Brown's Daily Word 5/6/16

Praise the Lord.  It is Friday and Sunday is coming.  In America the Beautiful we will celebrate " Mother's Day" this coming Sunday.  Praise the Lord for moms around the corner and around the globe.  Praise the Lord for Christian moms who are committed to raising and nurturing their children in Jesus Christ and for His glory and for His Kingdom.  Many moms live lives of great sacrifice, devotion, and dedication so that their children may come to know Jesus Christ and trust Him as their Lord and Savior and live in this world as " A Breed Apart", as Ambassadors for Christ.  I praise the Lord for my mom, from whom I heard the Name of Jesus at the age of 3.  Jesus has made all the difference in my life all these years.  I praise the Lord for my wife, who has been a wonderful mom to our four daughters, who love the Lord and serve Him.  I praise the Lord for all the moms who have been a source of perpetual blessings of Jesus in my life all these years.  May Jesus increase the tribes and the company of moms who love Jesus and are committed in training up their children in the way that leads to life Eternal.  May He include them in the "great Cloud of witnesses'.

    The Lord blessed us with a sweet time with the young students at Release Time yesterday.  We are getting ready for worship and celebration this coming Sunday. We will gather for Sunday School at 10 AM and for worship at 11:00 AM.

     Last evening I attended calling hours for a young woman who died unexpectedly.  She was in her late twenties, a distinguished graduate of Cornell University.  She loved the Lord.  She loved life and she loved people.  She was driven and committed in making a difference in the lives of others.  She was involved in ongoing ministry in her local Church.  She was an accomplished trumpeter and a musician.  She was an avid world traveler.  The calling hours were held in city a little over one hour drive from us.  When I arrived at the Funeral home the place was already packed with literally hundreds of people - family, friends, colleagues, college mates.  We are reminded how life is precious and at the same time it is precarious and very fragile. This young woman had touched so many lives and had made difference.  There was a great sense overwhelming loss and an air of massive grief. 

    As I was driving back on Interstate 81 criss-crossing the city of Syracuse, I gazed the western skies that were dazzling with the setting sun.  It was one of most breathtaking and heartwarming sunsets.  I resisted the temptation of stopping at the Interstate and keep on gazing at the sunset.  I praise the Lord who is Resurrection and life .  He makes all sunsets beautiful and makes all sunrises all over the world most glorious.  Indeed, "Beyond the sunset, oh blissful morning".

 

    In light of Mother's Day this coming Sunday I am  looking at a   living Faith of a mom, whose name we do not know.  The Bible, however, records about her persistent faith.  According to Scripture, most of the people who received healing from Jesus were Israelites.  Jesus did indeed heal many people of several different maladies: blindness, deafness, paralysis, muteness, as well as casting out demons.  Yet, there was at least one occasion when Jesus ministered to a foreign woman, a Gentile from another country.  This account, recorded in Mark 7:24-30, speaks of a daughter who had an unclean spirit.  The mother heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.  But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast [it] unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed."

    Verse 25 tells us that the woman made one of the most sincere requests for help that we'll read in the gospels.  The devil, the enemy of our souls, was after youth of that day, as well.  According to the gospels, when the parents discovered the demon possession and oppression, they did something about it.  They got the children to Jesus and asked Him to heal their children!

    Another touching thing is this woman didn't just ask once.  We have the record that she came and fell at His feet (verse 25).  According to Dr. A. T. Robertson, she asked repeatedly.  Some remarkable things included the fact that the woman was not Jewish, but was Greek, a Gentile.  She was about as far away from the blessings, hopes and promises for Israel as she could be; but she knew one thing: She believed Jesus could heal her daughter, and she wanted to get that healing. We see the woman's persistent faith.  Jesus said it wasn't right to give table food to the dogs but He never called her a dog.  He was using a figure of speech.  The woman could have stopped or quit at any time, but she didn't.  She replied in the same spirit with a bit of humor and good grace: "True, Lord, but even the puppies get the crumbs falling from the table!"  So Jesus granted her request.  Matthew adds that the woman's daughter was made whole from that very hour (Matt. 15:28). The lesson we can learn from this woman is that Jesus will listen to anyone who calls upon Him.  The answers may not be as miraculous as in this case, but we can trust Him to provide answers He knows are best.  Praise the Lord for the Persistent faith of Moms.

