Brown's Daily Word 4/27/17

    Praise the Lord for this glorious season.  He has blessed us with summer like days during Spring.  I drove yesterday to a nearby city, our county seat, visiting.  I was on the Interstate which studded with flowering bushes and trees, beautiful beyond belief.  The surrounding hills and mountains were beaming with the beauty and splendor of Spring.  The Interstate is decorated along the way with endless patches of daffodils.  You can feel the imminence of the peace and joy of the Lord all around.  I drove one city streets that were also decorated with spring flowers. We lived in this city in 1978 when our oldest Janice was just one year old.  I drove along, reminiscing about our days and our lives almost 40 years ago.  Praise the Lord for His steadfast love and faithfulness.  Coming back home I took a very scenic route, full of farms, gardens, and country dwellings.  I drove through a very lovely area in which I felt as though I was being transported to Switzerland Ski resorts - I was driving past Greek Peak Ski Resort, located just few miles from where we live.  As I drove my heart was refreshed by the Lord and my cup was overflowing.  Later, Alice I walked in the late afternoon.  The village green is looking greener, and young people were frequenting the soccer fields and the town park. Praise the Lord for the great outdoors. 

    As I drove along I passed the campus of Cortland State University, where my wife had one of her first jobs.  How the campus has expanded!  It is surrounded by new shopping centers and eateries.  I was reminded of a young man who I have known for many years.  He had less than a stellar academic career in high school, and had the goal of becoming a Physical Education teacher.  While in college at Cortland,one professor saw his potential, and helped him to get excited about learning, and particularly about the sciences.  He did so well afterward that he was accepted into Harvard University Medical School.  He is the founder of the Eden Alternative, which introduced pets into nursing homes, to give the residents a living focus.  I had the privilege of officiating his wedding. 

    During this glorious season of Easter I  continue to ponder and reflect on the mystery, wonder and the reality of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  Recent archeological expeditions have unearthed surprising finds of families buried together in ancient cemeteries, side by side, destroying older ideas about Neanderthals in Europe.  Now, we understand they had the same questions about death and the hereafter we do.  No doubt, an ancient human figure from the mountains of Europe held a dying child in his arms, looking up into the heavens, seeing the signs of life, death and rebirth all about him in nature, and asking himself, “What about this child?  Will I see him again?”  The glorious Good News  from the graveyard is  that Jesus has risen from the grave.  He has overcome the dread of the grave.  He has triumphed over the dark tomb, our ancient despair.  With his resurrection he has given us eternal hope and a glorious future.  This new world order is now here and underway.  It is not a new world order that is based on politics, finance, or international relations.  It is, instead, greater than all those and greater than all the kingdoms that have ever been or ever will be.  It is a gospel conspiracy that is taking over the earth through love and grace.  It is consuming the earth one person at a time, and as of today, approximately 200,000 people a day are confessing Jesus Christ as Lord.

    St. Paul said, “As in Adam all die, in Christ shall all be made alive.”  "All" includes all humanity.  We are all sons and daughters of Adam.  We all die because we are Adam's children carrying the virus of his sin.  Sin produces death, but all who turn to Jesus Christ through repentance and faith will receive resurrection life.  They will be made alive.

    Scripture teaches that when we receive Jesus as Lord, we pass from death to life.  We are liberated from judgment.  At death, we pass immediately into the presence of the Lord by the righteous life and sacrificial death of Jesus.  At the second coming of Jesus Christ, our bodies will rise again from the grave, complete in a new heaven and a new earth.  The old enemy, death, has been dealt a great blow and is on its way to terminal defeat.  The psalmist argued that in Sheol no one could praise God, yet, in the Book of Revelation, we see the saints praising the Lamb, Jesus Christ, gathered at the throne of God!  Something has happened, and that something is the resurrection of Jesus.  This is why the Bible says, “Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His saints.”  This is why St. Paul concluded his magnum opus on the resurrection with his unforgettable line, “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).

