Brown's Daily Word & India update11-6-08

Good Morning,
"My Lord, what a morning"! Praise the Lord for the life we have in Him, and because of Him. "His divine power has given us everything we need for life". "In Him we live, move, and have our being". May He infuse us with His Holy Spirit today that we will live out our lives for Him with purpose and passion.
In the words of Rick Warren, "The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture, all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Nothing great is ever sustained in life without passion. Passion is what energizes life. Passion makes the impossible possible. Passion gives you a reason to get up in the morning", and go, thinking, "I’m going to do something with my life today." Without passion life becomes boring, monotonous, routine, and dull.
God created you and equipped you with emotions so that you may have passion in your life and He wants you to live a passionate life. Passion is what mobilizes armies into action. Passion is what causes explorers to boldly go where no man’s gone before. Passion is what causes scientists to spend late night hours trying to find the cure to a dreaded disease. Passion is what takes a good athlete and turns him or her into a great athlete who is breaking records. We all need to have passion in our lives. One day a man walked up to Jesus and said, "Lord, what’s the most important thing in the Bible?" (You know what the Great Commandment is.) Jesus said, "I want you to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Nothing matters more than that. That’s the number one thing in life. I want you to love Me passionately." Nothing else matters in life if you don’t love God passionately. God doesn’t want you to love Him half-heartedly. He wants you to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I love the paraphrase of Mark 11:30 from The Message , "Jesus said, ’Love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy." Here, Jesus is saying, "If you’re going to follow Me, you’ve got to go it with passion. In fact, this truth is all through the Bible. The Bible tells us that we are to seek God passionately. We are to love God passionately. The Bible says that we are to serve and obey God passionately. We are to trust God passionately. Then, as if we didn’t already understand the message of passion, in Colossians 3:23 it is written, "Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men." The Lord wants you and me to do everything passionately when it comes to loving Me, serving Me, living for Me. Romans 12:1 "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor." Keep the fires going in your life. Notice, it’s not automatic that we will keep burning with spiritual and holy fire. It’s a choice. It’s a discipline. It is something we must maintain. We, by nature, are not about God. Passion is something that requires choice. We are easily distracted and everything in life conspires to keep us from being passionate about God. So He reminds us to keep our passion going. Keep feeding the fires of passion. It requires discipline. It’s not merely automatic or routine. An unused talent will cause each of us to lose our passion for life and our passion for God. 1 Peter 4:10 says, "Each of us has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. Let use our gifts well." Notice God gives us certain talents, abilities, personality, and gifts and those gifts, those talents that we have been given are not merely for our benefit. They are intended to benefit other people. If we don’t use our talents then we will lose our passion. Passion and purpose go together. When we have a clear purpose, it will give us a lot of passion. But it must be God’s purposes for our life. If we are only living for ourselves, that’s a pretty small and insignificant purpose. That is not going to make us very passionate. In fact, it’s the cry of the pathetic, "I’m living for me." That gives us a lot of energy to get out of bed in the morning --- not! We need a cause greater than ourselves. That gives life significance meaning. The more we understand God’s purposes for our lives and the more we live out those purposes, the more passionate we will become. John Hobbs wrote this about passion, saying, "Passion is waking up in the morning wherever you are and bounding out of bed because you know there’s something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that God made you for and you’re good at, something that’s bigger than you are and you can hardly wait to get at it again. It’s something that you’d rather be doing than anything else and you wouldn’t give it up for money because it means more to you than money." Every day we face all kinds of circumstances that conspire to shrink our spirit and shrivel our heart. We are going to get up this morning and face distractions and disappointments. We will have conflicts and we will have changes and challenges. We are going to experience problems and pressures. We are going to have frustrations, fears, failures, and fatigue. All of these things fall in on us to shrivel our hearts and shrink our spirits. So we see that we must intentionally nourish our spirit. How do nourish our spirits? In the words of Rick Warren,"Through the five purposes. You need times of worship with God everyday, where you get to know Him -- private worships. You need fellowship with other believers. You need to read God’s word and grow to be more like Christ. You need to have a ministry where you’re using your talents to help other people. " Exodus 31:14 states, "You must worship only the Lord, for He is a God who is passionate about His relationship with you." Do you know what the worst sin is for Christians? God tells us in Revelation 3 that it is lukewarm-ness - a lack of passion. Jesus said, "I’d rather have you hot or cold. Lukewarm-ness makes Me sick to my stomach." C. S. Lewis said it like this, "The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important." Moderately important! If Jesus is God and He died and loved you that much, you owe Him the rest of your life, every spare minute of it. If He didn’t then go home and live a self-centered life. The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important. It either deserves your entire life or nothing. He wants us to see Him as our daily bread and as the air that we breathe. He desires that we have that kind of passion for Him. The Continental Singers will be appearing in concert on Friday, November 14, 2008 at 7 PM at First Presbyterian Church in Endicott, located on 29 Grand Avenue. They will be presenting a powerful program based on the life of Joseph. Please invite your congregation to join us for a night of entertainment geared toward the whole family. The following gives more details about the program and the Continentals ministry.

