Brown's Daily Word 4/7/17

  " When morning gilds the skies,
    My heart awaking cries:
    May Jesus Christ be praised!
    Alike at work and prayer,
    To Jesus I repair;
    May Jesus Christ be praised"

    It is a wonderful blessing that the Lord blesses with a new morning and a new day.  Praise the Lord the way He blesses us with His healing and wellness every day, whether we recognize it or not, and fail to acknowledge Him.  I get excited for every new day that is paved with all His promises, with His presence, and with His power.  Throughout my life I have loved early mornings, when all is calm, serene, and tranquil.  I woke up early this morning and gazed towards the Eastern skyline. It was calm and quiet.  Somehow the Lord of each new morning reminds us, " Be still and know I am God".  

    I love to write the morning blog.  I hear from so many from around the corner and around the globe.  I am so grateful that the Lord pours His grace upon me every day that I can share about His wonders, His faithfulness, and His unfailing love. Thank you all for praying fervently.  I am the recipient of His answer to your prayers.  I am grateful.  We are redeemed by the Lord and loved by Him forever.  He is more than wonderful.  He is more than marvelous.

    The Lord blessed us with a beautiful Spring day here in Central New York.  I was able to two one mile walks yesterday.  The second was with Alice in the late afternoon.  Our hearts were stirred with joy and gratitude to see patches of daffodils about to burst into fresh crisp blooms.  Patches of Crocus of divergent colors are already in full bloom.  The trees are bursting and budding.  The Spring birds are singing and the cattle and deer in the fields are frolicking .  What a dance! As we were walking we ran into a neighbor/church member.  The roofers are putting a new roof on his house.  We stopped to chat with him for a few minutes.  He and his wife are blessed four children - two boys and two girls.  Alice had all of their children as her students.  Their oldest son is married and has one child.  He is a Captain in the US Army, stationed in Italy, soon moving to Washington, DC to begin graduate studies at Georgetown University. 

    Alice will be retiring in a few months.  The Lord has blessed her with wonderful years teaching, touching the lives of hundreds of students.  Many have gone to some prestigious universities and have become responsible citizens of this great nation.  Many have gone to be successful entrepreneurs and businessmen and productive members  of the society.  I was also a full time teacher early in my life. Most my students were blessed by the Lord with successful and fruitful careers . Most of them have now retired.  It is exciting to know the Lord can use us all in His Kingdom even though we might be blessed with just one talent.

    We get to Google chat with our grandchildren on a regular basis.  Lindy, daughter of Jessica and Tom near Philly is sweet.  She tells us that her favorite color is yellow.  Yellow used to be the favorite color of her mommy Jessie.  Tom and Jessie are blessed with a second daughter who is to be born in August.  We are blessed.  This will be our 8th grandchild.  Lindy frequently gets to visit a nature center just a block from her house where there are some majestic trees with beautiful birds.  Lindy is becoming a bird watcher.

    Praise the Lord for our grandson Gabe, who turned four this week.   He loves preschool and, best of all, he loves Jesus.  He has two younger sisters.  Addie is a wonderful dancer and singer who is blessed with a nurturing heart.  Asha, the youngest, loves to live on the edge (scaring her Mama every day).

    We are getting ready for Palm Sunday worship and witness.  Praise the Lord that in the midst of conflicts, human atrocities,  and international upheavals we get to celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday riding on a donkey as the Prince of Peace.  We will keep on trusting Him and praying for peace on earth among the nations and people groups.  Plan to be in the Lord's House this coming Sunday wherever you might be.  Invite your family and friends to be in the House of the Lord in worship, prayer, and praise.  Our children will be marching around the Sanctuary waving Palm branches, joining countless others around the world and around the corner.  Jesus is praised.  He is exalted.  There will be a family reception with decadents desserts from delicious destinations following the worship service. 

    It is written that "The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost and to give His life as a ransom for many".  Jesus has redeemed us in and through His life and death, through His own blood.  We belong to Him.  We are called and drafted now to live for Him and for others for whom Christ died.  One of the hardest to get, most difficult  to live up to, toughest to hold onto ideas of the truly Jesus-like life is this: a Christian lives for the sake of others.  This idea is central to a biblical understanding of what it means to be truly a Christian.

    It is written, "Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion …" (Philippians 2:1).  If Jesus has made any real dent on us, if being his follower has had any real effect on us "then make my joy complete" by having the same love, spirit, and mind as Christ.

