Brown's Daily Word 5-29-07

This is the day the Lord has made. This is His day. He is the Lord of the day and He is the Lord of History. He is the King of angels. Sunday was the Day Pentecost in the life of the church. It was wonderful to be back at home in our Church family. Alice and I both shared about the miracle the Lord performed in my life during the past few days. It is a miracle of grace.
To perform the surgery earlier this month, the surgeon made five holes in my stomach. The number five in the Bible stands for grace, like the five loaves of bread, the five porticos on the pool at Bethesda, etc.
Sunday we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples, who were disheartened, dismayed, depressed. They were gathered in the upper Room. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire that sat upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Spirit propelled them into the temple courtyard. The were bold and galvanized. They began to declare, boldly and lucidly,about the Mighty Deeds of the Lord. Peter, standing along withe eleven, filled and anointed with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed about Jesus Christ the risen one. People heard the Good news, saw the signs and wonders, were convicted in their hearts, and asked the question, "What shall we do"? Peter said unto them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Acts 2.
The Holy Spirit came upon a group of men who were defeated, disillusioned and disheartened. The Holy spirit transformed them wonderfully. Being filled and anointed by the Holy Spirit, they went out in to the world with the GOOD NEWS of JESUS Christ the Lord and Savior and they turned the world upside down and right side up.
John Wimber was a product of the Jesus movement in the 60’s. He met Christ in a dramatic way, and began reading the New Testament, beginning with the Gospels and then on to the book of Acts. He was excited about what he was reading, but when he went to a church he was disillusioned. The polite and tidy service was over exactly on time. Wimber looked at some of the people around him and said, “When are you gonna do the stuff?” “What stuff?” they wanted to know. He said, “You know. . . the stuff!” He had been reading about the conversions, healings, deliverance and other miracles that took place in the early church recorded the book of Acts. But instead of signs and wonders, he saw no sign of anything that would make him wonder, except the deadness of the ritual he had just sat through. I have been re-reading the book of Acts recently myself. I have seen again that signs and wonders were not the exceptions; they were the norm of the early church. Healings and supernatural happenings were expected and they occurred regularly. I have witnessed the signs and wonders and miracles in the life of sinners like me and all around the world who turn to Jesus in full surrender and joyful abandonment to Him. . Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). We need to discover once again that we have an unchanging Lord, and an unchanging kingdom. We need once again to discover the power of Pentecost. We need to be filled with the Spirit. We need to be operating in the gifts of the Spirit. We need to see people’s lives turned around. We need to see people healed physically, emotionally, relationally, socially and spiritually. We need to experience the unity of the Spirit as the early church did. We need to be living in genuine love for each other and when we fail at that then we need to seek reconciliation. We need to have the fire fall and the people of God to rise up. Rick Kirchoff says, “When God sends forth the Spirit amazing things happen: barriers are broken, communities are formed, opposites are reconciled, unity is established, disease is cured, addiction is broken, cities are renewed, races are reconciled, hope is established, people are blessed, and church happens. Today the Spirit of God is present and we’re gonna’ have church. So be ready, get ready. . . God is up to something. . . discouraged folks cheer up, dishonest folks ‘fess up, sour folks sweeten up, closed folk, open up, gossipers shut up, conflicted folks make up, sleeping folks wake up, lukewarm folk, fire up, dry bones shake up, and pew potatoes stand up! But most of all, Christ the Savior of all the world is lifted up.” The Christian life is not about keeping rules, but about knowing Christ. As long as we think that Christianity is something that WE do, we are missing the point. It is not about what we do, but what God does in us. Being a Christian is not doing the right thing or believing the right doctrines, it is knowing the right person. It is about surrendering my life, my body, my mind and my heart to Jesus Christ and asking him to take up residence in me. It is about confessing my sin and turning from it. It is about banking everything I have and am on God and loving him with my whole heart. The Christian faith is not a feeling. It is a reality. It is a real relationship with a