Brown's Daily Word 4/13/17

    Praise the Lord for this Maundy Thursday.  Maundy Thursday is an alternate name for Holy Thursday, the first of the three days of solemn remembrance of the events leading up to and immediately following the crucifixion of Jesus. The English word "Maundy" comes from the Latin mandatum, which means "commandment."  As recorded in John's gospel, on his last night before his betrayal and arrest, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and then gave them a new commandment to love one another as he had loved them (John 13:34).  This is why services on this night generally include the washing of feet or other acts of physical care as an integral part of the celebration

    Jesus our Lord had planned to eat the last supper with His disciples. The Lord had gathered His beloved disciples in the upper Room  for celebration and obsevation..The Disciples like all us were earth bound and focusing on themselves.   The talk had set their imaginations on fire with dreams of thrones and power and glory. Luke's account tells us that the disciples were engaged in a dispute as to which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom Jesus was inaugurating.  No one dared assume the role of servant and carry out the courtesy of washing feet.

    It is written in John 13:1-17 that just before the Passover Feast Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.  Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.  The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.  Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.  He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"  Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

    Jesus is the king.  He was in charge.  He was lord of that night.   In fact, he is the King of kings.  In spite of this, Jesus washed the dirty feet of his disciples and dried them with a towel.  Jesus demonstrated and displayed an amazing grace and everlasting covenant.  Jesus personifies in Himself meekness and Majesty.  Jesus laid aside his garments, just as he had laid aside his glory in heaven, just as he had chosen to lay aside his privileges as the Son of God.  Jesus wrapped a towel around himself, just as he wrapped around himself our humanity.  Jesus then washed his disciples' feet, performing the most menial act of service, just as the next day he died the degrading death of a common criminal.  When Jesus had finished washing their feet, according to John Jesus took up his garments and returned to his place of honor.  In the same way, just after his degrading crucifixion he cried from the cross, "It is finished," and was taken up from the grave and seated again with God the Father.

    Philippians 2:5ff, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness".  In the upper room that night, the eternal Son of God, the king of all creation, stripped off his garments and got on his knees to wash the dirt from the feet of men who should have been serving him. That act was nothing new, as it symbolizes the whole of his ministry and mission.

    From our human perspective, the washing of feet is beneath the dignity of the King of kings.  Peter was horrified by Jesus' actions, as expressed when he said, "You shall never wash my feet."  The words have the same tone as Peter's  protests at Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus declared, "I must go to Jerusalem and die", and Peter exclaimed, "God forbid it, Lord!  This shall never happen to you." What did Jesus say?  "Get behind me Satan, for you do not have in mind the things of God."  In the upper room, Peter still had in his mind the things of men and not of God, and he wanted Jesus to fit into human ideas of royalty and divinity.  For the living God, being God means coming down from that throne and giving himself to serve.

    Peter would have been perfectly comfortable washing Jesus' feet.  That would be normal, according to human ideas, but to see Jesus, the great I AM, stoop before Peter and begin to reach for his dirty feet is not normal.  Jesus was teaching Peter and us that such a posture and spirit are normal for the true and living God.  Jesus told his disciples before coming into Jerusalem, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom for many."  In that one line he turned everything upside down. 

    In the vision the prophet Daniel was given of the Son of Man, all the nations of the world serve him, but Jesus is telling us by both words and actions that the eternal King above all kings serves us, and we will never be able to outserve him. When the Lord of lords and the King of kings kneels before us in self-emptying love we cannot help but be preoccupied with him.  Such love knocks us off our personal throne and out of our centers.  He becomes the center.  Jesus was helping Peter understand that we can only meet the living God at the bottom rung of the ladder.  Jesus was revealing the King's own idea about what it means to be king, for this King finds his royal dignity in being a foot-washer.

    Mother Teresa  was one of the faithful servants of Jesus our Lord.  Her feet were washed by the Lord Jesus.  She grasped the realty of the Jesus our Lord who came not be served but to serve.  Mother Teresa gave her life in washing the feet of countless men and women, boys and girls who were destitute, desperate, and deplorable.  Praise the Lord for the countless millions today who have given their lives to Jesus, the "suffering Servant", and have abandoned themselves in "washing the feet" of countless millions around the corner and around the globe.  His Truth is marching on.