In Christ,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/0fPDFa8-Hjc

Brown's Daily Word 5/5/16

Praise the Lord for this new day full of His promises and surrounded with His fresh grace.  Praise the Lord for the rest and the renewing peace that He lavishes upon us.  He blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday gathering of fellowship and study.  

    I spoke to a mentors and dear friend who is in India yesterday.  We have known each other since 1966. He was one of the servants of the Lord whom the Lord used in leading to full time   ministry of our Lord Jesus.  He is the retired Bishop and is still active in the preaching ministry.  He has visited us here in New York several times.  He has gone to visit the village where I was born.  He was one of the preachers at the summer camp meeting where thousands attended for a few days, that was held on the premises of the Middle School where I attended in the nineteen fifties.  He has gone to stay in the village, in the house where I was born.  He is spending a couple days for some R&R. 

    The house was burned multiple times and almost destroyed during the persecution of Christians in 2008.  The original house was built by my grandfather who was the first Christian in my village and who was baptized in 1921.  The village is situated almost 7000 feet above the sea level, which causes it to be cooler in the blistering summer season.  There is a mega coffee plantation just about a mile away from the house where I was born.  The village is surrounded by  big mountains where, in the past, tigers, wild buffaloes, wild elephants, wild boars, antelopes, and other big and small game roamed.  The wild mountain terrain  is  studded with mango groves and other tropical fruit trees.  The coffee plantation also is locus for growing of bay leaves, black pepper and manner of spices.  The area is fertile ground for raising cash crops like lentils, ginger, turmeric roots, bananas, papayas, guavas, jack fruit, and varieties of wild but edible fruit.  The region is filled with a touch heavenly bliss and divine kiss.

    Just recently I read the story of Jimmy Wayne.  Jimmy Wayne never knew his father.  His mom spent more time in prison than out.  When Jimmy was twelve years old, his mother was released from jail and took up with a troublemaker.  They loaded Jimmy into the backseat of the Olds Delta 88, and for a year the car was his home.  “It had bench seats and smelled like body odor,” remembers Jimmy.  They drove from city to city, avoiding the police.

    After miles of drifting they dumped Jimmy in the parking lot of a Pensacola, Florida bus station and drove off.  He was thirteen years old.  He had no home, no future, no provision.  One day while wandering through a neighborhood, he spotted an older man who was at work in a garage wood shop.  He approached the elderly gentleman and asked if the man had any work that he could do.  The carpenter sized up the boy, assessed him to be homeless, and decided to give him a chance.  The man introduced himself as Russell.  He called for his wife, Bea, to come to the garage.  They showed Jimmy the lawn mower and how to operate it. For several weeks Jimmy cut the couple’s grass and survived on the twenty dollars they paid him each week.

    After some time, Bea asked Jimmy where he lived.  At first he lied, afraid she wouldn’t let a homeless boy work.  But finally she convinced him to tell her the truth.  When he did, the couple took him in.  They gave him his own bedroom, bathroom, and place at the dinner table.  The home was like heaven to Jimmy.  He took hot baths and ate hot meals.  He even sat with the family in the living room and watched television in the evening.  Still, in spite of their kindness, Jimmy refused to unpack his bag.  He’d been turned away so many times that he’d learned to be wary.  For four days his plastic bag sat on the floor, full of clothes, ready to be snatched up when Bea and Russell changed their minds.

    During this time Jimmy was in the house but not in the house.  He was under the roof but not under the promise.  He was with the family but didn’t behave like a family member.  Russell eventually convinced Jimmy to unpack and move in.  It took several days, a dozen or so meals, and more than one heart-to-heart conversation, but Russell finally persuaded Jimmy to trust them to care for him.

    We can compare and contrast this story with the reality of our Lving Father revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is still working to convince us.  The moment we put our trust in Jesus and believe in the Good News of Jesus Chrsit, we are transported into His Family.  We pass from death to life.  We are redeemed and our position and staus in life are changed forever.  It is not based on our work and accomplishments, but solely on the finished work of Jesus at the Cross.  At times we question our place in God’s family.  We fear his impending rejection.  We wrestle with doubt-laced questions.  "Am I really in God’s family? What if God changes his mind?  What if He reverses his acceptance?"  The Lord knows He has reason to do so.  We press forward only to fall back.  We renew our resolve only to stumble again.

