Brown's Daily Word 10-1-13

    Praise the Lord! He gave us a super Saturday and super Sunday this past weekend.   All my children and grandchildren came to celebrate my birthday.  Jessica and Tom came in Saturday night after completing an 80 mile bicycle ride from Philadelphia to Ocean City, New Jersey.  We gathered for praise and worship Saturday Evening at the First United Methodist church followed by a special meal.  It was great time testimony and celebration.  Sunday was great day of worship and celebration.  All our grandchildren were with us. It was such a treat.  Praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord for all the birthday cards, gifts, and greetings I received.  I thank the Lord for you.  I am so blessed.  Praise the for Lou P. and his team that prepared a banquet for my birthday.  Praise the Lord for Diane E.  and her team, who turned the our Church fellowship hall into a beautiful banquet Hall. Thank you Sheila S. and her team that cared for the cleaning after the banquet.   Praise the Lord for festive times and seasons.  Praise the Lord for ordinary times, too.

    An ordinary time is what one person has called a "non-festive time."  As someone has put it, "life is so daily."  This dailiness of life can seem so mundane, so routine, so non-spectacular.  Yet, during this "ordinary time" our Lord  Jesus is  at work in us in extraordinary ways.

    Richard Foster in his wonderful book on prayer wrote: "The discovery of God lies in the daily and the ordinary, not in the spectacular and the heroic. If we cannot find God in the routines of home and shop, then we will not find Him at all." (Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, p.171)

    I heard about Hannah in the Old Testament from my mom, when I was a very little boy.  Hannah, as we recall, was childless.  Year after year she faithfully went to the temple and prayed, pouring out her heart before the Lord.  These were the ordinary days full of sadness and brokenness for Hannah.  It is written, "This went on year after year."  This sad scenario wasn't just played out once.  It was the way things were for several years.  Does that sound like anything we experience?  Sometimes it feels like we're in 'ordinary time' while other folks are celebrating and in festive time.  That makes our 'ordinary time' particularly hard to bear.

    The wonderful story of the Lord in the life of Hannah unfolds in a way that was beyond anything she could have imagined.  When we think it is all over, that our chances have run out, the Lord of the second chance is about to do something magnificent and glorious.  He is about to do some thing that will blow us away.. That kind of God, who specializes in impossibilities, is the very God whom we worship and serve.  So it was for Hannah that ordinary time came to an end for her!  She conceived and gave birth to a son.  She named this little boy "Shamuel," - "God has heard", and Hannah praised God in a wonderful prayer similar in sound to the great prayer of Mary, mother of Jesus.

    "My heart rejoices in the Lord . . .", Hannah sang.  Read it in full in 1 Samuel 2.

    Hannah, once infertile, over time had three more sons and two more daughters. For maybe three years, Hannah did not go on the annual trip to Shiloh, but stayed home and cared for little Samuel, but when the little boy was weaned, Hannah made good on her promise to God.  Taking little Samuel to Shiloh, Hannah and Elkanah offered sacrifice and left Samuel under the care and guidance of high priest Eli.

    In Hannah's ordinary time, a time of year-after-year sadness, God WAS at work. God was at work, though not on Hannah's timetable.  Nor did God remove Hannah's suffering and trial for several years.  Nevertheless, in ordinary time, God was bringing good things to birth.

    God IS at work in 'ordinary time' whether we see what God is doing or not.  God IS at work even in the 'ordinary time' of our sadness and grief.  God is at work in the stuff we'd rather not go through.  Moreover, out of that difficulty and suffering there can be a birth of something new and vital, even extraordinary.

    She began as an ordinary sister in a Calcutta, India convent, but in the midst of her ordinary life, she had an extraordinary dream.  She shared her heart's ambition with her superior.  "Well, how much money do you have?" asked the Mother Superior.  "I have two pennies!" replied Sister Teresa.  "Oh, you cannot start an orphanage with just two pennies," said Mother Superior.  "No, but with two pennies God and I can start an orphanage," replied the nun, whom we have come to know as Mother Teresa.  She and God did start an orphanage and a ministry that has spanned the world!  In ordinary time, in the lives of ordinary people, God brings good things to birth.

  In Christ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/gtjL-l9sVAw 

Oct. 5th Sat. at 6:30 PM  -  ILLUSIONIST  -  in our sanctuary.  The Young at Heart
Committee is sponsoring a family program with an Illusionist, Jeremy Biesecker.
This is a great opportunity to invite your neighbors.  Hand-out notices are on the
back table to be shared. 

“Stir Up Our Hunger”
Prayer Conference with Rev. Nigel Mumford from By His Wounds
Worship by Binghamton House of Prayer
    October 18-19, 2013 at First UMC in Endicott
        Friday Oct 18th: 6 PM - Registration opens
        7 PM - Worship and Teaching

    Saturday Oct 19th: 9 am - Doors Open
        9:30 AM- Worship and Teaching
        1 PM - Healing Service
        7 PM - Worship night with Binghamton House of Prayer

    Sunday October 20th
        Rev. Mumford will be sharing at the 8:30 and 11:00 AM services at UCUMC

** Please note that Friday and Saturday sessions will be held at First UMC in Endicott to allow for more space for prayer ministry.
To register, please go to www.binghamtonawakening.eventbrite.com

 

    Friday, October 25, 2013 at 7:30 PM - Old Time Hymn Sing at Wesley UMC, Cosponsored by the Wesley UMC and the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 

    NYC trip to Radio City Music Hall for the Christmas Extravaganza, Thursday, December 5, 2013. $80 for bus and ticket to the show. Depart at 6:00 AM, with one stop on the way in, free time in city, and the show at 5:00 PM.  The return bus leaves at 7:15 PM, getting home by 10:30 PM (no stop). 

    The deadline is Oct. 15 for reservations and $40 deposit on the trip. 
Remaining $40 due Nov. 10.  Make the check payable to the church, memo line: NYC trip.  Again, the cost of the trip is just $80.00, including Bus Fare and the ticket to the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.  You don't have to be a member of the Confirmation Class to join us in this adventure.  All are welcome, but when the bus is full, it's full, so get your reservation in right away.  We would love to have you join us.  Call the church office 607-748-6329 or email us at umcgospel@aol.com