    Because of Christ and His resurrection, everything has changed.  Because of Christ and His resurrection, we are changed. . .  transformed.  We have a new life, eternal life, and are bound to the eternal city.

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/ukF__x-Xd0E

Brown's Daily Word 4/26/17

Praise the Lord for another brand new day the Lord has blessed us with that we might rise up and walk in the newness of life, glorifying Him and in grateful recipients of His blessings and grace.  We have been blessed once again with some friendly rains, saturating the  fields, farms, hills, and dales.  The flowering trees are in bloom in various areas with so much color and beauty.  The larger trees are budding and coming into leaf. 

    In John 20, Mary mistook the Risen Lord as a Gardener.  In a deeper sense He is the Gardener.  He is the reason for the presence of the tiny flowers and majestic trees, like the Red Wood trees of Californian.  Jesus is the Gardener who causes the flowers to bloom again, and the trees to bud again with so much brilliance and beauty.  My grandpa, who was the first Christian convert in my village, was a  farmer.  He loved to plan seed, and he also loved to plant fruit trees such as mango, jackfruit, orange, and grapefruit.  I love to plant seeds and trees.  At one of the churches we served I had planted 12 fruit trees.  They bloom every spring and are starting to bear fruit in the summer. The other day I drove by to see some of fruit trees and flowering bushes I had planted, my heart overflowing with gratitude and joy.  The magnolias, azaleas, daffodils, tulips, and crocuses are in full bloom and the peonies are strong, preparing for their future bloom and intense fragrance. The fruit trees, such as Pears, apples, peaches, cherries, and plums have begun to bloom.  The birds were serenading.  The Lord makes every place a bird sanctuary. Every place becomes a garden where He longs to meet with us.  "And the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.  

    As we get up to begin this day let us pause and gaze at the beauty of the Lord all around us.  The hills, the dales, the fields, and the meadows are laughing again.  Jesus is Risen.  He is alive and well.  Those who have been met by the Lord and whose hearts have been made strangely warm have been given eternal purposes and ethereal reasons to live with gusto and zeal.  Jesus is the gardener in our lives.  He is also the dispenser of New Wine, which ferments our lives.  He makes our lives colorful and sweet.  WOW!

    I read a fascinating story some time ago in which a 39-year-old man stationed himself next to a trash bin at the L'Enfant Plaza subway station in Washington, D.C.  He had on a sweatshirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap.  He was a busker—a street entertainer familiar to those who frequent public transportation. He opened a violin case and seeded it with some change.  He started to play, but he did not play just anything; he started with a Bach composition that is one of the most challenging pieces for violin.  He was not playing just any violin; He was playing a 1713 violin handcrafted by Stradivari, which was so famous that it had been stolen twice.

    The violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest violinists alive today.  He was an accomplice of the Washington Post newspaper, who willingly participated in an experiment: Would the greatest violinist in the world, playing the best music ever written on the most expensive violin, get anybody's attention at rush hour?  He looked like a common street entertainer, standing by a trash barrel.  What happened?

    3 minutes into his performance, after 63 people had rushed by, one man finally slowed down and looked—but did not stop.  It was six minutes into it before one man stopped, leaned against a wall, and listened.  In total, 1,070 people rushed by without giving any attention at all over a period of 15 minutes.  Twenty-seven people threw change in as they were running by, for a total of $32.  Josh Bell usually makes $1,000 per minute at concerts.  The resulting newspaper article won a Pulitzer Prize.  One line of print leaps out to me: "He is the one who is real.  They are the ghosts."

    Something about incognito stories grabs  our attention as greatness goes unnoticed, talent ignored, fame overlooked.  The first Easter Sunday evening is the greatest of all incognito stories.  Two disciples( belonging to the inner circle) were walking from Jerusalem to a village seven miles away, along the road with others, going home after celebrating Passover in Jerusalem.  Dusk darkened the dirt.  They were disheartened, depressed, dejected, and the mood of the walk was glum.  They were talking back and forth, perhaps in low, hushed voices.  Maybe  their conversation was intense as they were finishing one another's sentences.

