Morning Devotion 5-9-07

Good Morning.
"This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it". It is going to be one of the ten best days. It is going to be very warm, just like summer in India. Janice and Micah came down to spend last few days with us. The Lord blessed us with wonderful days together. Micah is very winsome, loving and lovable. She loves to pray. Every time we sit at the table she reaches for my hand to pray. She says a very loud amen after each prayer time. She says Hallelujah with joy and zeal. We will be traveling to Boston this afternoon. I will have full day of preparation tomorrow for the surgery Friday at 1.30.pm. I am thankful that I will have the support of family and friends while in Boston. Sunita and Laureen fly in this weekend. My brothers and sisters are coming there Friday with Brother Jim Holmes driving them. Our young friend Michelle is coming next Thursday. I will be released from the hospital Saturday following the surgery. Alice and I will be staying with Janice, Jeremy and Micah through May 21. We will be updating on my surgery and recovery on my web page: brownnaik.com. I am surrounded by His grace and His love and blessed by all of you. Thank you for praying and caring. May Jesus our Lord be praised. This will be my last devotional, until I get back to New York.
We will celebrate the festival of Pentecost on Sunday May 27. This is the day when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. It happened 50 days after the Resurrection and after 10 days of Ascension. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples like fire and wind. The disciples were very possibly discouraged, disheartened, depressed and dismayed. Suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon then with power and velocity. It exploded upon them. The were propelled and expelled to proclaim the Good News of Jesus our Lord with boldeness and gladness and with fearless courage. The Lord infused them with His grace and power to turn the world upside down and right side up.

On August 6, 1945, at precisely 8:15 AM, a bomb exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Within seconds, the entire city lay in ruins. Seventy thousand people were dead and another seventy thousand seriously injured. Jesus said that His disciples would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 1:8). They would be "clothed with power from high," He promised (Luke 24:49). Paul echoed the same thought when he prayed that his readers might know and experience the mighty resurrection power of Jesus in their lives (Eph. 1:18-20). For Paul the message of the Gospel itself contained power, the very power of God (Rom. 1:16). The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of power! He IS quite capable of doing "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us" (Eph. 3:20). Yet perhaps the most amazing thing of all is His ability to demonstrate quiet power in ways often unnoticed by man. One such amazing aspect of the Spirit’s work is His ability to give power in suffering. Several years ago, the well-known German pastor and theologian Helmut Thielicke was asked during a visit to America what he considered the greatest problem in the US. He surprised many with his unexpected reply. "The biggest problem," he said, "is an inadequate view of suffering." He went on to explain that, in his view, the American dream of perpetual progress had led many to believe that any and all problems could be solved with a minimum of effort or discomfort. Unfortunately, he insisted, this is simply not the case. There are, and always will be, certain burdens in life that cannot be eliminated. In Thielicke’s words, "These burdens obviously pitch the American into such helpless embarrassment that he either capitulates, to them or represses them or glosses them. Unfortunately, the German pastor’s words have as much relevance for many Christian’s view of life as for society at large. In the popular mind of our age, it is assumed by many that power always leads to pleasure. Adversity and suffering are certain signs of weakness. Given this attitude, the Holy Spirit’s power is measured by his ability to make life easy for the believer. Health, wealth and success are the true signs of the Spirit’s blessings. Adversity and suffering, on the other hand are the companions of spiritual weakness. For many the Holy Spirit is powerful enough to enable a believer to escape adversity, but not strong enough to sustain him in it. Such an attitude is far removed from the teachings of the Gospel. Nowhere does Jesus promise His followers an easy life. Quite to the contrary, Jesus insisted that the path of discipleship is straight and narrow and the way hard (Matt- 7:13-14). Rather than rejecting adversity as a sign of spiritual weakness, the early Christians rejoiced that they were counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name" (Acts 5:41). Paul even taught that suffering was an expected part of the Spirit-led life (Romans 8:14-27). Dr. Paul Brand, world-renowned leprosy specialist, provides some enlightening background for this spiritual truth from his experiences with the lepers of India. Dr. Brand tells how he discovered that contrary to once popular medical opinion leprosy does not directly cause the deterioration of the flesh of its victims. The disease simply deadens the nerves of the body’s extremities. Eventually the leper looses all feeling in his fingers and toes. The afflicted person can burn his hand and never feel the pain. Infection and even gangrene can eat away at his flesh with out ever creating the slightest discomfort. In fact, in certain villages in Africa and Asia the town leper is given a unique job because of his inability to feel pain. Such insensitivity soon destroys the leper’s flesh. After years of working with lepers, Dr. Brand learned to rejoice in the sensation of cutting a finger, turning an ankle, or stepping into a too-hot bath. Pain itself, the hurt of pain, is a gift. "Thank God for pain!" writes Dr. Brand.This is precisely the attitude of scripture toward adversity of every sort. Such a view, however, is not simply a Stoic acceptance of fate: "we might as well live with it. There is nothing we can do about it anyway.’’ Not at all! The Bible insists that adversity is not simply something to be endured. It is a tool of God used to teach us much needed lessons (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2-4). Adversity is like a cloud. It may block the sunlight for a time, but it also brings the rain. Both sunlight and rain are needed for growth. As C. S. Lewis phrased it, "God whispers in our pleasures, but shouts in our pain." Phillip Brooks must have understood this spiritual truth when he wrote, "Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle but you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself at the richness of life which has come by the grace of God." The Holy Spirit can and does bring power to God’s people. But because He is the Lord of the valleys as well as the God of the mountain tops, His power often brings the quiet strength needed to endure adversity and not simply the power to escape it. A second unexpected power of the Spirit is the power to love. Again, in-the eyes of the world, loving and forgiving are measures of weakness not strength. When abused or attacked the strong reply in kind. Vengeance, not forgiveness, is the law of life. Only the coward or the man too weak to fight fails to retaliate. He commanded them to love their enemies, not just those who were kind to them. Going the second mile, turning the other cheek, and forgiving without limit were to be the true signs of spiritual power for Jesus’ men and women. The Lord knew, as His modern disciples must learn, that real power never needs to hate or destroy. Only a man unsure of his strength needs to prove it. A truly strong man can look hate square in the eye and say, "In Jesus’ name I love! I forgive!" The Spirit also provides the power to serve. As with suffering and loving, service is not often a mark of power in a fallen world. In facts in our world a man is esteemed if he no longer is forced to dirty himself with the menial tasks of life. A powerful man is to be served not serve. Ruling, controlling, manipulating the lives of others--these are the marks of power. Jesus taught His disciples this same lesson again and again. Only a week before the Upper Room Jesus cut short an argument over His disciples positions in His Kingdom with a startling truth, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt, 20:25-28). Paul encouraged this same attitude when he wrote, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus “ (Phil. 2:3-5). The inability to accept such a concept of Christian servant-hood was the very problem that created the disastrous confusion over the work of the Holy Spirit at Corinth (1 Corinthians 12-14). Apparently many in the Corinthian church had decided that whatever power or abilities the Spirit had given them were for their own personal benefits. Paul insisted otherwise. Every gift of the Spirit is for the "common good," taught the apostle (1 Cor. 12:7). No individual member of the body dares look upon himself as the master of the church. Each is a servant of the rest. To use a gift of the Spirit for any other purpose than loving service for others is to destroy their very value to the body (1 Cor. 13:1-3). Who are the most spiritually powerful Christians today? The eloquent evangelist? The famous faith healer? The brilliant scholar? The wealthy benefactor? Perhaps, but not necessarily. The most powerful Christian may well be the lowly widow with the cup of cold water. In the kingdom, power is measured, not by prestige, or position, or wealth, but by selfless service! Suffering, loving, serving---that’s not power! Miracles, raising the dead, healing the sick--that’s power! In fact, that’s the only kind of power that will cause our world to sit up and take notice. That is the power of the Spirit that we need today! The power to love and serve and suffer is not likely to impress our kind of world very much. But that shouldn’t surprise us. The world has seldom understood or readily appreciated the ways of God. As Paul stated long ago, “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world--and the things that are not --to nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before him” (1 Cor. 1:18, 27-29). God still bestows power on His people, just as He always has!

