Brown's Daily Word 1/28/17

    Praise the Lord for this last weekend of January.  We are getting ready for worship tomorrow.  We will meet for Sunday School at 9:30 AM and at 10:30 AM for worship.  Plan to be in the House of the Lord tomorrow wherever you might be.  May Jesus be praised.  For His is the Kingdom, Power, and Glory for ever.  Jesus makes our lives sane and beautiful.  Without Christ, life can be obscene, demonic, bizarre, violent, or vulgar.  Jesus touches bitterness through the power of the Cross and makes it sweet.  He touches depths of darkness and He sheds His light and  grace on us.

    There was a march for life that took place yesterday in Washington, DC.  One of the features of the march was the presence of many young people who love life and stand for life.  Scripture tells us that God has a very special heart for the vulnerable, for those on the margins of our society.  For example, Psalm 68:5 says God is "  father to the fatherless, a defender of widows."  We who bear God's image—and that would be all of us—are called to do the same.  In Micah 6:8, in words which I pray are iprinted, on the very soul of every follower of Jesus Christ, God says to us, "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy  and to walk humbly with your God."  In Proverbs 31:8, we are called to "speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute."  In Proverbs 24:11, we are called to "rescue  those being led away to death"; and to "hold back those staggering toward slaughter."  We are going to care for the vulnerable, for those who cannot speak for themselves, and who, in some cases, are being led away to death.

    King  David, a man after God's own heart, declared  "You knit me together in my mother's womb….My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place…Your eyes saw my unformed body" (Psalm 139:13, 15-16).  In other words, God saw your body when you were being knit together in your mother's womb, and God loved you and valued you even then.  In the Book of Jeremiah, we are told that God set aside Jeremiah as a prophet for his people when Jeremiah was still in his mother's womb (Jer. 1:5).

    We have very recently celebrated Christmas.  In Luke 1, in a remarkable passage, Elizabeth (six months pregnant with the baby who will one day be known as John the Baptist) had a visit from her close relative Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus. As they greeted each other, John the Baptist "leaped for joy" (v. 44) in his mother's womb because he recognized that the baby who was to be borne by Mary, just a tiny embryo, was in fact Jesus Christ, the Messiah.  John recognized this through the power of the Holy Spirit.

    In John the Baptist, in Jesus, in Psalm 139, and in the story of Jeremiah, we see that God values babies while they are still in their mothers' wombs.  I have known several couples who have experienced  painful miscarriages.  They keep on trusting Jesus.  He is faithful and true.  He turns their mourning into dancing. 

    I read about Dan and his wife Caryn  who experienced a painful miscarriage just over a year ago.  As they began the new year, they were praying, hoping, that one day God would give them a child.  In the spring, they conceived, and from the earliest moments of this young one's life, still in Caryn's womb, they referred to this life as their baby.  Through the use of ultrasound technology, they were able to discover that their baby was a girl, so they started to describe their baby as their "girl."  When you want a baby, whether you believe in God or not, you describe the life growing in you as your baby, as your child.

    I read another story which was both fascinating and heartwarming, the story of Joanne Simpson, who was a graduate school student back in 1955 when she became unexpectedly pregnant.  Her partner would eventually leave her.  She felt that, with all the pressure of being a graduate school student, she could not become a mother.  She could have easily chosen an abortion, but she quietly decided to bring her baby to term and then to offer it up for adoption.  A couple from California named Paul and Clara, who had not finished high school, took her son.  Frankly, Joanne was disappointed; here she was a graduate school student, and her son was being adopted by a mom and dad who had not finished high school.  But they loved him.

    That boy's name was Steve Jobs.  He went on to found the technology company Apple, and  many of  us   have benefited from his company and his creativity, because you have an iPhone in your back pocket or in your purse right now, or you have an iPad at home.  Yet, even if Steve Jobs had not founded Apple, even if he was destined to spend all of his working life cleaning toilets and sweeping the streets, his life would have been worth saving because God valued his life. Perhaps God would have had an even deeper affection for Steve, in some way, if that had been his lot, because the Bible tells us that God has this special concern for those who are vulnerable and on the margins of our society.

