Brown's Daily Word 2-27-13

Praise the Lord for this last Wednesday of February. We are in the midst of the Lenten Season, anticipating the glorious and victorious Easter Morning. We will gather today at 6 PM with a special meal followed by Bible study at 6:30 PM and then by a concert of prayer from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM. The choir will practice at 7:30 PM. In Bible study we will be looking at Isaiah 53. The chapter is known as the Suffering Servant chapter. As we look at the passage through the passion and the resurrection of Jesus, we see clearly that it prophesied Jesus Christ at the Cross and also His glorious Resurrection.

I love the paintings of the British Artist Holman Hunt . One of his famous paintings is, "Light of the World", a life-sized painting. It is placed at St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Every time I have been to St. Paul's Cathedral I have taken time to gaze at this masterpiece.

Another masterpiece painting by Holman Hunt is titled "The Shadow of Death". This painting depicts the inside of the carpenter's shop in Nazareth. Stripped to the waist, Jesus stands by a wooden trestle on which He has put down His saw. He lifts His eyes toward heaven, and the look on His face is one of pain, ecstasy or both. He stretches, raising both arms above His head. As He does so, the evening sunlight streaming through the open door casts a dark shadow in the form of a cross on the wall behind Him, where His tool rack looks like a horizontal bar on which His hands have been crucified. The tools remind us of the fateful hammer and nails. In the left background, a woman kneels among the wood chippings, her hands resting on the chest in which the rich gifts of the Magi are kept. We cannot see her face because she has averted it, but we know it is Mary. She looks startled at her son's cross-like shadow on the wall.

Holman Hunt was the leader of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a19th-century artistic movement that had a reputation for sentimentality and surrealism. There were some serious and sincere artists, and Hunt was among them. He determined to "battle with the frivolous art of the day." He chose, in his work, to do battle with the superficial treatment of trite themes, so he spent 1870-1873 in the Holy Land and painted The Shadow of Death in Jerusalem from the roof of his house.

Though the idea is historically fictitious, it is theologically true. From Jesus' birth and youth, the cross cast its shadow ahead of Him. The cross is inextricably tied to the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here an artist is so sensitive to the theme of Christianity he spent three years surveying the landscape of Jerusalem to paint the picture of the Christ succinctly, seriously, sincerely. If the artist can painstakingly take the brush seriously to paint the cross, how much more should we take the time to recognize the power of the cross?

During this Holy Season of Lent let us take time to pause and ponder on the "Wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died".

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/Tkx8WAycYAc

Brown's Daily Word 2-26-13

I praise the Lord for the way He has blessed me in my life and walk with Jesus in and through so many servants of our Lord from around the world. One of those servants of Jesus is John Richards. I first heard him speak was during my Post High School days at a youth confernce In Orissa, India. I also heard him later during my college days. After many years we reconnected. Our daughter Laureen graduated with his granddaughter from Grove City College. We were all invited for her wedding in Syracuse few years ago and I was able to meet the whole family after almost 40 years. I have met John Richards' son, Dr. Ramesh Richards, who is professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. Dr. Ramesh Richards used a a sentence in one of his prayers, “Lord, do things we’re not used to.”

Simple. Clear. Concise. And definitely dangerous. If God ever truly begins to do things we’re not used to, the world as we know it will be turned upside down. It’s a good thing–and a frightening thing–to ask God to blast us out of our comfort zone, to pull us away from the status quo, and to do with us things that make us very uncomfortable.

Jesus specialized in making people feel uncomfortable. He told the rich young ruler to sell all that he had, give it to the poor, and then come follow him (Matthew 19:21) The God of the Bible is not the God of the status quo. First he shakes us up, and then he uses us to shake our world. That’s always been God’s method.

