Brown's Daily Word 12-6-13

    Praise the Lord for this Friday.  Praise the Lord for you all.  Because of Jesus our Lord we are all connected and blessed. 

    It is raining here today.  We had a few very mild days recently.  I saw people walking with shorts on.  Rain or shine, cold or warm, it is the most wonderful time of the year.  I get excited when I pause and ponder about the beauty and blessings of the season.  During Advent, with all the merriment, delight, and joy, as preparation is made for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we discover the darkness of the world is dark indeed.  There is still unrest in the world.  The darkness of hostility and violence is overwhelming in various parts of the world.

    The darkness of the world is dark indeed.  Yet, the good news of Christmas is that all that darkness, whatever its cause — fear, murder, strife, unrest, violence — may be dispelled by the Living Light of Bethlehem's Baby.  The darkness of the world may be overcome.  The darkness you and I experience may be overcome.

    We may be experiencing the dark night of the soul from anxiety, loneliness, uncertainty, and a host of others dark situations.  If we are in the dark there is good news for us from the Lord.  There is a sign in everybody's night.  It is the Christ-child, the Light of all humanity.  God gave that sign at night to remind each of us that in the darkest hour of our lives, the Most High God gives a sign that brings life and light.  It is not by accident that this sign given at night was in a manger.  Jesus did not come to the bustling marketplace.  Neither did He come to the Temple, nor to a synagogue, the throne room, or a military base.  When Jesus was born, He was placed in a manger, a feeding trough for animals.  The manger, in that cattle stall, indicated the lowly state of the birth of this Child and the humble conditions surrounding His birth.  In this place of simplicity, God surprised the world with His unexpected appearance. God chose humble shepherds, a lowly maiden, and an ordinary stable for His entrance among us.

    This is the nature of God.  The Bible reveals a God who has always identified with the outcast, the lowly, the poor, the sick, the ordinary, and the needy.  We are to remember that God is concerned with the hurting people of this world and we are among that lot because in some way or another, all of us hurt.  This is why God, who came into the world by way of the manger, introduced a new kind of power.  The power of the manger bothers many of us.  That "Sweet little Jesus boy," as the the spiritual goes, would one day show that any foolishness of God was wiser than the wisdom of humans; that the weakness of love was stronger than the force of hate; that spiritual desire would outlast material possession; that His narrow way would lead to the wideness of genuine living; and that His peace would sustain in the valley, the darkest valley — even the valley of the shadow of death.  "Sweet little Jesus boy."  They didn't know who He was.  And many of us don't, either.

    It is interesting to note that the Holy Spirit revealed Himself on that first Christmas to shepherds while they were tending their sheep.  Arnold Toynbee, in his massive work, A Study of History, observed that new spiritual revelations in every ancient culture almost always came to shepherds first.  Many of the Old Testament characters such as Abraham, Moses, David, and Amos had been shepherds.

    Could it be shepherds were more alert to God because they were in quiet places where they could hear Him?  Maybe we don't hear God because we seldom place ourselves in quiet places where we can be alert and attuned to His Spirit who is speaking to us.  In an unpretentious, modest, and gentle way, God came to a manger — simply and humbly.

    The shepherds received much joy.  Their hearts were filled with joy when the angel of God made the announcement of Messiah's birth.  Did you hear what the angel said?  I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people. . . (Luke 2:10).  Our joy is built upon the fact that, in Christ, God is Immanuel — He really is. He really is with us.

 In Christ,

 Brown

  http://youtu.be/9bJX0d9JmFQ

Brown's Daily Word 12-5-13

    It's beginning look a lot like Christmas everywhere we go.  The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday evening gathering.  We looked at Zechariah's song, which is called the " Benedictus", which is found in Luke 1:67-80.  This is known as one of the original Christmas carols. WOW!  We are getting ready for our Christmas banquet this Saturday at 5 PM at our new fellowship hall, which will be transformed in to a banquet hall.  We are preparing a big assortment very special foods.  One lady will be baking 25 apple pies.  It is going to be a great celebration. The birth of our Lord and Savior calls for a great  and jubilant celebration indeed.  "O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant".

    There is so much celebration that surrounds the birth of our Lord and His visitation.  There is so much music, literature, and art.  You name it.  Our Savior, the Light of the world came in to the world of darkness and sin.  The Lord of Majesty came down into a mundane world that had gone wild, mad, and insane.   

    I love to read J. B. Phillip’s famous piece called “The Visited Planet.”  It imagines a conversation between a senior angel and a junior angel in which the senior angel tries to explain why the earth is such an important place in the universe.  The junior angel is frankly bored and comments that the earth seems rather small and dirty to him.  “What’s so special about that one?”  “That is the Visited Planet.”  “Visited? You don’t mean visited by …”  “Indeed I do.  That ball, which I have no doubt looks to you small and insignificant and not perhaps overclean, has been visited by our young Prince of Glory.”

    The young angel asks a logical question, “Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince, with all these wonders and splendors of his Creation, went down in person to this fifth-rate little ball?  Why should he do a thing like that?”

    “It isn’t for us,” said the senior angel, a little stiffly, “to question his ‘whys,’ except that I must point out to you that he is not impressed by size and numbers as you seem to be.  But that he really went there I know, and all of us in heaven who know anything know that.  And as to why he became one of them … How else do you suppose he could visit them?

    The little angel’s face wrinkled in disgust.  “Do you mean to tell me that he stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures on that floating ball?”

    “I do,” replied the senior angel, “and I don’t think he would like you to call them ‘creeping, crawling creatures’ in that tone of voice.  For, strange as it may seem to us, he loves them.  He went down to visit them, to lift them up to become like him.”