    God has a very special heart for the poor and the vulnerable.  I believe God continues to call us to bless those who cannot repay us, to not neglect the homeless, but to also embrace children.  We are to embrace our own children within our own family, children within our neighborhood, and vulnerable children throughout the world.  As we bless these children, we will be honoring  their Creator.  We will, in fact, be blessing Jesus directly, because Jesus once said, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these you have done for me."   May Jesus, the lover of children,  endue us with an open, receptive heart toward children to bless those who cannot repay us.  May we be attentive to the leading of the Spirit.

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/LMFRt2aLuMI

Brown's Daily Word 1/26/17

"Come ye that love the Lord, and let your joys be known,
    Join in a song with sweet accord, Join in a song with sweet accord.
    And thus surround the throne, and thus surround the throne.

    We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion;
    We're marching upward to Zion; the beautiful city of God

    Then let our songs abound and every tear be dry;
    We're marching through Immanuel's ground;

    We're marching through Immanuel's Ground,

    To Fairer worlds on high, to fairer worlds on high"

    Praise the Lord that He is bread for the journey.  He is vision along the way all the way.  Praise the Lord that He has called us to a wonderful pilgrimage.  There is progress and there is regress along our pilgrim journey, but thanks be to Jesus who gives the victory.  Praise the Lord for another beautiful day in His Kingdom. Praise the Lord for His grace that is sufficient at every juncture, every detour for every step of the way.  Praise the Lord for the wonder working power of His love, His redemption, and His intervention in the world and in our lives.  We spent some time strolling along Main Street of our town yesterday.  When we got back to the house, we spent some Google time with Jess and Lindy in Philadelphia and Sunita, Gabe, Addie, and Asha in Washington, DC. 

    We are planning to visit our  Janice Jeremy, Micah, Simeon, and Ada in Boston next week.  Our dear friend from Vermont is going to visit us next month.  Another young friend from Atlanta is planning to visit in February as well as Sunita, Asha, and Laureen from Washington.  It is always a treat and thrill. 

    Please join me praising the Lord, for the He is at work in the world.  His unseen Hand moves, rules, and overrules.  We can be still and know that He is God.  Please join in praying for those in our circles who need the tender, comforting, and healing touch of Jesus our Savior and Lord.  Pray for our friends: Linda who is suffering with severe sciatic pain for the last few days.. .  for Dionne, who is home recovering from surgery. . . for Don who is being doctored for a heart condition (He is in his 90s) . . . pray for Ralph, a 62 year old man who has been taken off life support. 

    Thank you for praying for me around the corner and around the globe.  I am feeling stronger day by day.  I will be finishing my treatments by the end of March.  I still get to preach every Sunday.  He gives me grace every day.  I  experience His power and presence every day.  I have been invited to participate preaching mission in Orissa India  first week of June.  This is an annual event  similar to Old Methodist Camp meetings.  It is held under huge tents and people come by the thousands to participate in this annual event.  People stay in the tents, and cook on open fires.  The night scene become brilliant with camp fires.  The Lord of  fire and wind sends a spirit of wonder and excitement, a great sense of community upon His people.  At times we feel like "Heaven has come down and His glory has invaded the earth and sky".  It is like living  in booths in Old Testament times.  

    Thank you all who have already responded regarding the Retirement party and celebration  for my wife.  We are getting beyond excited.  I have spoken with some of my friends who have joyfully agreed to prepare some bizarre and exotic foods for the event.  I am humbled, gratified, and blessed.  Praise the Lord who has allowed us and linked us in His grace and grip and has given us his gifts serve Him together.

    The day before yesterday somebody stopped by and dropped off 4 gallons of honey. . . Local, pure and unadulterated.  It is one of the advantages of living out in the country.   

    For my city dwellers and urban cowboys, note that the Marathon Civic Center is located about 100 yards from the river bank.  There is local access for canoes and kayaks,on a rental basis.  We are also surrounded by many fishing lakes and ponds.  There are apiaries, Sheep farms, goat farms, Dairy farms.. miles of hiking along the Finger Lakes Trail, Lots of green space and corn fields.  We are just a few miles from Greek Peek Resort where you will have touch Switzerland.  Greek Peak has all kinds of activities in all Four Seasons.

 

    Our town is unique, inviting, and  nostalgic.  On any given early morning starting at 4:00 AM, tractor trailers come rolling along Main street.  Soon after you begin to l see construction vehicles, along with luxury tour buses, university buses, and even luxury campers.  (There is a huge camper village up the hill from here.)  Then we will be transported to the simpler days when you see the Amish Buggies roiling along.  There is also a train that passes through town twice a day, and sometimes more.   Praise the Lord for the land, the sea, the mountains, and the hills.  He is our Amazing Lord whose glory never fades.

    There was a man in the second century by the name of Dionysius who wrote about common life among people in the pagan culture of that time.  In those days in the Roman Empire every town, every village, every city faced a major calamity on average about once every thirteen years.  By calamity I mean an earthquake, a fire, a plague, or a military conquest.  Because cities in those days were constructed with highly flammable materials, a fire could sweep across the whole city and devastate it.  An earthquake could bring all the buildings tumbling down. There was no medicine for plagues.  What did the pagans do when these catastrophes hit?  Dionysius says, "The pagans thrust aside anyone who began to be sick and kept at a distance even from their dearest friends.  They cast the sufferers half dead into the ditches and left them unburied."

    If you read the history of the Peloponnesian Wars written about the second or third century BC, you will find vivid descriptions of how people in those days ran whenever there was danger.  They didn't care about their children.  They didn't care about their aging parents.  They didn't care about their neighbors.  They just ran to save themselves.  That was one of the core notions of a pagan view of life—save myself.  On the other hand, a Christian leader in the third century named Eusebius of Caesarea wrote, "The Christians were the only people who amidst such terrible ills showed their fellow feeling and humanity by their actions.  Day by day some would busy themselves with attending the dead and burying them.  Others gathered in one spot all who were afflicted by hunger throughout the whole city and gave bread to all.  When this became known, the people [that is, the pagan population] glorified the Christian God and convinced by the very facts confessed that the Christians alone were truly pious and religious."

    Those words may leave us  a bit cold, but in their core is a powerful statement. The only people in those days who genuinely stood up for what they believed in and acted out of charity and love and generosity were the Christians.  For  centuries the Christian movement expanded in one of the most dramatic periods of growth in Christian history.  The countries of the Mediterranean world became filled with communities of believers, and the secret to it all was they were known for their generosity and their service.

    Jesus, our Lord, said one day to some would-be disciples, "You have to understand the Son of Man doesn't even have a place to lay his head."  For a large part of his public life, Jesus only had one piece of clothing to wear.  As Christian writer Amy Carmichael said a hundred years ago, "We Christians follow a stripped and crucified Savior."  Over three years he burned the message of generosity into his disciples, so when we see these apostles in the book of Acts three, four, five years later, they are totally different from the day they met the Lord.  Something transformed them from being compulsive receivers to being extravagant, generous givers.  Indeed we belong to the company of the Committed.  We belong to new breed of this who live life generosity, sacrifice.  We belong to the tribe of Judah, who give themselves up for the  Kingdom causes and purposes .. They commit themselves for the cause that outlasts this world.  "He is no fool. who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot.

In Christ,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/peeqJ1bmT_w

Brown's Daily Word 1/25/17

 Blessed be the name of Jesus our Lord who blesses us every day in heavenly places.  He surrounds us with His steadfast love and tender mercies all the days of our lives.  As we reflect on our lives, looking through the rearview mirror, we are amazed and stunned how the Lord has been there all the way.  In the words of John Newton, "Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come.  'Twas grace that brought me safe thus far and grace shall lead me home."  As we gaze to the future through the front mirror we can see the wonderful horizons and vistas designed and decorated by the Lord of beauty and blessings.   

  

    My wife Alice is planning to retire at the end of this school year from full time teaching at the Marathon Central High School.  Alice has been a born teacher.  The Lord has gifted blessed her with the ministry of teaching.  Her main focus of ministry has been the home, mainly teaching and training our beautiful daughters.  Gradually, she extended her teaching ministry to the churches we served and finally to Public School arena.  She has been used of the Lord touching lives, countless of them, over the years.