First premiered in 1983, the musical “DREAMER” won the coveted Dove Award that year for Best Musical. Our 25th Anniversary Revival brings this popular musical based on the life of Joseph into the 21st century with lavish costuming, choreography and technical effects. It is all a part of our ministry’s theme for 2008, “NEW BEGINNINGS”. The concert will also feature great standards and songs that have been the hallmark of The CONTINENTALS since 1967. It is a concert event for the whole family not to be missed!

The CONTINENTALS are an empowered, enthusiastic, evangelical group of young people (ages 16-28) communicating the Truth of Jesus Christ as the only absolute, in an ever-changing world. In 2008, The CONTINENTALS continue their 40-year tradition of cutting edge music ministry with the very best of contemporary Christian music, energizing choreography and personal testimony. This group of 25-30 vocalists, dancers and technicians, will challenge and inspire audiences with the truth of Jesus Christ.

Please also share that the Russian Men’s Ensemble will be in concert on December 13, 2008 at the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128 Maple drive, Endicott.


Situation tense as RSS activist killed in Orissa Thursday, 06 November , 2008, 12:01Last Updated: Thursday, 06 November , 2008, 12:48



Bhubaneswar: The murder of a Hindu activist by suspected Maoists has renewed tension in Orissa's volatile Kandhamal district, where communal violence since August has left at least 38 people dead and thousands homeless, officials said on Thursday.
Authorities on Thursday issued a prohibitory order that bans the gathering of four or more people and deployed hundreds of policemen in sensitive parts of the district after suspected Maoists on Wednesday killed 40-year-old Dhanu Pradhani, an activist of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
8 houses set on fire in Kandhamal
"The prohibitory order is a temporary step and we may lift it after reviewing the situation. We have launched a combing operation in the region to nab the culprits," District Superintendent of Police S Praveen Kumar said.
According to police officials, three people came on a motorcycle and shot Pradhani dead at Kumarigaon village. They are not sure if Wednesday's killing has any link to the communal violence that followed the August 23 killing of another Hindu leader.
Orissa tops in communal violence
"There was no major violence in the district since September 30. The Wednesday murder has, however, renewed tension," a district administration official said. Pradhani's brother Ananda alleged that some members of the local Christian community killed him. However, police suspect the hand of Maoists because Pradhani was believed to be on their hit list.
The district of Kandhamal, some 200 km from here, witnessed communal violence after the murder of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his aides August 23.
While the police blamed the Maoists for the crime, the Hindu groups blamed Christians for the murder, despite repeated denials by Christian organisations. Over 23,000 Christians were forced to flee their homes. While some have returned, more than 10,000 are still living in government-run relief camps in the district.