Brown's Daily Word 5/13/16

I am up early this morning.  It is 4:00 AM.  It is Friday, but Sunday is coming.  The Lord blessed us with a magnificent day yester4day.  It was sunny, brilliant, and cloudless. The temperature reached 82.  Thank you, Jesus.  The Lord blessed us with a winsome and inspiring time with the children during our weekly Release Time - the last for the year.   We praise the Lord for each one of the children, who has  come so faithfully.  They are beautiful children, eager to learn, eager to serve.  We made yesterday just a time to celebrate and party.  We served wholesome drinks along with pizza and chicken wings and took time to sing.  It was joyful and  sweet. 

    Alice and I walked  around town,  meeting people who were out in droves (maybe a little exaggerated), enjoying a summer like day in Spring.   The local high school marching band was rehearsing for the upcoming Pageant of Bands and other competitions.   I had lunch with one of my friends.   We have known each other since 1990.  He is a  USA Navy veteran and a committed servant of Jesus our Lord.  He has had a severe bout with cancer.  He went through surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.  He is was in a nursing home as part of his journey.  We had a  time of prayer.  Many people have been praying for him.  The Lord of wonders and miracles has intervened and restored this servant of His.  He is back home, fully restored.  We had great time of sharing.  "We  shared how we have overcome."  He gave a generous and sacrificial, yet most joyful, gift be used for the ministry of our Lord Jesus.  Jesus, the Lord of the Church, provides for His ministry.  His name be glorified all over the earth. 

    Laureen, Sunita, Andy, Gabe, Addie, and Asha are coming home for few days.  We are excited.  We are getting ready for Sunday, which is Pentecost Sunday.  We will meet for Sunday School at 10:00 and for worship at 11:00.  There will be a Church-wide banquet  in honor of all moms at 12:30 PM.  Our people are preparing all kinds of exotic and "bizarre" foods.  The Lord, who is Host at every meal , spreads a banqueting table before us in every season.

    I get  inspired and provoked every time I read the story of Michael Brady, who  was a stuntman for Universal Studios, specializing in skydiving.  Michael was in Benson, Arizona, preparing to parachute onto the top of a moving train.  Climbing up the ladder on the side of the train to check some rigging, Michael accidentally fell, hitting his head and dying instantly.  Michael's body was taken to the University Medical Center in Tucson, where his heart was placed inside the body of another man, Bill Wohl, who had been kept alive for the previous 159 days by a temporary artificial heart.

    Six months and one day after getting a new heart, Bill Wohl received a letter from Michael Brady's family with a picture of Michael enclosed.  Bill was surprised to find that he had the heart of a 36-year-old Hollywood stuntman.  "I looked at this picture," Bill said, "at this incredibly good-looking, super-fit, super athletic guy, and I thought, 'Are you kidding me?  That's whose heart I've got?'"  Before his heart transplant, Bill Wohl had been a Type-A, overweight, money-obsessed businessman pursuing a jet-setter lifestyle.  Today, he works part-time, spending most of his new-found energy winning speed and performance medals in swimming, cycling and track.

    Recently interviewed by a reporter in his Scottsdale condo, Bill Wohl leaned forward in his chair, glanced up at the bronze, silver and gold medals he has won, lowered his voice, and said, "Every day, all day, I thank God for Michael Brady. When I ride, when I work out…the biggest thing is to honor him."  A new heart changed him.

    On the Day Of Pentecost, when the Lord sent the Holy Spirit upon His disciples,  the Church was born.  The Holy Spirit came like blazing fire.  It came down like a  tornado.  The Holy Spirit came  and infused the disciples who were discouraged and depleted.  

    Those who have accepted Jesus and have their whole lives in His hands are His by His grace.  Jesus dwells in them.  When Jesus dwells in us His heart beats in us.  The greatest thing in our lives becomes to love Him, to Know Him, and to serve Him.