    "I thought he was the one, the prophet, but—"

    "I know.  You cannot kill our Messiah.  He came to reign …"

    A stranger overtook them, someone else was going home after Passover.  There were the sounds of feet behind them, maybe a sense that someone is gaining on us. .  The stranger strode alongside them.  A stranger asked them what they are talking about; they asked him if he is the only stranger in Jerusalem.  The word suggests a resident alien who just showed up, a gentle reproof, a half-joke, with the other half a rebuke.  It was as if they were saying, "What planet did you come from?"

    Luke then lets us in on the plot.  We know it, but the other people in the story do not.  This is the Son of God, crucified on Friday, raised from the dead that morning, who has already been to the glory and is now on a dirt road at dusk.  Jesus shows up when you least expect it.  After all the disciples had seen and heard, who would expect the risen Son of God on a dirt road in the dark?  One of the disciples on the road has a name, Cleopas.  The other is anonymous.  I think the second is nameless so we can insert our name there.  I can put my name there and so can you.

    In an art museum in Florence, Italy, there are rooms of priceless masterpieces from the Renaissance.  When you come to the exit, you find a surprise.  At the end of all the masterpieces, there is an empty frame at the end of the wall.  You can walk behind the wall and put your face in the frame.  This nameless disciple is like an empty frame.  You can put your face into the story.

    The New Testament has intriguing supporting characters, for which I am glad.  It encourages me that Jesus made his first recorded personal appearance in Luke after his resurrection not to the leading characters, but to two supporting characters: one of whom we do not know.

    I have been blessed during my lifetime to have met some of the outstanding men and women of faith.  I have met missionaries, theologians, Bishops (including the Archbishop of Canterbury late, Sir  Michael Ramsey, the late Bishop Lesslie Newbigin.  Praise the Lord that Jesus does not just show up for some prominent church leaders, officials, or people in power, who have prestige, prominence.  He is the Lord today who does not only show up for the theologian, the archbishop, at the university, at the palace, or at the cathedral.  He does not just show up for the leading disciples like Peter, John, or Matthew; he shows up for some regular folks walking home in the dark of disappointment.  He is the Lord who is in that little room we  inhabit, that walk-up apartment, that windowless back room where we  toil all day.  He is there.  He is Emmanuel God with us.  He is wonderful,compassionate friend.  He is our Eternal contemporary and companion.

As the hymn goes:

Jesus knows all about our struggles,
He will guide till the day is done;
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
No, not one! No, not one!
"No friend like him is so high and holy,
No, not one! No, not one!
And yet no friend is so meek and lowly,
No, not one! No, not one!

In Christ,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/DwAoC2JpYls

Brown's Daily Word 4/25/17

Praise the Lord for He is the Resurrection and the Life.  He makes all things beautiful and glorious in His time.  He has blessed us with an amazing day.  I woke up early this morning to listen to the early birds sing and praise the Lord.  The Eastern sky is colorful and cloudless.  My heart is full of gratitude and thanksgiving.  The Lord blessed us in His house Sunday, with much love and grace.  It turned into another summer like day.  We are blessed  with wonderful people who love the Lord and who love one another.  We celebrate and we rejoice. We praise the Lord  for Peter and Grace who are celebrating their 64th wedding anniversary.  We rejoice with them and praise the Lord for them.  We praise the Lord for the life and witness of Art Ensign, who is in his nineties.  He shared with me some time ago that he started driving when he was 14 years old. We are praying for Corey  who is need of a kidney transplant and a donor. Alice and I walked in the late afternoon gazing upon the surroundings and reflecting on the beauty of the Lord.  We had some brief google time with some of our grand children.  They are hilarious and crazy.  I drove to the Triple Cities yesterday.  It was another brilliant day, warm and sunny.  I was looking at the river banks and noticing how the trees are budding fast and furiously.  I drove by one of the iconic parks of Broome County, where the flowering trees are luxurious.  The water fowl and spring birds are serenading with unending songs with sweet music.  Indeed, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever".  Praise the Lord the way He decorates the earth in every season with so much beauty and with so much love. 

    Praise the Lord, the Risen, conquering One who decorates our lives with so much grace and mercy and His goodness.  Praise the Lord for the glorious good News of the Resurrection of Jesus our Lord who is the Resurrection and the Life.  Praise the Lord for the way all  gospels record the account of Resurrection of Jesus our Lord.  It is thrilling and  invigorating to read afresh the Resurrection narrative recorded in all the Gospels.  Mark’s record of the resurrection inserts two short words that offer hope to all who have failed God: “and Peter” (Mark 16:7). The angel at the empty tomb told the women, “But go, tell His disciples and Peter, …”  I am sure that the risen Lord told him specifically to include those words.  Peter had miserably denied the Lord!  Peter had boasted of his allegiance to Christ, but had failed worse than any of the other disciples had failed!

    “And Peter”—These must have been sweet and winsome words in the ears of Peter.  We  can be sure that the angel said those words.  Peter could not have forgotten the scene.  The women had reported to the disciples the news of the resurrection.  We can surmise that Peter, the bold and compulsive, was possibly dejected, depressed, disheartened, and haunted with self doubt and doubt, failure, and betrayal.  I love the words of the Hymn, "Jesus, the very thought of Thee"  which goes on to say, "To those who fail how kind thou art".  The risen Savior offers hope to all who have failed God. 

    We cannot hide our failures from the risen Savior’s gaze.  He knows more about us than we know about ourselves.  He knows every rotten thought we have before we think it.  He knows every terrible thing we say before we say it.  He knows how we will fail Him next week and next year.  He knows our failures as we are committing them.  He doesn’t overlook them and He doesn’t want us to overlook them.  He wants us to confess our sins, not cover them.  Failure cannot separate us from the risen Savior’s love.

    Peter knew that the last words Jesus had heard him speak were words of denial during Christ’s moment of need.  It is an awful thing to live with the memory that your last words to a loved one were not what you wanted them to be.  Peter spent a dark Saturday with the memory that the final words Jesus heard him speak were words of awful denial.  By including Peter’s example in Scripture, the Lord shows that there is hope for us even at our worst moments of failure!  Jesus can use our failure as as a sacrament to blessings to us.   

    The Lord did not embarrass Peter by dealing with his sin in front of the other disciples.  First the Lord met privately with Peter to deal with his sin in a private and personal manner.  We learn this from two verses.  In Luke 24:34, the disciples tell the two men from Emmaus, “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon.”  The other verse is in Paul’s defense of the resurrection where he states that after the Lord was raised from the dead “He appeared to Cephas [Peter], then to the twelve” (1 Corinthians 15:5).  We know nothing more about this meeting, but it must have taken place sometime early on that first Easter Sunday.  The actual words exchanged were too intimate to be included in the Bible, but in that private meeting, the Lord reconciled with Peter.  We see vividly and lucidly how the prevenient grace of the Risen Lord was at work.  The Risen Lord was seeking out  Peter who was trying hide and run away.  Peter was trying remain behind the closed doors. The Amazing grace, the unmerited favor, of the Risen Lord was following Peter.  He extends His grace to each of us today, although we cannot do anything to deserve it.

    The only proper response to grace is to receive it.  Our human nature grates against the idea of God’s grace but, because God’s love operates upon the basis of grace, it means that there is hope for every sinner, no matter how great his or her sin.  No failure, no matter how bad, can separate us from the risen Savior’s love if we will simply turn to Him and receive it.  Failure cannot be hidden from the risen Savior’s gaze, failure cannot separate us from the risen Savior’s love, and failure does not exclude us from the risen Savior’s service.

