Praise the Lord for the month of June.
I spent a few days in Syracuse attending the Annual Conference of our
church. It is refreshing to get reconnected with my colleagues in the
ministry from years past and reminisce about bygone days and the constant faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus, the Lord of the church. It is a great experience to
worship the Lord with thousands others along with praise teams, full
drums, guitars, and all the words and the message displayed colorfully on the
megatrons.
It
was a wonderful day Saturday, sunny and spectacular. Alice and I
drove around the countryside of some of the surrounding counties of
New York, the Empire State. We stopped by a local farm store where we
purchased vegetable seeds and plants. Then we kept on driving
through the hills and valleys and by the endless farms and pastures. It
is panoramic and soul stirring. We passed by a seamless strand of
wildflowers which included fruit vines and trees. It was
colorful, fragrant, and unimaginable. I was reminded of the poem by
William Wordsworth that I read during my High School days:
"The waves beside them danced, but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: --
A poet could not but be gay
In such a laughing company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the Daffodils."
We drove by some local campgrounds jammed with humongous motor homes and campers, and drove past one of the largest dairy farms in the county, which was almost all automatic with milking parlors. It was a sight to behold. Part of the evening we planted some vegetable seeds and plants, examining some of the seeds planted earlier on Memorial Day, and found that the radishes were already germinating. Miracles all around.
The Lord Blessed us in His house yesterday with His presence and His grace.
As the sports world is reflecting upon the life of Mohammad Ali, who died this weekend, I read a fascinating account on the fight between George Foreman and Ali. It took place in the year I came to America the Beautiful. On October 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman squared off in the boxing ring in Zaire. Ali had dubbed it “The Rumble in the Jungle.” Foreman was heavily favored, and considered the hardest puncher in heavyweight division in history. Ali did something in that fight that no other fighter had ever dared to try. He held up his arms against his face and leaned back against the ropes allowing Foreman to punch away at him for eight rounds. The strongest boxer in history beat on Ali until he could punch no more. When the right moment came, Ali bounced off the ropes and knocked out Foremen, sending him into retirement. Ali called his technique “rope-a-dope.” Even though it looked like he was losing the fight, and losing badly, he was in control the whole time. He took all those punches because he knew he would deliver the final blow.
God is using the “rope-a-dope” technique on the world of evil. Just when the devil and the antichrist amass all their armies, and have spent themselves fighting the Lord and his people, just when it looks as though the kingdom of God is on the ropes, God will deliver the final blow. Just when it looks like evil will win, God steps in. Just when it looks as though evil will have the final word, God will destroy it with his final word. The Bible says, “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8).
We usually think of the imagery of a small, young lamb to be harmless. But let us read in the Word of God, in the Book of Revelation,to what happens when the Lamb opens the fifth seal: “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Revelation 6:15-17). The Lamb of God will conquer all the powers of the earth. They will prefer death to facing the lamb. And when that happens, God will share his kingdom with us. Not only does God ask us to share in his weakness, but he will also ask us to share in his strength, for the Bible says, “They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings — and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers” (Revelation 17:14).
The struggle is worth it. The battle may be long and it may be weary. It may appear that we are losing, but let us keep leaning on God, and while this may appear to others to be weakness, it is our strength. We will triumph in the end. Paul said, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word” (2 Thessalonians 2)
In Christ,
Brown
https://youtu.be/ngSsaSimi8A
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