    The story goes on to talk about how the people of the Visited Planet didn’t recognize the Prince of Glory, so they killed him.  When the junior angel hears this, he blurts out, “The fools, the crazy fools!  They don’t deserve …”  He is cut off by the senior angel who says no one can explain why they were so wicked or why they killed the Prince of Glory.

    There has always been a great divide in the human race between those who have recognized Jesus as the Messiah and those who have not.  It is not an even divide either.  The majority has never recognized Jesus for who He really is.  When He came the first time, Herod hated him, the scribes ignored him, and there was no room for him in the inn.  Only the shepherds and the Wise Men, the poor and the foreigners, welcomed him to the earth.

    Think about how "the Grinch" tries to steal Christmas today. He tries to steal Christmas from our cultural discourse, but, regardless, we will keep on celebrating the birth of our Lord.  We will keep on worshiping.  We will keep on giving and receiving.  Nothing has changed.  He came to the world he created, and the world had no idea who he was.  The old spiritual says it this way:

    Sweet little Jesus boy, born long time ago.

    Sweet little holy child, we didn’t know who you was.

    Didn’t know you’d come to save us, Lord, to take our sins away.

    Our eyes were blind, we couldn’t see

    We didn’t know who you was.

In Christ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/RmknWYFr6Xk

Brown's Daily Word 12-4-13

Praise the Lord for this wonderful and awesome season of Advent leading to Christmas.  I was in Australia last year during this time.  It is summer season in Australia.  There is no snow there during Christmas.  Australians still celebrate Christmas with great joy and fervent faith.  I heard from family and friends in India, who are getting ready for Christmas.  Praise the Lord for Jesus  who is the reason for all our celebration and rejoicing.

    Alice and I love to drive down streets in the dark and see the Christmas lights.  It does look like a Christmas wonderland.  We like to go to the mall in the evening for a walk.  The stores are bursting with merchandise; people are strolling and shopping.  Various gifted and talented musical teams perform Christmas music every evening.  Yesterday The Harpur Jazz  Ensemble(  Binghamton University) was performing.  It was a treat.  In my book the best music and the best literature deal with God and His Redeeming story in and through Jesus Christ our Lord, who came in meekness and majesty and reigns with truth and grace and will come again in Majesty and splendor.

     We will meet for our Wednesday evening fellowship and study this evening at 6 PM.  My wife and I love Christmas music.  Dr. Elsworth Kalas calls them the songs of the season.  According to Dr. Kalas, one of the songs of the season is the song of Mary recorded in Luke 1.  The song itself has traditionally been called “the Magnificat,” from the first word of the Latin version.  Dr. E. Stanley Jones, the great Methodist scholar, author and evangelist, and missionary to India said that the Magnificat was “the most revolutionary document in the history of the world.” 

    In the Magnificat, Mary reflected on what it meant to her to be chosen to bear the Messiah.  She praised God for his great mercy to her personally.  Her words are personal and her point of view turned inward.  As we read this song, Mary seems to fade from view; she is praising God for the effects the coming of Christ will have on the world. Her point of view is outward and her words are global in their scope.  In Luke 1:46-48, Mary praises God because he has chosen her to bear the Messiah, despite her lowly estate.  Verse 48 is the key: “For he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.”  It is a statement about the sovereign grace of God. Mary was not the last choice after everyone else said “no.”  Mary was God’s first choice... God’s only choice.

    As God has done great things by choosing such an unlikely person, He also does great things in unlikely ways today.  Verses 51-55 not only reveal a change in focus, but also a change in tenses.  When Mary talks about herself, she uses the present tense; but when she talks about the world, she uses a past tense—"He has performed, He has scattered, He has brought down, he has filled.”

    “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.” (51)  The coming of Christ means the end of all human boasting.  It’s the end of vanity and outrageous ambition.  His coming means an end to insatiable greed and uncontrolled lust for power.  The mighty are brought down by the strong arm of the Lord.

    Across the centuries proud and daring men have lifted their heads to challenge the Almighty, but he swats them down like flies.  What happened to Saddam Hussein?  What happened to Erich Honecker?  What about Idi Amin?  What about Vladimir Lenin?  When was the last time you thought about Juan Peron?  Or Pinochet?  Or Ho Chi Minh?  Or Mao Tse Tung?  They come, they rise to power, and sooner or later, they disappear.

    The coming of Jesus Christ means that God has set a moral revolution at work in the world.  It is a revolution in which the workers of iniquity are eventually brought to justice.  Think about the Biblical account of the  “Tower of Babel.”  That story tells us how God works.  He let the proud gather together and carry out their grandiose schemes, as they planned to rise up to heaven.  God watched for awhile.  He waited, seeming to ignore their deeds, and let them revel in their temporary success.  However, God scattered the proud, with a swiftness and intensity that they could never have imagined.

    Proud men expect to carry all with them, but God crosses them up.  He breaks their bows.  He blasts their projects.  He brings them low.  He does it all by the very counsels with which they thought to advance themselves.

    "He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.” (52) : The coming of Christ brings about a great reversal of fortune in society. The proud are brought low and the humble are lifted up.

    What men call luck, Mary called the work of God.  When someone loses it all, we talk about bad luck.  When someone "hits the jackpot", we say he had good luck. Mary. on the other hand, understood that behind the faceless mystery called "luck" stands God himself.  He lifts up, and no one can bring down.  He brings down, and no one can lift up again.

    As John Calvin once siad, the princes of the world don’t understand this.  They grow insolent, fat and lazy, and greedy.  They indulge in luxury, swell with pride, and grow intoxicated with power.  They soon forget that all they have comes from God.  To quote Calvin exactly, “If the Lord cannot tolerate such ingratitude, we should not be surprised.”

In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/mlIThmTNg9w