Saturday, October 6, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
Brown's Daily Word 10-5-12
Praise the Lord for this First Friday of October. We learned yesterday
about the death of my wife's first cousin, Peter Maynard, who died after a brief
illness. Peter was the first of the Maynard cousins in her generation to pass
out of this world and into the arms of Jesus. Peter and his wife Linda were
married for 41 years. Peter was a farmer, and on the farm he was a tractor
technician. When I first came to the USA in Septmber, 1974 Peter and Linda
welcomed me into the family with much kindness and grace. Peter was soft spoken
with a beautiful heart. He loved the Lord, he loved the land, and he loved to
farm. He was a believer in Jesus Christ. We know He is with Jesus our
Lord.
Sunita flew back to Washington, DC yesterday after being away for
almost two weeks in Rumania. The Lord blessed her visit and He granted her
great favor with the people of Rumania.
We are planning for our annual prayer conference starting next Friday.
Those of you live in the area,please join us. This will be a great time of
praise and prayer. We have seen the Lord perform many miracles during the past
prayer conferences. We are trusting the Lord for His continuous
miracles.
Peter Kreeft, a Roman Catholic theologian, says, “We have time and prayer backwards. We think time determines prayer, but prayer determines time. We think our lack of time is the cause of our lack of prayer, but our lack of prayer is the cause of our lack of time. When a little boy offered Christ five loaves and two fishes, he multiplied them miraculously. He does the same with our time, but only if we offer it to him in prayer. This is literally miraculous, yet I know it happens from repeated experience. Every day that I say I am too busy to pray, I seem to have no time, accomplish little, and feel frazzled and enslaved by time. Every day that I say I’m too busy not to pray, every time I offer some time-loaves and life-fishes to Christ, he miraculously multiplies them and I share his conquest of time. I have no idea how he does it, I know that he does it, time after time. And yet I resist sacrificing my loaves and fishes to him. I am an idiot. That’s one of the things original sin means: spiritual insanity, preferring misery to joy, little bits of hell to little bits of heaven. We must restore our spiritual sanity. One giant step in that direction is to think truly about time.”
One Christian leader kept a sign on his desk that read, “Beware of the Barrenness of a Busy Life.” Our lives can be extremely shallow and barren as we get caught in the rush of things to do. Some call it the “tyranny of the urgent” — the urgent replaces the important and our lives become drained as a result. The Bible says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
From the book "Springs in the Valley" comes this story which occurred during African colonial history: “In the deep jungles of Africa, a traveler was making a long trek. Workers had been engaged from a tribe to carry the loads. The first day they marched rapidly and went far. The traveler had high hopes of a speedy journey. But the second morning these jungle tribesmen refused to move. For some strange reason they just sat and rested. On inquiry as to the reason for this strange behavior, the traveler was informed that they had gone too fast the first day, and that they were now waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies.”
We need to take Christ seriously when he said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.( Mathew 11). Again it is written “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15).
Joni Eareckson tells a story of how prayer works. She wrote, “It all began when I received a letter from a quadriplegic in China. He had recently come to Christ and now saw his disabled friends as his mission field. He couldn’t use his hands, and so he needed a power wheelchair to get around. He wrote, asking for help. I thought, ‘Where am I going to get such a chair, and how will we get it to China?’ At the same time, I received a late-night call from John, a friend in Ohio. His disabled wife had recently passed away. ‘We just purchased a new $20,000 power chair. My wife hardly used it. Think you can find someone who needs it?’ Remembering the quadriplegic in China, I blurted, ‘Of course!’ Then I wondered, ‘How are we going to get a hold of this wheelchair? There’s crating and shipping and...’ Before I could say another thing, John added, ‘We received some financial gifts at the funeral... I’d love to cover the costs of sending this chair to whoever needs it, no matter how far away.’ I was breathless. I told John about the man in China. We rejoiced together, utterly amazed at how the eyes of the Lord were on a quadriplegic on the other side of the earth... his eyes were on a widower in Ohio with a slightly used wheelchair, too. And the Lord wanted to strengthen the hearts of both! It happens in China. It happens in Ohio. And it can happen to you. Of all the places in the earth, God has his eyes on you.”
Peter Kreeft, a Roman Catholic theologian, says, “We have time and prayer backwards. We think time determines prayer, but prayer determines time. We think our lack of time is the cause of our lack of prayer, but our lack of prayer is the cause of our lack of time. When a little boy offered Christ five loaves and two fishes, he multiplied them miraculously. He does the same with our time, but only if we offer it to him in prayer. This is literally miraculous, yet I know it happens from repeated experience. Every day that I say I am too busy to pray, I seem to have no time, accomplish little, and feel frazzled and enslaved by time. Every day that I say I’m too busy not to pray, every time I offer some time-loaves and life-fishes to Christ, he miraculously multiplies them and I share his conquest of time. I have no idea how he does it, I know that he does it, time after time. And yet I resist sacrificing my loaves and fishes to him. I am an idiot. That’s one of the things original sin means: spiritual insanity, preferring misery to joy, little bits of hell to little bits of heaven. We must restore our spiritual sanity. One giant step in that direction is to think truly about time.”
