Brown's Daily Word 2-27-14

    The Lord blessed us with a beautiful Wednesday evening gathering for fellowship and study.  We have been looking in the Gospel according to John, at how our Lord Jesus befriends people like the fishermen:  Peter and Andrew, James and John.  We have also looked at how He befriends religious people like Nicodemus, and He befriends a Samaritan woman whose name we do not know. Indeed we have a wonderful friend in our low places of life and also we have a friend in High places too.

    It is written, "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.  “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

    The King James Version says that Jesus is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” He is “touched” by the weakness of our feeble flesh.  Whatever touches us, touches him.  To say, “I feel your pain”, has become a cliché today, but in Jesus’ case it is absolutely true.  He is moved by our sorrow, aware of our tears, and touched by our failure.  He knows what we are going through.  How good it is to know that Jesus was tempted just as we are. The text means that Jesus faced every kind of temptation we can face.

    Basically, every temptation falls into one of three categories: the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (cf. 1 John 2:14-17).  Jesus defeated the devil in those three areas.  Where we failed, He succeeded.  Where we gave in, He stood strong.  Where we collapsed under pressure, Jesus obeyed his Father.  He was tempted, yet He never sinned by giving in.  I find great comfort in these words of C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity:

A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in....Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means (p. 142).

    This has enormous implications for our spiritual life.  Because Christ was tempted and never gave in, we may be sure that he is never surprised by anything we say or do.  We gave in too early so we never felt the full force of temptation, but Jesus let the waves of temptation rush over him and stood like the Rock of Gibraltar.  When we pray we don’t have to worry that we will somehow shock him.  He’s heard it all and seen it all.  We can go ahead and be totally honest about our failures.  He knows about it even before we tell him.

    And we don’t have to prove ourselves worthy when we pray.  We are accepted by God only on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done.  Because Jesus knows how sinful we really are, we don’t have to play games when we pray.  We can come to God just the way we are, clinging only to the cross.  “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

    When we pray, we are invited to come to the “throne of grace.”  Because of Jesus, the throne of God’s justice is now a throne of grace.  It is written that, when we come to the “throne of grace,” we will “receive mercy” and “find grace.”  There are many times in life when the only thing we can do is to cry out, “God, have mercy.  Lord, have mercy.  Jesus, have mercy.”  We are assured   that when we pray like that, we will find the mercy we need from God.

    We have been given the Good News that we can find “grace to help in our time of need.”  One modern translation says we can find “grace to help in the nick of time.”  I like that.  The last phrase literally means “at the right moment."  God’s answers are always perfectly timed.  Not too soon and not too late.  Often they do seem to come “in the nick of time.”  We have a friend in high places. Nothing we  say will surprise Him. Let us come boldly.  Let us come often.

In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/45WKXjRkSkU

Brown's Daily Word 2-26-14

    Here we are on the last Wednesday of February, 2014.  We will meet for our Wednesday Evening Gathering at 6 PM with a special meal and Bible Study followed by choir practice at 6:30 PM.  We will have a special ministry with children at 6:30 PM.  

 

    I was talking to one of our friends recently who had been on a short term mission trip to a far away place in a far away county.  She was telling me that the living conditions were not inviting but the ministry was a great joy and a great blessing.  She came home blessed and challenged.  She is ready to go back again  to a far away place.  Sometimes we look at these kinds of people and we think they are crazy, but the Lord honors this kind of craziness. 

 

    I get excited and challenged every time I read the miracle story of two men who had gone crazy for Jesus.  We read about them in Acts 16.  They had been thrown into a new mission field where the living conditions were not very conducive for ministry.  They were in the jail in the city of Philippi.  Paul and Silas were jailed in Philippi, and at midnight they began praying and singing hymns of praise to God. Acts 16:25 says that the other prisoners were listening to them.  No doubt these two strangers looked a mess after being severely beaten.  The fact that they were in stocks and under close guard told the other prisoners that Paul and Silas were not ordinary criminals.  Despite the harsh conditions, Paul and Silas were singing at midnight.  They knew that God had sent them to the jail to bear witness for their faith.  As Paul and Silas sang and the prisoners listened, they had no idea of the earthquake that was about to set them free (vv. 26-28).  Nor did they know that soon they would lead the Philippian jailer and his whole family to the Lord (vv. 29-34).  That was all hidden to them at the time and, as far as they knew, they would stay in prison a few days or a few weeks or a few months, and then they would go on trial.  After that, no one could say what might happen.

    They knew that we  are where we  are because God wants us  there, and that when he wants us somewhere else, we will be  be somewhere else.  Therefore, they worshipped and ministered in that stinky jail under cramped and confining conditions.   I believe that Paul and Silas were not praying and singing in prospect of some great miracle.  They simply bore witness to the goodness of the Lord in a most difficult situation.

