Brown's Daily Word 6-24-09

Good morning,
" Morning has broken like the first morning". It is going to be a brilliant and glorious day. Praise the Lord for the morning, and praise the Lord for the sun that heats the earth and dispels the darkness. We will meet for our mid-week study and prayer meeting this evening at 6 PM, starting with full meal. Praise the Lord for all His simple gifts. I praise the Lord for the life and witness of Melda Dudley, who was 97 years old when she slipped into the presence of Jesus with a smile. Her daughter and son in law Rosa and Byron visited her almost every day. She lived in her own house until recently. Rosa and Byron had visited her Sunday. Monday she was sitting on a chair, and gently she went to be with Jesus. John Wesley said" Christians die well".
Lord Kenneth Clark was internationally known for his TV series "Civilization". While he lived and died without faith in Christ, he admitted an overwhelming religious experience in his autobiography. While visiting a beautiful church, he wrote, “My whole being was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy far more intense than anything I had known before.” But what he called the “gloom of grace” created a problem for him. If he allowed it to influence him, he knew that he would have to change. He was sure his family would think he had lost his mind. Further, he was fearful that such intense joy would prove to be an illusion. His conclusion was, in his own words, “I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course.” We read about a financier and tax collector named Zacchaeus in John 19. He was deeply embedded in the world. It is clear from his story that there was probably a time in his life when he loved his money, but when he met Jesus, Zacchaeus knew that it wasn’t an illusion. Yes, he also knew that God’s grace would require him to change, but he didn’t care if people thought he’d lost his mind. Whatever he did from that moment on was for the sake of Christ. He was ready to let go. God’s grace requires a new way of life. If we keep hanging on to the branch, because we want to be able to climb back to safety, we will never know what true safety is in the arms of Christ. Zacchaeus knew that and he did not hesitate to show that he was sold out for the Kingdom of God. He let go of that branch because he had discovered what Jesus was offering. According to the Law as written in Leviticus (6:2-7), if a man cheats another, he is to return the amount he stole plus a fifth and bring a ram to the priest for a guilt offering. Zacchaeus went far above and beyond the call of the Law, offering a fourfold restitution, and beyond that he gave half of his possessions to the poor. By his actions, there is no doubt that his heart was repentant concerning his sin. Though he used to count his money and act like Scrooge and take all that he could get, his joy in meeting the Master led him to far exceed the required amount. For Zacchaeus it was not just about a guilt offering, but a freewill offering – a spontaneous and voluntary sacrifice. So many of the offerings in the Old Testament were about restitution for sin – but the freewill offering was about joy in the Lord, and that is what we see evidenced in Zacchaeus' action. Grace requires a new way of life. Jesus loves us just as much as He loved Zacchaeus, and He wants to come to our house today too. If we are waiting for Him in that tree, in our car, beside our bed, or wherever we are, we must be prepared not only to be blown away by His grace – if we can ever really be prepared for that – but also to let go of the things that take us away from Him and His service. God’s grace is free, but when we accept it in faith, we simply cannot keep our old life. When we try to serve our old master too, we quickly find that it doesn’t work. The joy and peace we have been promised evade us because we haven’t really accepted the grace. You have to trade one for the other to get all the benefits. How many Christians do we know who carry around heavy hearts, saddened faces, and burdens on their shoulders? For many this is the way of their lives. The rich young ruler did not know how to let go of his worldly burdens – or didn’t want to – and he walked away in sadness and sorrow. Zacchaeus carelessly and joyfully threw it away for the greatest treasure of all. For all that God has done for us, should it not be with joy that we rise up and call Him Lord?
In Christ,
Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x2IpLSfqp8
A minister waited in line to have his car filled with petrol just before a long holiday weekend. The attendant worked quickly, but there were many cars ahead of him in front of the service station. Finally, the attendant motioned him toward a vacant pump. "Reverend," said the young man, "sorry about the delay. It seems as if everyone waits until the last minute to get ready for a long trip." The minister chuckled, "I know what you mean.It's the same in my business,"