Brown's Daily Word 6/8/16

Praise the Lord for this beautiful new day, with which the Lord has blessed us.  I awoke early this morning to the sounds of the morning birds, including the morning doves, and gazed out toward the eastern skies, dazzling with the dawning of the new day.  We will be gathering this evening at 6:00 PM for our Wednesday supper followed by Bible study.  Alice and I went out for an evening stroll yesterday, meeting and greeting people along the way.  I stopped to talk with a man who was crossing the parking lot of our local park.  He and his family have parked their motor home there.  He and his wife live in Kentucky, and have come to NY to care for their son, who is in ill health.  Although he is 71, he and his wife have adopted a 7 year old boy out of Foster care.  He spoke of him with much gratitude, that he was able to make a difference in the life of at least one child.  Though they have their own children and grandchildren, their made room in their hearts and their home for another child.  For me it was heartwarming and thought-provoking. 

    In his book, The Gospel According to Jesus, Chris Seay mentions a profound lesson he learned from his father about how to love people.  He writes, “Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, so we used to get outfield deck seats (aka ‘the cheap seats’) to see the baseball games at the [Houston] Astrodome.  Most of the people buying the cheap seats did so to save more money for beer.  After the first few innings, they were drunk, and by the time the seventh-inning stretch rolled around, there would be beer mixed with peanut shells on the floor, spilled beer down your back, and a brawl two rows over and back to the left.  It was ugly out there.  As a kid, I learned from a lot people that we were sitting with the ‘bad people.’  There was one consistent drunk fan named Batty Bob.  He was a self-proclaimed Houston Astros mascot.  He'd come to all the games wearing a rainbow wig, and he'd lead slurred cheers in the stands.  I remember one time my dad went out to sit and talk with Batty Bob.  He spent the whole game with Bob, then walked him out to the parking lot to bring him home with us.  I was more than confused, because this guy was one of the ‘bad people.’  When we got home, my dad came to me and explained how God loved Batty Bob.  I remember thinking, Really?  Batty Bob?  And he stayed with us for a few days to get back on his feet. This is when I started to realize that  God did not despise these people; he dearly loved them.” 

    The message of Christianity is Jesus loves us so much that He welcomes us into His household of faith.  We who were once far away from the Kingdom, have been welcomed in to become members of His family.  The Good News of the Kingdom is that not only can we can be saved, but we can be transformed.  We do not have to be a slave to our desires and weaknesses. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can be made new.  We are not just forgiven people, we are transformed people who are being made into the image of Christ.  We are not perfect people, but we are growing in our ability to understand the kind of life he wants us to live and the ability to live it, and we cannot only be transformed, we can be used by God for his purposes — and that’s exciting.

 In Jesus our Lord.

  Brown
https://youtu.be/-4458motPhQ

Brown's Daily Word 6/7/16

Praise the Lord for the  sweet month of June.  Traditionally it is one of the most popular months for weddings.  It is also the month of High School graduations,   Baccalaureate services, and Graduation parties. Alice is getting ready for the year end classes and exams of her students.  We are planning and preparing for a mega party and reception for "Dads and Grads" this coming Sunday after the morning worship.  Our Church has invited all the graduates from the local high school, the Class of 2016.  The church is preparing all kinds of exotic foods to share and celebrate with Graduates and all the dads.  Our young friend Shawn is in charge of cooking the BBQ chicken over a wood fire.  It will be aromatic, exquisitely and exclusively delicious.  Praise the Lord that we get to celebrate His ineffable love and marvelous, extravagant grace and above all "His Goodness and Tender Mercy".

    I read with great thrill and delight  that a couple that I know and  love has gone to Russia to adopt a young boy.  Another young couple whom I joined in marriage have been blessed with two handsome sons and they adopted a lovely daughter from China.  I have been blessed to know so many who have been blessed with special hearts by the Lord and have adopted children.  Dear friends and good neighbors of Sunita and Andy have adopted a lovely girl.  Sunita and Andy's pastor and his wife have adopted two lovely girls.  Sunita and Andy have adopted a boy and girl.  These precious little ones were both preemies.  They both are growing up like weeds.  They are loved, cherished, and adored.  We praise the Lord for them.

    In the prologue to his book, Max DePree tells this story: “Esther, my wife, and I have a granddaughter named Zoe, the Greek word for life.  She was born prematurely and weighed one pound, seven ounces, so small that my wedding ring could slide up her arm to her shoulder.  The neonatologist who first examined her told us that she had a 5 to 10 percent chance of living three days.  When Esther and I scrubbed up for our first visit and saw Zoe in her isolette in the neonatal intensive care unit, she had two IVs in her navel, one in her foot, a monitor on each side of her chest, and a respirator tube and a feeding tube in her mouth.  To complicate matters, Zoe’s biological father had jumped ship the month before Zoe was born.  Realizing this, a wise and caring nurse named Ruth gave me my instructions. 'For the next several months, at least, you’re the surrogate father.  I want you to come to the hospital every day to visit Zoe, and when you come, I want you to rub her body and her legs and arms with the tip of your finger.  While you’re caressing her, you should tell her over and over how much you love her, because she has to be able to connect your voice to your touch.'  It was the experience of connecting the voice of love and the touch of love that saved her."

