Brown's Daily Word 6/5/17

     The Lord blessed us in His House yesterday.  I love to preach about Pentecost.  We declare about the mighty powers of our Lord.  We declare how He keeps His promises.  He is alive and well.  He is the Alpha and Omega.  It is written that in the fullness of time the Lord sent His Holy Spirit in full splendor and power.  It was both visible and audible.  When the Holy Spirit demonstrated his divine presence through the signs of wind, fire, and speaking in different languages, Luke informs us about the two different reactions.  "Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’  Some, however, made fun of them and said, ‘They have had too much wine.’"  There are seekers and there are scoffers.

     As the diving drama unfolded, the Lord equipped and propelled Peter with clearness and clarity.   Peter stood up with the eleven to say,  "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.  These men are not drunk, as you suppose.  It's only nine in the morning!"  The were not drunk with wine, as the crowd accused, but they were filled with the wine of the Holy Spirit.  "No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.’"

     The apostle Peter made it abundantly clear that Joel's prophecy was being fulfilled as recorded in Joel 2:28-32.  In this fulfillment, old barriers were eliminated and erased.  The Holy Spirit is no respecter of persons.  He is poured out upon all flesh, all people who turn to Christ in full surrender and obedience.  Joel mentioned young men who see visions and old men who dream dreams.  Gone is the age barrier.  Gone is also the gender barrier.  Prophecy, visions, dreams and the gift of the Spirit are given to daughters as well as sons, to women as well as men.

     The Holy Spirit includes and calls all God’s people, the rich and the ragged, the scholars and the unschooled, in his dynamic mission of "declaring the wonders of God" in whatever strategic position he places them.

     The explicit signs of God’s grace are also evident today all over the world.  One of our granddaughters, who is 21 months old, sings the song, "Jesus Loves Me".  She smiles.  She dances and claps her hands.  She is in my heart as she declares about Jesus our Lord.

     During our stay in Boston we met so many wonderful people.  One of them was an elderly man.  He is an engineer who has two PhDs, one of which was from MIT in Boston.  He declares the amazing of grace of Jesus in his life.  He declares about the mighty deeds of Jesus indeed.  He has debilitating diseases, but that does not deter him from declaring the wonders of Jesus.  

     On our way home from Boston we listened to the the testimony of Joni Earikson Tada, whom I had met in person in 1982.  At 16, as a result of a diving accident in the Chesapeake Bay, she suffered massive injuries which caused her to instantly become a quadraplegic.  She is wheel chair bound.  She is married for 30 years.  A couple of years ago she was diagnosed with cancer and went through chemo and radiation.  In the midst of all she was declaring the mighty deeds of God.   

     Peter concluded his quotation from Joel’s prophecy with a challenge and an invitation.  "And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  Here the Holy Spirit introduces an expressive signature of God’s salvation.  The invitation is open-ended.  It is for everyone, regardless of gender, class, or race.  Here the divine lifeline is thrown out to all drowning victims, to all sinners who are part of the human family.  It is thrown out to you and to me.

     The Good News of Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit continues the ministry of Jesus.  It’s a ministry of salvation, a ministry of hope, a ministry of renewal and refreshment.  Jesus is in heaven, but his ministry empowered by the Spirit continued through Peter, John, Thomas, Paul, and continues even to this very day.  Jesus’ ministry continues through young men who dream dreams and sons and daughters who see visions.  It continues through organists and music teams, through Church School teachers, and through Christian couples sharing their faith at barbecue outings with their neighbors.  Jesus’ ministry continues through all of God’s people who are truly possessed with the Holy Spirit and all of his gifts, at the school desk and at the machine shop, and even at assembly lines and in shopping malls.

     Pentecost means that the world is set ablaze.  A new era has been ushered in.  It’s an era of grace and salvation, of mission and evangelism.  Today is still the day of grace.  "And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!"

In Christ,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/gbg1M_UkiDA

Brown's Daily Word 6/3/17

     Thanks be to Jesus, the author of life and the giver of all perfect and good gifts to His people.  We are undeserving of these blessings and gifts.  They indeed are unmerited.  We woke up this morning to a wonderful new day.  It is indeed one of the ten best days of June. The unhurried Sun is playing hide and and seek amid glorious clouds.  Alice and I drove back to Marathon yesterday,  We left Boston around 9:30 AM and arrived in Marathon around 2.45 PM.  The drive on the Mass Pike and Interstate 88 was pleasant and  beautiful. There were flowering trees along the Highway all the way from Boston to Binghamton, studded with brilliant flowers.  The landscape along the median was lush with spring and summer flowers.  The  mountains and hills were luscious green.  Praise the Lord for the way He decorates the endless mountains with endless beauty.  Praise the Lord He has blessed us with eyes to see the beauty, hearts to love Him, and minds to ponder about His goodness and all about His loving kindness.  Soon after we arrived home Alice rushed to a retirement gathering presented by  the Marathon Teachers Association.  She returned blessed and honored.  The Lord blessed our time in Boston.  He provided for every need and beyond. Janice, Jeremy Micah, Simeon, and Ada went on their first summer camping adventure of the year to a very rustic and wild campground.

   This morning I needed tech support for my AOL.  I called the support line and connected to the tech support team in Romania (Europe).  They were competent, caring and brilliant.  I told them that that they had an accent.. They retorted back, "you have accent".  We got along well. Tech support got to the root of my problem and fixed it with much grace.

     A friend has ploughed and prepared a big garden ares for us for the Summer of 2017. We are excited about the gardening season.   Praise the Lord for the good earth the Lord created for His people.