    "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit" (2:3).  In other words, don't be self-focused.  We certainly don't like vanity and selfishness in others whom we meet.  The me-first mentality that is all too prevalent these days is not what Jesus would have for us.  Fifth-century bishop, Augustine, said the essence of sin is  incurvatus in se: literally, this "curving in upon oneself,"a tendency to think a great deal about our own feelings, opinions, needs,  and position.

    Because of Christ and through Christ we are born anew.  We are now a breed apart.  We  know that we  are beloved children of the almighty God of the universe. We have seen the most brilliant and beautiful being, who is greater than the universe itself, suffer and die for us so that we can be His beloved.  We  know that we are heirs to a glorious heaven, the eternal city.  Somebody once said that  we have won the  Paradise Powerball.  We  have an identity and security that is unimpeachable.  While it takes a lifetime to fully live into that reality, it is liberating us  from a self-focus toward an other-focus.  The apostle Paul understood that this shift of orientation takes time for all of us.  I think it's why Paul wrote the  letter to the Christians at Philippi.  He knew that we are always being tempted to go back to the natural, sinful, human way of looking at things and coming at life.  We feel the pull to make our school days, our job, our marriage, our politics, our church life a lot about us or our families.  Rather, in humility we must value others above ourselves, not looking to our own interests but each of us to the interests of the others" (2:3-4).

    We are of great value.  We matter in  His Kingdom and in this world.  We  are heaven's royal children.  We  have an identity, gifts, and wisdom that are needed in this world.  We do not  think less of ourselves but we are to think of ourself less, as Jesus modeled.

    "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God …" (Phil. 2:5-6)  In other words, Jesus, who could have properly and rightfully chosen to have had everything be about him, " … did not consider equality with God something to be used to his  own advantage … " He did not view his position, privilege, or power as something to be used mainly to secure more benefits for himself.  "Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant …(and) he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!" (2:5-8) Why?  For the sake of others.  Wow.

In Christ,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/uf8BhudIozQ

Brown's Daily Word 4/5/17

"In our end is our beginning;

in our time, infinity;

in our doubt there is believing; 

in our life, eternity.

In our death, a resurrection;

at the last, a victory,

unrevealed until its season, 

something God alone can see."

    Praise the Lord for this stunning Spring season in which the Lord of Creation and redemption decorates the earth with full splendor and majesty.  We are the recipients of His unending love and  all surpassing beauty.  The Lord has blessed us with some friendly rains that are causing the spring flowers to bloom and the birds to sing.  Alice and I walked the other other day when Sun was shining brilliantly, warming hearts and the earth.  The Spring birds were out in droves, forming orchestras and choirs, producing amazing music and offering evening songs to the Lord.  I love to hears the songs and the melodies of the mourning doves.  They  sing during the mornings and evenings.  I have heard the mourning doves in many parts of the world, particularly in the area of India where I was born and raised.  So, whenever and wherever I hear the mourning doves I get stirred and provoked with music and melodies in my heart.

    Praise the Lord  for this season of spring and of Easter, the season of hope and promise.  Trout season has opened here in New York.  The Fishermen are our in anticipation, hope, and patience.  The local farmers, who are a breed apart, are gearing up for another season of plowing and planting.  Farm tractors and trucks are out on the roads in full operation. 

    This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, which will inaugurate the Holy Week,  moving through to Good Friday, and culminating in the Victorious Resurrection Sunday.  Let us take time and make time for reflection, study and prayer, worship and witness.  Let us pray for the world that needs Jesus, pray for others and one another, and pray for the Church.  May the Lord of the Church anoint the Church afresh and anew to be the harbinger of Good News, of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus our Lord

    The cross of Christ is what life is all about.  What Jesus did on that Friday afternoon is the most important act anyone ever did.  Some time ago I read about the death of Socrates.  As sundown approached, Socrates had to drink the hemlock.  The beloved sage of the Athenians had been condemned by the officials for corrupting the minds of youth with new ideas.  Meanwhile friends dropped by, and Socrates led a discussion about the nature of the soul.  He then spun an elaborate myth about the shape of the earth.  As the sun sank below the horizon, in a touching scene described by Plato, Socrates sayid, "I think it better that I have [a bath] to save the women the trouble of washing the corpse." So he bathed, drank the poison, and scolded his friends for weeping.

