Brown's Daily Word & India update1-21-09

Good Morning,
We are in the grip of winter's blast here in New York. It was on this day in 1985 that my mom came to the USA to visit us for the first time. The wind chill factor that day was 65 degrees below zero. We were going down to JFK with Dr. Richard Dalfiume, one my friends, driving my VW Rabbit Diesel. It was so cold that the diesel engine jelled up. The engine quit on the way. My mom arrived wearing chappels (flip-flops) and a sari. When she landed at JFK she almost froze. It was a very memorable day. It is currently springtime in Orissa, India. The Mango trees are blossoming. The cotton trees are in full bloom. The spring birds are out with their jubilant choruses. Jesus makes all things beautiful in His Season and in His time.
We are saved to serve the Lord on earth, making our days count in His Kingdom for His Kingdom. We receive our significance by serving the Savior and King.
Elmer Towns tells about a member of a motorcycle gang who was converted to Jesus Christ dramatically, and on his first Sunday he did the only thing he knew he should do; he went to church. Nobody in the church knew him, and he walked down to the second aisle and sat in the seat. People stared because he looked the part of a gang member. He was a big, burly, bearded guy with long hair, black jacket, and tattoos. It came announcement time and the minister got up and made an appeal for nursery workers. He said, “We need someone to work in the nursery.” But no one would volunteer. He asked a second time, “We really need someone to go be with our kids.” But no one would volunteer. And the cyclist prayed, “Lord, I want to do what you want me to do and if you want me to go work in nursery just have the preacher ask a third time.” A third time the preacher said, “Please we need someone to work in the nursery.” The cyclist raised his hand, nodded his head and started toward the nursery and immediately 50 mothers followed, volunteering to work in the nursery. What kind of person comes to mind when you think of a person God uses? Do you think of a biker covered with tattoos when you think of people whom God uses? God uses anyone he chooses to use! In fact, God usually chooses to use people we wouldn’t necessarily choose. God is inclined to use the most unusual people, people we would most likely reject. There was a woman named Rahab, a prostitute who lived in the city of Jericho. God used her, a prostitute, as a part of his providential plan. In fact, the book of Hebrews in the New Testament lists Rahab as a hero of the faith. “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” (Hebrews 11:31). Joshua sent only two spies into the land at this time because, I think, he remembered what happened when Moses sent 12 spies (Numbers 13:1-14:4). He also sent just two spies so that they could remain discreet and unnoticed. He sent them to Jericho because Jericho was a heavily fortified city and it would take a quality battle plan to capture this city. Joshua did not know at this point how God was going to help him attack the city and so he need strategic information about the city for the upcoming battle just in case he had to fight through conventional means. The spies entered the city of Jericho and stayed at the house of a prostitute, Rahab. The spies chose to stay at Rahab’s home because, as a prostitute, she lived on the edge of society, one stop short of rejection. Her house, built right into the city wall, provided both lodging and sexual favors to travelers. Perhaps the spies also hid at Rahab’s house so that they may be mistaken as some of her customers. A house of prostitution made a perfect place for the spies to check out the land. Rahab was a prostitute but she also knew something about God. She had heard about the miracles of God. Is it surprising that a prostitute knew about God? She had never met an Israelite but her heart was already being melted by God. Often, as Christians, we think that God only reveals himself to those inside the church. But it is apparent that God reveals himself not only in the church but in the whorehouse, the bar, the nightclub, the track, the restaurant. This prostitute, Rahab, was beginning a journey with God, and so she said to the spies, “Please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sign that you will spare the lives of my family and that you will save us from death.” (Joshua 2:12). Verse 15 says, “She let them down by a scarlet rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.” The scarlet cord, lowered from her window during the attack upon Jericho, was the symbol of redemption for Rahab and her family. Apparently God had found his way into a whorehouse in the outskirts of Jericho. In Isaiah 55:8 God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.” God is in the business of taking people like you and like me and transforming us into people who can accomplish his purpose in this world. There is no adequate excuse you can come up with as to why God can not and will not choose to use you. Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I have chosen you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.” (John 15:16). God took Rahab’s immoral lifestyle and her whorehouse and used it as a place of redemption for his people. God can take the worst, nastiest parts of us and use it for good. He took the worst part of Rahab, her profession as a prostitute and somehow used to it in his plan. In Matthew chapter 1, as we read the lineage of Jesus we read of Rahab. She was a relative of Jesus Christ. The son of God came from a family that had a prostitute. Rahab was not only a part of God’s plan in Jericho, she was part of God’s plan to save the world! Many scholars actually believe that the scarlet rope Rahab used to lower the spies out of the city, foretells the redemption of sin through the shedding of Jesus’ blood! All of this has been taught to us by a prostitute. Strange, but isn’t that the type of people God uses?Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKmTdskCWPg