Brown's Daily Word 12-20-12

" O come, all ye faithful,joyful and triumphant...O come ,let us adore Him Christ the Lord", Hark! the herald angel sing, "Glory to the new -born King"," Joy to the world , the Lord is come". I love summertime. I just returned from Australia, where it is summertime. My wife loves "The Chronicles of Narnia". There is a famous phrase C.S Lewis uses to describe the brokenness of the world in which we live in. It is the phrase used by Tumnus, the faun, when he explains to Lucy what Narnia is like: ‘Always winter but never Christmas.’ This is a powerful metaphor for the state of our lives. Lewis believed that all human beings live in a state of permanent winter because of our alienation from the rightful King (Aslan in Narnia, Jesus Christ in our world). We are alive, but there’s a sense in which we’re also dead. In the constant winter of Narnia, the lamp in the forest serves a similar purpose. The lamp is left over from Aslan’s creation of Narnia, a beacon of his creative power and a reminder that Narnia is still ultimately his. Lewis finally recognized that life only made sense with God in the picture; only the coming of the King could bring an end to the winter and bring, in its place, a magical spring. It was a decision he came to reluctantly, having been an atheist for some years. He described himself as, ‘the most dejected and reluctant convert in England . . . brought in kicking, struggling, resentful.’ Lewis realized that a relationship with God is only possible because an event powerfully pictured by Aslan dying in Edmund’s place and rising again to defeat the White Witch, an image of the ‘Deeper Magic’ of Jesus’s death and resurrection.

Praise the Lord! Into the winter of the world Christmas comes once again. I had a glimpse of preparations for the celebration of Christmas around the world as I met people from all over the globe and witnessed a portion of it in Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, and in Japan. When I arrived at home our church was fully decorated for Advent and Christmas, and my wife had turned the parsonage into a Christmas House once again, with so many trees and so many decorations reflecting the sounds, the sights, the smells, and the songs of Christmas. We have our real tree towering almost 9 feet which now has taken its rightful place in the living room of the parsonage where other others Christmas trees have adorned for the last 22 Christmases.

As church we celebrated a very special Christmas with gifts of love last Sunday. The faces of children were glowing and glistening, because Jesus comes into the midst our children's gathering and celebration, and He reminds us to "let the children come to me do not hinder them". "If you love me feed my lambs."

I am excited about Christmas. We get to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior once again. I will be sharing Friday Evening at 7 PM on our weekly Television outreach on the Birth of our Savior. Laureen and I, along with some of her friends and with some my friends, are attending the Handels' Messiah presentation this Friday at 8 PM in Binghamton. This is our annual pilgrimage. Sunita and Andy attended the Messiah at the National Cathedral, in Washington, DC a couple weeks ago. They will be coming home Friday night. Our Church is presenting a Living Nativity this Saturday from 4-5 PM at Center Court of the Oakdale Mall, Binghamton.

We will gather for our Sunday worship at Union Center UMC at 8:30 and 11:00 and at Wesley at 9:30AM. There will be a Christmas celebration and reception at Wesley after the morning worship. Adult and children's choir will be singing at Union Center during both services followed by Christmas reception at 12:30PM at the Union Center UMC. For Christmas Eve we will gather for a Candlelight service ast the Historic First United Methodist Church, Endicott at 4:30 PM. We will gather at 7:30 PM at the Union Center UMC for a Candlelight Communion Service.

Jessica and Tom will be joining us on Christmas day. Micah, Simeon, and Ada, along with their parents, will be celebrating their Christmas in Boston. We will be going to se them a few days after Christmas.

As we pause and ponder about the most wondrous birth of Lord and Savior and how silently, how silently the wondrous gift was given, we praise the Lord for all of you with whom we are linked because of Christ. Thank you for you Christmas cards and gifts and your love that you have shared with us. May the Christ of Christmas fill our hearts with the fullness of His Joy, the power of His love, and the gift of Redemption. Praise the Lord for this wonderful world we live in. Praise the Lord for the way He fills the globe with His glory and splendor and His grace and love. Praise the Lord for the church around the corner and around the globe.

I am enclosing by attachment a brief synopsis of the Naik Family here at 131 Maple Dive, Endicott NY for the year 2012.

