Praise the Lord! It
is Friday and Sunday is coming. It is exciting to get ready for fellowship,
worship, and witness as the Lord calls us to be deployed in His Kingdom.
We have 75 short
term missioners involved in serving Christ in our area continuing the rebuilding
ministries following the floods of 2011 in our area. These servants of Christ
have come from Ohio, belonging to our United Methodist Church. Most of these
missioners are young adults who have taken their summer time in serving Christ
and witnessing for Him. They bring so much love, so much joy and so much zeal in
serving Christ.
I get excited about
the church of Jesus Christ around the corner and around the globe. The Holy
Spirit that came down at Pentecost still propels the people that love Jesus in
serving Him as King and Lord. One of our teams will be preparing and serving
meal this Saturday at the First United Methodist Church on Saturday. I have been
asked to speak at the Baccalaureate service this Coming Sunday Evening in one of
our are High Schools.
We serve a God who
is mighty and merciful. He is in the world today. He is in control. He is upon
His throne. J.B. Phillips, a new Testament scholar from England, wrote a book
few years ago titled, "Your God is Too Small". I think A.W. Tozer said it
best: “A low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils.” But a person
with a “high view” of God “is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems.” A small god is the cause of a hundred lesser
evils. A big God is the solution to ten thousand temporal problems! Think about it - it is the difference
between scaredy-cats and lion chasers! If our God is smaller than a 500 pound
lion we will run away! But if our God God is bigger than a 500 pound lion we
might just muster the moral courage to chase lions!
There is powerful passage found in II Samuel 23:20-23. "Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel, did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab’s mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. Another time, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with it. These are some of the deeds that made Benaiah almost as famous as the Three. He was more honored than the other members of the Thirty, though he was not one of the Three. And David made him commander of his bodyguard."
Most of us don’t like being in pits with lions on snowy days, but those are the stories worth telling. Those are the experiences that make life worth living! Lion chasers don’t try to avoid situations where the odds are against them. Lion chasers know that impossible odds set the stage for amazing miracles! Maybe Benaiah knew he wasn’t outnumbered by the Moabites. He had the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit on His side! Perhaps Benaiah knew that a lion was no match for the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
At the end of the tale of "Prince Caspian", one of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia series, there is a great dialogue between Lucy and Aslan—the lion who is the Christ-figure in the book. They haven’t seen each other in over a year and Lucy says: “Aslan, you’re bigger.” Aslan says, “That is because you are older, little one.” She responds, “Not because you are?” Aslan continues, “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” So it is with our relationship with God: the more we grow the bigger God gets.
In Psalm 34:3, David said, “O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name forever.” The word magnify means “to enlarge.” A photocopier allows us to reduce or enlarge images. If we ignore God, his size in our lives is reduced; He gets smaller and smaller and smaller until all that’s left is a thumbnail image.
On the other hand, when we read Scripture, it’s like hitting the enlarge button on the copier. The image of God gets bigger. The same thing happens when we pray—our problems get smaller and God gets bigger. When we worship the Risen Lord it is like hitting that enlarge button and He will get bigger and bigger. I think the same thing happens when we go on a mission trip or using our spiritual gifts to serve the Lord. He gets bigger and bigger!
Our God in the person of Jesus Christ is alive and well. He is bigger than our biggest problem. He is bigger than our worst failure. He is bigger than our greatest fear. The Lord we love and serve is bigger than a 500 pound lion.
There is powerful passage found in II Samuel 23:20-23. "Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel, did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab’s mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. Another time, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with it. These are some of the deeds that made Benaiah almost as famous as the Three. He was more honored than the other members of the Thirty, though he was not one of the Three. And David made him commander of his bodyguard."
Most of us don’t like being in pits with lions on snowy days, but those are the stories worth telling. Those are the experiences that make life worth living! Lion chasers don’t try to avoid situations where the odds are against them. Lion chasers know that impossible odds set the stage for amazing miracles! Maybe Benaiah knew he wasn’t outnumbered by the Moabites. He had the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit on His side! Perhaps Benaiah knew that a lion was no match for the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
At the end of the tale of "Prince Caspian", one of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia series, there is a great dialogue between Lucy and Aslan—the lion who is the Christ-figure in the book. They haven’t seen each other in over a year and Lucy says: “Aslan, you’re bigger.” Aslan says, “That is because you are older, little one.” She responds, “Not because you are?” Aslan continues, “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” So it is with our relationship with God: the more we grow the bigger God gets.
In Psalm 34:3, David said, “O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name forever.” The word magnify means “to enlarge.” A photocopier allows us to reduce or enlarge images. If we ignore God, his size in our lives is reduced; He gets smaller and smaller and smaller until all that’s left is a thumbnail image.
On the other hand, when we read Scripture, it’s like hitting the enlarge button on the copier. The image of God gets bigger. The same thing happens when we pray—our problems get smaller and God gets bigger. When we worship the Risen Lord it is like hitting that enlarge button and He will get bigger and bigger. I think the same thing happens when we go on a mission trip or using our spiritual gifts to serve the Lord. He gets bigger and bigger!
Our God in the person of Jesus Christ is alive and well. He is bigger than our biggest problem. He is bigger than our worst failure. He is bigger than our greatest fear. The Lord we love and serve is bigger than a 500 pound lion.
In
Christ,
Brown
Men's
Breakfast Gathering:
Sunday , June
17,2012 at 7:00 AM
Union Center United
Methodist Church Fellowship Hall.
Speaker: Dr. Rodger Summers Ph
D
Vice President,
Binghamton University.
Super
Summer Music Festival
Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 6:30 PM
Location: First United Methodist
Church
53
McKinley Avenue, Endicott
Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist
Church
Musicians include: Aric Phinney, Yancey
Moore,
David
Berry, Emma Brunson, Dianne Glann.
Weekly
Television outreach:
Friday
7:00 PM
Time
Warner Cable Channel
4.
