Brown's Daily Word 10-10-07

Good Morning.
Praise the Lord for this new day. Praise the Lord for the way He is all-knowing and all-powerful. He knows our names. He sees every tear drop. He hears when we call. He knows our every thought. We can not wear any masks before Him.
Paul, a great servant of the Lord, was transparent in his writings and in his proclamation of the Gospel. We see his self-disclosure in his writings. He is like King David, who was very transparent in his victories and in his defeats, in his rejoicings and in his sufferings, in his temptations and in his triumphs. In 2 Corinthians Paul discloses about the suffering that persisted in him; it became chronic.
The late great psychiatrist and author, Dr. Louis Edward Bisch (1885 - 1963), once said, "Illness knocks a lot of nonsense out of us; it induces humility, cuts us down to our own size. It enables us to throw a searchlight upon our inner selves and to discover how often we have rationalized our failures and weaknesses, dodged vital issues and run skulkingly away. For only when the way straightens and the gate grows narrow, do some people discover their soul, their God, or their life work. Even pain confers spiritual insight, a beauty of outlook, a philosophy of life, an understanding and forgiveness of humanity - in short, a quality of peace and serenity. Suffering is a cleansing fire that chars away much of the meanness, triviality, and restlessness of so-called ’health.’
The late great English poet, John Milton (1608 - 1674), declared "Who best can suffer, best can do." The proof is his work entitled, ’Paradise Lost,’ written after he was stricken blind."
Paul reminds us of the ailment he suffered, the ’thorn in the flesh.’ Commentators have been speculating for centuries on what this ailment might have been, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the effect it had on Paul and the reason it was given to him. Why was it given to him? "To keep me from being too elated (or conceited)." (12:7)
If you think about it, Paul had more reason than most to be conceited. He had more converts than almost anyone. He had certainly started more churches. He was a great teacher and evangelist, despite what his opponents in Corinth said. However, conceit, or pride, and Christian ministry just don’t go together. Our model is Jesus Christ who humbled himself to become a servant. The word commonly used for Christian ministry means service, that is, what a servant or a slave does.
God sent Paul this thorn to keep him humble. But notice at the same time that he describes it as a messenger of Satan. He obviously saw this thorn as something that was stopping him from doing all he could in the spread of the gospel. This was Satan doing what he could to hold Paul back. So he must have been doubly confused when God didn’t remove it.
You may have experienced something like this. Something happens that Satan obviously has a hand in, that is damaging to the kingdom or to the work of the gospel. Yet, God seems to let it continue, even when you pray about it. Maybe something is happening to us in a situation similar to what happened to Paul here. Even when he prayed that God would take it away, God said ’No.’ Whatever it was, it must have been bad, because he says he pleaded with God to have it removed. But look at what God’s answer was: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power (or my power) is made perfect in weakness." Paul may not have wanted to hear that answer. None of us want to hear that we will have to persevere in the face of suffering. He needed to hear it, however.
We need to hear the same message. That’s how we think, isn’t it? We will say to ourselves, "I have to work harder if I’m to see fruit." We’re no different from our secular friends in that respect, are we? We think that the harder we work the more results will come, and that the smarter we are the better results will be. (Or the more spiritual we are. Or the more disciplined. etc.) All of those things are good character traits to cultivate. But they don’t determine the success of our ministries. How will your ministry grow? How will my ministry grow? By God’s grace. God’s power, in fact will be shown to be perfect by our weakness.
By the way, notice that God’s grace is shown through our weakness. It isn’t that one follows the other. You will occasionally hear people talk about the need to go through a wilderness experience before you experience the heights of God’s power at work within you. It’s as though they are reading this as saying that first Paul experienced his thorn in the flesh, then when he called on God he began to experience God’s power again. But that’s not what he’s saying at all. He continued to experience the weakness of this ailment, but his weakness only served to show just how great the power of God is. How was that power shown? It was demonstrated through people being converted. It wasn’t that Paul was a great evangelist, as much as that when he shared the gospel, God was at work exercising his power through Paul’s weak words.
Here’s what makes the claims of Paul’s opponents so stupid. They thought he was a poor speaker, but they failed to realize that it didn’t matter. God was at work in him, showing his greatness by using those weak words to bring people to faith. Instead they would have done better to join Paul in rejoicing at his weakness, rejoicing that the God we worship is powerful to save and powerful to take our weak efforts and do miracles through us. In fact, I would like to look at chapter 3:1-3 to see how Paul knew that his weakness was not a hindrance to the gospel: "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."
Here’s the point of all this: when we think about our ability to serve the Lord , when we think about how useful we might be to the cause of the gospel, how successful we think we would be in sharing the gospel with someone, let us stop and first think about how powerful God is. Think about how the Lord in His grace could use our puny efforts if we let Him.

In Christ.
Brown



The sorest afflictions never appear intolerable, but when we see them in the wrong light: when we see them in the hand of God, Who dispenses them; when we know that it is our loving Father who abases and distresses us; our sufferings will lose their bitterness and become even a matter of consolation.
... Brother Lawrence

Why should men love the Church? Why should they love her laws?
She tells them of Life and Death, and of all they would forget.
She is tender where they would be hard, and hard where they like to be soft.
She tells them of Evil and Sin, and other unpleasant facts.
They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.
... T. S. Eliot

"How Gullible Are We?"
A number of years ago a freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair. He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to alarmists practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide."

And, for plenty of good reasons, since:

1. it can cause excessive sweating and vomiting

2. it is a major component in acid rain

3. it can cause severe burns in its gaseous state

4. accidental inhalation can kill you

5. it contributes to erosion

6. it decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes

7. it has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients

He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical.

Forty three (43) said yes,
six (6) were undecided,
and only one (1) knew that the chemical was.

Dihydrogen monoxide is water!

The title of his prize winning project: "How Gullible Are We?"