Brown's Daily Word 9-12-12

Praise the Lord for this day after 9/11. We all can remember vividly where we were on that beautiful Tuesday morning 11 years ago when the events of that fateful day began to unfold. We were all in shock and disbelief, not knowing what to think. Was this an accident, or was it something planned? When the second plane slammed into the World Trade Center building there was little doubt that terrorism was involved. Then, when the Pentagon was hit, it began to dawn us that we were under attack. That week was like living out a scene in Dante’s Inferno. In the beginning there was shock and horror, but it seemed surreal, like watching a movie with special effects. It didn’t seem real, because things like this don’t happen here. This is the United States. . . Terrorism’s purpose is to create terror, and it did so in the hearts of many.
How do we react to living in an unsafe world? What is our response as Christians? From where or from whom does our security come? We draw our strength from a different source than those who do not know God. As the Scripture says: “Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8). He is our hope — nothing else is a sure and certain hope. The Bible says, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm” (Psalm 20:7-8). Our faith is not in our military power, our intelligence network, our economy and financial institutions, the power of our foreign alliances; our hope is in the Lord our God. The Bible says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4). The Bible also says, “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever” (Psalm 125:1).

Security is not the absence of trouble, but confidence and courage in the midst of trouble; that confidence comes from our living Lord. Our confidence cannot be shaken, because we have a God who is in complete control of the universe. The earth may crumble and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, but we know that God is unchanged. We say, “I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken” (Psalm 16:8). Our security is in eternity, not in the present circumstances. Our confidence is not shaken even though the earth burns and its smoke rises. For the Lord says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10).
There are no guarantees in this life for any of us except the blessed assurance we have from our Lord Jesus. Frederick Buechner has written, “You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe.” Life is not safe, but life is good. Life is good, because God is good.
The New Living Bible puts it this way: “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? . . . No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).

In Christ,

Brownhttp://youtu.be/yNbLtiG2dWU

A Special Saturday Evening of Praise and Worship

Location: First United Methodist Church,
53 McKinley Ave., Endicott, NY

Sponsored by Union Center United Methodist Church.

5:30 PM Community Dinner

6:30 PM Praise and Worship

Special Music by: Praise and worship band

Soloist: Emma Brunson

Preacher: Pastor Marshall Sorber