    In Matthew 28, we find the Lord Jesus and His disciples on a mountain in Galilee. Throughout Scripture, mountains were places where God revealed Himself to men and women.  In Matthew's Gospel, we learn that Jesus conquered the devil's third temptation on a mountain; that Jesus preached the greatest sermon ever preached from a mountain; that the Lord lingered in prayer by Himself on a mountain; that He revealed His glory to Peter, James, and John on a mountain; that He unfolded the end times to His disciples on a mountain.

    It's no surprise, then, that the Lord Jesus issued the Great Commission from a mountain.  We don't know the name of this mountain, but we might call it "Heartbeat Mountain", because the Lord revealed His heart so clearly there.  It is written, "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' Amen" (Matt. 28:18-20).

 

    When His heart beats in us His Great Commission becomes a great obsession.  I love  the way some form of the word all appears four times in the words of Jesus. First: "all authority"; second: "all nations"; third: "all things"; fourth: "always." Because of this promise we are covered 24/7.  We are called to love Him, worship, Him, serve Him, and finish the race well by His grace.

In Him whose mercies are innumerable.

   Brown.

 https://youtu.be/huFra1mnIVE

Brown's Daily Word 5/12/16

This is the day the Lord has made.  His name excellent around the corner and around the globe.  He is Majestic and Mighty, and yet Merciful.  He blessed us with a summer-like day yesterday.  I spent some time at the local Civic center hanging out with neighbors and friends who gather there every day.  It was a gorgeous day. I spent part of the day strolling around the "City Centre", interacting with fellow townsfolk.  It is interesting to meet people with fascinating life stories.  It is refreshing to listen to people, hearing how the Lord of life comes into the dailiness of life in revealing the wonders of His  Grace and marvels of His Love.  The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday evening gathering for fellowship and study. 

    I love to read the stories and testimonies of the Heroes of the faith who are depicted in the Bible.  All the heroes of the faith were frail and fragile like us.  Their lives mingled with  faith and doubt, as do all of ours.  They were pilgrims like us, going forward two steps and three steps back.  Elijah was probably the most celebrated and revered of all Old Testament prophets.  He lived during a time when people were chasing after false gods, worshiping idols, and dabbling in all kinds of pagan and occult things.  God chose Elijah to be His spokesperson, His representative, His prophet to those people in those times.  Our God empowered him to call for rain to cease for three years…and then for rain to start up again simply by voicing the words.  During a famine, he touched a jar of flour, and miraculously that jar never went empty.  He touched a jug of oil, and it never ran dry.  He raised a young boy from the dead, one of the few people God used to raise someone from the dead other than Jesus.

    The climax came at a place called Mount Carmel, where Elijah went head-to-head (think the cultural climax of the day or the Super Bowl of conflict) with 50 prophets of Baal.  It was a dramatic showdown.  God gave a great victory to Elijah on Mt. Carmel.  The powers of Baal and Jezebel's prophets were trounced and annihilated completely.  It was a great day of Triumph that the Lord displayed and demonstrated.  As we would imagine, King Ahab was none too pleased as to how the day went.  His wife Jezebel wasn't either, and she was the real power in the kingdom, the real source of evil.

    Jezebel, whose name is now used as a euphemism for evil, treachery, and deceit, sent a simple message to Elijah: "You're a dead man."  "Elijah was afraid and ran for his life… He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.  'I have had enough, Lord,' he said.  'Take my life'…Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep" (1 Kings 19:3-5).

    The Good News is that when we are drained and exhausted, and feel overwhelmed, our God as revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord ministers to us through the Holy Spirit.  It is written  "All at once an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat.'  He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water.  He ate and drank and then lay down again.  The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, 'Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.'  So he got up and ate and drank" (1 Kings 19:5b-8a).

    I love the scene.  God sent an angel just to give him a meal.  When the angel said, "The journey is too much for you", it was not condemnation but compassion and empathy.  That was God saying through the angel, "I know.  I know what you are going through.  I know how you're feeling.  This has been overwhelming."

This is  true for all of us at times.  We all have times when we say, "This journey is too much for me".    Our Lord is the Lord of  our journey.  He understands, cares. God knew Elijah was tired and hungry, so God fed him and then put him to bed.

    Dr. Martin Moore-Ede in his book,  "The Twenty-Four Hour Society", describes a society that never rests, never sleeps, never quits, never stops.  He speaks about how, in all of his studies and his research, he found the problem is that we are not built for the world we have made because the world we have made ignores the law of our limits.  We need our rest, our sleep; and if we don't get it, our bodies will break down, and our emotions will follow. 

    "The Lord said, to Elijah,  'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.'  Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire came a gentle whisper...[and] Elijah heard it" (1 Kings 19:11-12).

    This is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible.  In his depressed, discouraged, depleted condition, God showed Elijah exactly where to find Him.  It wasn't in the activity, the efforts, the "full court press".   Essentially, God said to Elijah, "You're going to find Me and hear Me in the quiet and in the stillness.  You haven't been going there much lately, and you're wondering why you're feeling this way."   God addressed Elijah's physical condition, tended to him, told him to rest.  Then God spoke to his spiritual condition, told him to quiet himself and let his soul catch up.

    Our Lord can be found in the the wind, earthquakes or fire— noise, busyness, activity and speed of our lives.  Praise the Lord He is often  found in the stillness, the quiet, the whisper, in the silent movement of His Spirit on the waters of our souls.

    We have the kind of God who knows when the journey is too much for us, who knows we are weak, who knows we are just dust, who does not get mad at us when we collapse before the finish line.  He is there all time with us to pick us up and infuse us with fresh Grace to finish the race WELL.

 In Jesus  our Eternal Contemporary.

Brown.

  https://youtu.be/Ow4OfW4DP9s

Brown's Daily Word 5/11/16

O Lord, what a morning!  It is once again brilliant and beautiful.  Thanks be to Jesus, the Lord of the Eternal Morning.  It is getting warmer and warmer day by day.  The days are getting longer and longer.  It is getting dark after about 8:15 PM  and it is getting bright at around 5:30 AM.  I love longer days and shorter nights.  It is written in the Book Revelation that there is no night in New Jerusalem, the Eternal City.  WOW!

    We will gather for our Wednesday Evening Gathering this Evening at 6:00 PM for a special meal followed by  Bible study.  We will be looking at Genesis 11, Joel 2, and Acts 2.

    Alice and I drove around the countryside the other day.  The Lord is awakening the earth through the gift of Spring.  The choirs of Spring birds are serenading with melodious sonnets.  The Cattle on "a thousand hills" are grazing  with jubilant feet. Springs and rivulets are sparkling and flowing, making joyful music.  In Central New York we are blessed with fertile agricultural land.  We can see the heavy farm tractors and vehicles are at work along with Amish farmers using their work horses and all other non-mechanized farming equipment.  We passed by hundreds of beehives and fruit orchards, which were full of the promise of abundant harvest.  

    Alice and I walked vigorously yesterday in the late afternoon.   The local parks are full of children and youth playing t-ball, soccer, basketball and baseball.  Once again the fields and parks come alive withe  the sounds and sights of young people.  The iconic Ice Cream shop that is situated next to our church is open for the season.  This Ice Cream shop becomes the epicenter of the town for the season, when people congregate religiously every day.  Praise the Lord for the simple gifts with which the Lord visits us in every Season.  Blessed be His name.  

    Through the years in my various roles as a minister, I have dealt with people who are depressed or discouraged.  Many of us live as if we are looking through the rearview mirror of life…always in the past.  Every day seems to be a gray slush kind of day.  Joe Bayly wrote a “Psalm in a Hotel Room” that expresses how so many people live:

    I’m alone Lord
    Alone
    A thousand miles from home.
    There’s no one here who knows my name except the clerk
    And he spelled it wrong
    No one to eat dinner with
    Laugh at my jokes
    Listen to my gripes
    Be happy with me about what happened today
    And say that’s great.
    No one cares.
    There’s just this lousy bed
    And slush in the street outside
    Between the buildings.
    I feel sorry for myself
    And I’ve plenty of reason to.
    Maybe I ought to say
    I’m on top of it
    Praise the Lord
    Things are great
    But they’re not.
    Tonight
    It’s all gray slush!
    (Living Above the Level of Mediocrity by Swindoll page 239-240).

