Once again
praise the Lord for wonder working power and for the wonders of His love.
I have been dealing with some fall allergies lately but, praise the Lord,
I am feeling better. The Lord blessed us with some fantastic weather
during this past weekend. It has been sunny and very warm. He
blessed us in His House on the Lord's day. We had an outdoor Baptismal
Service last Sunday following the morning worship. It was held at a
lovely Camp belong to one of our Church Families. The water in the pool
was crystal clear and clean. The Baptismal service was
awesome. The Lord anointed the service and blessed the gathering with His
very presence. The man, who is 45 years old gave his testimony, how he
has given his life to the Lord and the Lord has transformed his life into one
of loving and serving the Lord. We had a great time of celebration
following the service of Baptism. The food was sumptuous and the fellowship was
sweet.
On
Sunday afternoon we talked with Ada, our youngest granddaughter from Boston,
who is 5. She shared that she was going to Walden Pond with her mommy for
swimming and that her older brother and sister were going to Fenway to watch a
Red Sox game. All of our daughters graduated from the Maine-Endwell
School system. We feel a sense of belonging to the Maine-Endwell
family. The Maine-Endwell Little League team became both National and
World Champions 2016 by defeating some very worthy teams.
It was
two years ago during the month of August my mother in law and My mom went to be
with Jesus our Lord. My mother in law died on the August 28 and my mom
died on August 31. They both were 86 years old. Despite "Many
dangers, toils, and snares" of this world they lived well, loving the
Lord and serving Him. His grace indeed led them home to the Eternal
City. We praise the Lord for the wonderful legacy they left behind. Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints "Psalm 116:15
One of the readings for this past was taken from Hebrews 13, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." (Hebrews 13, 7-8)
John Newton wrote, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!" He wrote also "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear. It makes the wounded spirit whole, calms the troubled breast. 'Tis manna to the hungry soul, and to the weary, rest." It is wonderful to know that our Lord Jesus who is the Alpha and Omega is the same as in eternity past; He changes not.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men" (John 1:1-4).
The following is a portion of the reflections I wrote on August 30, 2014: "Several hundred years ago the French philosopher Pascal put forth his famous wager regarding the Christian faith. It’s an imaginary conversation between a Christian and a non-believer. . . "Suppose that atheism is right and Christianity is wrong. In the end, I have lost nothing by believing in Christ since my faith gives me hope and comfort in this life and the atheist has gained nothing because he believes that death ends all. But suppose that Christianity is right and atheism is wrong. Who wins and who loses? The Christian wins everything because he goes to heaven. The atheist loses everything because he goes to hell."
If
we are wrong, we lose nothing at all. If we are right, we go to heaven.
But those who reject Christ run a terrible risk because if Hell is real, that’s
where they are going. "We shall not cease from exploration, and the
end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place
for the first time." T. S. Elliot
In Christ,
Brown
