Brown's Daily Word 6-3-09

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this beautiful day in His Kingdom. Keep our daughter, Sunita, in prayer. She and her team are flying back today to Washington. They laid over in Amsterdam, and will be flying from there shortly.
We will meet at 6 PM for a fellowship meal, followed by Bible study at 6:30 PM and choir practice at 7:30 PM. In our study we will be looking at Revelation 2. It has been a wonderful blessing to come together for midweek fellowship, study, and prayer.
Congratulations to George and Marion Cameron, who celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary last week.
Ruth Bell Graham, who has entered the Church Triumphant, was the wife of Billy Graham. Some time back she wrote a story which she called “The Mender.” She wrote, “He had built for himself a great house on one of the Caribbean islands. It is a thing to behold. Tall rusty iron columns, collected and resurrected with an ingenious homemade device. This Great House is a masterpiece of salvaged materials. A collector and seller of scrap metal as well as antiques, he was also fascinated with broken bits and pieces of china dug from his front yard. His friends, John and June Cash, laughingly remarked it was the first time they had heard of a yard sale where the man had sold the yard itself. Carefully he fitted and glued the pieces together. Few ever came out whole. They remained simply a collection of one who cared. When I expressed interest, he gave me a blue-and-white plate, carefully glued together — pieces missing. ‘You remind me of God,’ I said. By the look on his face, I knew I shocked him, and I hurriedly explained. ‘God pieces back broken lives lovingly. Sometimes a piece is irretrievably lost. But still He gathers what He can and restores us.’” Ruth Graham’s story is a parable of the church. We are an unusual collection of broken people, but God has taken us and collected the pieces of our lives and lovingly glued them back together. As we experience his grace, He transforms our lives.
Pamela Reeve has written, “Faith is remembering I am God’s priceless treasure when I feel utterly worthless.” How wonderful it is to know that kind of Grace, experienced at the loving hand of God! It helps us to know that we are loved, no matter what. He offers forgiveness for the past and encouragement for the days ahead. In the New Testament, John wrote, “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19-21). When we love each other it is the sign that we are in love with God. Paul’s message to the early church is a message we still need for today. He said, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3). We are urged, according to Scripture, to “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:312-32). We forgive because we have been forgiven. We are patient with others because God in his mercy has been patient with us. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). “Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).
Let us live out our lives in such a way that we demonstrate love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and grace towards those around us. Let us love with the love of Christ, with patience and attentiveness to those around us.
In His Love,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4Q5vVa0q8Q