The Lord
blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday Evening gathering of fellowship and
study. Our youngest granddaughter, Ada, turns three today. We praise the Lord
for Ada. She is winsome and witty. Praise the Lord for our children and
grandchildren. Jesus has a tender heart... a special heart for children both
born and unborn. I was visiting a young mom yesterday. She and her husband are
blessed with new born baby boy. The baby weighed only 1 ponds 3 ounces when he
was born. So many are praying for this special boy. Today he weighs3 pounds
and 5 ounces. This young mom is thrilled and excited and deeply grateful to
Jesus.
I get excited
reading about Caleb in the book of Joshua. Caleb said in Joshua
14:10: "And now behold, the Lord has
let me live, just as he spoke, these 45 years, from the time that the Lord spoke
this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness, and now behold, I am
85 years old today." Eighty-five years old! Most people who are still alive at
85 are sitting back and settling in, but not Caleb! At 85, after a lifetime in
which Caleb had "followed the Lord ... wholeheartedly"
(Joshua
14:14), he set his eyes on the land
of Hebron and said, "I want that mountain!"
We are never too old to set
new goals, to set out for new horizons, to begin new quests for God. I have
read about some great men who have accomplished something great in later stages
of their lives. WOW!
Michelangelo completed
his greatest work of art at age 87.
Immanuel Kant wrote his
best philosophical works at 74.
Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes set down some of his most brilliant legal opinions at age
90.
At 89, pianist Arthur
Rubenstein, though he could not see the keyboard, played brilliantly from memory
at Carnegie Hall.
Albert Schweitzer still
headed his hospital in Africa at the age of 89.
At 82, Winston
Churchill wrote his four-volume work, A History of the English-Speaking
People.
At 81, Ben Franklin
effected the compromise that led to the adoption of the United States
Constitution.
Caleb said
in Joshua
14:11 "I am still as strong today as I was in the
day Moses sent me. As my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and
for going out and coming in."
Reaching our goals is
not easy. It wasn't for Caleb and it won't be for us. For Caleb to claim his
mountain, he had to run the giants out of the land. As we strive to reach our
goals, as we attempt to claim our mountain, there will also be giants that we
will have to overcome.
Caleb said, "You yourself
heard then that the Amalekites were there, and their cities were large and
fortified, but the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said"
(Joshua
14:12).
"The Lord is helping me ..." is
the key phrase; the factor determining whether or not we reach our goals is not
our personal strength or weakness. The answer lies ultimately in the use of
God's power. In the Bible, those who reached their goals seemed to do so in
spite of their own weaknesses.
Moses, a tongue-tied shepherd, stood up to Pharoah and won! Gideon, supported by an army of 300 armed only with trumpets and empty jars, fought the Midianites and won! David, untrained and unprotected, challenged Goliath and won! The early disciples set out to conquer the Roman world with nothing but the Gospel and they won! Caleb, 85 years old, confronted the giants in Hebron and won! The power of God flowed into their lives as they moved out for Him. The Lord helped them reach their goals.
Even when we do our very
best, our lives are marked with defect and failure, but then our Lord God, who
created our universe out of chaos in the beginning, takes our lives in His hands
and with His own wonderful touch makes them as beautiful as they can be
made.
In
Christ,
Brown
Dear Friends and Family,
Praise the Lord for 2014. It is going to be
an exciting year for ministry and the mission of Jesus Christ, our Lord. May
Jesus our Lord bless us as we find the ways and means to celebrate His grace and
love. We are planning for an evening of great celebration on Saturday, February
8. It will be held at 5 PM at the Fellowship Hall, Union Center United
Methodist Church, 128 Maple Drive.
Our own chef Danny Snyder will be preparing a
very special banquet. This will be prepared and served with much love. Our own
Aric Phinney, a gifted and talented musician, will be ministering to us in
music. There will be a time of testimonies and praises. Please join
us.
Come, Share , Rejoice
See you then and there.
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment