Brown's Daily Word 11-1-13

Praise the Lord for today.  It is "All Saints Day".  Praise the Lord for Church, the Body of Christ .  We are so blessed to  be the part of the Family of God".  Praise the Lord for the servants and saints of Jesus who love Him and serve Him faithfully.  On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany, sparking the Protestant Reformation.  The "Four Solas" of the Reformation:

    Sola Fide: By Faith Alone.
    Sola Gratia: By Grace Alone

    Sola Christus: By Christ Alone
    Sola Scriptura: The Bible and Only the Bible

What more could we possibly need????

 

In Christ Alone

  Brown

http://youtu.be/NRJHKzU_t1M

Brown's Daily Word 10-31-13

    Praise the Lord for this All Hallows Eve, which some celebrate as " Halloween".The name "Halloween" comes from the All Saints Day celebration of the early Christian church, a day set aside for the solemn remembrance of the martyrs.  All Hallows Eve, the evening before All Saints Day, began the time of remembrance. "All Hallows Eve" was eventually contracted to "Hallow-e'en," which became "Halloween."

    Many believe that Evil spirits are more active and sinister on Halloween than they are on any other day of the year; in fact, any day is a good day for Satan to prowl about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).  But "greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).  God has forever "disarmed principalities and powers" through the cross of Christ and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them through [Christ]" (Colossians 2:15).

    Christian have many and diverse reaction to the celebration of Halloween.  We should respond to Halloween with gospel compassion.  The unbelieving, Christ-rejecting world lives in perpetual fear of death.  It isn't just the experience of death, but rather what the Bible calls "a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume [God's] adversaries" (Hebrews 10:27).  Witches, ghosts, and evil spirits are not terrifying; God's wrath unleashed on the unforgiven, unrepentant, sinner. . . now that is truly terrifying.
    Christians should use Halloween and all that it brings to the imagination--death imagery, superstition, expressions of debauched revelry--as an opportunity to engage the unbelieving world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus came, He saw, and conquered the enemy.  He has conquered the grave and death.  He is alive for evermore.  We live in confidence, not in fear of death, not in the dread of the tomb, but in the sure and certain hope of that resurrection from the dead.

    One of the readings for this day is taken from John.

"...for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day." John 6:38 & 39.

    Jesus is to lose NOTHING - and he is to raise ALL on the last day.  Isn't it perhaps possible that Jesus descended into hell to bring hope, to bring the Good News to those most in need of it?  To those who had turned away from the love and mercy of God and were lost, alone, frightened, and miserable?  Jesus' task was to lose nothing - to lose no one.
    Our God loved us so much that He sent His only son to suffer an agonizing death on a cross.  Jesus, the Risen one, still goes to the very pits of hell to reach his beloved and cherished children.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  He will always leave the 99 to find the 100th sheep who is lost, including the unrepentant murderer and the avowed atheist.
    I have wonderful memories of growing up on a farm.  I visited and a goat farm this week.  I love  the picture of Jesus holding the lamb and shepherd's staff and surrounded by sheep.  There is a beautiful old poem written in the mid -1800's by Mrs. Elizabeth C. Clifton. It was set to music by IRA David Sankey in 1874.  It is titled, "The Ninety and Nine" and It goes like this...........
        There were ninety and nine that safely lay
        In the shelter of the fold;
        But one was out on the hills away,
        Far off from the gates of gold,
        Away on the mountains wild and bare,
        Away from the shepherd's tender care.
        "Lord, thou hast here thy ninety and nine:
        Are they not enough for thee"?
        But the shepherd made answer: "This of mine
        Has wandered away from me;
        And although the road be rough and steep
        I go to the desert to find my sheep."
        But none of the ransomed ever knew
        How deep were the waters crossed,
        Nor how hard was the night that
        the Lord passed through
        Ere he found his sheep that was lost.
        Out in the desert he heard its cry,
        Sick and helpless, and ready to die.
        "Lord, whence are those blood drops all the way,
        That mark out the mountain track?"
        "They were shed for one who had gone astray
        Ere the shepherd could bring him back."
        "Lord, whence are the hands so rent and torn?"
        "They are pierced tonight by many a thorn."
        But all through the mountains, thunder-riven,
        And up from the rocky steep,
        There rose a cry to the gate of heaven,
        "Rejoice! I have found my sheep!"
        And the angels echoed around the throne
        "Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!"
    Could not the Lord bring back his own from anywhere?  From a mountain or a desert or the pit of hell?
 Blessed be His Name.. He is the Lion of Judah..
  In Him,
 Brown
http://youtu.be/PygPri0-LNA