In Christ,
Brown
"Ye call Me Master and obey not,Ye call Me Light and see Me not,Ye call Me Way and walk not,Ye call Me Life and desire Me not,Ye call Me Wise and follow Me not,Ye call Me Fair and love Me not,Ye call Me rich and ask Me not,Ye call Me Eternal and see Me not,Ye call Me Noble and serve Me not,Ye call Me Mighty and honor Me not,Ye call Me just and fear Me not."--Found on an old slab in the Cathedral of Lubeck, Germany===============A Child's Ten Commandments to Parentsby: Author Unknown, Source Unknown1. My hands are small. Please don't expect perfection whenever I make a bed, draw a picture or throw a ball. My legs are short. Please slow down so that I can keep up with you.2. My eyes have not seen the world as yours have. Please let me explore safely. Don't restrict me unnecessarily.3. Housework will always be there. I'm only little for such a short time. Please take time to explain things to me about this wonderful world, and do so willingly.4. My feelings are tender. Please be sensitive to my needs. Don't nag me all day long. (You wouldn't want to be nagged for your inquisitiveness.) Treat me as you would like to be treated.5. I am a special gift from God. Please treasure me, holding me accountable for my actions, giving me guidelines to live by and disciplining me in a loving manner.6. I need your encouragement and your praise to grow. Please go easy on the criticism. Remember, you can criticize the things I do without criticizing me.7. Please give me the freedom to make decisions concerning myself. Permit me to fail so that I can learn from my mistakes. Then someday, I'll be prepared to make the kind of decisions life requires of me.8. Please don't do things over for me. Somehow that makes me feel that my efforts didn't quite measure up to your expectations. I know it's hard, but please don't try to compare me with my brother or my sister.9. Please don't be afraid to leave for a weekend together. Kids need vacations from parents, just as parents need vacations from kids. Besides, it's a great way to show us kids that your marriage is very special.10. Please take me to worship regularly, setting a good example for me to follow. Life Explained
On the first day, God created the dog and said: "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark atanyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years." The dog said: "That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?" So God agreed.
On the second day, God created the monkey and said: "Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span." The monkey said: "Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?" And God agreed.
On the third day, God created the cow and said: "You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years." The cow said:"That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?" And God agreed again.
On the fourth day, God created man and said: "Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years." But man said:"Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?" "Okay," said God, "You asked for it."
So that is why the first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves.For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family.For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren.And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.Life has now been explained to you.