Brown's Daily Word - 12-23-14

Joy to the world!

 

    Praise the Lord that we get to celebrate the birth o our Lord and Savior one more time.  We get to worship.  We get to give.  We get to sing.  We get to receive.  We get to participate in this majestic and glorious event one more time.  We are getting ready for gatherings and fellowship and, best of all, for worship.  Those of you who live in the area join us in one one of the Christmas Eve services:

    4:30 PM  Wesley United Methodist Church. Candlelight  Christmas Eve service.  Yancey Moore will be leading music at the Organ and Piano.

   7:00 PM Union Center United Methodist Church. Candlelight Communion service.  Betty Phinney will be playing organ.  Our daughter Laureen will be accompanying at Piano.

   10:30 PM  Union Center Union Center United Methodist church.  Candlelight Communion service.  Aric Phinney will be at the piano.  Grant Degarmo and Mary Haskel will be leading the singing.

  

    Thank you for your Christmas love  and grace extended to us through your prayerful greetings and thoughts and Christmas greeting cards.  We have been blessed.  The Advent season has been to us truly a season of hope and blessing.  Praise the Lord for He invades this world with His Truth and grace. 

 

    In the story of "Chicken Little ", the chicken announces, "The sky is falling".  We have a more joyful announcement to make as we say to the world, "Jesus has come... and He is coming again".  All is well.  Come to Jesus and live.

 

    Sunita, Andy Gabe, and Laureen, all from Washington are coming home today. Jessica and Tom will be here at home on Christmas day.  Janice, Jeremy, Micah, Simeon, and Ada from Boston will be "Coming home for Christmas" on Christmas day.  Our "little India" family will come Christmas eve dinner.

 

   Praise the Lord for His Word.  Praise Him His mighty deeds.  Praise the Lord for His faithfulness.  Praise the Lord for the promise of  the Eternal city".

 

    To an open house in the evening
    Home shall men come,
    To an older place than Eden
    And a taller town than Rome.
    To the end of the way of the wandering star,
    To the things that cannot be and that are,
    To the place where God was homeless
    And all men are at home. G.K. Chesterton.

 

 

    For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Isaiah 9:6
" He is born the Holy Child"

 Brown

http://youtu.be/_f7jhk-IjDo

Brown's Daily Word 12/22/14

    Praise the Lord for this Holy Season.  We are almost there to celebrate the Christ event of Christmas.  The Lord blessed us with a soul full weekend.   Some of us attended  the Friday evening presentation of "Handel's Messiah" by the Downtown Singers of Binghamton.  It was splendid.  It was a treat.  We had the Living Nativity at Center Court of the Oakdale Mall Saturday from 5 to 7 PM.  The Lord blessed us and provided  for this presentation.  He provided the best site in the in the busiest of the shopping days before Christmas day.  He provided with two young families with babies to be the "Holy Family".   The babies took turns to be the baby Jesus. They were very quiet all through the presentation.  Yancey Moore played all the Christmas carols at the Grand Piano.  So many musicians came to sing the "Hallelujah Chorus" at 6:30 PM.  It was a " Holy Roar".  Praise the Lord for so many who stopped by... so many who participated.  We praise the Lord.  It was spectacular.  It was splendid indeed. 

    The Lord blessed us with his presence in His house yesterday.  The choir presented special songs for worship.  It was such a  blessing.  After the worship there was a church-wide Christmas banquet including lasagna, ham, and Indian curry as part of the menu, which also included all home made desserts.  I preached from Luke on Mary's magnificata.    The Lord chose  an unlike person to accomplish His great work.  He Turned The World Upside Down and right-side up again.   We read in Luke 1verses 51-55, —"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.

    So it has happened across the centuries.     Proud and daring men lift their heads to challenge the Almighty, but he swats them down like flies.  What happened to Saddam Hussein?  What happened to Hitler?  What about Idi Amin?  What about Vladimir Lenin?  The coming of Jesus Christ means that God has set a moral revolution at work in the world, a revolution in which the workers of iniquity are eventually brought to justice.  The story  of the “Tower of Babel.” tells us how God works.  He lets the proud gather together and in their grandiose schemes, they plan to rise up to heaven.  God watches for awhile, he waits, he seems even to ignore, and in their temporary success they congratulate each other on their cleverness.  But God scatters the proud, and he does so suddenly.

    Proud men expect to take it all with them, but God crosses them up.  He breaks their bows.  He blasts their projects.  He brings them low.  He does it 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)  Some talk about a  “reversal of fortune.” That’s what Mary is talking about as the coming of Christ brings about the greatest reversal of fortune mankind has ever known.  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.   This was not Mary's response.  She understood that behind a faceless mystery that many call luck stands God himself.  That which He lifts up no one can bring down.  That which He brings down no one can lift up again.

    John Calvin said, 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 precisely, “If the Lord cannot tolerate such ingratitude, we should not be surprised.”

    “He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (53) This is the most revolutionary part of Mary’s song. Not only does the coming of Christ upset the proud of this world, not only does it lift up the humble, but it actually means that the hungry are fed and the rich go away empty.

    When gospel principles are followed, the hungry are filled and the rich are sent away hungry.  What we have in America today has come about because of our Christian heritage.  It is the spillover from the Puritans and others who taught gospel principles of hard work, thrift, saving and investment.  It is the residue of an educational system that taught children to read by using the stories from the Bible.  It is the result of generations of believers who founded hospitals, sanitariums, libraries, colleges and universities.  In large part, the liberties we enjoy and the economic standing that is ours have come about because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Atheism, agnosticism and humanism could never produce what we have today. The gospel is the only hope for mankind—not only for his soul but also for his body, not only for the church but also for the world, not only for the individual but also for society.  When the gospel makes headway in society, there you will find peace, harmony, tranquility .

    Mary’s heart was filled with praise, because she knew the world would be a different place because Christ had come.  He pulls down the proud and lifts up the humble.  He fills the hungry and the rich are sent away empty.  Verses 54-55 bring us to the end of Mary’s song.  She concludes by praising God that in sending Jesus Christ into the world, God is keeping his ancient promises to Abraham. Jesus was born that way in order to send us a message about how God does business.  God is at home with the humble, the tired, the weak, and the lowly of this world.  He does business with those who fear his name.

  In Christ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/aUe7kW0aZP0