Praise the Lord for this brand new month of
November. The Lord blessed us with a amazing weekend. The Lord blessed our
youth gathering Saturday evening. Whenever we hang out with the youth we feel
younger and the Lord makes us energetic. The Lord blessed us yesterday in His
House in our times of worship and celebration.
Tom and Jessica spent few days in Cypress
with Sunita, Andy, and Gabe. They had a wonderful time. They are back in the
States. Today our oldest granddaughter turns 9 years old. We praise the Lord
for Micah. Micah is blessed with a servant's heart. She is winsome,
beautiful, and sweet. She loves Jesus and shares about Him with
others.
Praise the Lord for our lives in Jesus.
Praise the Lord for His gifts of grace and mercy. Praise the Lord that we get
to worship Him, indeed we get to serve Him. In Christ alone we are blessed and
we are loved. In Christ alone we are given significance. There is beautiful
mystery and wonder in the life that we have in Jesus our Lord. We are
reminded, "your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). Whenever we
stand before the Lord we stand before His Mercy seat.
I am praying and planning to post brief
messages on You Tube under the theme "Jesus transforms lives... Come to Jesus
and live".
It is always refreshing and challenging to
read about Jean Valjean. Victor Hugo
introduced us to this character in the classic Les
Misérables. Valjean enters the pages as a vagabond, a
just-released prisoner in midlife, wearing threadbare trousers and a tattered
jacket. Nineteen years in a French prison have left him rough and fearless.
He's walked for four days in the Alpine chill of nineteenth-century southeastern
France, only to find that no inn will take him, no tavern will feed him.
Finally he knocks on the door of a bishop's house.
Monseigneur Myriel is seventy-five years
old. Like Valjean, he has lost much. The revolution took all the valuables from
his family except some silverware, a soup ladle, and two candlesticks. Valjean
tells his story and expects the religious man to turn him away, but the bishop
is kind. He asks the visitor to sit near a fire. "You did not need to tell me
who you were," he explains. "This is not my house—it is the house of Jesus
Christ." After some time the bishop takes the ex-convict to the table, where
they dine on soup and bread, figs, and cheese with wine, using the bishop's fine
silverware.
He shows Valjean to a bedroom where, in
spite of the comfort, the ex-prisoner can't sleep. In spite of the kindness of
the bishop, he can't resist the temptation. He stuffs the silverware into his
knapsack. The priest sleeps through the robbery, and Valjean runs into the
night, though he doesn't get far. The police
catch him and march him back to the bishop's house. Valjean knows what his
capture means—prison for the rest of his life. But then something wonderful
happens. Before the officer can explain the crime, the bishop steps forward.
"Oh! Here you are! I'm so glad to see you.
I can't believe you forgot the candlesticks! They are made of pure silver as
well…Please take them with the forks and spoons I gave you."
Valjean is stunned. The bishop dismisses
the police and then turns and says, "Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer
belong to evil, but to good. I have bought your soul from you. I take it back
from evil thoughts and deeds and the Spirit of Hell, and I give it to God."
Valjean has a choice: believe the priest or
believe his past. Jean Valjean believes the priest. He becomes the mayor of a
small town. He builds a factory and gives jobs to the poor. He takes pity on a
dying mother and raises her daughter.
The Grace of Jesus changed him. Let it
change us as well. Let us not give any heed to Satan's voice. We "have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1
John 2:1). "There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).
In Jesus,
Brown
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