    We wonder, "Will God turn me out?"  Boyfriends do.  Employers do.  Coaches kick players off the team.  Teachers expel students from class.  Parents give birth to children and abandon them at bus stations.  How do we know God won’t do the same?  What if he changes his mind about us?  After all, He is holy and pure, and we are anything but.  Is it safe to unpack our bags?

    God answered this question at the cross.  When Jesus died, the heavenly vote was forever cast in your favor and mine.  He declared for all to hear, “This child is my child.  My covenant will never change.”   Promised Land people believe this. They trust God’s hold on them more than their hold on God.  They place their trust in the finished work of Christ.  They deeply believe that they are “delivered…from the power of darkness and conveyed…into the kingdom of the Son” (Col. 1:13). They know that Jesus was serious when he said, “[My children] shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28, NIV).  They point to Calvary as irrefutable evidence of God’s commitment to them.  We are blessed.  We are redeemed.  We are safe and secure in His Arms in His promises.  Now we are propelled to live our lives,  in serving Him, loving Him and being deployed in His Kingdom for His kingdom purposes.  Blessed be  His Name.

In Christ, our Eternal home.

    Brown

https://youtu.be/fESUxpI2FWk

Brown's Daily Word 5/4/16

    Praise the Lord for this wonderful Wednesday morning.  We will gather for our Wednesday Evening fellowship and study at 6:00 PM.  There will be special time of sharing the evening meal that has been prepared with much love followed by Bible study.  They have been forecasting that it will be getting much warmer in a few days in our region.  Rejoice and be glad.

    I recently read of a couple who retired in 1980.  They were alarmed by the threat of nuclear war, so they undertook a serious study of all the countries of the world which would be least likely to experience war.  They wanted to be sure they spent their last years in peace and security.  They studied and traveled all over the world, talking to people and garnering as much information as they could.  Finally they found the place which seemed the most out of the way spot where they could live in peace.  The Christmas of 1981, they sent their pastor a card from their new home — in the Falkland Islands.  As you may know, these small islands off the coast of Argentina, which seemed like paradise, were turned into a war zone early in 1982. Argentina’s then military government decided to invade the islands and were defeated by Great Britain in the conflict now recorded in history books as the Falkland War.  The war lasted 72 days and claimed nearly 1000 casualties.  So much for the couple finding peace in the Falkland Islands. 

    Where is peace?  One thing is for sure is that peace is not in the places where we think it is.  Isaiah prophesied, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).  On the first Christmas day, “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests’” (Luke 2:13-14).  What did it all mean?  Such a commotion was made over such a small child born in an obscure village to humble parents.  Such a powerful promise had been given about one who appeared so powerless.  He would never sit on a throne or lead an army.  He did not begin a bureaucracy or leave behind an impressive and well-organized group of followers.  In fact, history knows very little about the lives of most of his apostles.  To the dismay of many, he did not advocate the overthrow of the government which held Israel in captivity.  He came bringing peace of another kind and another dimension.  He said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). 

    In a culture which is trying to medicate it’s way to peace, the message of Jesus has never been more relevant, but the peace Christ gives does not come in the ways that we might think.  It comes in unexpected ways — ways that for many seem weak and unacceptable.  We  may continue to have conflict on the outside, over which we  do not have control, but peace will come to us in and through Him who is the Prince of Peace.. 

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/0nJ6wQpLmuo

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Brown's Daily Word 5/3/16

Praise the Lord for this new day.  I spoke to a couple of my High School classmates , yesterday, who are back in Orissa, India.  We graduated from High School in 1964.  Some of my very close friends and High School class mates have gone to be with Jesus our Lord.  All my High School  classmates have retired having served faithfully in their respective places of vocation.  This is summertime in Orissa India.  This is also the season for Christian Camp meetings where thousands of people gather for a few days of celebration, fellowship, worship, and witness.  A camp meeting is in progress this week,  on the premises where I attended Middle School in the late fifties.  I was invited to be  one of the speakers in May of 2014.  That Camp meeting was held in the very same place where I attended Middle School.   Praise the Lord for Christ and His Church around the corner and the globe.  

    The General Conference of our United Methodist Church,  will meet from the May 10 - 20 in Portland, Oregon.  The General Conference meets once every for years during the same year as the US presidential election.