One Christian leader kept a sign on his desk that read, “Beware of the Barrenness of a Busy Life.” Our lives can be extremely shallow and barren as we get caught in the rush of things to do. Some call it the “tyranny of the urgent” — the urgent replaces the important and our lives become drained as a result. The Bible says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
From the book "Springs in the Valley" comes this story which occurred during African colonial history: “In the deep jungles of Africa, a traveler was making a long trek. Workers had been engaged from a tribe to carry the loads. The first day they marched rapidly and went far. The traveler had high hopes of a speedy journey. But the second morning these jungle tribesmen refused to move. For some strange reason they just sat and rested. On inquiry as to the reason for this strange behavior, the traveler was informed that they had gone too fast the first day, and that they were now waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies.”
We need to take Christ seriously when he said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.( Mathew 11). Again it is written “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15).
Joni Eareckson tells a story of how prayer works. She wrote, “It all began when I received a letter from a quadriplegic in China. He had recently come to Christ and now saw his disabled friends as his mission field. He couldn’t use his hands, and so he needed a power wheelchair to get around. He wrote, asking for help. I thought, ‘Where am I going to get such a chair, and how will we get it to China?’ At the same time, I received a late-night call from John, a friend in Ohio. His disabled wife had recently passed away. ‘We just purchased a new $20,000 power chair. My wife hardly used it. Think you can find someone who needs it?’ Remembering the quadriplegic in China, I blurted, ‘Of course!’ Then I wondered, ‘How are we going to get a hold of this wheelchair? There’s crating and shipping and...’ Before I could say another thing, John added, ‘We received some financial gifts at the funeral... I’d love to cover the costs of sending this chair to whoever needs it, no matter how far away.’ I was breathless. I told John about the man in China. We rejoiced together, utterly amazed at how the eyes of the Lord were on a quadriplegic on the other side of the earth... his eyes were on a widower in Ohio with a slightly used wheelchair, too. And the Lord wanted to strengthen the hearts of both! It happens in China. It happens in Ohio. And it can happen to you. Of all the places in the earth, God has his eyes on you.”
In Christ,
Saturday October 6,
2012
5:30 PM October
Festival with Food, Fellowship, Testimonies, and Hymn Sing
at
Wesley UMC,
1000 Day
Hollow Road, Endicott.
Sunday October 7,
2012
Family Breakfast at
7:00 AM
Speaker: Dr. Gary
Smith, Ph D, from Binghamton University
Location:
Union
Center United Methodist Church. 128 Maple Drive Endicott
Annual Praise and Prayer Conference
Friday- Sunday October 12-14,
2012
- Opening worship: Friday 7 PM at Union Center United Methodist Church, 128 Maple Drive, Endicott
- Saturday 10 am - 1 PM We will gather in the sanctuary of the Union Center United Methodist Church for a concert of prayer.
- Prayer teams will be available to pray. We will anointing with oil and will pray for emotional, physical, and spiritual healing. We will be praying for deliverance and restoration.
- 6 PM First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott. We will gather for a NEW YORK PIZZA Party
- 6:30 PM praise and worship. There will be time for prayer. There will be anointing with oil. We will be praying for miracles of healing, deliverance, salvation, restoration. We will also be serving Communion at the Altar.
- Sunday, October 14, 2012, Morning worship will be at 9:30 AM at Wesley United Methodist Church, 1000 Day Hollow Road
- 8:30 and 11:00 Worship services will be held at the Union Center United Methodist Church; 9:50 - Sunday School Hour
- 12:30 PM Prayer Banquet with international foods
Leaders for the prayer conference
are:
Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN,
Andy and Sunita Groth, Rob
Krech, Meredith Watson, and Amanda (all from Washington,
DC).
The leaders and members of the
Binghamton House of prayer will be joining for this conference Event. Laureen
Naik will be leading in worship music. Come expecting a miracle.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Brown's Daily Word 10-4-12
Praise the Lord
this new day. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday Evening gathering
for fellowship and study. The food prepared by new cooks was fantastic. The
fellowship was sweet and the Study, "A Life God Rewards", was very provocative
and powerful.
In light of the
last night study I was reflecting on the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
found in Mathew 20. In this parable Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is
like a landowner that went out and hired workers for his vineyard. Some he hired
early in the day, telling them that he would pay them the usual daily wage. He
went back at various times of the day and found more workers waiting to be
hired. Each time he hired those that were there, telling them that he would pay
them what was right. We are not told why some had not found work or if they had
shown up at the marketplace late or any other details. At the end of the day
came to pay the workers. He began with the ones most recently hired and he paid
them the usual daily wage. That excited the ones who had been there all day.
They thought that surely if he paid the late ones that much he obviously would
pay them even more for all their hard work. Their excitement was short lived. In
fact, they were pretty upset when they got the same pay working all day as what
people got who only worked an hour. When the landowner heard them grumbling, he
tried to explain that he wasn’t unfair at all. He gave them what they had agreed
upon, but it was his money and he could be generous if that is what he chose to
do. What the landowner did know about is grace. The workers that came at the end
of the day didn’t get what they deserved they got grace .