    I am planning a mega- Retirement party in honor of Alice to be held on Saturday, July 1, 2017.  It will be held at the "Iconic" Marathon Civic Center.  It will be a dinner reception, with dinner to be served at 6:00 PM.  We are planning to prepare and serve exotic and bizarre foods.  You are cordially and warmly invited to come, share, and celebrate.  Some of our friends who are some of the best chefs and cooks will be preparing the dinner with much love which will be served with much joy.  The menu will include some International cuisine.  We expect that our daughters and their families, along with all our grandchildren, will be there.  We are excited about this event and praying that the Lord of banquet  and the Host at every table will bless our time together.  July 1 is the birthday of our youngest daughter, Jessica.  July 1 is also my official birthday.  I will be celebrating my 70th birthday (??) this year.  We have so much to celebrate and give thanks to Jesus.

  

    We are inviting all friends living outside the region.  Marathon is located strategically on the I-81 corridor between Binghamton, NY and Syracuse, NY.  We are very close to Syracuse International Airport - only 45 miles driving distance. July 1 will be wonderful time to visit NEW York.  We live in a very close proximity to the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes, the 1000 Islands. the Adirondacks, the Catskills mountains, Niagara Falls, and New York City.  (We are within about 3-3 1/2 hours driving time from the furthest of them.  We are close to vineyards, orchards, farms, and pastures of the region and quite close to Canada.  We are also not far from Binghamton University, Cornell University, and Syracuse University, along with one of the largest malls in the country - Destiny USA.  For our friends who live outside region -  We will make you happy.  For lodging purposes we have the historic Three Bear inn in Marathon.  We have everything you need and want.  If we do not have it then you do not need it.

    This will be a wonderful occasion and opportunity to celebrate the life and witness of my wife Alice.  We met in 1973 in Bangalore, India.  The Lord has blazed our lives with His grace and glazed our journey with His love.  Alice is a relentless and tireless servant of Jesus.  During our life's journey she served Lord and His people with much love joy.  She is multitalented and tasked, gifted and graced,  She has entertained many angels unaware.  She has sewed, knitted, made  a house into our home time and again.  She has prepared thousands of meals and served  the people and servants of Jesus from around the world.  She has prepared some very special meals and banquets to missionaries, Bishops. summer interns, and short term missionaries.  She prepared to host and feed young singers and musicians who were part of the Continental Singers and Orchestra for over 30 years.  She prepared and served meals for our youth groups going to Kingdom Bound, summer camps, VBS, and other events.  She has welcomed and served the musicians from Russia for several years.  One year she prepared a banquet for  a large group of German Christian youth and musicians who came our church for great concert.  She had prepared the meals for the shut ins,and  for the recovering at home those grieving at the death of loved one.  She single-handedly and joyfully fixed a wedding feast for a young couple.  One time she even made a very special meal for Dr. Ravi Zacharias, who blessed us by his visit to our home.

    On Saturday July 1 we will celebrate the grace and love of Jesus which Alice has embodied in her lifetime of ministry.  We are inviting you to join us.  There will be plenty of space, plenty of food, and enough love for all of us.  Please mark your calendars. 

    Alice and I walked again yesterday afternoon.  We are blessed with open fields and spacious meadows.  I love when the days are getting warmer and daylight lingers in the evening.  We saw seven geese flying with holy honks as we were walking over the fields.  We are thrilled and blessed to know that spring is around the corner.  I spoke with someone yesterday who shared that her family has already made over 100 gallons of maple syrup.  This is the first time ever they have made maple syrup in the bleak mid-winter of January. 

    I love sunshine.  One of the readings for last Sunday was taken from Psalm 27.  The Lord is my light and salvation; whom shall I fear?  During the darkest days of winter we are reminded that the Lord is our Light and He is our salvation.  Jesus, the Light of the world, descends upon the world of darkness.  He overwhelms the darkness and even the grave.  When Jesus, the Immanuel, meets us where we are something good and glorious transpires.  What a change!  What a transformation! What a New Birth!  What happens when blindness meets the Light of the World, when sinners meet the Savior, when the hungry meet the Bread of life, when the thirsty meets the Living Water, when lost sheep meet the Good Shepherd, when the rejected meet the incarnate Love, and the dead meet Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life?  The blind receive their sight, the sinful receive forgiveness, the hungry are filled and satisfied, the lame walk, the sick are cured, people are made whole, the disconsolate find hope, prisoners are set free, those who once mourned are filled with joy, the dead are raised and eternal life is inherited.  This is the promise of the risen, eternal Christ.  Jesus said, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world’” (Matthew 25:34).