Brown's Daily Word 10-30-13

   Praise the Lord for this last Wednesday of October.  The Lord blessed us with a beautiful and a very bright day yesterday.  It is going to be another glorious day.   We will be gathering for our Wednesday evening fellowship and study this evening at 6 PM followed by choir practice at 7:30 PM.  

    I was looking at 2 Corinthians 5:6-9, "Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.  We live by faith, not by sight.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it."  Paul is reflective and contemplative.  Because of the Risen Lord, he learned how to live in confidence.  Paul could state that his past was forgiven,  his present was blessed, and his future was sure and secure.

    Paul believed and proclaimed that the Lord of Heaven and earth has promised him a place in the Eternal City "where no storm clouds rise".  Because of that assurance Paul could face  the storms of this life with greater courage.  Paul believed that the  unseen Jesus, the Risen One, sees all we do.  This motivates and propels us  to do more and better than we would otherwise.  As C.S. Lewis wrote, "The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven" ( Mere Christianity).  When we walk by faith and not by sight, this is more than faith in Christ's appearing. The faith we walk by sends us out among the sick, the oppressed, and the lost to do what we may for them in Christ's name while we are able.  We live with the confidence that we one day will see Him.  In the meantime, we live to please Him. 

    Paul was a man with a magnificent obsession.  He believed Christ was the be-all and end-all of everything.  Not only did Paul see his own life as stitched and hemmed by Christ, but all human life, as well.  "One died for all," he declared. "Therefore, all died."  "We should therefore no longer live for ourselves but for the One who died and rose."

 

    Behind us is Christ dying and rising for us.  Before us is Christ poised to give us what we have coming to us.  All around us are the walking dead in need of resurrection!  We must proclaim the Good News of Our Lord Jesus in Word and in deed, persuading people of His marvelous love and His ultimate justice.  We don't belong to us anymore.  We are "Under New Management."

    In Christ,

     Brown

http://youtu.be/EFRt6apaGuQ

Brown's Daily Word 11-28-13

 Praise the Lord for this last Monday of October.  It was great blessing and thrill to be in His house with His people, joining  those who love Jesus and who serve and worship Him around the corner and around the globe.  One of the readings for yesterday was taken from Joel 2.  “And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (Joel 2:32).  This text is so crucial that it appears in the Bible three times, once in Joel 2:28, once in Acts 2:21, and once in Romans 10:13.

    God always intended to make a universal offer of salvation through the death and resurrection of his Son.  Call Upon the Name of The Lord. . . and You Shall Be Saved.  There is no other way.

    C.S. Lewis in the "The Silver Chair" depicts this very clearly.  The Lion, in Lewis' writing, always represents Jesus.  In the story a girl named Jill bursts into an opening in the forest.  She is very thirsty, and she sees a running stream close by. Even though she's dying of thirst, she doesn't rush into the stream and put her face in its refreshing current.  Instead, she stands there in fear, because there is a large lion sitting on the ground just this side of the stream.  It speaks to her, "Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion. 
    "I'm Dying of thirst" said Jill. 
    "Then drink" said the lion.

    " May I - Could  I- would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill.

    The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl.  And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.  The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

    " Will you promise not to-do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill. 
    "I make no promise," said the Lion. 
    Jill was so thirsty now, that she had come a step closer without noticing it. 
"Do you eat girls?" she said.

    "I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion.  It didn't say this as if it were boasting, not as if it were sorry, nor as if it were hungry.  It just said it.

    " I dare not come and drink," said Jill. 
    "Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion. 
    "Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."

    "There is no other stream," said the Lion.

    Repent - Call Upon the Name of The Lord - He Shall Baptize you in His Spirit - and You Shall Be Saved.  There is no other stream.  There is no other way.

    

Amen

  Brown

http://youtu.be/6_KXsMCJgBQ