Brown's Daily Word 10-3-13

    The Lord gave us a bountiful and beautiful day yesterday.  The Southern Tier of New York is bursting with varied and variegated colors all around.  I spent some time with my younger brother Caleb, who had knee surgery this week.  I also spent some time with  Barb, a beautiful servant of Jesus who is going in for  complete knee replacement surgery today.  Barbara is a special person.. She is a Preacher's kid.  I married her  and husband 22 years ago.  They have been my encouragers all these years.  I also spent part of the day with my young friend from India, sharing about how the work of the Lord is carried out around the corner and around the world.  It is the work of the Kingdom. The work of the Kingdom marches on inspite of us.  Blessed be His Name.  

    We were marveling the beauty and the blessings of the Lord all around us.  On our way home I had flat tire.   A young couple, who were on their way to dinner, stopped  and offered to help.  I thanked them for their generosity and asked them to go for their dinner date. I called Denny, another faithful servant of Jesus, who came  with a jubilant heart and changed the  tire .. we got home safely.  Praise the Lord for the hands the Lord has given us to serve Him with. 

 

    I have been reading about Ira Gillett,a  missionary to East Africa  Mr Ira Gillett, returned home to report on his activities overseas, he related an interesting phenomenon.  Repeatedly, Gillett had noticed how groups of Africans would walk past government hospitals and travel many extra miles to receive medical treatment at the mission compound.  He finally asked a particular group why they walked the extra distance when the same treatments were available at the government clinics.  The reply was instructive: "The medicines may be the same but the hands are different."  This is the essence of Christian ministry: the hands are different.  The high-touch component, love, transforms a program into a ministry for the cause of Christ.  For this reason love is central in the church of Jesus Christ.  Love is indispensable.

 

    "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."  1 Corinthians 13.

    Even though love is undefinable, Paul maintained, it is unmistakable.  No concrete definition can ever encapsulate exactly what love is.  Nevertheless, the presence of love is unmistakable and its absence cannot be hidden.  Paul declared that love's presence is unmistakable because it is revealed in attitudes and actions that flow out of it.  Love's absence cannot be hidden because this absence is betrayed by conduct and attitudes that love's presence prevents.  Among these negative portrayals Paul lists jealousy, boastfulness, arrogance, improper conduct, self-centeredness, irritability, and vengefulness.  What a contrast they form to the attitudes and characteristics that love portrays: patience, kindness, rejoicing with the truth, endurance in the face of frailties of others, a trust that looks for the best in others, hope.  Because these positive traits are produced by love, love's presence is unmistakable.

    "Love never ends; as for prophecy, it will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.  So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."   

    W. H. Auden said, "We must love one another or die."  People in our high-tech world are dying.  Our task is to show them the path to life by extending to them the touch of the hand of the believing community, and to bring them into contact with the healing touch of  Jesus our Lord.  Jesus, indeed, "... touched and made me whole".

  In Christ,

    Brown.

http://youtu.be/S6OgZCCoXWc 

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