were sweet.  One of the men shared that his dad had gone to the doctor.  They had done the biopsy which showed that he had cancer. He was scheduled for surgery yesterday.  He went in.  The doctor checked him again before the surgery.  The cancer was gone.  The man came leaping and jumping and praising the Lord.  This is the power of the risen Lord.  

 

    We all go through life with skepticism and doubts.  We looked last evening at a passage about who had some skepticism and doubts.  On that first Easter evening, Jesus showed up among the disciples, but Thomas was missing.  When he returned, they told him the good news—Jesus was alive—but Thomas was a skeptic.  He said, "Yeah, right!  I won't believe that story until I can place my fingers in the nail prints in His hands."  A week later Jesus showed up, and this time revealed himself to Thomas.

    One of my favorite paintings is the scene of Thomas and Jesus, as done by Caravaggio.  It's as if Jesus was pulling Thomas' arm toward the gaping wound in His side, but we know what happened because the Bible tells us.  "A week later His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!' Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side.  Stop doubting and believe.'  Thomas said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!'" (John 20:26-28).

 

    There was Easter sorrow followed by Easter seeking that led to Easter surrender.  Here's an  Easter question: Do we know for certain you will go to heaven when you die?  Most people believe if you are good enough that you can earn your way to heaven.  Recently, The New York Times interviewed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  He was talking about all the work he has done for gun control and to battle obesity.  Then he said, "I am telling you, if there is a God, when I get to heaven, I'm not stopping to be interviewed.  I am heading straight in.  I have earned my place in heaven.  It's not even close."

    I cringed when I read those words because one of Satan's most popular lies is that you can be good enough to earn your way into heaven.  There is only one way to heaven, and that is when we fall before Jesus and confess Him as your living Lord.  The Bible says, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).  The resurrection isn't just a miracle.  It is the sign verifying that Jesus is really who He claimed to be.

    I recently read about  a Muslim who had become a Christian.  He shared his testimony, "I was looking at the lives of Mohammed and Jesus.  Then I came to a fork in the road.  One led to death and a tomb in Medina.  The other led to an empty tomb and a resurrection.  I decided to follow the living way."  Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you…I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2-4).  The choice is simple.  Choose the living way.

    A few years ago, some missionaries in Bangladesh were showing the Jesus Film to several hundred villagers.  The villagers did not know the story of Jesus.  They sat there enthralled with the life of Jesus, but as the torture and crucifixion of Jesus ensued, there were tears, gasps and people yelling in response to the treatment Jesus was suffering.  There was chaos among the crowd as Jesus was being tortured.  Suddenly, a young man jumped up and screamed, "Do not be afraid.  He gets up again!  I saw it before!"

    That's our Easter message: "I've seen the Lord! He gets up again! Do not be afraid!".  People do come back and get up after they die.  That's why we can sing, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.  Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds my future.  And life is worth the living just because He lives!"

In Him,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/4M-zwE33zHA

Brown's Daily Word 4/15/15

Praise the Lord for this wonderful Wednesday. The Lord Jesus of eternal Spring ushers in the Spring season once again with full splendor and majesty. Alice and I walked last evening by the banks of one of the rivers nearby. We saw the river over flooded above the banks and flowing with great ferocity and grace. We saw children running around and taking the pictures of the geese in the ponds. Many water fowl were performing their evening dance in the water. Our Lord makes all things glorious. We will be meeting for our Wednesday evening Study and fellowship at 6:00 PM followed by choir practice at 7:30. It is going to be a glorious day.
In the gospel according to John we read about the four appearances of the risen Lord. It is the beloved disciple John to whom the Lord has given revelation of the last days. One of the most striking features of John's gospel is the presence of what are known as the "I AM sayings" of Jesus. In the gospel of John, Jesus defines himself with such famous statements as: "I am the Bread of Life . . . I am the Light of the World . . . I am the Resurrection and the Life . . . I am the Way, the Truth and the Life . . . I am the True Vine . . . " In John 10 we find two of the I AM sayings. In this chapter, Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd . . . "and "I am the gate of the sheep . . . "
The famous novelist Frederick Forsythe has told a story about Christmas Eve 1957, when a young Royal Air Force pilot was stationed at a base in Germany. As Christmas approached, he yearned to visit home, but his hopes were dashed when his commanding officer told him that he had to stand duty on Christmas day. He resigned himself to the prospect of a lonely holiday, when suddenly, late on Christmas Eve, the word came that he was released from duty and could fly home to England.
At ten o'clock on Christmas Eve, the young aviator climbed into the cockpit of his single-seater Vampire fighter jet and took off under a moonless sky for the 400-mile flight home to Kent, England. But just ten minutes out over the North Sea, there was a short in the jet's electrical system, causing his instrument panel to go dark, and both the compass and the standby compass failed. Fighting a rising sense of panic, the pilot realized he only had 80 minutes worth of fuel for the flight home. Recalling what he was taught to do in such an emergency, he descended to a lower altitude, slowed his airspeed, and flew in an emergency triangular pattern in order to be picked up on radar. He wondered: Will anyone see me? Will help come in time? He began to pray: "O heavenly Father, lead me home . . . "
Suddenly, from out of nowhere there appeared beneath him a dark object — a plane dipped its wing as a signal for him to follow. This plane led the young aviator to a landing field with a lighted runway. As he got into his landing pattern, the plane disappeared into the night. In aviation parlance, such a plane is known as a shepherd. As he touched down, the young pilot breathed a prayer of thanks for that unknown shepherd who found and led him home.
We live in a dark and dangerous world. In John 10, Jesus speaks of robbers, thieves and wolves. In modern times, we can add terrorists to the list of dangers. In John 10 we are told that a shepherd is watching over us. Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd." I used to think that the phrase "good shepherd" meant a nice, kind-hearted shepherd. However, translated precisely, Jesus is saying, "I am the excellent shepherd." "No wolf ever laid a paw on one of my sheep. I am the good shepherd."
 God knows our needs. When we need to be out in green pastures, he answers that need. When Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd" he means, "I know my sheep completely — their diseases, their fears, their dreams and joys." We are safe in His care.
In Him.
Brown
https://youtu.be/ZIUCRXMM4pE

Brown's Daily Word 4/14/15

Praise the Lord for this Easter season. Alice And I spent some time with our grandchildren and their parents in Boston last week. The record-breaking snow has all melted. The Spring flowers and foliage are beginning to burst forth in the beautiful city of Boston. Our oldest granddaughter, Micah, is learning to play the fiddle. She played the hymn "Amazing Grace" for us. It was beautiful and sweet. Simeon is doing well in school. We were able to meet some of his teachers and friends. Simeon is mechanically wired. He is always busy making things. Ada, who is 4, loves to go to the Museum of Fine Arts to look at some of the pieces of artwork. She is very good at putting puzzles together ... 100 piece ones and more.
 Over the weekend I also went with one of my nieces, Sharon, to an open hose at the University at Albany where she has been accepted to study this coming fall.
 The Lord blessed with an amazing day yesterday. The temperature reached almost to 80 in our region yesterday. It was sunny and brilliant. The spring flowers have started blooming. Crocuses are in full bloom. The bees were fast and furious in collecting pollen for honey. The sights and sounds were so were sweet. I made a mega chicken barbecue on an open fire, burning all cherry wood. The chicken came almost perfect. Praise the Lord when He sends summer-like weather in Spring. We are the blessed recipients of all His manifold blessings.
  The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day last Sunday. I preached from John 20:19ff. In the midst of celebration and jubilation, in the midist of great joy and wonder, doubt is also at the core of the Easter event. “Some believed but others doubted.” So ends of the Gospel of Matthew on that note of doubt. On the one hand, we experience the grandest event in human history when Jesus our Lord rose from the dead. On the other, within the story of that exquisite event, we see the lurking of doubt in the shadows. The phrase "doubting Thomas" has become a common part of the English language. We find two moments in the gospels where we meet Thomas and on both occasions he was inquisitively asking questions.
 For example, one time Jesus was teaching about going to prepare a place for them, a heavenly mansion. It was Thomas who scratched his thoughtful head and asked, “Jesus, we don't know where you are going and we don't know the way.”
 The second story about Thomas is when ten disciples expressed wonder and amazement that the resurrected Christ had revealed himself to them, but Thomas didn’t go along with the others to say, “OK, that must be true. You all said so.” Instead he voiced his doubts when he said, “Unless I see him with my own eyes and touch his wounds with my own fingers, I will not believe.”
We are all at least somewhat like Thomas. We have questions, which we often express. Every Christian, at some time or other during our lives, have doubts, questions, and skepticism. That is the way that God wired us. He designed us “to ask questions, inquire, think, and sort out.” During our lifetimes, we will have many questions for God. There will be times that we are filled with questions and other times that our questions are few. There are varieties of personalities in this world, some of which have many more doubts and many more questions woven into their personality than other people have.
One particular theologian, Henry Drummond, has been helpful to me. He makes a distinction between a doubter and an unbeliever. A doubter is a person who searches for God and the godly life; the person is on a journey, a quest, a search to find God and the love of God.
 An unbeliever, however, isn’t searching for God but for the pleasures of this world. An unbeliever is searching for situations in life which will bring happiness.
 A doubter is a person who has a thousand questions for God; questions about life, love, God’s existence, purpose, the divinity of Christ and many other questions, but the unbeliever is apathetic to God and the “God question” does not really come up in his or her daily life.
A doubter is a person who struggles with God and struggles to live a godly life and struggles to find the purpose of life, but an unbeliever simply struggles to pay the bills, find a spouse, find a job, and find a house. That is all.
There are an enormous differences between an honest and questioning doubter and a secularized unbeliever who does not struggle with the “God question” and the divine dimensions of life. All Christians at some time during their life will doubt and question God, God’s existence, and God’s presence. Thomas was enormously skeptical of the news he heard about the resurrected Christ and he voiced his skepticism. At the close of the story, Thomas fell on his knees and said, “Christ, you are my Lord and God.” Jesus said, “Thomas, stop doubting and believe.”
 There is a time in all of our lives where God says to us, “It is time to stop doubting. It is time to move past your doubting. It is time to believe and experience the power of the Risen Lord.”
In the Book of Job, Job went on doubting, complaining and questioning God for thirty- eight chapters. God tired of Job’s doubting and said, “Be quiet Job. I am tired of your wailing and doubting. Be quiet and believe.”
Thomas, after all that questioning and doubting and skepticism, came to the time when he fell on his knees and he said. “My Lord and My God.” His were the words of a recovered skeptic. Amen. Jesus is Risen. He is Risen indeed.
In Him,
Brown
https://youtu.be/mFWQgxXM_b8