    In this present world things do not always work out the way they are supposed to or the way we want them to.  There is hunger, thirst, and sickness.  The question is, "Will we trust God until then, as we go through difficulties and disappointments?  Will we live in hope?  Will we only see the present circumstances and allow ourselves to sink into bitterness and despair?"  As surely as sunrise conquers the darkness, and Spring triumphs over winter, God’s new day will heal all the wrongs of the world.  Weakness will be turned to strength. Rejection will be forgotten in God’s embrace.  Joy comes in the morning.  Love will conquer hate, good will triumph over evil and Jesus will reign.  Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

    Jesus said that in the end, “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. . . . Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:41-43).

    I recently read the following story: “Back in the 1920s, when Lou Little coached football at Georgetown University, he had a player of average ability who rarely got into the game.  Yet he was fond of him, and especially liked the way he walked arm-in-arm with his father on campus.  Shortly before the big contest with Fordham, the boy’s mother called the coach with news that her husband had died that morning of a heart attack. ‘Will you break the news to my son?’ she asked.  ‘He’ll take it better from you.’  The student went home heavy hearted, but three days later he was back.  ‘Coach,’ he pleaded, ‘will you start me in the Fordham game?  I think it’s what my father would have liked most.’  After a moment’s hesitation, Little said, ‘Okay, but only for a play or two.’  True to his word, he put the boy in — but never took him out.  For 60 action-packed minutes, that inspired young man ran and blocked like an All-American.  After the game, Little praised him, ‘Son, you were terrific!  You’ve never played like that before.  What got into you?’  ‘Few people knew it,’ answered the boy, ‘but my father was totally blind.  Today was the first time he ever saw me play!’”  In fact, all of us are blind and in need of Jesus' touch.  One day our healing will be complete - on that day when God makes all things new.  It is God's promise.

In Christ,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/DXDGE_lRI0E

Brown's Daily Word 1/24/17

 Praise the  Lord for the way the Lord ushers in a winter wonderland.  It was a beautiful day yesterday.  The weather forecasters were forecasting snow and inclement weather for last night and for today.  They had posted a winter weather warning for the region and the sleet started coming down at about 6:00 PM.  Prior to that time, Alice and I walked  briskly and jubilantly along Main Street and the side streets of our town.  The iconic Tioughnioga River that runs through the town was running deep  and ferocious last evening.  Our daughter, who was on a short vacation in Hawaii, got back safely to Washington, DC late last evening.  She assured me that she brought me some tropical fruits from Hawaii.  On account of the wintry weather this morning the schools are in the are closed for the day. The students are celebrating a snow day that all can enjoy.

    Praise the Lord for the way He posts many signposts around and before us that inspire and encourage us along our pilgrimage.  I praise the Lord for a beautiful person, Beverly Cree, and her husband Fred.  They were married for 73 years.  Fred died just few days ago at the age of 95.  Bev and Fred shared a wonderful life of love and loyalty.  Bev shared with me that she got married very young, but she had a dream to go to college.  The Lord met the desire of her heart, and she went to college  when she was 43 years old.  She received her degree in teaching as she graduated with her daughter-in-law.  She taught in public school for many years and retired with gratitude and a full life.  Praise the Lord for He is the one who meets the desire of our hearts.  Bev is a great encourager.  She affirms others and brings out the best in others. 

    I noticed that some prominent weathermen in the United Kingdom have designated January 24 as the most blue (or depressing) day.    We can declare that the Lord of the seasons can make this day beautiful and filled with His blessings.  Praise the Lord for the way our life on earth is full of blessings, joys, and celebrations though at times it is saddled with barriers, detours, diversions, bloopers, and bumps.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the life.  By His amazing power He paves our way with favor, grace and blessings.  Our Lord has promised He will be with us always, even to the end of the age!