    Saint Augustine once said, "Proud man would have died had not a lowly God found him."  Peter seems to understand this, and the thought of missing out on life with the Master makes him exclaim, "If you must wash my feet, then not my feet only but my hands and my head also!"  Jesus needed to clarify the point by saying, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet, and his whole body is clean."

     By Jesus' death we are cleansed, we are washed, and we are welcomed, to enter the banquet of the King, so the towel points to the fundamental act of the King on behalf of his subjects.  We worship and follow a King whose symbol of authority and sovereignty is the common  towel.  The towel dramatizes his whole career.  The towel reveals the true nature of royalty.  The towel points to his foundational act on behalf of his subjects.  The towel now distinguishes those who have allowed him to serve them.  When I am unable or unwilling to take up the towel, it means it is time to let the King wash my feet again.  It's time once again to stop and let the King love me with his self-emptying love.  

    "Lift up your gates, your ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in.  Who is this King of Glory?  The Lord—girded with a towel—he is the King of Glory. Hosanna to that King!  Amen.

In His Power,

 Brown.

https://youtu.be/vDBsltek__M

Brown's Daily Word 4/11/17

 Jesus blessed us with a summer-like day yesterday.  People were out in droves in summer apparel.  The temperature reached into the lower eighties in some places.  I drove to the Triple Cities to do errands.  The spirit of Spring has descended in the region, awakening the earth that was long dormant.  The Lord of all seasons visits the earth once again so that the earth comes alive by His breath and touch.  Spring, with all its splendor and beauty, is pervading the region.  The Spring rains have drenched the earth.  The rivers, streams, and rivulets are running deep.  Alice and I walked around town yesterday.  The town's ice cream parlor is open for another season.  The Local park was crowded with young people engaged in all kinds of spring Sports.  The fields, meadows, and hills are getting greener again.  Birds of all colors and all feathers were out in droves,  singing songs and melodies so sweet.  Alice and I were gazing at some of the strawberry plant near the parsonage.  They are  budding and may soon bear fruit... the Miracles of spring.

    This morning  the birds began to announce the start of the day by 5:00 AM, singing their praises to the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe.  Theirs is a "symphony of praise", and I love to hear their joyful refrain.  I never get tired of it.

    As we journey through this Holy week, may Jesus, our eternal companion along  the journey feed us with the bread of life and draw us close to the Eternal Fountain that washes us clean and refreshes us from within.  As we journey with Him may His truth reverberate and pulsate in our hearts, provoking us  to deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow Him to Jerusalem, to His Cross, to the Grave,  culminating at the Empty Tomb and into very presence of the Risen Lord.  May we all take time and make time to pause and ponder and say and sing  with Isaac Watts:

1. "When I survey the wondrous cross
   On which the Prince of glory died,
   My richest gain I count but loss,
   And pour contempt on all my pride.
2. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
   Save in the death of Christ my God!
   All the vain things that charm me most,
   I sacrifice them to His blood.
3. See from His head, His hands, His feet,
   Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
   Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
   Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
4. Were the whole realm of nature mine,
   That were a present far too small;
   Love so amazing, so divine,
   Demands my soul, my life, my all."

    Just hours before Jesus died for us, the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?”  Jesus was on trial before this pagan judge who had the power to sentence Him to death.  Pilate asked, “Are you a king?”  Jesus replied, “Yes, and I came into the world to testify to the truth.”  It was to this that Pilate responded, probably with cynical derision, “What is truth?”

    For Pontius Pilate, truth was whatever the Roman emperor said it was.  Romans believed Caesar was divine.  Therefore, when Christians boldly declared Jesus as Lord, they were saying Caesar was not.  The word lord refers to one’s ultimate allegiance, and a person can have only one lord at a time.  Therefore, when Christians declared Jesus as Lord, they were saying Caesar was not lord.  Many Christians were killed for clinging to that truth.  There was no room for dueling lords in the Roman Empire.