      

In the Bible, God's holy and anointed word, we find the encouragement to face life day by day.  In another book - one by Charles Swindoll, "Living Above the Level of Mediocrity" - he asks his readers to imagine that they work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spent extended times abroad.  So, he says to you and the other trusted employees that while he is gone you are to pay close attention to the business of running the company.  He says he will send instructions via emails and written correspondence.  All the parties agree, and he sets off for a couple of years while continually sending messages…some long and some short.  After being gone for two years, he returns unexpectedly, strolling up to his company’s building.  He discovers the place is in shambles.  The exterior façade is cracking, weeds in the flower beds, broken glass in the windowframes with some of those boarded.  The receptionist at the front desk is dozing; loud, obnoxious music is blaring from the back room.  (Although, that does make me wonder how she can nod off with music blaring.)  Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered financial loss.  Within moments of his arrival, he calls for a company meeting of all employees…no exceptions, no excuses and no tardiness.  The boss asks, “What happened?  Didn’t you get my emails and letters?”  You say, “Oh, yes, sure.  We got all your correspondence.  We have them printed and bound into a book.  Some of us have memorized them.  In fact, we have Correspondence Study every Sunday.  You know, those were really great notes to us…very helpful.  Swindoll says, “I think the president would then ask, ‘But what did you do about my instructions?'  And no doubt, the employees would respond, ‘Do?  Well, nothing.  But we read every one!’”  

    This coming Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.  We will celebrate the Coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, who were discourged.  The Church was born on that day.  The Lord of all encouragement is at work in the world through the person of the Holy Spirit today.

    Our God will not leave us unattached in life.  He has sent His Holy Spirit to stand with us and walk with us in those gray slushy days.  He will give us  perseverance and encouragement as He escorts us through the down days, never leaving our side.  As Swindoll observed, “Discouragement may be awful, but it is not terminal.”

 In Christ

Brown

https://youtu.be/yTYJm5Ae0Xo

Brown's Daily Word - Opportunity to invest in India

Praise the Lord for all the Promises and possibilities we have in and through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whom all God's promises are "Yes".  We worship and serve the Lord, who is indeed is the God of Miracles.  As you all know I underwent a major surgery on my spine followed by radiation treatment.  My surgery was on the February 1, 2016, in Boston.  Thank you for praying fervently and faithfully for me.  I am doing well.  I was back in Boston few days ago, at which time I had a very good report from the follow up visit.  I praise the Lord.  I have been deeply blessed. 

    I am back at serving the Lord. This summer a small short-term mission team consisting of myself, our daughter Laureen, Andy, (Sunita's husband), and their friends Rob and Lee (all from Washington, DC is going to Orissa, India.  We are departing from the USA on the 27th of June.  We haven invited to conduct a summer camp for youth in Orissa.  This camp will be held in the Kanabageri Church, the church where I was nurtured and began to preach and teach in 1964 at the age of 16.  They are planning for 600 youth for this camp meeting.  We had an amazing meeting and ministry with many of these young people in April, 2014.  We are excited to be  back with them once more.  Please pray for the team, for travel and for favor with Government officials.  Please pray that the Lord would bless our ministry and will bring forth a great harvest in His time.  The group will be returning back to the States on the July 8.  I will be staying on for a few days extra to visit family and friends.  I will be preaching on the 3rd, 10th and the 17th of July at various churches, twice each Sunday.  We will need financial assistance to underwrite cost of the Summer Camp for the youth.  The total estimated cost is around $3000.00, to be used for room and board for the young people.

    Please continue to pray for the team.  We are grateful and thankful for your financial investment in this summer event in Orissa, India.  We are asking our dear friends to stand with us in this summer adventure.  If you are being led to invest in this event financially (whatever the amount might be).  Please make  checks payable to  " India Mission Project"  and send them to the following address.  All these gifts are tax deductible.