    One of my favorite theologians and Scholars is Karl Barth, who was a prolific author, contemplative thinker, and a great believer.  He has written volumes of books on Christian Theology.  On one occasion one of his students asked how he can sum up all writings.  Dr. Barth replied, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so".  That is the sum and the gist of the Christian Gospel.  Karl Barth spoke of God promising Abraham a bright future and a son as an heir, but Abraham was nearly 100-years-old and Sarah’s womb was dead.  The promise seemed so impossible that both Abraham and Sarah laughed at God.  It was ridiculous, beyond all experience and reason, but they believed God, and when the son came they name him Yitsak, Isaac, which means laughter.  Barth said, “Faith ... grips reason by the throat and strangles the beast.”

     I believe the Lord of our journey at times allows some barriers and detours along the way.  By Hs grace He even provides some ladders along the way.  Once the ladder of faith is scaled, we reach a new height.  Once we climb, we get out of the shallows and out of the shadows.  Faith becomes more than just a list of things we believe.  We move beyond just spouting slogans and cliches.  New vistas and horizons arise that we did not think were possible.  We see that, with the help of God, we are capable of things of which we never knew we were capable.  We will never know what we could have achieved, or what we could have become, unless we press on and climb these obstacles.  All of us will face barriers.  The question is what will we do when faced with them.  Will we sit down and give up and get mad, or will we put the ladder of faith against the barrier and begin our climb?

    One of the great examples of someone who has overcome unbelievable barriers is Nick Vujicic.  In 1982, Nick was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, which means he has no arms or legs.  He does have two small feet attached to his torso. Growing up, Nick struggled emotionally and physically to accept his condition.  But today, as a follower of Christ, Nick has what he calls “a ridiculously good life.”  He has a motor boat and loves to fish and swim.  He is married to a beautiful young woman.

    Nick writes, “When I’m asked how I can claim a ridiculously good life when I have no arms or legs, [people] assume I’m suffering from what I lack.  They inspect my body and wonder how I could possibly give my life to God, who allowed me to be born without limbs.  Others have attempted to soothe me by saying that God has all the answers and then when I’m in heaven I will find out his intentions. Instead, I choose to live by what the Bible says, which is that God is the answer today, yesterday, and always.

    "When people read about my life or witness me living it, they are prone to congratulate me for being victorious over my disabilities.  I tell them that my victory came in surrender.  It comes every day when I acknowledge that I can’t do this on my own, so I say to God, ‘I give it to you!’  Once I yielded, the Lord took my pain and turned it into something good.  He gave my life meaning when no one and nothing else could provide it.  [And] if God can take someone like me, someone without arms and legs, and use me as his hands and feet, he can use anybody.  It’s not about ability.  The only thing God needs from you is a willing heart.”

    I often think of God leading the people of Israel out of Egypt.  It was an exciting time, full of the promises of God.  But it was also a dangerous and difficult time, full of the threats of Pharaoh, and the tests and trials of faith of what it meant to follow God.  God had announced his love for them and his desire to free them from their slavery.  They always thought that was what they wanted, but there were barriers to their freedom that they had to climb which at times it looked impossible.  The task masters increased their work load.  There was the Red Sea looming as a great obstacle before them.  There was the Sinai wilderness and the seemingly interminable time spent wandering there.  There was bickering among the people. There was a lack of food and water.  As they faced these things, they decided that maybe slavery was not so bad after all, and they rebelled and made plans to head back to Egypt.  The Israelites said to Moses, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt!  There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death’” (Exodus 16:2-3).

    They also faced the challenge of entering the land that God was promising. There were great blessings and abundance there, but there were also barriers. There were people who were fierce warriors and giants.  Again they rebelled.  It was "a land flowing with milk and honey", but the Bible says, “Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his promise.  They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the LORD” (Psalm 106:24-25).  Great blessings and opportunities were before them, but they stayed in their tents, depressed. This is the same way we often face barriers, as the exciting possibilities of the future are darkened by the difficulties of the present.  It is often easier to sit and be angry and depressed than it is to trust.  The Lord has a prior claim on us. He gives us grace and even faith to press on, looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith. The best is yet to be.  It is all beautiful and all glorious.

  In Him,

  Brown

    https://youtu.be/0Vua7LwiAQ0

Brown's Daily Word 1/22/17

Praise the Lord for yesterday, a super Saturday of January.  It was a very mild day.  On Friday I watched the Inauguration ceremony and celebration of the 45th President of the United States of America, Donald J Trump.  I also watched the  prayer service for the new President and his team at the National Cathedral yesterday.  Praise the Lord for America, a "city built on a hill".  May the Lord God Almighty  bless our nation, our President, and his team.  May the Lord God bless all the nations of the world.

