Brown's Daily Word 7-6-07

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this Friday. Sunday is coming. Praise the Lord for the way He is the answer for our questions. Praise the Lord for the way He answers when we call on Him. He knows our names.
In Connecting with God, Herb Miller tells the story of a nightclub opening on Main Street in a small town America. Upon hearing the news, the only church in that town organized an all-night prayer meeting. The members asked God to burn down the club. Within a few minutes, lightning struck the club, and it burned to the ground. The club owner sued the church, which denied responsibility for the destruction of the club.
After hearing both sides, the judge said, “It seems that wherever the guilt may lie, the nightclub owner believes in prayer, while the church doesn’t.” Do we believe in prayer? When the early church prayed together, they saw results! The lame walked, the blind saw, the dead were brought back to life, rooms were shaken, prison doors were open, chains were loosed, and boldness was given when the early church prayed! We read in James,“you do not have because you do not ask.” “Heaven is full of answers for which no one ever bothered to ask.” Said Billy Graham.
In an article in Christianity Today magazine there was an articled titled, "Doctors Who Pray," in which several medical doctors expounded upon the medical benefits of prayer for their patients. Dr. Dale Matthews, an internist and associate professor of medicine at the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is one of a growing number of medical professionals who are discovering the medical benefits of faith and prayer. Dr. Matthews and other doctors are beginning to scientifically study the effects of prayer on illnesses and injuries. In the article, Dr. Matthews says, "Scientific knowledge has demonstrated the positive benefits of religion. I can say, as a physician and scientist--not just as a Christian--that, scientifically, prayer is good for you. The medical effects of faith on health are not a matter of faith, but of science."
Christians in early Church who prayed fervently for Simon Peter, but then when God answered their prayers they couldn't believe that He really acted on their behalf. Let us look at Acts 12:1-19.
It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. {2} He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. {3} When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
This is a tragic comedy at its best. It is tragic from the standpoint that the Church had been praying "fervently," they were focused on praying for Peter because they understood the gravity of the situation.
You need to understand as we get into this story that Herod was a ruthless leader who wanted nothing more than to win popular approval. He was willing to pull up next to those who could give him more power and he was willing to exterminate all of his allies enemies to gain a few more votes. Herod Agrippa had already had John the brother of James put to death by the sword. He then had ordered the arrest of Simon Peter to try and gain further approval of the Jewish leaders. There was a very good reason why Herod Agrippa chose the week of celebration following the Passover -- there were lots of Jewish people present to see his act of defiance towards the Christians, an act of alliance with the Jews! There is little doubt that Herod was planning on having Peter executed as soon as the celebration ended. Herod wanted to make sure that Peter did not escape as he had once before (Acts 5:18), so he had Peter guarded by four squads of soldiers. The four squads of guards consisted of four guards each and they would rotate on their watch every four hours around the clock. Herod had to rest well at night knowing that there was no possible way that Peter was going to escape this time. At any given time there were two men chained to Peter as he sat in his locked cell. At the same time there were two other guards stationed outside the cell just in case he got by the two guards chained to him. I think we could say that it was a hopeless situation for Peter. The executioner's sword wouldn't need to be put away for another day. The crowds weren't going to show up only to be turned away because of another Harry Houdini-like escape by Peter. The end was near and the guards would assure that Herod's bloodthirsty appetite would be quenched. Let's switch venues and move from the locked tight cell holding Peter to the little house of John Mark's mother where there are followers of Jesus praying for Peter. These folks weren't just remembering Peter at their bedtime prayers -- they were praying fervently for him! We can easily see that the Christians weren't playing with prayer, they were praying!
When was the last time we prayed in such a way about a situation? When was the last time we were stretched to the breaking point in our prayer life? When the last time we passionately and with such great commitment gave yourselves to the labor of prayer? From studying the story of the great escape of Peter from Herod's prison I have come to the conclusion that those who were praying for Peter didn't really anticipate Peter avoiding the executioner's sword. Locked in a jail cell with two burly linebacker types locked to his wrists an angel enter Peter's locked-tight doom and brings deliverance. After Peter is outside and down the road, the angel disappears. Sounds like scene scripted for "Touched By An Angel" doesn't it?! What a great story! It is not the craftiness of Peter that got him out of jail -- Peter was asleep when the angel came. It wasn't the sympathy of the jailers that enabled Peter to find deliverance -- they would later lose their lives over Peter's escape! There was no explanation for Peter's escape except for the power of God! It was the power of God that sent the angel! It was the power of God that loosed the chains! It was the power of God that opened the iron gate! It was the power of God! Once free Peter came to his senses and arrived at the same conclusion. In verse 11 we read, {11} Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating." It was the power of God!
Peter made his way to the house of John Mark's mother, Mary. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door.When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!" "You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel." But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. When Peter arrived at Mary's house the followers of Jesus were still praying. They had been up all night long praying for Peter. I don't know what they were praying about. I haven't a clue if they were praying for Peter to be comfortable, for the living conditions to be amicable, or for Herod not to kill Peter. I could take a wild guess and say that I don't think they were praying for Peter's release because when he showed up at the door they didn't believe the young lady who said, "He's here!" Quite the opposite is true. They said, "You are out of your mind!"
The more we get to know the Lord then better we will be prepared to pray with His desires in mind. In Alexander Solzhenitsyn's, "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," Ivan endures all the horrors of a Soviet prison camp. One day he is praying with his eyes closed when a fellow prisoner notices him and says with ridicule, "Prayers won't help you get out of here any faster." Opening his eyes, Ivan answers, "I do not pray to get out of prison but to do the will of God."
Isn't that great! I am not praying for a life of ease, but I am praying for the will of God to be done through my life. Once we come to know God's desires, how we can best be used by God to bring Him the glory and honor He so deserves, then we must pray with expectation.
Do we pray and then when the Lord shows up in our situation we respond like the early Christians by saying, "You are out of your mind." When we pray we need to say, "Lord I don't know how, I don't know how long, I don't know who You will use to accomplish Your will, but I know that You will act and I will wait with expectation for Your mighty hand to move!"
In His power,
Brown

The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty works of Divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God's standing challenge, "Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."
... Hudson Taylor



The Continentals are coming! They will be performing on Saturday, July 7, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. They'll be live in concert at Maine Endwell high school auditorium, Farm to Market Rd, Endwell. Those of you who live around here please join us with your family and friends for a great evening of worship and inspiration. They will be also in concert on Sunday, July 8 at 11:00 a.m. at the Union Center United Methodist Church located at 128 Maple Dr. Endicott.


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A Sunday school teacher asked the children just before she dismissed them to go to church, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" Annie replied, "Because people are sleeping."
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A Sunday School teacher asked her class why Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem. A small child replied: "They couldn't get a baby-sitter."
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A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honor thy father and
thy mother," she asked "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat one little boy answered, "Thou shall not kill."
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A very dirty little fellow came in from playing in the yard and asked his mother, "Who am I? " Ready to play the game she said, "I don't know! Who are you?" "WOW!" cried the child. "Mrs. Johnson was right! She said I was so dirty, my own mother wouldn't recognize me!"
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A wise schoolteacher sends this note to all parents on the first day of school: "If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I'll promise not to believe everything he says happens at home.