Brown's Daily Word 9-5-08

Dear Fiends
Praise the Lord for this new day, a gift from the Lord. It was on this day Mother Teresa of Calcutta died 11 years ago. It was on this day, in 1974 I came to the USA . I was "very young and very restless". My how the years have gone by. The Lord good. He is faithful. He is merciful and kind.
We read in Greek mythologies that the Greek gods had ethos and they had no pathos. The Greek gods were morally perfect and stainless they had nothing to do with the imperfect world like ours. They were distant and very much detached from the sorrows and the sufferings of this world. As Beth Midler sang" God is watching us from a distance". On the contrary, the Lord of the Bible has both Ethos and Pathos. He is pure and perfect, yet He is involved in our sorrows and in our sufferings. He is both transcendent and immanent. Praise the Lord we know we have the Lord revealed to us in Christ, who has both ethos and pathos. He is the Lord whose heart is disclosed in the Bible. We see the heart of God revealed in the Book of Micah, one of the minor prophets.
Micah was around in a time of great fear and confusion for Israel. Assyria, the powerhouse nation of the time was attempting to conquer them, not only that but the age old problem of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer was obvious and destroying the city from the inside. And it was during this critical time that the Lord sent Micah to them with a message that denounced injustice and false faith, and if they didn’t get their act together Israel would suffer destruction and exile. Perhaps the best known verse of Micah is found in chapter 6 verse 8, ’He has showed you O mortal what is good. And what does the lord require of you? But to do justice and to love kindness And to walk humbly with your God.’ You see the Israelites were asking how they could make it up to God, they wanted to know how to make him happy again. And so they turned to their rituals, their empty rituals. Micah had to explain to them that rituals themselves did not appease, or satisfy God; appeasement wasn’t the issue. The issue was how they were living their lives. They were acting unjustly. They didn’t care for what God expected of them until they needed him. They were a proud and arrogant people. Does any of this sound familiar? Injustice in the world. The gap between rich and poor growing. The powerful taking advantage of the weak! What’s our role here on earth? What’s the job that needs to get done while we are here? Hebrews chapter 13 tells us what it is: ’Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured as though you yourselves were being tortured.’ Do we see the need? God’s heart is clear on this! And if that’s the case, then what’s the problem? Is something holding us back from acting justly and loving kindness? Could it be that for a lot of us selfishness is holding us back? Life is a struggle, life is a challenge, life is a distraction. Getting up every day, having breakfast, lunch, dinner. Taking care of the kids, taking them to school, studying, going to work, meeting demands, fulfilling responsibilities. Having time off, relaxing. For a lot of us living out our lives, fulfilling all the things that make you, you and me, me, distract us from the bigger issues And sometimes allowing ourselves to be immersed in them has taken all our attention. Do you think that God’s major goal for your life is for you to be happy? Because it’s only once we accept that it actually isn’t the goal that we’ll be able to let it go and start putting others before ourselves. God’s major goal isn’t to make us happy but to be holy and to use us to spread his love to the entire world. Matthew 25:31-45 says, how is the king replying to you today? Is this passage warning to us, or are we encouraged deep in our hearts by it? Can I suggest that this should be the mission of every person who confesses to being a Christian, of every person who stands up and says ’I follow Jesus.’ Our mission is to follow our lord and savior Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the kingdom of God. How do we start living lives of compassion, living lives that spread the love of God to the entire world? Mother Teresa suggested we try offering small acts of love to others, and we will find our hearts will open, and once our hearts are open God’s love and compassion will pour through out into the world around us. What acts of love can we offer? We can give to the poor generously. We can think of our neighbors- how can we help them? Most importantly, we can pray. We have complete access to a mighty God 24/7. Our job here on earth is clear, God’s heart is obvious. His heart is for the poor and the oppressed, for the sick and imprisoned. His heart is for those that the world wants to be able to ignore. But Jesus reached out and touched the untouchable and he asks us to do the same and we can if only we open our eyes see past our own lives and all the things that distract us.
In Christ,
Brown
We’ll not allow VHP rally,
Delhi, September 05, 2008
First Published: 00:40 IST(5/9/2008)
Last Updated: 00:44 IST(5/9/2008)







Print

The Orissa government on Thursday assured the Supreme Court that it would take “all possible steps to prevent” the proposed yatra of VHP leader Praveen Togadia carrying the ashes of slain Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.
The government, however, demanded four more battalions of the CRPF from the Centre to deal with the situation. “We will stop the yatra at the state border and will utilise the force to prevent it from coming into Kandhamal district,” senior counsel KK Venugopal told a bench headed by CJI K.G. Balakrishnan.
The bench was hearing a petition of Cuttack archbishop Raphael Cheenath's seeking a CBI probe into the communal clashes in Kandhamal.
The court expressed hope that “the state police along with CRPF and other paramilitary forces would ensure the law and order situation and people's life and property will be protected to best of their ability.”
It also directed the state government to take urgent steps to see that those in relief camps were protected and miscreants were not allowed to create any problem.
Patil briefs Cabinet
With concern over the communal situation in Orissa mounting at the Centre, Union home minister Shivraj Patil on Thursday briefed the Union Cabinet on the situation.
Patil is also reported to have detailed his yesterday's visit to the state where deserted streets, locked up homes and burnt churches greeted him. Sources indicated that there was a sense at the meeting that the Orissa government could have handled the communal situation better if it had moved swiftly, and sternly.
Left meets President
The Left parties on Thursday met President Pratiba Patil requesting her to ban saffron outfits, VHP and Bajrang Dal, for their “terrorist-like” activities in Orissa. A delegation led by senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat told the President that if the government could not ban these outfits, at least it should put them under “serious monitoring”.
With inputs from HTC/PTI