Brown's Daily Word 12-4-07

Good Afternoon,
Praise the Lord for this beautiful new day. We are blessed with more fresh snow. It is beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS. We attended the 75th celebration of the Christmas Extravaganza presented by the Radio City Music Hall yesterday; we had 60 in the group. The Lord blessed us with a great fellowship and sweet friendship. It was almost a perfect day in the City of New York. We reached home safe and sound and it began to snow. Many of the local schools were canceled today because of snow, and Alice was able to stay home and do some Christmas sewing for Micah and Simeon.
Thank you for praying for our friend Linda Ayer, who came through the surgery well yesterday. She spent the night in the Intensive Care Unit and they have just moved her out of the ICU, into a general room. Warren said that she is doing well. They removed almost all tubes and gadgets, including the oxygen. They made her get up and walk. Then she ate half of sandwich. Praise Jesus, for He is faithful and wonderful. He is able, He is mighty, and He is merciful. Keep on praying for Linda.
Praise the Lord for the good news of Jesus that came down to the earth wrapped in swaddling clothes. The Gift goes on. The Good News of Jesus Christ is not only that we are redeemed and reconciled to God through Christ’s death on the Cross. We are “invited into a new life in Christ”. The Gospel is not just about “getting to heaven” but rather experiencing the abundant life that Christ offers us - which begins here and now on this earth. If we start to live that abundant life here on earth, then death becomes - as one commentator put it- “only a minor transition from this life to the greater Life”
St. Paul said to the Christians in Corinth that, “If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Being a NEW CREATION must result in living a NEW LIFESTYLE. Most people initially respond to the Gospel – either positively or negatively - by how they like the lifestyle of the Christians they know.
Every time I read the story of Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941), I am provoked to love Jesus and His people a little more deeply. Maximilian Kolbe was a Catholic priest who was put in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz for his faith.
During his time there, he would share his meager rations of food with those around him who were hungry. A protestant doctor who treated the patients in Kolbe’s block said that Kolbe would not let himself be treated before any other prisoners in that block. He sacrificed himself for the other prisoners. The doctor said about Kolbe: "From my observations, the virtues in the Servant of God were no momentary impulse such as are often found in men, they sprang from a habitual practice, deeply woven into his personality
One day a man in Kolbe’s block escaped. At the end of the day, the man that had escaped was not found and so the Nazi commandant told the prisoners that ten men would be selected to die in the starvation cell in place of the one that had escaped. One man, a Polish sergeant (Francis Ga- jow -ni - czek) who was selected, begged to be spared. He was worried that his family would not be able to survive without him. As he was pleading with the commandant, Maximilian Kolbe silently stepped forward and said, "I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children."
The Commandant stood silent for a moment in disbelief. He then allowed the sergeant to go back to his place in the ranks and Kolbe took his place in the starvation bunker.
Each day the guards removed the bodies of those who had died. However, instead of the usual screaming and cursing, all they could hear was the sounds of Kolbe and the others in the bunker singing hymns and praying. When Kolbe couldn’t speak any longer due to hunger and lack of energy, he would whisper his prayers. After two weeks, the cell had to be cleared out for more prisoners and so the guards injected Kolbe with a lethal injection, and on August 14, 1941 he paid the ultimate price for following his Master.
Although I would differ from him theologically on many points – for example his adoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary – I admire his commitment to Christ. I wish I could live like him.
A radical lifestyle can speak volumes. As one commentator said: We “cannot preach the Good News and be the bad news”

Praise the Lord for the sounds and the sights of the Christmas season all around us. You can sense a spirit of hope, peace, and generosity. Praise the Lord for the way the world, including the nations and people groups around the world, celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. The expressions of worship and celebration are as diverse and colorful as the cultures and peoples from which they come. Amid all the blessings around us, may we also be reminded of the needs of the lost, the least, and the last around us. May the Lord give us grace to give of our time, talents, and treasures. Anything which we give in Jesus' name He takes, blesses, and multiplies to His glory.
Pray for all of the pastors, evangelists, missionaries, and kingdom-workers who are constantly giving of themselves to the Lord's Kingdom.
Keep on praying for the following: Ryan Kerr, Jack Hoppes, Kim Soundararaj, Thelma Boyer, Jack Black, Mehlon and Eloise Tewksbury, Jane Loeffler, Irving Rosenbarker.
In Christ,
Brown