To all of our friends and family around the
corner and around the globe,, greetings Name of our Lord and Savior who makes
all things glorious and beautiful in His time. Once again it is beautiful and
majestic Springtime in New York. I can see a glimpse of heaven all around us.
I am trying to be a bird watcher and listen to melodious sonnets that the birds
make. Our dear Missionary friend Bruce Henry, who now is with the Lord, was a
wonderful wildlife artist. He highlighted wild bird life. I have been watching
and listening to some of brilliant spring birds who are carefree and joyful.
Spring flowers and flowering trees like the magnolias and crab apple trees are
in full boom. Thank you Jesus.
I am reflecting on the power of
the Risen Lord who transforms the sinners into saints. He specializes in
recovery missions. He rescues the perishing and gives life to the dying. He
finds the lost and encourages the found.
The Lord's is at work in the lives
of men and women in every generation. I am reminded this morning about the
wonderful testimony of Rahab, who was rescued from the world's oldest
profession. Not only is she mentioned in Hebrews and James, but she also ends
up in a remarkable section of Scripture. Her name, the name of this woman of
sin who sided with God's people, ends up memorialized in Matthew
1. There we read her name listed as the
mother of Boaz, who married Ruth, and as the great-great-grandmother of King
David; she's in the direct lineage of the Savior of the and Lord Jesus
Christ. The world that is in unbelief, that
would have accused her for her sins is not be worthy of her, says the
Lord. There are rich blessings of God to be
found for us in this woman of God.
Because faith in Jesus Christ our
painful past is no indicator of a painful future. In fact, the Lord will redeem
our painful pasts and use them to send us into glorious futures. As the prophet
Joel spoke to a people recovering from the judgment of God against their sin, a
people who had been ravaged by the locusts, "I will restore to you the years
that the swarming locust has eaten (Joel 2:25)."
Our Great Lord's wonderful
grace moves even today across the landscape of our generation, which has been so
devastated by pain, seeking what the world has disregarded. This Lord of grace
locates the broken spirits, the twisted stories of family lives, the abandoned
dreams of lost people, the poorest of the poor who are but pieces of junk to a
world that prizes beauty and fame, and He takes them to Himself.
The story of Rahab is here for us all, for Christ Jesus, who redeemed
Rahab and put her in the royal line of the Savior, will redeem us also and
make us heirs of the Kingdom of Christ. In a
deeper sense, we are all Rahab. We are not only born sinners as sons of Adam
and daughters of Eve, but we have all prostituted ourselves: sold ourselves into
sin by our malicious hearts toward others, our pride before God, the lusts of
the eyes and lusts of the flesh. "Therefore,
just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death
spread to all men because all sinned (Romans 5:12)."
Thank God a Savior has come into
our camp. A free offer of salvation is here. All who will call upon the name
of Jesus Christ will be saved. No fiery judgment will touch us, though it rages
over the universe. A righteous God shall surely bring down the walls of this
world, but the destruction shall not touch us if we are in Christ. Not even
death can destroy us. There is a scarlet cord hanging in the window of the
house of every harlot who professes faith in Jesus Christ. That cord is the
blood of a Savior sealing that house. That cord is the sign that we, unworthy
sinners in the eyes of the world, have come into the covenant of grace. God now
calls us His own.
In Hebrews 12:1-2. the writer makes
the transition from Chapter 11, with its Hall of Heroes of the
Faith, to show us how we are surrounded by
this great cloud of witnesses in order to run the race of faith. We see them
around us: Abraham and Sarah, Rahab and David -- all of them -- great sinners
who called on a great Savior and became great people of faith. All of this is given that we might be free from the
accusations of self, Satan and the world. What God has called clean let not man
call unclean. We are saved. Let us not allow sin to have dominion over us. We
must not let our past sins accuse us as we run the race of
faith.
"Looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him,
endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of
the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).
We will not advance in our faith
by looking back at the pain of our past, but by looking at the greatness of
Jesus: Jesus, the great, great One who led the
captives free and who now rules a Kingdom of recovering sinners whom He calls
saints from His throne in heaven. When we
reach the heavenly shores, we will be met by the Risen and glorious Savior,
the Lord who came from the lineage of Rahab. We will then, to the glory of
Jesus, come into the company of Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Paul, Peter and
all of the nameless and countless others who by faith in Jesus Christ became
people "of whom the world was not worthy."
In Christ,
Brown
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