When God wanted to change the world, he told Noah to do something he had never done before (build an ark) to prepare for something he’d never seen before (a mighty rain). When God wanted to bring forth a great nation, he called a successful, middle-aged businessman named Abram and told him to leave Ur of the Chaldees. When God wanted to deliver his people, he found a man slow of speech named Moses and sent him to talk to the Pharaoh. When the Lord needed someone to hide the spies in Jericho, he found a prostitute named Rahab. When God needed someone to defeat Goliath, he chose a shepherd boy named David. What God wanted to deliver his people from destruction, he chose a young girl named Esther. When Christ wanted some men in his inner circle, he chose fisherman and tax collectors, a loud mouth named Peter and two brothers called the “sons of thunder,” and told them to drop everything and follow him. These were definitely not done the way people were accustomed to. God does not conform to the Status Quo.

“If you want what you’ve never had, you’ve got to do what you’ve never done.” Most of us know that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results. Sometimes God looks down from heaven and says, “It’s time for a change.”

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/CP4JSVMBdZg

Brown's Daily Word 2-25-13

The Lord blessed us with a wonderful weekend of ministry, worship, service, and fellowship. On Saturday evening, we prepared, served, and shared a wonderful dinner with our friends and neighbors in Endicott. The Evening was preceded by proclamation of the Word of the Lord as Brother Dave shared about our struggles and triumphs as sojourners with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The speaker shared about the wonderful Grace of the Lord towards people like King David. We shared a sumptuous dinner after the time of proclamation of the word. The menu included an amazing curry of the other white meat and home- made biscuits and creamed Chicken. There were plenty of homemade desserts, very ornate and colorful. It was great evening of dining and great time of fellowship. Praise the Lord for those who came to share and serve. There were many young people who came to serve. We all came home soulful and joyful.

The Lord blessed us during our morning worship services yesterday. Alice preached at the Wesley United Methodist Church. The Psalm for yesterday was taken from Psalm 27. We are reminded in the Word of the Lord that life on earth is not a playground. It is a battleground. For those who do not know the Lord, they think life is a playground. They are hoodwinked by the enemy. They become disappointed very quickly. Once we recognize that this life is a battleground we seek the Lord, we turn to the Lord, and we trust the Lord who is our Captain and who has never lost a battle. As we read the words of this psalm, we encounter the imagery of battle being portrayed in these verses. Words like “enemies” and “foes” in verse 2; “host” in verse 3; “war” in verse 3; and “enemies” again in verse 6, all speaking of warfare. Phrases such as “though an host encamp against me”, verse 3; and “though war should rise against me”, verse 3 speak of a battle being waged against David. It appears that he was in a most difficult situation. Yet, it is also very clear from reading these verses that even in the midst of the battles he fought on with hope and confidence.

Hope is a powerful thing. G. K. Chesterton said, “There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.” Emily Dickinson, in one of her poems, said, “Hope is a thing with feathers".

Certainly this is the main idea of Psalm 27. In verses 1-3 David expressed his confidence in God as well as an absence of fear in a very fearful situation because he focused on God as his Light, Salvation, and Stronghold. In verses 4-7 we see David focused on God. He lived in His presence, looking at His beauty, and listening to His voice. Because he focused on God and dwelt in his presence David could lift his head with confidence and sing with joy, as we see in verses 5,6. In vs. 7-14 he again focused on God and prayed to Him in the midst of this trouble. David was reminded that God would never forsake him (vs. 10) and He would always guide him (vs. 11). Therefore, even though he did not receive an immediate answer or relief he could still say in verse 13, "I am still confident..."

This is the consistent message of the Bible regarding fear. In Isaiah 26:3 God has said "I will keep in perfect peace all who trust in me, who thoughts are fixed on me!" We also see the same idea and Philippians 4:6-7, which says, "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. Then the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." As David focused on God his fears disappeared so that his heart was confident that he would see "the goodness of the Lord" even though he had not yet received the answer he’d longed for. So, he counseled himself and his words counsel us in verse 14 to "wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart..." David, like us, had many reasons to have anxiety and fear in his life but he had a greater reason to have peace. As we, like David, focus on the Lord and remember that He is our Light, our Salvation, and our Stronghold we can have victory over fear.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/HUjRDPnL4Mg