    May Jesus bless all our homes, our families and children, grandchildren, and every one with whom we are linked in this life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Thank you for lifting me before  the Throne of Grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The Lord is strengthening me day by day.  Praise the Lord for the Lord's day today.  I am planning to be in the house of the Lord in worship, prayer, and praise.  I get excited when I pause and ponder about Jesus.  He is the most real of the real.  He is the truth.  The glamour and glitter, the fads and the fancies of the world,  fade away and erode.  They evaporate like a vapor.  Jesus is brighter than the glitter.  He is the Lord of the Glory.  He is Sun of Righteousness who is Risen,  Rising and never going down.  He is our anchor. 

    I was talking to someone yesterday at his work place.  He was sharing that he has surrendered his life fully to Jesus.  Jesus is the epicenter of his life.  He was sharing that there is nothing compared to the promises, the power  and peace that we have in Him and because of Him.  In the moments and times of chaos and confusion, anarchy, and lawlessness that Jesus is the Christ.  He is our peace.

    Yesterday was a warm day here in Central New York.  Alice and I walked beside the fields and meadows in the afternoon.  It was refreshing.  Alice took down the rest of the decorated Christmas trees and almost all of the decorations last evening - reluctantly, I must say.  She longs to prolong Christmas.

    I talked,  to some friends from Florida,  where it was very warm.  They had a Fish Fry for many of their friends.  Another friend posted that it was in 80's in Florida.  One other friend, a Steelers fan who lives in Pittsburgh, posted that it was great day for bicycling.  I also called a man, one of the premier Maple Syrup producers of the area and runs a high tech Maple Syrup outfit who said they have started making  Maple syrup.  The sap is running.  "Come and see it today", he said.  He was so excited.  He wanted to show me his operation.  He is 91 years old.  And I said, "what a country". 

    We talked to some of our grandchildren yesterday morning from Washington, DC and Philadelphia on Google chat.  It was a great thrill and treat.  They seem to grow and change, and take on a different face every time we talk to them.

    Let us all plan to be in the Lord's House today, praising the Lord, Singing and Shouting, praying, praising Him, and proclaiming His power and majesty.  When the saints sing, Satan flees.  We live in a world that is still under the Authority of Jesus.  He rules and reigns.  He has not abdicated His throne, His sovereign power, or His authority.  He shines in the darkest and bleakest moments and times of history.  History is His story.  He infuses and injects courage and boldness into His people who walk not by sight but by faith.  Jesus is our Eternal Contemporary.

    

    Daniel lived in a culture saturated by heathenism and idolatry.  The Lord gave him courage and holy boldness because Daniel resolved in his heart to not defile himself but to honor the Lord and glorify His name.  The Book of Daniel is about courage in the face of overwhelming odds.  God raises up ordinary people  in all seasons that He might demonstrate His divine power and confuse and confound the proud and arrogant.

    I was reading about Timothy Dwight, who took admission  to Yale College in 1795.  The awakenings experienced under his grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, were long forgotten.  Yale had come under the influence of the French Enlightenment and the students' heroes were not Peter and Paul, but Voltaire and Rousseau.  The school, though founded to be a Christian institution, was known not only for drunkenness and infidelity but for its vehement opposition to all things related to Christ.  Lyman Beecher (Father of Harriet Beecher Stowe), who taught at Yale, reported that Christian students identified themselves to one another with secret notes, because it was dangerous to be known as a believer.  Into this hot bed of French philosophy and Christian apathy Timothy Dwight began to preach and teach on the trustworthiness of Scripture.  He stayed on this same subject for six months. The result was first ridicule, then rage, and then revival.  When he courageously put position and prestige on the line, even when it seemed that the stand would cost him everything and change nothing, the Lord changed everything.  Believing that the Lord can change everything through us, beyond us, or after us is what should keep us living courageously, because we are living in hope—the confidence that our God will fulfill purposes through us if we will stand for him.

  His Name is Glorious.

    In Him,

  Brown

https://youtu.be/x0hvizFZf5Q