    Paul and Silas were not trying to be quiet in the jail.  Evidently they prayed and sang loud enough that a crowd of prisoners listened to them, amazed that two men in stocks, having been beaten and roughed up, no doubt a sight to behold, would seem so cheerful and full of faith.

    When God calls, we can always find excuses to make.  “Not me, Lord.”  “Go ask someone else.”  “I’m busy.”  “I’m happy right where I am.”  For each of us, the issue is not our personal desire but, rather, our response when the call comes.  In the truly tough circumstances of life, we rarely get a choice in advance, which is probably a good thing because, if we did, we would be sorely tempted to run in the other direction.  It is, however, in moments like this that we discover the   presence and the power of the Lord at work .

    I’m not surprised that Paul and Silas sang in prison. Some of God’s best work gets done in prisons.  John Bunyan went to prison for preaching the gospel and wrote “Pilgrim’s Progress.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer went to prison in World War II and died testifying to God’s grace.  Chuck Colson went to prison and God gave him the vision for Prison Fellowship.

    I wonder what Paul and Silas prayed at midnight.  I wonder if it was something like what Paul wrote several years later in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.

"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word."

    When Eugene Peterson gave us his version in The Message, he started back in verse 15 and came up with this:

"So, friends, take a firm stand, feet on the ground and head high.  Keep a tight grip on what you were taught, whether in personal conversation or by our letter.  May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech."

    I like Peterson's interpretation of this passage.  “Take a firm stand, feet on the ground and head high.”  We all need that reminder, especially as we face the tough times in our lives.  At midnight we need to keep a tight grip on what we know to be true.  If it’s true in the bright sunlight of noon, it’s just as true at midnight.  ("Do not doubt in the darkness what God has shown you in the light.")  It is completely conceivable that they prayed for courage and a “fresh heart” and to be made strong so they could bear witness to the Lord.

    At midnight each one of us needs to keep a tight grip on what we know to be true. 
In Jesus our Lord,

Brown

http://youtu.be/b6ncg2pLYks

 

Brown's Daily Word 2-25-14

   Praise the Lord for music that honors the Lord and blesses our hearts.  Our grandchildren love music.  The oldest, Micah, loves country western and  bluegrass.  Simeon loves hymns like, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".  Little Ada likes "Na, na  na , na.. Every move I make .. every breath I take I take in you, Jesus", as well as many hymns and choruses.  My wife loves to sing hymns and worship songs  both old and new.  I love all kinds of music from classical to modern to. . .  Praise the Lord for some of the great composers and musicians whose hearts were redeemed by the Savior.

 

    At the bottom of many of his musical manuscripts, the great organist and composer Johann Sebastian Bach often wrote the letters "INDNJC."  Those letters stood for "In Nomine Domini Nostri Jesu Christi" -- in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  These letters did not appear on Bach's manuscripts by accident or without purpose.  Johann Sebastian Bach put those letters there for a reason. Considered a genius in the field of music, Bach recognized the one true Genius. Known for his extraordinary talent, Bach realized the source of all human talent. Praised for his musical gifts, Bach was aware of the primary giver of all gifts.  He affirmed with the New Testament writer James that "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above."  For these reasons, at the bottom of his manuscripts he wrote INDNJC.

 

    Most of us will never compose a musical manuscript, let alone one of the caliber of a Bach composition.  Yet, each day of our lives, we do compose "living" manuscripts of sorts.  Each day we have opportunities to use God-given time, talents, skills, and gifts as we write the notes which collectively compose the songs that others "hear" when they listen to our lives.  Each day that we live, we are effectively making music with our lives -- composing and performing the measures, verses, and stanzas which combine to form a "living symphony" of who we are and what we are about.

    Colossians 3:12-17 is one of several scriptural passages which reminds us of the importance of praising God through music.  I especially like verse 16 which declares: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly -- and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God."  Here is biblical evidence that from the very early days the church was a singing church, singing hymns and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God with their voices.  Thanking God with their singing and voices was not the only way members of the early church were instructed to worship and praise God, but they were also taught to worship and praise God with the entirety of their lives.  The next verse (Colossians 3:17) proclaims: "And whatever you do -- in word or deed -- do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus -- giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

    Whatever you do, wherever you are, remember that you are composing a "life manuscript," a living symphony of sorts.  Remember that as we  compose each note and play or sing each verse our Lord  calls upon us to do it INDNJC.  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are to make music with our lives.  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are to live and give thanks.  All of us are called upon by God to make the kind of music with our lives that will make a difference in our world.

In Jesus our Lord.

  Brown 

http://youtu.be/S6OgZCCoXWc