Brown's Daily Word 2-19-14

    We are having a great week.  Our grand children from Boston, whom we call our "Fresh Air Kids", are with us for a week.  We are blessed and are having a wild week.  We will meet this evening at 6 PM for our mid-week fellowship and study.  We are planning for a special ministry with the children at 6:30 PM that will conclude at 7:30 PM.  The children and their families are invited to join us for a special meal at 6 PM.

    The reading for last Sunday, taken from Deuteronomy 30, was the last sermon Moses preached.  Michelangelo’s Moses is a towering figure, a powerful figure, an incredible figure, much larger than life.  Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses is enormous.  And, figuratively, so was Moses.  He seemed to be larger than life itself. As the Israelites were getting ready to enter the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, the people of the Lord had been in the wilderness for forty years.  Those who survived during the 40 year journey had experienced God’s majesty, Mount Sinai, the parting of the Red Sea, and the manna and the quail to eat in the wilderness.

    Moses foresaw that the people of God would be ensnared and brought down by the Canaanite religion in the land to which they were going.  They would be ensnared by the Canaanite people who sacrificed their children on altars, burned their children as sacrifices, practiced witchcraft and idolatry, and used cult prostitutes.  The people of God stood in front of Moses, east of the Jordan River, before they entered the Promised Land.  Moses was saying goodbye to them, as he gave his last sermon.  The Bible says he was 120 years old; that he was strong in body and his eyesight was still very, very sharp.  Moses stood before the people on the banks of the Jordan River,when he gave his farewell speech.  “Today, I am giving you a choice…between good and evil, between life and death, between blessing and cursing.  God is our witness.  I say to you: choose life.  Choose life.  Love the Lord your God.  Serve him.  Obey him.  Do his laws.  Be faithful to God, and then…it will go well for you in the land.”

    The Christian faith has always been a faith  of life.  Life is a good word, a core word, a key word.  Our Lord said in John 10:10, “I have come to give you life and give you life more abundantly.”  Jesus said, “ I am the bread of life.  I am the water of life.  I am the resurrection and the life.  I am everlasting life.”  The opposite of  Jesus is Satan who is the prince of death, the source of death, the essence of evil.  Jesus said, “I have come to destroy the powers of death and hell.”  The love of life is found in the first pages and the last pages of Scripture.  In the first pages of our Bible in the story of the Garden of Eden, we hear about the tree of life.  At the very end of the Bible, in the very last chapter of the last book of the Bible, we see that hell and death are thrown into the fire, and all that remains is the tree of life, for God is life, eternal life, everlasting life, immortal life, abundant life.

    In the first book of the Bible that the living God breathed life into Adam.  God gave Adam the first breath of life.  We human beings are sacred because we are made in the image of God and we have the sacred breath of God within us.   At the very core of our Christian heritage, from beginning to end, ours is a heritage of life. We are pro-life, because our Lord is pro-life. 

    The people of God were standing at the edge of the Promised Land, going into the land of Canaan, with all of its pagan degradation and child sacrifice, burning their children on altars, and cult prostitution.  God said to his people through his prophet Moses: “Today, I am giving you a choice…between life and death, good and evil, blessings and curses.  God is our witness this day.  Chose life.  Serve the Lord your God.  Love God.  Be faithful to God.  Obey God’s laws and … then…it will go well for you in the land.”

"Come to Jesus and live"

 In Him,

  Brown

Brown's Daily Word 2-14-14

    Happy and a joyful Valentine's day to you, all my family and friends.  I received my first Valentine's day card 40 years ago this month.  I was a student in Bangalore, India.  My wife was a student at Hartwick College, New York.  She sent the card and explained about Valentine's day.  I had no clue about Valentine's day.  I like the origins, the reason, and the sentiments of this special day.  Valentine's day is ever so popular in India now. 

    To know Jesus Christ is to be loved and to love.  I have been listening a song by Jesus Culture called, "His Love Never Fails".   In 1 Corinthians 13 the Lord of love and life is declaring that,  life without love is zero.  We  can pile up all the good deeds, all the education, all the spiritual gifts, and all the noble works that we  like. Without love, it still equals zero.  We  can be smart, beautiful, strong, wealthy, educated, multi-lingual, rich, and famous but without love it still equals zero.

    When William Barclay, a great Christian scholar and believer, came to the end of his comments on this passage, he noted that it calls for a searching personal self-examination.  These verses challenge us to evaluate what we do and what we say in the light of agape love.  If we are honest with ourselves (which is not easy in the best of circumstances), we must eventually admit that we all have a long way to go in this area.  Many of us struggle with difficult people and painful circumstances.  In those moments when we have been deeply hurt by those closest to us, the temptation is often overwhelming to respond with anger and bitterness.  We may want to get even with those who have treated us so cruelly.  We may even resort to threats of violence.  In our desperation it is easy to sink to the level of those who have attacked us.

    There is a better way.  Jesus calls us to love our enemies and, life being what it is, our “enemies” will almost always be those closest to us.  Love means doing things the Lord's way.  It means responding in kindness when we have been repeatedly mistreated.  It means refusing to nurse our grievances against those who are truly guilty of sin against us.  Love finds a way to reach out to heal the breach if possible.  This kind of life is not easy.