    Then Socrates laid down and continued teaching as the numbness worked its way up his legs and finally to his heart, and the great man slipped away in what can only be described as a noble—perhaps beautiful—death.

    By all accounts, crucifixion was the most hideous means of dying ever devised by humans.  One fact says it all: No one who ever saw a crucifixion ever drew a picture of Jesus on a cross.  Rembrandt never saw a crucifixion, and no one who did see one ever could bring him or herself to draw Jesus on a cross—so says historian Thomas Cahill.  That means if you visit Rome today and take the tour down into the catacombs where Christians were hiding in the first century, when people were being crucified, on the walls you would see a lot of art.  There are sketches of Jesus and Mary, Jesus the Good Shepherd, Jesus healing people.

    The first known discovery of a small drawing of Jesus on the cross wasn't made until the fifth century, in the basilica of Santa Sabina, 100 years after the Romans stopped crucifying people.  As Thomas Cahill said, and I reiterate, no one who actually saw a crucifixion could portray Jesus on a cross.  That old rugged cross that is so ugly that at times the church has sought an alternative.  It's the rugged cross we discover in the Apostle's Creed: "I believe in God the Father almighty…and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried…"

    In the Christian life, we go from born to suffered, from Christmas to Calvary.  Jesus came to die—to be born of the Virgin Mary, suffer under Pontius Pilate, and be crucified, dead and buried.  In fact, more than 50 percent of the written gospels cover only the one last week of Jesus' life.  On the other hand, the old rugged cross offends us with all it says about our lostness, our blindness.  It says we were so hopelessly far gone that God had to resort to something unspeakably reprehensible to save us—the death of His Son on an instrument of torture.  This rugged cross tells me that what is wrong with me is so intractable that it takes a staggering supernatural mystery to save me.  That rugged cross brings bitter and unwelcome self-knowledge.

    I once read an autobiography of a famous preacher in which he told of an incident between him and his wife.  They were having an argument as he was dashing for the airport to catch a plane for a big speaking engagement.  As he was leaving and they were going at each other, she said, "You're not doing this out of love for God."  This famous preacher said, "Well, if you're so smart, you tell me why I do what I do."  She said, "Because you are vain, selfish, arrogant and egotistical."

    He slammed the door, went to the airport and got on the plane.  On his way to Denver, this man broke down and wept.  When he got to Denver, he called his wife and said, "Elizabeth, you're right."  Under God's eyes, or those of a spouse, we discover who we really are.  Because we're so messed up, we need the messy cross.

Many of us remember the crash that occurred  on August 16, 1987. Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people.  There was only one survivor, a 4-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia.  News reports said that when rescuers found Cecelia, they did not believe she had been on the plane.  When investigators found her alive, they first assumed she had to have been in one of the cars the plane crashed into on the highway.  Yet when the flight manifest was checked, there was Cecelia's name.  She survived because even as the plane was falling, Cecelia's mother, Paula Chican, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and would not let her go.

    Nothing could separate that child from her mother's love—neither tragedy nor disaster, neither the fall nor the flames that followed, neither height nor depth, neither life nor death.  Like that child caught in the middle of the disaster, so we have been trapped by our own sin, spiraling down to an inevitable doom; but our God loved us so much that He left heaven, met us on our level, and covered us with the sacrifice of His own body so we might be saved from the consequences of the fall.

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/fEOLUnoQdmQ

Brown's Daily Word 4/3/17

   Praise the Lord, for whom nothing is impossible.  He makes all things feasible.  He makes all things glorious.  He makes all things colorful.  He blessed us with a brilliant and fantastic weekend.  Friday was cool and Saturday got slightly milder, with an occasional misty rain.  The sunrise on Sunday was magnificent, cloudless and appeared as if the Son of Righteous had risen with Healing in His hands.  It was all followed by fog, as is so often the case when a gorgeous day is about to follow.  The fog was followed by abundant sunshine in the morning, then passing clouds with plentiful sun peeking out throughout the day.  It was perfect for the people who gathered  for the Maple festival.  The Lord blessed us in morning worship time.  We went to the sanctuary, where we spent some time singing hymns accompanied by both organ and piano.  It was  powerful and anointed.

    Maple Festival was a blast.  As the day progressed the festival goers swarmed the town.  People of all ages, young and old, mingled with one another.  It was all orderly, peaceful, and celebrative.  Food brings people together in fellowship.  Our church was in charge of the BBQ chicken.  Hundreds of people came.  I had the privilege of meeting and greeting so many of them.  I met three young women who were graduates Buffalo State University.  Two, who were sisters, shared with me that they were currently involved with Campus Crusade, and soon to be ministering to students in Boston at Boston Latin.  Boston Latin is one of the most prestigious schools of Boston.  I was blessed and inspired by their stories, their zeal for Jesus, and their love for young people. 

    On Saturday one of my friends whom I have known since 1995 came to visit.  He brought along three young women who are from China but they are students at Binghamton University.  My friend, along with others, have a wonderful ministry with the Students from China., It was a heartwarming visit with these students who are seekers of Jesus.

    Maple festival brings people together.  They meet, they greet, they eat, (and eat... and eat) and they renew old friendships and make new ones.  Our church family prepares BBQ chicken with much love and they serves hundreds of guests a with much grace and gladness.  While we were serving up chicken with much joy and grace, hundreds were over at the school cafeteria, eating pancakes topped with local maple syrup.  If chicken or pancakes were not suited to your palate you could get a plate of curly fries, spiedie or Italian sausage sandwiches, apple dumplings with ice cream, maple sundaes, maple milkshakes, maple cotton candy, freshly roasted nuts, "elephant ears", or . . . you name it!  There were tasty treats everywhere.  

    To kick off the Festival on Friday night was the Annual Maple Queen Pageant.  Miss Gillian DePuy (one of my wife's former students from last year) won the crown over twenty-four other beautiful young ladies.  As the Festival Queen, Gillian and her court spent two days walking around town, befriending young children, planting a new maple tree, welcoming one and all to the festival.  She was beautiful and gracious, as were all the members of her court.

    In the Bible Jesus told the story of a rich man who had a poor beggar sitting at his gate, and the rich man ignored the needs of the poor man.  Then for eternity,  the poor man found himself in heaven and the rich man in Hades.  The rich man said to Father Abraham, "Would you please let that poor beggar go back to my family and tell them about the consequences of their evil life?"  Father Abraham responded, "If they would not believe Moses and the Prophets, they will not believe even if one should rise from the dead."  That poor man in the parable was Lazarus.

    Within days of this parable being told, we have an account recorded in John11,  of one who rose from the dead, and his name was Lazarus.  When he rose from the dead,  we could surmise that everyone would have believed in Jesus.  Every heart should have repented and surrendered to Jesus.  The actual result is stunning, in that "from that day on they plotted to take his life."  The enemies of Jesus now had a focus: We'll get this one who raises people from the dead.

    They was a man dead and buried  for four days, who was raised up, and yet they did not believe.  In a few more days they would see the one who did the resurrecting dying on a cross.  The parable is a lens to understand Lazarus at Bethany, Bethany is a lens to understand Calvary, and Calvary is a lens to understand eternity and now.

    Jesus' triumph may take some time, but it will surely come, for he is ruling with a care, with an intricacy, with an intimacy for his people that defies our full ability to comprehend. After all, he will pass this way again. In just a few days he will go through Bethany again on his way to Jerusalem while the crowds take off their cloaks and put palm branches before him. They will say, "Hosanna! His time has come!" But his time has not yet come, though it will surely come.

In another day or two they will say, ""Crucify him!" because his time has not yet come. But though it has not yet come, it will surely come. And when they hang him on a cross, they will chide him, "Tell your angels to come." They do not come, but they will surely come.

The promise of God will be fulfilled. Though it tarries, wait for it. For it will surely come, and it will not be late. God speaks to his people in such a way that we in a fallen world might trust that he is love. Unless we miss the point, he puts tears on the face of the Savior, each tear a lens so we will focus in, look closely, and through the microcosm of that tear begin to recognize what God has done. He has shown us in real form how he is in charge of the world in its intricacy as well as its grand scale. He is at work, and his illustration is not stick figures drawn in the sand. It is dealing with the realities, the harshness, the terribleness of this life.

Lazarus was  dead. And to show us that Jesus  has power over even death, the harshest of this world's realities, Jesus comes to make it right. He will raise this one to show he has the power over sin, even to the extent of death. We see it in this microscopic vision of Lazarus's life. And we see it in a grander scale when Christ himself rises again.

In Christ.

Brown

https://youtu.be/P8ajtJtNXF4