    Just recently I read the inspiring story of Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, who  was a lesbian with lesbian partner promoting lesbian life style.  She was a most vocal advocate for the lesbian lifestyle.  Jesus, the " Hound of Heaven", met her on her way to self destruction.  She discovered new life in Jesus and was born anew from on high.  She left her lesbian partner and is married to a Presbyterian minister with whom she has children and lives in NC.  In her book The Secret Thoughts of An Unlikely Convert, Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, who was a  tenured English professor at Syracuse University, talks about the radical and unlikely conversion she experienced in the late 1990s.  Rosaria Butterfield is a bona fide scholar.  She considered herself a leftist professor, one who literally choked on the name of Jesus.  Stupid, pointless and menacing are words that describe her thoughts of Christians and their God, Jesus.

    With a major publication, she reached what many in her profession prize: tenure. She described her life as happy, meaningful, and full.  With tenure in hand, she started researching the Christian community, what its adherents believe, and its perceived hatred of people such as herself.  To do this, she would need to read the one book that (by her estimation) put so many people off track.  She read the Bible. In her own words, she "read the Bible the way a glutton devours food."  That year, she read it through—cover to cover—multiple times from varying translations. Then it started to happen.  Her lesbian partner and other dear friends began to say her reading of the Bible was changing her.  Butterfield’s reply was striking, “What if this is true?  What if Jesus is a real and risen Lord?  What if we are all in trouble?”

    Some months later, she found herself sitting in the Syracuse Presbyterian Church.  Conspicuously, she sat in the back as an outsider.  Sitting in the church, she reminded herself that she came to meet God and not to fit in socially.  That morning, looking past the stares of parishioners, she fought the idea that she was lost.  Everybody she loved, including her partner was lost.  She fought those images with all her might.  She did not want to be lost.  She did not want an eternity of pain and suffering after death.

    In that moment, she recounts that the promises of God rushed in as waves on the shore of her heart.  She was prompted to trust Christ for salvation and reclaim her true identity.  Although weak at first, her confession of faith has grown into one of the most intriguing and unlikely testimonies of conversion heard in America today.

    Her story may not be your story, and your story may not be my story.  Butterfield reminds us that heaven has no tough cases, only trophies of grace.  Praise the Lord Jesus who is Risen and who is in the world today.  He is in the business of changing and transformimg lives 24/7.  Let us come to Jesus and live.

    We can face uncertain days with the certainty that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.  We can repeat with Paul that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.  We can sing with the psalmist, "surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life".  We can be confident that "my God shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus".

In Jesus ,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/UcfhsoanF48

Brown's Daily Word 5/2/16

 Praise the Lord for the month of May.  Our second daughter, Sunita, was born on the First of May.  We praise the Lord for her life, for her faith, and for her passion for Jesus our Lord and His Kingdom.  The Lord blessed us with a wonderful visit to the beautiful city of Boston this past week.  In Boston our grandchildren Micah, Simeon, and Ada live along with their parents.  It is always a treat and a blessing to spend time with our grandchildren.  We walked, we talked, we played, we read books, and we celebrated the simple gifts of the Lord.  I had my doctor's appointment in Boston on Friday, and I had a very good report from the doctor. Praise the Lord for His tender mercies and His great power.  Thank you for praying for me.  We drove back to New York this past Saturday with grateful hearts and  jubilant spirits.  The Lord blessed us in His House yesterday with His abundance and grace.  There was a church wide fellowship hour following the  morning worship.  It was all blessing.

    One of the readings for yesterday was taken from Revelation 22: 1-5.  This chapter of Revelation - the last chapter of the last book of the Bible - deals with restoration, with making all things new.  It speaks of the New Jerusalem.

    A powerful portrayal of the fall of mankind comes from John Milton’s epic poem, "Paradise Lost".  During my undergraduate studies I studied John Milton's "Paradise Lost " and also "Paradise Regained".  The theme of "Paradise Lost", comes from the Book of Genesis: God placed  Adam and Eve in the paradise known as the Garden of Eden.  They had beauty and bounty all around them, and God’s presence was always with them.  They experienced ultimate peace and prosperity.  They had a perfect life!  He warned them that if they ate the forbidden fruit, they would surely die, but they did it anyway.  From that time on, humanity has been cursed with toil and pain, conflict and blame, and disease and death. Indeed, Paradise was lost!