    Today in the world, our secular  and confused culture that has gone insane opposes biblical truth.  That should not surprise us.  Our Bible is a counter-cultural document.  Many do not like the Bible’s definition of marriage, so they have spent years turning the cultural stigmas around, upholding behavior which used to be considered deviant in order to invent a different definition.  Some do not reverence the holy name of God, so they use that name as a common expletive. The Bible is at odds with all cultures.  What is truth?  Jesus was exclusive, but not in regard to people—He included everybody.  He was exclusive in regard to truth. He said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6).  The apostle Peter said, “There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  Jesus said, “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:23).

    God has a sense of humor.  There was an 18th century French philosopher named Voltaire who was critical of Christianity and skeptical about the Bible.  He made a prediction, saying, “In 100 years the Bible will be a forgotten book found only in museums.”  Guess what: 100 years after he made that prediction, his home was being used as an office of the Geneva Bible Society.  God must have chuckled at that one!

    As  Christians we are called to be firm in the truth without being condescending, to be bold without being arrogant.  Our culture has trouble with Jesus’ words about truth because cultural referees worship at the altar of relativism.  Tolerance is one of the few moral absolutes in America, but it’s not a healthy tolerance that respects every person’s belief whether one agrees.  Instead, it is an unhealthy tolerance that requires us to affirm all religious beliefs are equally true and that none is absolutely true.  We must reject that brand of tolerance.

    Jesus was the personification of absolute truth, though there are those who believe that He was the greatest fraud in history.  Jesus was not something in between.  If you reduce Christ to the lowest common denominator that other religions can accept, some moral relativism, you deny the Christ of Scripture.

    The Bible is an absolutely unique book.  Millions of people over thousands of years have proven by experience the truth, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul” (Ps. 19:7).  After 2,000 years, no expert in any field has disproved a single statement from the Bible, but that shouldn’t surprise us because “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16) or inspired by God.  Jesus is the Way,TheTruth and the Life.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  "All may change , but Jesus never. . . Glory to His Name.

In Christ,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/YZlpK2cfkA0

Brown's Daily Word 4/10/17

 The Lord blessed us with a brilliant day yesterday.  The sunrise was stunning and heartwarming.  It became warm and dazzling with Palm Sunday sun, one of the ten best days.  The Lord blessed us in His House in worship, in witness, and in celebration. It was festive and joyful.  The children sang and danced and waved the palm branches.  There was a festive reception after the worship for which our people baked and shared an assortment of pies and special cakes.  The fellowship was sweet in every way.  Many of my friends posted about their Palm Sunday celebrations around the corner and around the globe.  Praise the Lord for the way He is worshipped and adored all over the world.

    We were stunned and saddened about the bombing of Christians during their Palm Sunday worship services in Egypt by the Moslem Terrorists.  We pray for His grace and comfort for the families, who are grieving the sudden death of their loved ones.  In the midst of sorrow and grief we lift up the Name of Jesus, the Man of sorrows who is acquainted with our grief.  Alice and I walked in the early evening yesterday.  The Sun was warm and inviting.  The children and young people were out in the park playing enjoying the beautiful Palm Sunday afternoon, indeed the gift of the Lord.  Sunita posted that they spent part of the day at the Arboretum in our Nation's Capital.  I woke up really early this morning.  The moon was beaming through the windows of the kitchen, flooding the kitchen with gentle moonlight, pure and therapeutic.  Thank you Jesus.

    Praise the Lord for Palm Sunday, the Passion Sunday on which Jesus entered the the City of Jerusalem in triumph and victory with pomp and ceremony of a different order.  As Jesus and His disciples approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her.  Untie them and bring them to me.  If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.' (Matthew 21:1-3)

    By this point in Jesus' ministry, most of the disciples had learned to do as they were told, so the two men "went and did as Jesus had instructed them.  They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them" (Matthew 21:6-7).  However trivial this errand may have seemed, it was full of biblical and theological significance.  It demonstrated that Christ had come to be the King.  As Matthew explained, "This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet, 'Say to the Daughter of Zion, "See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" ' " (Matthew 21:4-5).

