Brown's Daily Word 6-26-07

Good morning,
It is going to be one of the hottest days in NY and Summer is here. I did conduct a memorial service for a young man who died on the first day of Summer at 5:30 a.m. He was involved in a car accident. There were so many young people that came for the calling hours we had to post phone the service by one hour. This young man was my daughter Jessica's classmate. My heart was broken to see so many young people in grief and sorrow. I was also stunned to hear about this sudden tragic death of this young man. I could not fathom the massive grief that the parents are going through. I prayed to the Lord to give me His grace and wisdom to share the Good News of Jesus with the family and friends. The following is a portion of the message that I shared yesterday.

We live in an age that likes to make things that last. We have our plastic and non-breakable jars and cups. We buy a battery and are given a guarantee that it will last as long as we own our car. We all would like a guarantee that we could last forever. Wouldn’t that be great? We read in 2 Cor 4: 7ff that we are like a clay pot or earthen vessel. Pottery that can crack, get chipped and broken if dropped. Paul is telling us that life takes its toll on our physical strength and stamina. We wear out. The body is made of material that will not last forever. It is like a vessel that is to be used. It is meant to be filled and emptied to bless others in Jesus. As we read in 2 Cor. 4: 7 ff, "Outwardly, we are wasting away." We are encouraged to "fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." When the temporary things pass away--and our earthly body is temporary--the eternal treasures of the heart remains. Our faith in Christ is eternal. In 1947, someone came across some old jars. These old earthen vessels contained the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are a very valuable source of study for the Church. The jars themselves were not so valuable, but the treasure of God’s Word inside was priceless. In a like way, we are like earthen vessels. The treasure is the eternal glory of God and the unseen things of the spiritual world. The vessel is the outer person which slowly wastes away. Paul says that death and life are both at work in the Christian’s heart. Death is within each of us, because we have sinned. It works its end of destruction and takes each of us down to the grave. But because of our faith in Christ, death does not defeat us. In fact, we have victory over the grave because of Jesus’ resurrection. What about our own lives? Where is our focus? On the physical or the spiritual? God wants you and me to focus our lives on Him and allow Him to mold us and make us into men and women, youth and children who realize that it is faith in Jesus Christ and the spirit of a person that is of prime importance. We can have a great treasure. The Lord has a Word for each of us in the midst of life, "We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed; perplexed, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." We need to grasp onto Jesus Christ so that we too might deal with the adversities of life and as a result gain that which is eternal...faith in Jesus Christ. In Spain, where Christopher Columbus died in 1506, there is a monument that commemorates that great discoverer. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the monument is the statue of a lion at the base of it, where the Spanish national motto is engraved. The lion is reaching out with its paw and destroying one of the Latin words that had been a part of Spain’s motto for centuries.
That motto was “No More Beyond.” See, before Columbus discovered America, Spain thought that everyone had already reached the outer limits of the earth. Columbus had proven that there really is “More Beyond”, and that is why the lion is tearing away at the “NO” in the motto, leaving “More Beyond.” There is “more beyond”. Everyone who is born into this world will also have to leave it, and for most people their deepest instincts and convictions tell them there is something beyond the grave. This place we call ‘home’, this sinful earth, has so many troubles, pain, anguish and hurt that it cannot really be a home. For each of us, there comes a particular moment when all time stops; a moment when we leave the bonds of time and enter another world; the world of eternity. In eternity, we shall go one of two places. We can be forever in the present of God, or forever without God. Death is not the end. Death for the Christian is just the beginning; the beginning of a journey that will lead to God. To a Christian, death is the doorway that just takes us home. Jesus who was a people person, He is the Man of all seasons and He is the Lord in all seasons. He loved people in such a way, He loved to be with them. He shared their joy and their sorrow. He showed up at wedding receptions and performed His miracles, He showed up at their funerals and wept with them. By the graveside of Lazarus He declared, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." It is a wonderful and glorious Good News that those who believe in Jesus will trust in Him as Lord and Savior, though they die they shall live forevermore. There is a mystery and a wonder about death we don't fully understand about it. There is a mystery about tragedy and suffering we cannon fully fathom it. Only in and through Jesus we can have a glimpse of Heaven and life beyond. Because of Jesus who came, who saw, who died and rose again, when we shall say goodnight here we shall say good morning up there where Christ is alive and He is the Light. In Revelation 21 we read, "The Lord shall wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. And He who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Life on earth is short, eternity is very long, hell is for real and Heaven can be ours through Jesus Christ our Lord. We go to Heaven only in and through Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Lord has made an invitation to all. And whosoever believes in Him shall not perish. All of us live in this world of a dissolving family circle. Mother is gone--Father is gone, or a child is gone, or our beloved grandparents are gone, or a close friend is gone. But the circle is unbroken in Heaven forever and ever. There is no death there, no sorrow or crying or pain, for these former things passed away.
In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who first loved us and still loves us.

In Him,
Brown