Praise the Lord for He is
good and His love never ends. He blessed us with a full weekend. Last Friday
our daughter Laureen moved to Washington, DC. My wife Alice and nephew Bernard
joined Sunita, Andy, and Laureen in forming a moving caravan of a U-Haul
together with 3 other vehicles, driving to our Nations's capitol. The Lord gave
them traveling mercy all the way. They arrived safe and sound and got Laureen
situated in her apartment on Saturday. While they were there Bernard and Andy
rented two tourist bicycles and toured the Monuments in the night. Bernard said
it was exhilarating. They all worshipped at St. Brendan's in the City on
Sunday.
We had an evening of
family, food, and fellowship at Wesley onSaturday evening. It was a blast. The
Lord blessed Sunday in His house. I preached on "Living with Confidence in
Turbulent Times", based on Daniel 4. We had a Russian Group visiting on Sunday
morning, who ministered to us in music. It was a great
blessing.
On Saturday I attended a
50th wedding anniversary reception that was held in an exotic Golf Course
setting. I saw many whom I had not seen over the last several years. It was a
time of great celebration. I was also invited to attend a luncheon reception
for a messianic Jewish leader from Jerusalem yesterday in the city of
Binghamton. It was a great blessing to know how the Lord is at work still in
Israel.
It is reported that the
Corn Harvest in the USA will be the largest ever. The gardens and
farms around here are bursting with crops. A friend dropped a bushel of fresh
beans yesterday at the house. In the early morning yesterday a carefree
fawn was grazing by the house unwearied and unhurried. Whenever I drive past
the bursting and luxuriant farms I get a great kick out of it because the Lord
remembers us, as He brings forth the abundant crops. There are long passages in
the Old Testament about offerings the jubilant times of harvest. The people of
the Lord brought and offered "first fruits" as joyful offerings to the Lord.
The passages on the offerings
in the Old Testament are incredibly detailed, elaborate, and complex—not at all
simple or straightforward. In that culture food was money, so a voluntary peace
offering, for instance, might be enough to feed an entire
village.
So much joy was attached to
it that part of the offering that it was called the wave offering. The
people would literally wave it, just pick it up and wave it before God. It was
a way of saying, "I have been blessed. This isn't really mine. God, this is a
tool for your work."
The Sabbath was a big part
of Israel's life. Every seventh day the people would voluntarily give up a
portion of the income they could have made by resting and trusting God. Every
seventh year was to be a Sabbath year. They would rest the land. Whatever food
had been produced got shared. They would free all slaves. Not just that—this is
unprecedented in the ancient world—they would give their freed slaves money so
they could make a living. They would also forgive all
debts.
Then, after seven Sabbath
years, after 49 years, every 50th year was to be a year of Jubilee. Not only
would they free slaves and forgive debts, but it was also true that all the land
would go back to its original owners. The year of Jubilee was a year of
unbelievable generosity. In fact, when Jesus began his ministry (this is in
Luke
4), he said he had come
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of Jubilee, the year of
generosity. Jesus said, "Now in my coming, the Jubilee year, the best gift of
all time has been given because the biggest giver in the universe is God. God
has given us all we have. He has given us Jesus, the best he has, to die for
our sin and to redeem us."
May Jesus make
us passionate lovers , cheerful givers, joyful worshippers and faithful
witnesses.
In Christ,
Brown
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