Brown's Daily Word 6/10/16

    The Lord has blessed us with another dazzling day .  It is beautiful and bright. The Eastern Sky is cloudless.  We have had a cold spell but, thanks to Jesus, it is making a brisk exit, making room for very warm days.  It is Friday, but Sunday is coming.  We are getting ready for worship this coming Sunday, the Lord's Day. We will meet for worship at 11:00 AM.  We are planning and preparing for a mega-party and reception for "Grads and Dads" this coming Sunday after the morning worship.  Our Church has invited the graduates from the local high school, the Class of 2016.  The church is preparing all kinds of exotic foods to share and celebrate with Graduates and all the dads.  Our young friend Shawn is in charge of cooking the BBQ chicken over a wood fire.  It will be aromatic, and exquisitely and exclusively delicious.  Praise the Lord that we get to celebrate His ineffable love and marvelous extravagant grace and above all "His Goodness and Tender Mercy".

    Alice and I walked along Main Street and some of the back streets yesterday, meeting and greeting people.  We ran in to a small group of people gathered on the lawn of a lovely home on Main Street, located next to the iconic Peck Library.  We know the lady who owns this lovely and winsome house.  She invited us in for a grand tour of the house.  It was built in 1840.  One fascinating story about the house is that it used be the Funeral Home in Town.  The Lady brought the house   to make it her dwelling place eventually.  The Lord takes the "Funeral Homes" and makes them into homes where life reverberates again, where people  gather, feast,  laugh, and celebrate.  As it is written in the Psalms, "you have turned my mourning into dancing".

    My wife loves the music and songs of singer Steven Curtis Chapman.  He once said, “In The Gospel, we discover we are far worse off than we thought, and far more loved than we ever dreamed.”  Ian Pitt-Watson tells the story of his little girl. He writes, “There is a natural, logical kind of loving that loves lovely things and lovely people.  That’s logical.  But there is another kind of loving that doesn’t look for value in what it loves, but that creates value in what it loves".

    I am excited for the hazy and lazy days of summer.  I am selecting some books for my summer readings.  I love to read the old classics.  I have two sets of classics published and bound in the decades past.  One of the books I have selected is "Les Miserables".  One of the greatest movies ever made is Les Miserables, because it is based on one of the greatest books of all time by Victor Hugo.  In the movie, Jean Valjean constantly gives grace to people around him, because he has first received grace from an old priest who saved his life, in spite of the fact that he had stolen from him.  One of the people to whom Valjean extends grace is Fantine, a single mother who loses her job and is forced into prostitution in order to support her daughter Cosette, and be able to survive herself.  One evening, after  she is abused and beaten by a group of men, Jean Valjean takes her to a safe place and cares for her. Fantine says to him, “Why are you being so kind?”  At first she thinks he wants what all the other men wanted.  When it dawns on her that there are no strings attached, she says, “You don’t understand.  I’m a whore, and Cosette has no father.” Jean Valjean responds with these amazing words of grace, “She has the Lord.  He is her father, and you are his creation.  In his eyes you have never been anything but an innocent and beautiful woman.”  There is God’s unconditional, inescapable love.  We see ourselves as we are, but he sees us for what we can become.  The apostle Paul asked the amazing question, “Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” (Romans 2:4).

    That is the way God’s unconditional love works.  His kindness leads us to come home.  The Bible says, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the  washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7).

In Christ

Brown

https://youtu.be/eOY0mjjmx8Y?list=PLWvahZRxLnLPV5ECCHvmLuus6Tjmv4Oir

Brown's Daily Word 6/9/16

 It has been one of the ten best days of June - and it is my brother-in-law's birthday.  "When morning gilds the sky , my heart awakening cries, 'may Jesus Christ be praised.'"  The Lord blessed us with a sweet and winsome Wednesday evening in His House yesterday.  I had my regular visit to my doctor yesterday.  I had a very good report.  Thank you, Jesus.  Thank you all in upholding me in prayer faithfully and fervently all these years. I am deeply grateful.  I went to visit a dear servant of Jesus yesterday.  She has been battling with some precarious health concerns.  The Lord has blessed her with a  very brave heart.  Despite her health problems she has been actively involved in the children's ministry in the church and her ministry of healthcare at the hospital.  She and her husband have also been involved with ministering to foreign students at the local university, providing a home away from home for them.  She and her husband and the family are trusting the Lord of our journey all the way. 

    I stopped at Sam's Club yesterday, where I ran into couples whom I have known  over the last several years.  One lady is a Church organist and her husband is a IT specialist.  They shared about their 11 year old grandson.  He is the apple of their eye.  We praised the for His wonders and marvels in our lives.  The other couple I met at the Store was part of the ministry team at the church I served for several years.  They both are the ordained  ministers.  They have been a blessing in my life.  They shared that they celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary this year.  The wife had a but with cancer 25 years ago.  The Lord has kept her strong in the grip of His grace all these years.  Their children have all grown up and they are blessed with grandchildren.  All are well placed in life.  They are all spread out all over the continent.  One of the wonders and joys of their lives is a little girl whom they adopted, who is 4 years old now.  They talked about her with broad smiles and joy.  The husband is 75 year sold.  May Jesus increase their breed all over the earth.

    I passionately love the Summer season, and I long that summer would never end.  Summer, with all its sweet glamour, also brings storms and thunders.  We read about a perfect storm as it has been recorded in the Mark 4.  The disciples were in the midst of deadly storm.  The Good News is that Jesus the Lord was in the storm with them.  I think the most amazing part of the miraculous story is the disciple’s reaction to Jesus.  When Jesus asked them why they were afraid, it is the Greek word meaning fearful in the moderate sense. But when Jesus calmed the storm, the Bible says, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’” (Mark 4:41).  The Greek literally says  “they feared with great fear.”  They had thought they afraid before when they were afraid of the storm, but they were terrified of Jesus.  Their fear of the storm was nothing compared with the fear they had when they realized who it really was who was with them in the boat.  It is one thing to be in the boat with someone you believe was sent from God to be a great teacher and spiritual leader.  It is quite another thing to be confined in a small space with One whom you suddenly realize is the Lord of the universe.  Your knees give way and you begin to tremble.  You find it difficult to breathe.  Your insides are shaking and you cannot stop. 

    It is interesting that this is the second time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus rebuked something and said, “Be still.”  The first time was in the first chapter where Mark said, “Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are — the Holy One of God!’  ‘Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly.  Come out of him!’” (Mark 1:23-25).  The people responded in a similar way to the disciples, saying, “What is this? . . . He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him” (Mark 1:26-27).  Throughout Mark’s gospel the disciples, as well as others, kept coming to new understandings of who Jesus is, and always in the context of some crisis. 

    This is true for us as well.  We keep meeting Jesus in new ways as we meet him in new crises.  We don’t really understand who he is or the power he has until we see him in action.  This is what Peter meant when he said, “Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though

refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6-7). 

    It was terrible to be blind, but the blind man could not see who Jesus was until he was healed.  The deaf man could not hear Jesus until his ears were opened. The affliction of the lame man brought Jesus to his side and he was able to leap and dance so that he loved the Master and wanted to follow him.  Sin had ruined Mary until Jesus delivered her and she was able to understand who he was. Doubting Thomas was devastated by the events that led to the death of Jesus. Everything seemed futile and depressing after that, but Thomas experienced Jesus in a whole new way when he saw him after the resurrection and placed his finger in Jesus’ hands and side.  He fell down crying, “My Lord and my God!”  It is in those crisis moments that we really understand who Jesus is.  If you place your complete faith and trust in Jesus, you will have a greater understanding of him, a deeper relationship with him, and a new love for him when the storm is over.  You will see his power over darkness and the depth of his love for you.  Jesus is telling us to live by faith, not by fear. 

    In his book" The Unnecessary Pastor", Eugene Peterson writes: “My two sons are both rock climbers, and I have listened to them plan their ascents [up a mountain].  They spend as much or more time planning their climbs as in the actual climbing.  They meticulously plot their route and then, as they climb, put in what they call ‘protection’— pitons hammered into small crevices in the rock face, with attached ropes that will arrest a quick descent to death.  Rock climbers who fail to put in protection have short climbing careers.  Our pitons or ‘protection’ come as we remember and hold on to those times when we have experienced God’s faithfulness in our lives.  Every answered prayer, every victory, every storm that has been calmed by his presence is a piton which keeps us from falling, losing hope, or worse yet, losing our faith.  Every piton in our life is an example of God’s faithfulness to us. . . . As we ascend in the kingdom of God, we also realize that each experience, each victory is only a piton — a stepping stone toward our ultimate goal of finishing the race and receiving the crown of glory.”
In Christ,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/SVr2_spFL7Q

Brown's Daily Word 6/8/16

Praise the Lord for this beautiful new day, with which the Lord has blessed us.  I awoke early this morning to the sounds of the morning birds, including the morning doves, and gazed out toward the eastern skies, dazzling with the dawning of the new day.  We will be gathering this evening at 6:00 PM for our Wednesday supper followed by Bible study.  Alice and I went out for an evening stroll yesterday, meeting and greeting people along the way.  I stopped to talk with a man who was crossing the parking lot of our local park.  He and his family have parked their motor home there.  He and his wife live in Kentucky, and have come to NY to care for their son, who is in ill health.  Although he is 71, he and his wife have adopted a 7 year old boy out of Foster care.  He spoke of him with much gratitude, that he was able to make a difference in the life of at least one child.  Though they have their own children and grandchildren, their made room in their hearts and their home for another child.  For me it was heartwarming and thought-provoking. 

    In his book, The Gospel According to Jesus, Chris Seay mentions a profound lesson he learned from his father about how to love people.  He writes, “Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, so we used to get outfield deck seats (aka ‘the cheap seats’) to see the baseball games at the [Houston] Astrodome.  Most of the people buying the cheap seats did so to save more money for beer.  After the first few innings, they were drunk, and by the time the seventh-inning stretch rolled around, there would be beer mixed with peanut shells on the floor, spilled beer down your back, and a brawl two rows over and back to the left.  It was ugly out there.  As a kid, I learned from a lot people that we were sitting with the ‘bad people.’  There was one consistent drunk fan named Batty Bob.  He was a self-proclaimed Houston Astros mascot.  He'd come to all the games wearing a rainbow wig, and he'd lead slurred cheers in the stands.  I remember one time my dad went out to sit and talk with Batty Bob.  He spent the whole game with Bob, then walked him out to the parking lot to bring him home with us.  I was more than confused, because this guy was one of the ‘bad people.’  When we got home, my dad came to me and explained how God loved Batty Bob.  I remember thinking, Really?  Batty Bob?  And he stayed with us for a few days to get back on his feet. This is when I started to realize that  God did not despise these people; he dearly loved them.” 

    The message of Christianity is Jesus loves us so much that He welcomes us into His household of faith.  We who were once far away from the Kingdom, have been welcomed in to become members of His family.  The Good News of the Kingdom is that not only can we can be saved, but we can be transformed.  We do not have to be a slave to our desires and weaknesses. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can be made new.  We are not just forgiven people, we are transformed people who are being made into the image of Christ.  We are not perfect people, but we are growing in our ability to understand the kind of life he wants us to live and the ability to live it, and we cannot only be transformed, we can be used by God for his purposes — and that’s exciting.

 In Jesus our Lord.

  Brown
https://youtu.be/-4458motPhQ

Brown's Daily Word 6/7/16

Praise the Lord for the  sweet month of June.  Traditionally it is one of the most popular months for weddings.  It is also the month of High School graduations,   Baccalaureate services, and Graduation parties. Alice is getting ready for the year end classes and exams of her students.  We are planning and preparing for a mega party and reception for "Dads and Grads" this coming Sunday after the morning worship.  Our Church has invited all the graduates from the local high school, the Class of 2016.  The church is preparing all kinds of exotic foods to share and celebrate with Graduates and all the dads.  Our young friend Shawn is in charge of cooking the BBQ chicken over a wood fire.  It will be aromatic, exquisitely and exclusively delicious.  Praise the Lord that we get to celebrate His ineffable love and marvelous, extravagant grace and above all "His Goodness and Tender Mercy".

    I read with great thrill and delight  that a couple that I know and  love has gone to Russia to adopt a young boy.  Another young couple whom I joined in marriage have been blessed with two handsome sons and they adopted a lovely daughter from China.  I have been blessed to know so many who have been blessed with special hearts by the Lord and have adopted children.  Dear friends and good neighbors of Sunita and Andy have adopted a lovely girl.  Sunita and Andy's pastor and his wife have adopted two lovely girls.  Sunita and Andy have adopted a boy and girl.  These precious little ones were both preemies.  They both are growing up like weeds.  They are loved, cherished, and adored.  We praise the Lord for them.

    In the prologue to his book, Max DePree tells this story: “Esther, my wife, and I have a granddaughter named Zoe, the Greek word for life.  She was born prematurely and weighed one pound, seven ounces, so small that my wedding ring could slide up her arm to her shoulder.  The neonatologist who first examined her told us that she had a 5 to 10 percent chance of living three days.  When Esther and I scrubbed up for our first visit and saw Zoe in her isolette in the neonatal intensive care unit, she had two IVs in her navel, one in her foot, a monitor on each side of her chest, and a respirator tube and a feeding tube in her mouth.  To complicate matters, Zoe’s biological father had jumped ship the month before Zoe was born.  Realizing this, a wise and caring nurse named Ruth gave me my instructions. 'For the next several months, at least, you’re the surrogate father.  I want you to come to the hospital every day to visit Zoe, and when you come, I want you to rub her body and her legs and arms with the tip of your finger.  While you’re caressing her, you should tell her over and over how much you love her, because she has to be able to connect your voice to your touch.'  It was the experience of connecting the voice of love and the touch of love that saved her."

    When God came in Christ he had already spoken his love to us in his Word, then he came to love us with his touch.  Jesus was always touching people.  Touch is essential for human life.  People all around us need us to speak the words of love and encouragement.  We need to build up instead of tear people down.  They also need to connect our voice with our touch.  There are so many people dying for the touch of love.  It is what makes life real and worthwhile.  We can do it for each other.  The church can be an intensive CARE unit where we are loved to health and life.

Let all  love with kindness.  Let us  love with word and touch.

 

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/HPBmFwBSGb0

Brown's Daily Word 6/6/16

 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