real person — Jesus Christ. Christianity is about the most powerful and wonderful person in the universe who desires to know us intimately. This experience is not tame; it is wild and powerful. Paul said, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10). We are to grow in holiness, and be salt and light in a tasteless and dark world. We are to become transformed on a daily basis, through the spiritual disciplines, and then become agents of transformation in the world. The more you know Jesus, the more you will love him, and the more excited you will be about his kingdom. The more you love him, the more you will want others to know him. The more you experience his presence and power, the more of it you want. This is the way to live. We have been forgiven. We have inherited eternal life. We have experienced eternal love. We are holding nothing back because we have discovered life. We have found the pearl of great price, and it is worth more than everything else we have seen or possessed. Because of this we are excited about life and we are excited about the wonderful God we serve. We are willing to do whatever it takes to have more of him. Chuck Colson reports that columnist Jonathan Rauch believes that America has made “a major civilizational advance” in recent years. Colson says, “Rauch, a longtime atheist, is thrilled about a phenomenon he calls ‘apatheism’ [apathetic theism]. It’s not that people don’t believe in God anymore, Rauch writes in the Atlantic Monthly — the majority will still say they believe. . . . On the whole, the people Rauch describes haven’t been putting much thought or effort into their faith. They’re looking for comfort and reassurance, not for a God who asks anything of them. Hence the rise of ‘apatheism,’ which Rauch defines as ‘a disinclination to care all that much about one’s own religion, and an even stronger disinclination to care about other people’s.’” Colson goes on to talk about writer David Brooks who noticed a trend a few years ago and coined the term flexidoxy [flexible beliefs]. Flexidoxy describes the form of religion practiced by many educated young Americans as opposed to orthodoxy. Basically, it means that people have become flexible in their belief system and look at religion as a giant smorgasbord from which they can pick and choose the beliefs that most suit them. They become the center of their own faith and adapt it to what they see as important. Many of you heard or read about 27-year-old Aron Ralston who had his right arm pinned by an 800-pound boulder in a climbing accident. He had gone hiking in Bluejohn Canyon, adjacent to Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. He was an experienced climber, for he had already climbed 49 other peaks in Colorado which were over 14,000 feet. He thought about what it would be like to die on the mountain and have his family find his body, or perhaps never know his fate. Ralston, a former engineer for Intel and an avid outdoorsman, thought about his options. After five days of being pinned, and having run out of food and water, he decided to apply a tourniquet and amputate his arm below the elbow with his pocket knife. He then rigged anchors and rappelled to the canyon floor with his one good arm. He walked downstream until he was spotted by a Utah Public Safety Helicopter. What the news did not say much about was that this Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Carnegie Mellon University credits his faith in God for ability to do what he had to do. He is a deeply committed Christian who often played the piano in the United Methodist Church in Greenwood Village near Denver, Colorado. Because Aron wanted to live, he was willing to cut away everything that was holding him back. It is that kind of commitment and zeal that will enable us to experience Pentecostal power. When you are willing to cut away everything that is holding you back and walk out of the canyon of bondage, then the Holy Spirit will come to you in new ways and you know a life that you did not know was possible.
The Bible says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us” (Hebrews 12:1, New Living). The apostle Paul did this, for he wrote, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

With deep gratitude to Jesus our Lord,
BrownHappy Birthday to: Evvie Binder, Rhonda Emmons, Linda Barton, Don Phillips.
Happy 61st wedding anniversary to Irving and Orpha Rosenbarker.
They all are sweet servants of Jesus and the salt of the earth.We are excited about and eagerly anticipating the Franklin Graham Festival, which is to be held at the Binghamton University Events Center on June 8,9, &10. BU is to be the epicenter of this great event, which is expected to draw many thousands into the Binghamton area to hear the Message of the Gospel in word and song. A 600 member choir will be presenting some of the music on Friday and Sunday evenings. Invite all of your friends to come and participate, share, and rejoice.
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