Once we receive and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior and begin to serve Him as our King He gives us His grace and mercy to live in that Eternal Hope only He provides. We run the race looking un to Jesus and in to the Eternal City. In his " The House of Christmas" G.K. Chesterton reminds us "To an open house in the evening,
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome
To the end of the way of the wondering star
To the things that can not be and that are,t
To the place where God was homeless and all men are at home."
Joy to the world the savior is born.
In Him,
Pastor Brown
http://youtu.be/X-LEVmxL5Y8

Brown's Daily Word 12-19-12

Praise the Lord for this Wednesday before Christmas, 2012. We will gather for our mid-week study and fellowship at 6 PM followed by choir practice at 7:30 PM . We will be looking at Isaiah 35. We read in this wonderful and powerful passage about a Highway, a Holy Way. Isaiah is describing this Holy Highway that will lead the people from their exile to God’s temple in Zion – the site of their joyous homecoming.
He said that there will be no ravenous beasts – there will be nothing along the way to be afraid of and then he said, “No traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.”
It’s a wonderful image of God’s grace. God is so eager for us to come back home, to come back to him, to know the joy for which we have been created, that he builds this holy way where no traveler, not even a fool, can go astray.
The source of our joy is Jesus. We can begin to experience His presence even
now. There are flowers already blooming in the midst of the desert and we wait
for that day when we will know Christ fully and our joy will be complete. In the meantime, the Christ of Christmas gives us work to do. The middle of our passage is a command, an imperative, something we are supposed to do. Isaiah said,
"Strengthen weak hands, and make firm feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, 'Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.'”
It is not enough for us to simply receive this joy of knowing God’s presence and God’s love. We also have opportunities to share that joy, to help others see the signs of God’s presence and experience God’s love all around them.

Praise the Lord for all who are engaged in ministering to the grieving families in Connecticut. In the midst of such great tragedy we see the signs of grace and healing, and even the signs of triumph and victory. Therefore we are always on the lookout for those with weak hands or feeble knees. We are always on the lookout for those with a fearful heart. We are always looking for opportunities to say “Be strong. Do not fear. Here is your God.” With every person we greet we have a chance to share just a little bit of our joy.

Our nephew who lives in Colorado posted on Facebook that he "Will be saying Merry Christmas to everyone for the next 7 Days." Some things are worth saying again and again. Over and over again we have an opportunity to speak to those with fearful hearts who need to hear the Christmas message – “Be strong. Do not be afraid. Here is your God.” In this way we keep spreading the message. We keep pointing to the signs and God’s presence and God’s love.
We keep waiting for the promise to be complete, waiting for that day when the ransomed of the Lord will come to Zion with singing. We wait and we pray, for in that day we will obtain everlasting joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/RmknWYFr6Xk

Living Nativity Presented by the Union Center United Methodist Church

Location: The Oakdale Mall, Johnson City, NY.

Date: Saturday, December 22, 2012

Time: 4-5 PM

 

Handel's Messiah Presented by the Down Town Singers of Binghamton

Date: Friday December 21, 2012

Time: 8 PM

Location: Helen Foley Theater in Binghamton High School (corner of Main & Oak Streets)

 

Christmas Eve Candlelight services

4:30 PM at First UMC, 53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott

Pianist: Aric Phinney,

Organist: Yancey Moore

Soloist: Emma Brunson

Pastor Brown will be Preaching

 

7.30 PM Candle Light Communion Service

Union Center UMC, 128 Maple Drive

Organist: Betty Phinney

Pianist: Laureen Naik

Preacher Rev. Brown Naik

All are welcome.

 

Phone for information: 607-748-6329 or 607-748-1358

Brown's Daily Word 12-18-12

We were all stunned and overwhelmed the tragedy that occurred the Friday before the Third Sunday in Advent. As a nation we have wrestled with unbelief, anger and confusion. How could it happen in America? I was sharing with our daughter Sunita, who reminded me that there is no simplistic answer to this tragedy. We need to come to Jesus and pray and mourn. He comforts those who mourn. He heals the brokenhearted. Last Sunday morning during the morning prayer time at Wesley Linda reminded me that there so many millions who love Jesus Christ in these United States. There are so many who love their children and grandchildren. There are so many children who love their parents with great devotion and affection. There are so many who love Jesus who live with great selflessness and service to the Lord. There are so many millions who give to the work of the kingdom with so much generosity and sacrifice. The Pew research has announced that there are over 2.2 billion Christians around the world. There are so many who minister to the children with great joy and love. In the midst of senseless tragedy and violence we see that the work of the Gospel continues around the corner and around the world.

