Brown's Daily Word 5/28/15

Praise the Lord for this new day. I have not written my blog for the last few days. I  have been attending our Annual Conference that is being held in Syracuse , the home of the Syracuse University, which is the home of the orange. Syracuse University was founded by the Methodist Church over 140 years ago. In the center of the beautiful campus is Hendicks chapel, built during the great depression.
  Billy Graham conducted one of his historic crusades in the Carrier Dome, that athletic complex on the university campus, and Promise Keepers also held a men's gathering at the Carrier Dome a few years ago. Over 22.000 students attend Syracuse University. During the conference the President of the University spoke to the conference attendees about the role of the church in Higher Education. He recalled how all the Ivy League Universities such as Princeton, Harvard, and Yale were founded by the church.
  Over 1000 delegates attend Annual Conference of the Upper New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist ChurchThis conference is chaired by our beloved bishop Mark Webb. Bishop Webb loves the Lord and loves the church. He leads the conference session with grace and truth and with a sense of humor and best of all with deep sense of prayer and the trust in the Lord. We are able to get together with our colleagues who are serving throughout the State of New York.
 All of my contemporaries have retired. It was good to see them and get some advice on living in retirement. It is all good. I met two young clergy who are struggling in the ministry. The Christian life is an invitation to undisturbed joy. Simultaneously, it is also facing unending battles brought to us by the enemy.
 In John 15 and 16 our Lord spoke of about His fullness of Joy that is ours. He also declared that in this world we will have tribulations. . . but, He declared, "be of good cheer for I have overcome the world".
  Kay Warren is the wife of Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California and the author of the mega-bestseller The Purpose Driven Life. Rick and Kay were put in the spotlight in a very sad way recently when their 27-year-old son Matthew committed suicide after struggling for years with mental illness.
 In July Kay made some personal reflections on what would have been Matthew’s 29th birthday. Here is part of what she wrote: On July 18, 1985, I gave birth to our beloved gift of God, Matthew David Warren. Holding him in my arms that morning, I had no idea how dark the journey would get for him - and for those who love him. All I knew that bright morning was that I was madly in love with him, and could see nothing ahead but a mother's dreams of a good life for her son.
I remember Easter 1985 - I was sick in bed, unable to go to church. Rick took the kids to church and I stayed by myself for a few hours - the TV remote by my side as my only companion. Somehow I dropped the remote and couldn't retrieve it - so there I was, alone on one of the most joyous holidays, with not even a TV preacher to keep me company, full of anxiety and fear for myself and my unborn child. I painfully reached for my Bible and it fell open to Habakkuk 3: 17-19 (NIV): "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to go on the heights." This was a word from the Lord to me - and I determined that even IF my worst nightmares came true - if my baby died, or I never walked again - that I would trust in God my Savior; I would rejoice in in the Sovereign Lord.
Matthew David Warren was born and everything seemed fine. But by his first birthday, we began to wonder. And by his second and third birthdays, we knew he wasn't like his older sister and brother. . . . When he took his life last year - after battling and fighting so hard for decades - a friend sent me Habakkuk 3:17-19 in a sympathy card. She had no idea this passage was incredibly significant to me, but it was a fitting "bookend" to his life. Because I had feared for years that he would take his life....it became his greatest pursuit and my deepest anguish.....I had to come to the point in which I said as I had 27 years before - "EVEN IF my worst nightmare comes true and he takes his life, I WILL rejoice in the Lord; I will be joyful in God my Savior."
So today - his 29th birthday - through weeping - I shout it to the watching universe: I will rejoice in Lord; I will be joyful in God my Savior. My heart remains wounded and battered, but my faith is steady. There is, and will be, as Steven Curtis Chapman says, a "glorious unfolding" of all that God has in store for me and my family. God is faithful to his promises of rebuilding and restoring the ruins - and I am confident that I will yet be a witness to many, many, many lives healed and hope restored - all because of my beloved gift of God, Matthew David Warren.
I miss you, darling boy.....but it will just be for a little while. Could we say, “Yes, Lord,” when the dearest thing in life was taken from us? Could we still say, "Yes, Lord"? Sometimes the fig tree does not bud. Sometimes there are no grapes on the vine. Sometimes the olive crop fails. Sometimes the fields produce no food. Sometimes there are no sheep in the pen. Sometimes there are no cattle in the stalls. Habakkuk said, "I will wait patiently" and "I will rejoice." He found new strength in the midst of desolation.
     We dare to believe. We dare to walk by faith. We dare to press on looking unto Jesus the Author and the finisher of our faith.
One of the verses in the Book of Habakkuk is often overlooked: “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights”. The phrase “my feet” speaks of our journey through life. If you have ever traveled to the Holy Land, then you probably saw deer scampering on the barren hills near the west side of the Dead Sea. The deer are sure-footed where the rest of us would slip and slide and eventually fall. When we know the Lord, when keep on holding on to Him, He will give us stability in the slippery moments of life. He does and He will give us grace to stand when otherwise we would fall apart. It reminds me of Ephesians 6:13 which says that when we put on the armor of God and “having done all,” we will stand safe and secure when the battle is over. Victory in Jesus.  In His Victory.
In Him . Brown
  https://youtu.be/cH_LLGiE0f0