Thanks be to Jesus our Lord for this new day. We are just two months to the day to Christmas. He blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday Evening gathering for fellowship, sharing, and study. Every time we come together in the name of our Lord, seeking His Face, He is there to bless us to fill our lives with His power and presence.

As a nation we are gearing up for the general Elections. Let us all be praying and getting ready to vote on Nov 6, 2012. Encourage our neighbors and friends to vote. Let us turn our hearts towards the Living Lord, the One who is the King of all nations and Lord of all.

Nothing is more important for the Christian than becoming fully persuaded that our Lord indeed leads us in this life's journey from here to the Eternal City. What a difference it makes to know with great conviction that behind our lives stands the unseen hand of God working in, through, and sometimes in spite of our decisions to accomplish His will in our lives and in the world. I love the famous lines by James Russell Lowell. They describe life in a fallen world where values have been turned upside down:
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknownStandeth God with the shadows,Keeping watch above his own.
The last line contains the heart of the Christian philosophy of history. God stands “within the shadows, keeping watch above his own.” When the world seems most out of control, God steps in to let us know that he keeps watch over us. Often it is only as we look back that we see the hand of God working through the affairs of life. Circumstances are the fingerprints of God.
I love to gaze at the sunrise. Sometimes we get anxious at sunrise when all we can see is the tiny rim of the sun. If we wait long enough we see the sun in all its brilliance. The same is true of God’s plan for our lives. We never see everything in advance, but if we wait long enough, our Lord always reveals His will.
So, let us relax about the direction of our lives. Our Lord is upon His Throne. He is in charge. When the time is right the darkness will vanish, and all that is vague will be made perfectly clear. For the believer in Christ this life has a "JOYFUL END".
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/NRb5blYUQpc

A Special Thanksgiving Worship;

Saturday, November 17, 2012

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

Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church

Speaker: Dr. Dino Pedrone,

President, Davis College, Binghamton,

Special Music : Worship Band of Davis College,

Organist : Yancey Moore

Pianist: Aric Phinney

All are welcome. For Information call: 607-748-6329

or 607-748-1358

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Brown's Daily Word 10-24-12

Praise the Lord for this new day. We are blessed with "Autumn Rains". It has been raining most of the night. The parsonage has an aluminum roof. The sound of rain on a metal roof is music to my ear. Looking at the calendar we are just two months from Christmas Eve. I have been listening to Christmas music for more than two weeks now. Some of you have written back saying that you have started listening to Christmas music too. This is, in the words of John Wesley, a "Holy Habit".

We will gather for mid-week fellowship and study this evening at 6 PM followed by choir practice at 7:30 PM. One of the members of the church and I spent some time this past Monday visiting a beautiful person who is on hospice care. It was a time of prayer and praise. The woman is believer in Christ our Lord. She shared with me that she met her husband in a hospital where he was patient. It was love at first sight. Their romance was fast and furious. They have been married for 53 years. He husband is by her side 24/7. They share a great devotion, great love, and great fidelity.

When we are weak and frail, the enemy can come to discourage us. I would like to remind myself that life on earth is not a playground. It is a battleground. It is written “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion…” (1 Peter 5:8).
Lions are very large cats, second in size only to the tiger and weighing up to 500 pounds. A single lion can take down prey up to three times its size. For such a large animal the lion is incredibly stealthy. Lions are a picture of strength and ferocity, a great adversary of the animal kingdom. So it makes sense to picture Satan as a prowling lion.
Our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion…he’s not just sneaking up on us. He roars and tries to scare us. He tries to destroy the church by speaking his lies from beyond the hedge. He tries to make us tremble with his deceptive words. It is written, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (v. 7). Anxiety can be a paralyzing experience. It is fear out of control. “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (v. 8). “Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” (v. 9). We are to renew our trust in God especially in these difficult times.
When it comes to pain or suffering it often feels as if no one could possibly know what we are feeling. The devil would love for us to believe that no one knows what we endure. It feels as if we are all alone and that our suffering is entirely unique to ourselves. The church in Peter’s time suffered outright persecution for their faith. But even they thought that they were the only ones experiencing this.
Peter replied, “…you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (v. 9). If we look around and are completely honest each of us realizes that our family issues are not unique, our health issues are comparable to the misery of others, and our other problems have been shared by many people. Suffering is universal. What we need to keep in mind is that there are two plans. The devil’s plan is to break us through suffering. God’s plan is to shape us and mold us into Christ’s image through suffering. Pain is the crucible for faith’s power.
We are reminded “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen” (10-11). God has not forgotten us and the battle is only temporary. The God of all grace who has given us so much will not abandon us now at the moment of his final victory. After we have suffered a little while he will restore us. Last Sunday we looked into the life of Job. The Lord restored him beyond measure. For those who are believers in Christ this life, likewise, has a"JOYFUL END".

Martin Luther struggled with depression and doubt during his lifetime but he battled on in the faith. This is what Luther wrote on 1 Peter 5: "Peter would, with his admonition, make Christians bold and confident to resisting the temptations of the devil and defending themselves. He would not have us feel terrified or despair before Satan, even though that wicked one press us hard through the instrumentality of the world and of our flesh, as well as by his direct onslaughts. We are not to fear though he seems too strong for us and though surrender to his prowess seems inevitable. We are to have a manly heart and fight valiantly through faith. We must be assured that if we remain firm in the faith we shall have strength and final victory. The devil shall not defeat us. We shall prove superior to him. We have been called of God and made Christians to the end that we renounce the devil and contend against him and thus maintain God’s name, God’s word and God’s kingdom against him. Christ our head has already in himself smitten and destroyed for us the devil and his power. In addition, he gives us faith and the Holy Spirit whereby we can wholly defeat Satan’s further wickedness and his attempts to overthrow us. A Christian should bear all this in mind, I say, and learn to experience the strength and power of faith, so will he not yield to temptation and enticement from the evil one." (Martin Luther)
In his hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is our God", he wrote this victorious line:
"And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us: The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, For Lo! His doom is sure – one little word will fell him."

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/S_OTz-lpDjw