    I love to listen to Handel's Messiah in all seasons.  It is powerful and anointed. The best music is that which centers in Christ the Redeemer.  The best art is that which depicts the beauty and splendor of the creator and the redeemer.  When Charles Jennens wrote the libretto (the text) for Handel's Messiah, he recognized the significance of this prophecy, and of its fulfillment.  One of the unusual features of the oratorio is how little it says about the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.  Messiah focuses on the incarnation, the crucifixion, and the resurrection, with only the briefest mention of Jesus' earthly ministry.  The text passes quickly from Christmas to Good Friday.  In one moment the angels announce the Messiah's birth, singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will towards men", and shortly thereafter the choir sings, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world."      

    Of all the things that Jesus said and did between his birth and his passion, the one that Charles Jennens chose to include was the triumphal entry.  He alluded to it by quoting from the prophet Zechariah: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout O daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy king cometh unto thee.  He is the righteous Saviour and he shall speak peace unto the heathen."  Jennens made a good choice: It was by getting on a donkey and riding into Jerusalem that Jesus announced that he was coming as Israel's messianic king.

    The people of Israel had always understood Zechariah's prophecy to refer to the Messiah, God's anointed king.  The prophet said, "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Zechariah 9:9).  When Jesus mounted the donkey—not just any donkey, but specifically a pure-bred colt, as Zechariah promised—he was presenting himself as Israel's promised king.  By his actions, he was saying, "Behold, thy king cometh unto thee."

    Many generations earlier, when Solomon became Israel's king, he was presented on the donkey of his father David (1 Kings 1:38-39).  One clue that the people of Jerusalem recognized this connection is that, when they saw Jesus riding on the foal of a donkey, they said, "Hosanna to the Son of David!"  (Matthew 21:9).  By using that title, they were acclaiming Jesus to be their rightful king.  They recognized that he had come "in the name of the Lord!" (Matthew 21:9; cf. Psalm 118:26).

    There is an even older prophecy, often overlooked, that explains why Jesus rode a donkey.  Long before Zechariah, Jacob pronounced this blessing on his son Judah, "The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch" (Gen. 49:10-11a).

    Jacob's prophecy meant that Israel's true king would come from the tribe of Judah, and that in some way he would be associated with the colt of a donkey. Although this was only hinted at in Genesis, it was made plain in the Gospel that  Jesus, the Son of David, from the tribe of Judah, rode into Jerusalem as Israel's rightful king.

    If Jesus is the king, then all his loyal subjects must recognize his kingship.  The Jews did this by calling him the Son of David, and spreading their cloaks before him.  This was the ancient custom.  People threw down their garments to make a carpet for a royal procession.  We recognize Jesus' sovereignty by laying our hearts before him, throwing down our wills in absolute surrender, and asking Jesus to govern everything we think and say and do.  Then we praise him as our rightful king.  In the words of the ancient hymn by Theodulph of Orleans:

All glory, laud, and honor to thee, Redeemer, King,
to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring!
Thou art the King of Israel, thou David's royal Son,
who in the Lord's name comest, the King and blessed One!

    Jesus revealed by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey is that he is the victorious king.  The way to enter into this victory is to call on Jesus for salvation, which is what the crowds did when Jesus rode into Jerusalem.   Even though they did not yet understand his crucifixion or his resurrection, they asked their rightful king to save them.  They welcomed him as their victorious Savior, taking palm branches, an ancient symbol of victory, and shouting "Hosanna!" (John 12:13).  Many were looking for some kind of political deliverance that day, but that is not at all the kind of victory that Jesus came to win.  He came to give his life as an atonement for sin. The salvation he offers is deliverance from sin and death.  He is the true Son of David, and He is our true and rightful king.  To Him  we give all our high hosannas

In Christ,

Brown.

https://youtu.be/a-lxp_nA9cE