Of course in the parable the landowner is God; the workers are us. First of all, the parable says that grace is to be received, not deserved. For all of us who are people of faith, we know that we do not deserve God’s grace. Nothing that we can do will put us in a position of deserving God’s grace. All we can do is receive the gift that God offers to us.
David Seamands, who spent in India as missionary along with siblings for many decades, ends his book Healing Grace with this story. For more than six hundred years the Hapsburgs exercised political power in Europe. When Emperor Franz-Josef I of Austria died in 1916, his was the last of the extravagant imperial funerals. A processional of dignitaries and elegantly dressed court personages escorted the casket, which was draped in the black and gold imperial colors. To the accompaniment of a military band’s somber dirges and by the light of torches, the somber group descended the stairs of the Capuchin Monastery in Vienna. At the bottom was a great iron door leading to the Hapsburg family crypt. Behind the door was the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna.
The officer in charge followed the prescribed ceremony, established centuries before. “Open!” he cried. “Who goes there?” responded the Cardinal. “We bear the remains of his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, Franz-Josef I, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Defender of the faith…” the officer continued to list the Emperor’s thirty-seven titles.
“We know him not,” replied the Cardinal. “Who goes there?” The officer spoke again, this time using a much abbreviated and less ostentatious title reserved for times of expediency. “We know him not,” the Cardinal said again. “Who goes there?” The officer tried a third time, stripping the emperor of all but the humblest of titles: “We bear the body of Franz-Josef, our brother, a sinner like us all!” At that the doors swung open, and Franz-Josef was admitted.
No matter who we are, what titles we have, or how much we have, none of it can open the way to God’s grace. Grace is given freely, what is left for us is to openly receive that grace.
Of course in the parable the landowner is God; the workers are us. First of all, the parable says that grace is to be received, not deserved. For all of us who are people of faith, we know that we do not deserve God’s grace. Nothing that we can do will put us in a position of deserving God’s grace. All we can do is receive the gift that God offers to us.
David Seamands, who spent in India as missionary along with siblings for many decades, ends his book Healing Grace with this story. For more than six hundred years the Hapsburgs exercised political power in Europe. When Emperor Franz-Josef I of Austria died in 1916, his was the last of the extravagant imperial funerals. A processional of dignitaries and elegantly dressed court personages escorted the casket, which was draped in the black and gold imperial colors. To the accompaniment of a military band’s somber dirges and by the light of torches, the somber group descended the stairs of the Capuchin Monastery in Vienna. At the bottom was a great iron door leading to the Hapsburg family crypt. Behind the door was the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna.
The officer in charge followed the prescribed ceremony, established centuries before. “Open!” he cried. “Who goes there?” responded the Cardinal. “We bear the remains of his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, Franz-Josef I, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Defender of the faith…” the officer continued to list the Emperor’s thirty-seven titles.
“We know him not,” replied the Cardinal. “Who goes there?” The officer spoke again, this time using a much abbreviated and less ostentatious title reserved for times of expediency. “We know him not,” the Cardinal said again. “Who goes there?” The officer tried a third time, stripping the emperor of all but the humblest of titles: “We bear the body of Franz-Josef, our brother, a sinner like us all!” At that the doors swung open, and Franz-Josef was admitted.
No matter who we are, what titles we have, or how much we have, none of it can open the way to God’s grace. Grace is given freely, what is left for us is to openly receive that grace.
In
Christ,
Brown
Saturday October 6,
2012
5:30 PM October
Festival with Food, Fellowship, Testimonies, and Hymn Sing
at
Wesley UMC,
1000 Day
Hollow Road, Endicott.
Sunday October 7,
2012
Family Breakfast at
7:00 AM
Speaker: Dr. Gary
Smith, Ph D, from Binghamton University
Location:
Union
Center United Methodist Church. 128 Maple Drive Endicott
Annual Praise and Prayer Conference
Friday- Sunday October 12-14,
2012
- Opening worship: Friday 7 PM at Union Center United Methodist Church, 128 Maple Drive, Endicott
- Saturday 10 am - 1 PM We will gather in the sanctuary of the Union Center United Methodist Church for a concert of prayer.
- Prayer teams will be available to pray. We will anointing with oil and will pray for emotional, physical, and spiritual healing. We will be praying for deliverance and restoration.
- 6 PM First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott. We will gather for a NEW YORK PIZZA Party
- 6:30 PM praise and worship. There will be time for prayer. There will be anointing with oil. We will be praying for miracles of healing, deliverance, salvation, restoration. We will also be serving Communion at the Altar.
- Sunday, October 14, 2012, Morning worship will be at 9:30 AM at Wesley United Methodist Church, 1000 Day Hollow Road
- 8:30 and 11:00 Worship services will be held at the Union Center United Methodist Church; 9:50 - Sunday School Hour
- 12:30 PM Prayer Banquet with international foods
Leaders for the prayer conference
are:
Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN,
Andy and Sunita Groth, Rob
Krech, Meredith Watson, and Amanda (all from Washington,
DC).
The leaders and members of the
Binghamton House of prayer will be joining for this conference Event. Laureen
Naik will be leading in worship music. Come expecting a miracle.
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