In my simple faith I wonder how it is okay to pray after the tragedy and during tragedy but it is forbidden to pray in the public arena before the tragedy. The culture that denounces Christ in the public discourse, the society that mocks Christ in the political sphere, is suddenly brought to knees for prayer when suddenly we are made powerless and voiceless. I reminded my daughter Sunita that the birth of Jesus, the Prince of peace, was surrounded and followed by the ruthless murder of children of Bethlehem by King Herod. Thus says the LORD: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (Jeremiah 31:15). Christians must call evil what it is, never deny its horror and power, and remain ever thankful that evil will not have its full sway, or the last word.

We affirm the Cross of Christ as the only adequate remedy for evil. There is one and only one reason that evil does not have the last word, and that is the fact that evil, sin, death, and the devil were defeated at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There they were defeated conclusively, comprehensively, and publicly. Christ’s victory over sin, evil, and death was declared by the Father in raising Jesus from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the ground of our hope and the assurance of the final and total victory of Christ over all powers, principalities, and perpetrators. In the face of such horrors and atrocities, we are driven again and again to the Cross and resurrection of Christ, knowing that the reconciling power of God in Christ is the only adequate answer to such a depraved and diabolical power.
For now, even as we yearn for the Day of the Lord, we grieve with those who grieve. We sit with them and pray for them, and acknowledge that their loss is truly unspeakable and that their tears are unspeakably true. We pray and look for openings for grace and the hope of the gospel. We do our best to speak words of truth, love, grace, and comfort.
What of the eternal destiny of these sweet children? There is no specific text of Scripture that gives us a clear and direct answer. We must affirm with the Bible that we are conceived in sin and, as sons and daughters of Adam, will face eternal damnation unless we are found in Christ. So many of these little victims died before reaching any real knowledge of their own sinfulness and need for Christ. They, like those who die in infancy and those who suffer severe mental incapacitation, never really have the opportunity to know their need as sinners and the provision of Christ as Savior. They are in a categorically different position than that of the person of adult consciousness who never responds in faith to the message of the Gospel. In the book of Deuteronomy, God tells the adults among the Children of Israel that, due to their sin and rebellion, they would not enter the land of promise. But the Lord then said this: “And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it” (Deuteronomy 1:39).
Many, if not all, of the little children who died in Newtown were so young that they certainly would be included among those who, like the little Israelites, “have no knowledge of good or evil.” God is sovereign, and he was not surprised that these little ones died so soon. There is biblical precedent for believing that the Lord made provision for them in the atonement accomplished by Christ, and that they are safe with Jesus.
Rachel is weeping for her children. The prophet Jeremiah’s reference to Rachel and her lost children is heart-breaking. “Thus says the LORD: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.’” Like Rachel, many parents, grandparents, and loved ones are weeping inconsolably even now, refusing to be comforted for their children, because they are no more. This tragedy is compounded in emotional force by the fact that it comes in such close proximity to Christmas, but let us never forget that there was the mass murder of children in the Christmas story as well. King Herod’s murderous decree that all baby boys under two years of age should be killed prompted Matthew to cite this very verse from Jeremiah. Rachel again was weeping for her children.
God, not the murderer, has the last word. For those in Christ, there is the promise of full restoration. Even in the face of such unmitigated horror, there is hope. “There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to your own country.” There are so many who pour out their lives and love to others in the Name of the New Born King, Jesus Christ. We praise the Lord the Lights still shines in dark places. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." Isaiah 9:2

May the Lord give grace and anointing to feed the lambs. May Jesus grant special blessings to those are engaged in the ministry to the children in schools in churches. Jesus said let the children come to me. Do not hinder them for to such belongs the Kingdom of God.

In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/Re75Mn85Jjk

Living Nativity Presented by the Union Center United Methodist Church

Location: The Oakdale Mall, Johnson City, NY.

Date: Saturday, December 22, 2012

Time: 4-5 PM

 

Handel's Messiah Presented by the Down Town Singers of Binghamton

Date: Friday December 21, 2012

Time: 8 PM

Location: Helen Foley Theater in Binghamton High School (corner of Main & Oak Streets).

 

Christmas Eve Candlelight services

4:30 PM at First UMC, 53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott

Pianist: Aric Phinney,

Organist: Yancey Moore

Soloist: Emma Brunson

Pastor Brown will be Preaching

 

7.30 PM Candle Light Communion Service

Union Center UMC, 128 Maple Drive

Organist: Betty Phinney

Pianist: Laureen Naik

Preacher Rev. Brown Naik

All are welcome.

 

Phone for information: 607-748-6329 or 607-748-1358