    The Scriptures are abundantly clear that Peter’s education through failure was not wasted.  One reason he failed was his pride: “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not” (Mark 14:29).  But years later he wrote, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another” (1 Peter 5:5).  In the garden Peter failed to watch and pray with Jesus, but later he wrote, “Be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer” (1 Peter 4:7).  Peter hastily tried to defend the unjust arrest of Jesus by swinging his sword at Malchus, but later he wrote, “But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God” (1 Peter 2:20).  Peter was surprised into denying the Lord in front of a servant girl, but later he wrote, “Always [be] ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).  Peter had learned all of these things through his failure.

    Although we fail, God uses our failures to teach others through us.  When the Lord predicted Peter’s failure, He told him, “And you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32).  Later the Lord told Peter, “Shepherd My sheep” (John 21:16).  The Lord uses restored sinners to restore and strengthen other sinners.  Restored sinners must go to those who are not right with God and tell of the abundant grace of the Lord Jesus.  The fact that God has restored you can bring great hope to those who may have known of your past sins.

    The risen Savior offers eternal life and forgiveness of sins to us, no matter how badly we have failed God, but we must personally receive His offer of love by faith.

In Christ.

 Brown

https://youtu.be/dy9nwe9_xzw

Brown's Daily Word 4/23/17

 

    Praise the Lord for this glorious and ethereal Easter Season.  Only our God and Lord brings fullness of life, fullness of joy, and life everlasting, through an Empty cross, Empty tomb, and in through the person of the Risen and conquering Lord.  He brings new life in and through the Savior who was crucified, buried, and, on the third day, rose again.  Only our Lord brings triumph and victory through an Empty Cross.  He alone brings new life in dead places and in dead people.  His power is unmatchable and extraordinary.  Only the Lamb of God cleanses all our sins and makes us whole again.  The one who  was crucified sets the captive free.  The one who appeared powerless at the Cross has triumphed over the  grave.  He is the one who said, "I thirst", and also declared with boldness "It is finished/".  The ever-resounding sound of Easter morning was, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here.  He is Risen as He said.  Come and See and go quickly and tell. 

    It has been a wonder-filled  Eastertide.  We have been basking in an Easter glow. We spent some time with Sunita, Andy, Gabe, Addie, Asha, Laureen, Jess, Tom, and Lindy here in New York.  We all met at the homestead in New Berlin where we ate, watched the children, ate, played in the park, ate, took long family walks, ate, examined the flowers in the yard, ate, played games, talked, played, and prayed, and ate.  The children are all growing up too quickly!  The little ones especially loved playing in the park across the street, even bringing their shoes to us (the adults) so that we could help them get ready to go there.  One of the "littles" even insisted, "Mama...Mommy... I go swing."  One day it rained too much for outdoor pursuits, but the children played inside - making (not too much) mischief.  Our hearts are full although our home is empty once again. 

    Alice and I took a drive to the Triple Cities yesterday. The sweet Spring of 2017 has sprung all around.  The flowers are almost in full bloom with variegated and brilliant colors, and saturated with heart-stirring fragrances.  The trees are budding, even blooming in the garb of Spring.  The earth is saturated with the smells and sounds of Spring.  The rivers and streams are laughing.  The orchards and vineyards are blooming again.  We stopped by to see some garlic patches and the strawberry patches.  The garlic is up and strawberry plants have started bearing again.  Praise the Lord for the wonder of His love and the wonder of His creation. We are getting ready for worship and celebration this morning. It is a glorious day.  Plan to be in the House of the Lord , wherever you might be.

    Easter Sunday was warm and even a summer like day.  The temperature climbed into the low eighties.  The Risen Lord ordered a very sunny and hot day for His Resurrection.  We are so blessed to share that with the Risen Lord and all His people all over the world.

    As we live in the afterglow of Easter, we are intrigued and provoked with the realty of Easter, which is full of wonder and mystery.  Once we are captured by it our lives are changed forever.  Our empty cups are filled to the brim.  Our mourning is turned into dancing.  He turns our sackcloth into garments of praise.  The fearful become fearless.  The timid become bold.  The self-centered and self-seeking become Christ-centered, generous, giving, and self-forgetful. 