    When God came in Christ he had already spoken his love to us in his Word, then he came to love us with his touch.  Jesus was always touching people.  Touch is essential for human life.  People all around us need us to speak the words of love and encouragement.  We need to build up instead of tear people down.  They also need to connect our voice with our touch.  There are so many people dying for the touch of love.  It is what makes life real and worthwhile.  We can do it for each other.  The church can be an intensive CARE unit where we are loved to health and life.

Let all  love with kindness.  Let us  love with word and touch.

 

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/HPBmFwBSGb0

Brown's Daily Word 6/6/16

 Praise the Lord for the month of June.  I spent a few days in Syracuse attending the Annual Conference of our church.  It is refreshing to get reconnected with my colleagues in the ministry from years past and reminisce about bygone days and the constant faithfulness of the Lord Jesus, the Lord of the church.  It is a great experience to worship the Lord with thousands others along with praise teams, full drums, guitars, and all the words and the message displayed colorfully on the megatrons. 

    It was a wonderful day Saturday, sunny and spectacular.  Alice and I drove around the countryside of some of the surrounding counties of New York, the Empire State.  We stopped by a local farm store where we purchased  vegetable seeds and plants.  Then we kept on driving through the hills and valleys and by the endless farms and pastures.  It is panoramic and soul stirring.  We passed by a seamless strand of wildflowers which included fruit vines and trees.   It was colorful, fragrant, and unimaginable.  I was reminded of the poem by William Wordsworth that I read during my High School days:

    "The waves beside them danced, but they
    Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: --
    A poet could not but be gay
    In such a laughing company:
    I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
    What wealth the show to me had brought:

    For oft when on my couch I lie
    In vacant or in pensive mood,
    They flash upon that inward eye
    Which is the bliss of solitude,
    And then my heart with pleasure fills,
    And dances with the Daffodils."

    We drove by some local campgrounds jammed with humongous motor homes and campers, and drove past one of the largest dairy farms in the county, which was almost all automatic with milking parlors.  It was a sight to behold.  Part of the evening we planted some vegetable seeds and plants, examining some of the seeds planted earlier on Memorial Day, and found that the radishes were already germinating.  Miracles all around.

    The Lord Blessed us in His house yesterday with His presence and His grace. 

    As the sports world is reflecting upon the life of Mohammad Ali, who died this weekend, I read a fascinating account on the fight between George Foreman and Ali.  It took place in the year I came to America the Beautiful.  On October 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman squared off in the boxing ring in Zaire.  Ali had dubbed it “The Rumble in the Jungle.”  Foreman was heavily favored, and considered the hardest puncher in heavyweight division in history.  Ali did something in that fight that no other fighter had ever dared to try.  He held up his arms against his face and leaned back against the ropes allowing Foreman to punch away at him for eight rounds.  The strongest boxer in history beat on Ali until he could punch no more.  When the right moment came, Ali bounced off the ropes and knocked out Foremen, sending him into retirement.  Ali called his technique “rope-a-dope.”  Even though it looked like he was losing the fight, and losing badly, he was in control the whole time.  He took all those punches because he knew he would deliver the final blow. 

    God is using the “rope-a-dope” technique on the world of evil.  Just when the devil and the antichrist amass all their armies, and have spent themselves fighting the Lord and his people, just when it looks as though the kingdom of God is on the ropes, God will deliver the final blow.  Just when it looks like evil will win, God steps in.  Just when it looks as though evil will have the final word, God will destroy it with his final word.  The Bible says, “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8). 

    We usually think of the imagery of a small, young lamb to be harmless.  But let us read in the Word of God,  in the Book of Revelation,to what happens when the Lamb opens the fifth seal: “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.  They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!  For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Revelation 6:15-17).  The Lamb of God will conquer all the powers of the earth.  They will prefer death to facing the lamb.  And when that happens, God will share his kingdom with us.  Not only does God ask us to share in his weakness, but he will also ask us to share in his strength, for the Bible says, “They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings — and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers” (Revelation 17:14). 

    The struggle is worth it.  The battle may be long and it may be weary.  It may appear that we  are losing, but  let us keep leaning on God, and while this may appear to others to be weakness, it is our strength.  We  will triumph in the end. Paul said, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). 

    "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” (2 Thessalonians 2)

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/ngSsaSimi8A