    Jesus embodied this Special Kind of Love.  Love isn't about us; love is about Jesus.  Since He is love, all true love starts with him and comes down to us. If we want to be more loving, we must get to know Him, better.  As we come to know the Love of Jesus in a personal way, his love will supernaturally flow through us as our hearts are transformed.  John 3:16 : “For God so loved the world that he gave his one-and-only-Son.”  Jesus is the proof of God’s love.  Run to the cross.  Behold the bleeding form of the Son of God.  “See from his hands, his head, his feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down.”

    During the 17th Century Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, sentenced a soldier to be shot for his crimes.  The execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening curfew bell.  At the appointed hour the bell did not sound.  Upon investigation it was discovered that the soldier’s fiance had climbed into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from striking.  When she was summoned by Cromwell to account for her actions, she wept as she showed him her bruised and bleeding hands.  Cromwell’s heart was touched and he said, “Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice.  Curfew shall not ring tonight!”

    Through his sacrifice, Christ has stayed our execution.  The judgment bell will never toll for us.  The proof of his love is in his bruised body and bloody hands. Because of his love we live.

    I am blessed and challenged by the words  of the late Dr. Karl Meninger,  M.D., a great Psychiatrist,  " Love is the medicine for the sickness of the world.”  He summarized his therapeutic approach this way: “Love cures. It cures those who give it and it cures those who receive it.”  The love of Christ is powerful medicine for the terminal disease inside every heart.

    "Lord I want to be more loving in my heart: 

  In His Love,

    Brown

http://youtu.be/6_KXsMCJgBQ

Brown's Daily Word 2-13-14

  The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday gathering.  The food was fabulous, the fellowship was sweet, and the Study was provocative.  We looked at John 2, a wedding story.  It was a Jewish wedding.  Jewish weddings during the time of Christ were gala occasions, festive events, and grand parties.  In the story  Jesus came to such a wedding party that lasted for seven days.  During this party, unfortunately and embarrassingly, the host ran out of wine.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, intervened.  Mary said to Jesus, “They have no wine.”  Our Lord said to the servants , “Fill those big jugs out there with water.”  They were really big jugs, holding thirty gallons each, and they were used for the rite of purification.  The servants obediently filled those six jugs right up to the brim, then Jesus said to the waiter, “I want you to take some wine over to the steward, to see what it tastes like.”  The servant took some wine over to the steward He sipped it and said, “That tastes fine.  The groom has saved the best wine until last.”  The steward looked at the six vats of wine and said, “That is a lot of wine.  There is enough wine here for a whole city, maybe for the whole country.”  Then comes a key line in the story that says, “This was the first of the signs that Jesus did in Galilee.  By this sign, Jesus revealed his glory, the glorious presence of the Son of God, and the disciples believed the sign.”

    Immediately, my mind flashed to the previous chapter, John 1, where the Bible says, “We beheld his glory, the glorious presence of the Son of God, and from his fullness, (the fullness of six large vats of wine), we all have received grace upon grace upon grace.”  The law was given through the purification rituals of Moses but grace and truth were given through Jesus Christ.  From His fullness, we all have received grace upon grace upon grace.

    The message is not so much about Jesus turning the water into wine.  It is about the abundance of the Lord toward us.  It is about His extreme generosity in every way.  Six stone jars containing 180 gallons of water were transformed into the best wine.  The wine stands of the blood of Jesus that shed for the remissions of sin of the whole world, that takes away the sin of the whole world.  It is 180 gallons of grace.  There is enough grace  for for the whole wide world.  From God’s fullness of grace, right up to the brim, we all have received grace upon grace upon grace.  I love that line in the text where the vats are filled up right to the brim.  In a very real way there were now 180 gallons of grace, 180 gallons of forgiveness from Jesus.  This awareness is also found in Hebrews chapter ten, where Jesus says that he is the perfect sacrifice for all sins forever.

    The Good News  of Jesus is the Good News of great joy. . .  180 gallons of joy. Being a Christian is like going to a party.  Being a Christian is like going to a Jewish wedding.  The bridegroom is with us, and the bridegroom brings JOY to our lives.

    Jesus told other parables that indicated that being a Christian is like being invited to a party.  One time he told a story about inviting several people to a wedding feast, but they couldn’t come.  They had numerous excuses why they couldn’t come.  For instance, they had to fix a new house or take care of their livestock. Although people had excuses of why they couldn’t’ come to the party,    the point is that they were invited to a banquet, to a party, to a Jewish wedding. Being a Christian is like going to a banquet. 

    In another parable, Jesus talked about ten girls waiting for the groom to come to a Jewish wedding.  Five ladies were prepared for the party and five were not, so five went to the party and five did not.  Being a Christian is like going to a party. The Good News of Jesus makes us free to love, and to be forgiven, loved, and celebrated.  Jesus has prepared 180 gallons of grace for you and 180 gallons of grace for me.  We can, on our own,  never be kind enough, good enough, loving enough, or prayerful enough.  We are always too selfish.  Yet, in spite of it all, there is 180 gallons of grace for you and me.  Jesus is the Host, and He is the Bridegroom.  The party has begun.  Come, Share, Rejoice.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/GoYgi0sdOqc