    According to John’s account of the Resurrection event,, there was a great deal of running around on the first Easter.  First, according to John, Mary Magdalene came (John 20:2) and she, seeing the stone rolled away and the tomb empty, started running, although she did not yet believe in resurrection, for that would come later (John 20:11-18). For now, in the pre-dawn darkness, she just begins running back to tell the rest of the disciples that Jesus’ body is gone.  “They’ve taken away my Lord and I don’t know where to find him,” she shouts.  Mary Magdalene, in her grief, ran.  Jesus was crucified, dead and buried, and now someone had taken His body, so she ran. 

    On her sprint back to town, she met Peter and the beloved disciple.  On her way back she met these two disciples.   When she told them what she saw, (or didn’t see), they broke into a run.  Whereas Mary had run from the empty tomb they ran toward it.

 It is written  that the two two disciples didn’t just run together toward the tomb, they raced against one anther toward the tomb. Times I wander, why did they run against one another?  What did they think they were running toward?  Mary Magdalene interpreted the empty tomb as further tragedy.  Not only had they killed Jesus; now someone had stolen His body. Perhaps they were running toward that awful, terrible, last insult.

    Tragedy struck the campus of an elementary school few years ago.  There was death and bloodshed.  Someone informed the mothers at coffee, and everyone of them jumped up and started running toward the school.  Why run?  Why run toward the tragic?  If it is not your child who is hurt, then some other mother’s child is hurt.  During the tragegy of 9/11 the firemen, police, first responders, and chaplains all ran, even raced toward the scene of the tragedy.  It is the nature of people to run toward both good news and bad.  We must know, and quickly, if the news, whether good or bad, is for us.

    Throughout the Gospel of John, it’s Peter who is the leader of the disciples, the one with a ready word on most occasions, but it was this “beloved disciple,” John, who seems closest to the heart of Jesus.  They ran to see which one of them — Peter the leader, or the disciple who was beloved — would arrive first.  As they ran, surely there was something in them which told them that, in this strange event, they were running toward some strange, new, possibly terrifying future.

    It is written that these two sprinting disciples came to Jesus’ tomb just like that, not knowing, running toward some new, strange event which they instinctively knew meant a change in their world.  John says that the beloved disciple outran Peter, won the race, got there first (John 20:4).  That may seem a small detail, but isn’t it interesting John mentions that the beloved disciple got there first?  Not only that, John says that he was the first one to peer into the empty tomb and believe. The beloved disciple was the first to believe in Easter.He was the first to belive in the Resurrection. It is profound and heart warming.

    I think that John not only wanted to tell us that the beloved disciple got there first, but also how he got there.  Others came to Easter in different ways. Mary  would not believe until she stands face-to-face with the risen Christ and heard him call her name, “Mary!”  Thomas did not believe until the Risen Christ offered to let Thomas touch His pierced hands and wounded side.  For Thomas, only seeing is believing.  But the beloved disciple came to Easter another way.  He believed without seeing.  He didn’t hear Jesus or see the Risen Christ.  All he did is come, peer into the dark, empty tomb and believe.  It is powerful and poignant to realize that “the beloved disciple, unlike the others, believed in the resurrection in the light of Jesus’ absence.”  There was nothing there, no evidence, no Shroud of Turin, no photos, just an empty place.  But, “He saw and believed” (John 20:8).
It is stunning to know that John the beloved disciple was the first to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus.  He was the very first believer in the resurrection, the first to believe in the triumph of God, who came there by the same path that you and I take — by not seeing the Risen Christ.  “Blessed are those who have not seen” says Jesus (of all of us) “and yet have come to believe.”

    The beloved disciple knew his beloved Jesus.  Thus, when he saw the empty tomb he did not think abandonment, defeat, and death.  He thought about freedom, victory, and life.  In a moment he sensed that Jesus had taken their relationship to a new, unexpected, and more wonderful plane.

In Christ the Risen One.

  Brown
https://youtu.be/XRW-jr_PnbQ