 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"Isaiah 52:7

Send to:  PO Box 423

                  Marathon, NY  13803

 With Gratitude.
   Brown

https://youtu.be/1fkeXbti90Y

Brown's Daily Word 5/9/16

 Praise the Lord for the way He refreshes and rejuvenates through the night of rest and sleep.  I woke up early and peeked through the upstairs bedroom window, and gazed at the eastern sky.  It was beautiful and colorful.  It is going to be a brilliant and blessed day.  Praise be to Jesus, the One who is beautiful beyond compare and who makes all things beautiful in His time.  We went walking on the streets and the Greens of the town yesterday evening.  As we were walking on the bridge across the river that flows in the center of the town my wife remarked that a tree that has been hanging out into the water looked almost dilapidated.  In the winter months it looked leafless and lifeless, but now it is luxuriant and  exuberant.  This tree reminded me of the Biblical analogy, " .. A tree planted by the streams of water, that yields it's fruit in its season.  This is the work of grace of the Lord in our lives in all seasons.  

    Praise the Lord for this new day. The weather channel is forecasting that it will be a wonderful, sunny, and stunning day with abundant sunshine.  Thank you Jesus.  Praise be to Jesus for the endless beauty He lavishes on us through the spring blossoms and flowers of all shapes and colors and with breathtaking fragrances.

    The Lord blessed us in His House yesterday, Mothers Day.  Our daughters called their mom and filled and blessed her with Mothers Day reminiscences and memories.  Alice preached yesterday and the Lord anointed her message.  She had titled her message, "This is Love".

    Bishop Earl Hunt  (A faithful and very gifted Bishop of our United Methodist Church) once told a story I never have forgotten.  It was about a physician who told of a transforming experience he had when he was a young doctor just starting his career.  He was going to check on a patient who lived in a rather rundown apartment community.  He pulled the car up to the curb and got out to go up the apartment.  A little boy was there bouncing a ball on the sidewalk, and the little boy said, "Man, that's a nice car, Sir.  Where did you get that car?"  The doctor stumbled a bit in answering, because his brother, who was older than him, owned a car dealership.  They had worked out a deal in which the doctor would take care of the brother and his family for free, and the brother on a regular basis would give the doctor a car.  It worked for both of them.

    So the doctor started to try to explain and said, "Well, my brother gave me this car...", but before he could go on, the little boy said, "Your brother gave you that car?"  "Yes, you see, we have this arrangement…"  The little boy said again, "Your brother gave you that car?"  "Yes," and before the doctor could say anymore, the little boy said, "Would you wait right here?"  Then before the doctor could answer, the little boy went tearing off around the corner.

    The doctor didn't have much time.  He didn't really want to wait, but there went the little boy, and the doctor didn't know what to do.  He kept looking at his watch, and after a few minutes the boy came back around the corner.  He was pulling a wagon and in the wagon was another little boy, smaller than him, clearly younger than him.  The little boy in the wagon had legs withered from the waist down.

    The older boy came pulling that wagon around with the younger boy in it, sitting there with his withered legs.  The older boy came pulling that little boy right up next to the car and said, "Joey!  Do you see that car, that shiny nice car?  His brother gave him that car!  Joey, I promise you that when we get older, that's the kind of brother I'm going to be for you."

    In telling the story the doctor got very quiet for a moment and then he said, "Years have passed since that happened, but I believe God has used that experience to keep me in His will and in His love.  Because every time I have a decision to make with my practice, my family, my friends or with anything, I keep saying, ‘God, that little boy pulling the wagon, that's the kind of brother I want to be!'"

Friends, there is a dance that's been going on since before time began, and the only ones who ultimately know the proper steps have the proper hearts. Let us ask ourselves: What kind of sister or brother do we  want to be?  

 In Christ the Lord of dance.

    Brown

https://youtu.be/r-bUZj1bkoE?list=PLWvahZRxLnLPV5ECCHvmLuus6Tjmv4Oir