    This is the cursed world that we continue to live in today.  Our bodies wear out . We feel the pain of injuries and illnesses.  We bear the burden of broken promises, unfulfilled expectations, shattered dreams, tattered friendships, and tormented societies.  The Lord God, the Lord of Creation and Redemption, devised an amazing plan for the redemption of man.  The Book of Revelation concludes with the most glorious Good News.   In Revelation 22 we see the depiction of Paradise being regained.  Thankfully, the Bible ends in the same place it begins: Paradise. Genesis tells us about the original Paradise that was lost; Revelation tells us about the new Paradise that will be regained.  In Revelation 22:1-5, the Lord  shows us the vision of heaven, which is pictured as a completely restored Garden of Eden.  These five verses give us a glimpse of paradise regained.  The Lord gives us a glimpse of the River of Life in the New Heaven.

    We see “the river of the water of life” which, no doubt, bubbles up from the “spring of the water of life” (Rev. 1:6) and is flowing from the throne of God.  In the original Eden a river flowed through and watered the garden, and in Revelation we see that a life giving river nourishes heaven.  Ezekiel (47:1-12) prophesied about a river flowing from the temple of the restored earthly Jerusalem down to the Dead Sea and bringing abundant life to the most barren place in the world.  This crystal clear river flowing from God’s throne is a symbolic image of eternal and abundant life that Jesus gives in heaven.  This image represents abundance, satisfaction, and fulfillment.  All physical and spiritual thirst is quenched in paradise regained!

    As John watched the river flow down the middle of the main thoroughfare of the city he noticed the Tree of Life growing on both sides of the river. The  tree of life in the original Garden of Eden has now become multiple trees of life in heaven, symbolizing an abundance of food for eternity.  Normally, fruit only appears in its proper season, but in heaven there will be no seasons—abundant fruit will be available at all times.  Just as the river symbolizes the quenching of physical and spiritual thirst, the trees of life symbolize the satisfying of all physical and spiritual hunger.  Heaven is a place of abundance, satisfaction, and fulfillment.

    Clearly the Bible doesn't tell us which variety of fruits will be produced, but I have to imagine that mangoes will be among them.  Not only do the trees of life provide an abundance of food, but their leaves also provide healing for the nations.  This symbolizes the physical and spiritual healing that has already taken place in Heaven.  There is no sickness, disease, conflicts, or broken relationships in Heaven.

    The Garden of Eden had been the place where the curse first entered; but the curse is reversed in the New Heaven and New Earth.  There will be no more sin, no more toil, no more pain!

    Another blessing of paradise regained is that our relationship with God will be completely restored.  In the original Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with God.  His physical presence was with them all the time.  In Revelation 22 we see the throne of God and the Lamb established in the new garden.  The fullness of God’s presence will be with us again and we will be able to fulfill the original intention of our creation: to worship, serve, and enjoy him forever.

    We will be able to see God’s face in Paradise regained because we will have a right relationship with Him.  God’s mark on our foreheads is a metaphor for God’s ownership, status, and protection.  We are marked as his people and enjoy all of his benefits.  "No more night" pictures the complete end of all of the darkness that was caused by sin and evil.  There is no need for a lamp or the sun in heaven because God’s glory radiates from his presence.

    We all experience the pain of living in paradise lost, but through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; God offers us the hope of living in paradise regained. Just as the Bible ends in the same place it begins, In the words John Milton. from , Paradise Regained:

    Wandring the Wilderness, whatever place,
    Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing
    The Son of God, with Godlike force indu’d
    Against th’ Attempter of thy Fathers Throne,

    And Thief of Paradise; him long of old
    Thou didst rebel, and down from Heav’n cast
    With all his Army, now thou hast aveng’d
    Supplanted Adam, and by vanquishing

    Temptation, hast regain’d lost Paradise,
    And frustrated the conquest fraudulent:
    He never more henceforth will dare set foot
    In Paradise to tempt; his snares are broke:

    For though that seat of earthly bliss be fail’d,
    A fairer Paradise is founded now
    For Adam and his chosen Sons, whom thou
    A Saviour art come down to re-install.

    Lee Elcov says, “We focus on heaven not as a respite from real life, but to gain strength for real life.”

    In C. S. Lewis’ wonderful books "The Chronicles of Narnia", the characters who have lived in Narnia have completed their time and work there.  In a closing chapter entitled “Further Up and Further In,” Aslan, the lion who represents Christ, has come for them in order to take them home.  They are headed away from Narnia and are about to enter Aslan’s country, but they are met with familiar scenes.  One of the characters cries out: “I have come home at last!  This is my real country!  I belong here.  This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now."

In Christ,

 Brown.

 https://youtu.be/-e0EHs4zFNI