Praise the Lord for the sizzling
yet at times soaking summer season. The weather forecasters are
announcing that the summer season is almost a third spent. Praise the
Lord, for the Lord of all seasons engulfs us with His blessings, beauty
and splendor. We have spent much of July so far with many of our children
and grandchildren. We have spent days mostly outdoors gazing at the
beauty of the Lord and learning to look at life in and through the eyes of
little children.
Janice, Jeremy, Micah, Simeon, and Ada
from Boston could not come down during our July gatherings. Janice has
been selected to do Graduate Studies on Health Care Administration at Dartmouth
College in New Hampshire so the family stayed in Boston. They
are coming down to New York in August instead. We can't wait! Sunita,
Andy, Gabe, Addie, and Asha stayed with us in New York for almost two
weeks. and are back in Washington, DC. Tom, Jessica, and Lindy are
back in Philadelphia awaiting the arrival of their baby boy in August.
Laureen spent two weeks with us here in New York and just left to spend some
time with Jessica in Philly before traveling back to Washington, DC.
Praise the Lord for the way He is with us in our travels and He is "King
of the Road" and our eternal companion.
We had some torrential rain storms
yesterday afternoon. Our main street in Marathon suddenly surged
with flood waters which soon became a ravaging river. Our
local rivulet turned in to a ferocious river with climatic waterflow pushing
anything and everything on its floating screams. It is calm and quiet
today.
It is Saturday, but Sunday is coming.
We will meet for worship at 10:30 AM tomorrow. Plan to be in the house
of the Lord wherever you might be. Let us all gather with all the saints
around the corner and around the globe in shout, praise and worship.
It is always a thrill and a blessing to know
that Jesus loves us and to trust in His promises. What a blessing to be
called by Him, drafted into His Kingdom as His servants. It is a joy and
privilege to be called into His Kingdom and propelled into His service, knowing
that His Kingdom shall never fail.
So often we as Christians define the
Christian life in negative terms. We describe Christianity by saying what
it is not. We say a person is a Christian because of the things they do
not do. We sometimes hear people remark, “He is a Christian man. He
does not smoke, he does not drink or swear.” Christianity, however, is
not a matter of what we do not do; it is a matter of what we do. When
Jesus Christ returns as King and we stand before him, he will say,
"Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a
few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your
master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:23) His rewards will come to
those who were faithfully at work using the abilities God gave them to make a
difference in this world.
An ancient fable tells about three merchants
who were crossing a desert. One moonless night they came to a dried-up
creek bed. As they approached, they were startled to hear a voice
speaking to them out of the darkness. The voice commanded them to pick up
stones and then journey on as far as possible before stopping again. The
travelers were also told that when daylight came and they saw what they had
gathered, they would be both happy and sad. Even though they were
confused by what was happening they did what the voice told them to do.
Each man picked up some of the rocks and placed them into his bag.
When the first gray streaks of dawn appeared in the eastern sky, the men looked
into the bags where the rocks had been placed. But instead of stones,
they discovered precious jewels. It was then they understood the meaning of the
strange yet significant words, “You will be both happy and sad.” They
were glad because of the precious stones they now possessed, but they were sad
to think they had not picked up more! I believe that is what it will be
like at the end of our lives. We will be glad that we at least did
something for God with the time and abilities we had, but sad that we did not
do more.
At the judgment we will be blessed by
the rewards we are given for the good we have done, but sad that our reward is
only five minas when it could have been ten. We will wish that we had lived our
lives for God and others, rather than living them so much for ourselves.
William Barclay says, “There is no such thing as standing still in the
Christian life. We either get more, or lose what we have. We either
advance to greater heights, or slip back.” The thing that makes all of
this so lamentable is the tremendous potential of the human spirit when it is
filled and empowered by the Spirit of God. How much our lives could mean
for God if we were investing them in his kingdom! God has given us each
all that we need to serve him — it is we who hold back. Often we
are worried we won’t have enough money, but when we are faithful with what
we have, we will receive more.
A.W. Tozer, in his book "The
Pursuit of God" says, “The widest thing in the universe is not space, it
is the potential capacity of the human heart. Being made in the image of
God, it is capable of almost unlimited extension in all directions. Christians
should seek for inner enlargement....” I don’t believe we have any idea
what our potential is. If we begin to use what God has given us and
begin to act according to what we already know, we will see and feel
ourselves begin to grow in ways that we did not think possible. Our
Lord Jesus said, “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will
have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from
him” (Matthew 25:29).
The sin of the unfaithful servant was not that he did what was wrong, but that
he did nothing at all when he knew he should have been working for his master.
In Christ,
Brown