     We are getting ready for worship services tomorrow, Pentecost Sunday, the day that the Christian Church was first endued with the Holy Spirit.  They were emboldened, and propelled into the world to turn the world right side up and upside down. The church of Jesus Christ was a small "start up company" consisting of fishermen, recovered tax collectors, and just common people like just like us.  Jesus, the Lord of the Church and the king of all nations, used this "start up company " centered in Jerusalem to move into the low places and High places all over the world to transform the world.  Jesus promised, "Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell can not prevail against it".  It is this Promise of Jesus that propels and compels us to "preach the Good News to the poor... to proclaim the release to the captives... to set at liberty to those who are oppressed... and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord".  Luke 4.  Let us all plan to be in the House of the Lord wherever we might be tomorrow. We will meet for Sunday School at 9.30AM and for worship at 10.30 AM. We will havea  church wide fellowship hour following the worship time.

     We are at home now, gearing up for the big event for July 1 - Alice's retirement party (and all other reasons we have for celebrating).  Praise the Lord for all of our friends and family who are set to prepare foods, serve, and share.  We will gather at the Marathon Civic Center at 4:00 PM, with the buffet to be served at 5:00 PM.  It is going to be a beautiful day; the fellowship will be sweet, the food delicious, and the dessert decadent.  Thank you for making time to be there with us.  Jesus is Lord.  He is the host at every banquet.  He is the Lord of all.

 In Christ,

  Brown

Brown's Daily Word 5/8/17

    The Lord blessed us with His very presence yesterday in His house.  It was all  celebrative with lots of laughter and praise, prayer, and thanksgiving.  There was a church-wide fellowship hour with food and sharing of humor and laughter that lingered for long.  There has been a minor change in our travel plans.  We will be traveling to Boston this morning instead of Sunday.  I woke up in the early morning (aka the middle of the night) to make some official calls to India.  I talked some one in the city of Cuttack, the city in which I spent my college days.  It is mid-summer there, mango season.  The schools and colleges are closed for summer.  The temperature will be reaching 107 F. . . my kind of weather.  

    We are witnessing an amazing movement of the Lord in international and global spheres.  The Lord is fermenting His church in the midst of chaos and confusion, even fears and calamities.  The Lord is reminding us, "Be still and know that I am God".   In the history of the ancient world, the same Babylonians who seemed to be so powerful were actually defeated without much of a fight.  They thought nothing could happen to them.  They were so sure they were safe that they did not even post a guard on the wall, but while their rulers drank themselves into oblivion, the Persian army simply diverted the flow of the Euphrates River, which flowed under the walls and through the great city.  Then they marched right into Babylon on the empty riverbed (Daniel 5).  The great kingdom of Babylon collapsed in a single night.  God proved that the people were like grass and that only He remains.

    

    In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 40, we read about  an everlasting comfort, and about  the  everlasting Word of God.  When all other claims to truth have had their say, the Word of God will stand alone in the end.  Everything else changes. Philosophies come and go, but God’s Word remains the abiding Truth.  The lie of the Nazis came to an end and died.  The lie of godless communism came and died. I spent a few weeks in Far East Russia in the winter of 2003.  I was part of a wonderful group of short term missionaries.  I was asked to preach several times, and each time I was stunned and amazed at the movement of the Lord and His Holy Spirit.  The grandchildren of staunch communists were the worship leaders and musicians, and were praising the Lord, declaring His majesty and authority.  The system of Marx, Lenin, and the other communist leaders who had denigrated the Christian faith and the Word of God has fallen, and in places where young communists were trained on the tenets of atheism, Christians are worshiping together and being trained in evangelistic techniques.  When I was in graduate school, in the late sixties and the early seventies, many philosophers and theologians were saying that God was dead, and predicting the death of the church.  Today almost no one can remember the names of those who made those predictions, let alone the titles of their books, but the church of Jesus Christ is thriving and God is still very much alive.

 I read this story about a  young musician , who once went to see his old music teacher.  During the visit, his elderly mentor took a tuning fork and struck it on the end of the table.  He said. “That is ‘A.’”  From the floor above them they could hear the voice of a singer rehearsing.  “She sings sharp,” the old teacher said with a smile.  He struck the tuning fork again and paused as he lifted it and said, “She is sharp, but this ‘A’ — always has been, always will be — 440 vibrations per second.  It will still be ‘A’ 5,000 years from now.”  In the same way, this is God’s Word.  It was God’s Word yesterday; it is God’s Word today, and it will be God’s Word 5000 years from now. Kingdoms will rise and fall.  Ideas will come and go.  The values of the world will change, but God’s Word will remain the one constant in a world of change and confusion.

    The emperor Diocletian tried to revive the old pagan religions of Rome by persecuting and killing Christians.  He set up a stone pillar in his honor, inscribed with the words that he wanted to describe his legacy: “For Having Exterminated The Name Christian From the Earth.”  If only he knew how far short of his goal he fell!  His monument was more of a tribute to the endurance of Christianity than it was to him. Another Roman leader made a coffin, symbolizing his intention “to bury the Galilean” by killing Christ’s followers.  He eventually admitted that he could not put the Master in his coffin.  

    In Isaiah 40, we read of everlasting comfort, and of the everlasting Word of God,  of an everlasting strength.  “Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:28-31).  Those who were in exile lost hope, and because of that they lost their strength and desire to go on.  Even the young were beaten down, weary and defeated.  But those who placed their hope and trust in God did not lose heart, and they did not lose strength — regardless of their age.  Their hearts and minds soared as they thought about what God was going to do.  As new strength and courage entered their hearts it began to affect their bodies.  They gained a new enthusiasm for life and a new strength to go on. But you never gain that strength unless you are willing to wait on the Lord.  We are destined for the skies.  We are propelled by the Holy Spirit.  He is beckoning us    to soar with Him, in and through Him.

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/0MtdyRDy4fU