Brown's Daily Word 1/30/15

Praise the Lord for this Friday. Join us for our Friday Evening Television outreach this evening at 7 PM on Time Warner Cable channel 4. This is for our friends overseas: here in America people are getting ready for Super Bowl Sunday... it is a big party day. People will congregate with families and friends and eat lots comfort food as they watch the Super Bowl (American football). We will gather this Saturday, January 31, 2015 at 2:00 PM at the church hall to celebrate the 90th birthday of Juna Tinkahm, a faithful servant and a fervent prayer warrior of Jesus. When she prays to Jesus something happens.
 We will meet at the church Hall at 2 PM Saturday January 31, 2015. It is apparent that we are in celebratory default. Next Saturday February 7, we will gather for an Agape banquet which will be held at 5:30 PM at the Church hall that will be transformed into a banquet Hall. Our young friend David Childs, who is a trained Chef, and his team are preparing and serving a very special banquet. Dr. Dino Pedrone, the president of the Davis College, will bring a special message after the banquet. We need reservations for this banquet. Please call Church office to make your reservation at 607-748-6329 or e-mail umcgospel@aol.com. We will meet for combined worship service this Sunday Feb 1,2015 at 10:15 Am for worship at Union Center UMC. Sunday School will meet at 9:00 AM. The worship service will be held at Wesley at 9:00 AM.
  I was visiting a sweet and dear family yesterday. The husband, a faithful servant of Jesus, has been told by his doctor that has cancer. He has been in strong and good health all of his life. When we hear the words cancer, or malignant, we get stunned... We get shaken. Questions and doubts come. In the midst of fear and sadness we have no place to go but to Jesus. He loves us dearly and wants what is best for us. The psalmist declared long ago, "[Lord], I will meditate on your wonders. ... The Lord is near to all who call on him" (Psalms 145).
The great Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, lost a son. His wife, Katie, shouted at him, "Where was God when our son died?" Martin replied, "The same place He was when His Son died. He was there watching and weeping." Just as God brought a resurrection after that crucifixion, He can make sure that the final word on our lives is not about unfairness but about victory. God is love; and if we keep the faith, nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from His love.
One of Satan's favorite tricks is to slip up to a hurting person and say, "If God really loved you, He would have prevented your pain. So, you ought to despise God." Satan had a good mouthpiece in Job's wife. She urged her husband to "curse God and die" (Job 2:9). She was anything but encouraging. Job's response was "Though God allows the world to slay me, yet will I trust him" (Job 13:15). Satan's desire is to destroy us, in this world and the next. So, he first tries to separate us from God, our primary source of strength.
 Despite all of Satan's efforts to discourage and dishearten Paul, Paul declared, "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).
I read some time ago about a former great preacher in Atlanta, Pierce Harris, who lost his wife, Mary, in a tragic auto accident. A few weeks later a man wrote to Dr. Harris and said, "I hope your terrible loss will not destroy your faith." Dr. Harris said that he felt like writing back to him and saying, "Man, haven't I lost enough already without throwing away my faith, too? Why should I cast aside the only thing that is keeping me afloat?"
The most outstanding Methodist of the 20th century was, in my opinion, the great missionary to India, E. Stanley Jones. He was converted as a young man. At that time he was working in the law library in a Baltimore courthouse. He lost no time in announcing to his boss that he was a Christian. The boss reacted with scorn and contempt, saying, "I'll knock that out of you in two weeks." He meant it; and he tried, using every pressure and tactic imaginable. But all his efforts just made Stanley more resolute. Later Jones wrote, "I actually grew under his lash. There I got hold of a principle and a power that was to be the driving force in my life. I wouldn't just bear opposition and difficulties; I would use them! Just as an airplane always takes off, not with the wind but against it, I would make opposition send me up, not down. With the help of Christ, I let trouble lift me rather than destroy me."
  I have been blessed by the writings of British Scholars, theologians, and preachers. I read a book by Leslie Weatherhead, a Methodist preacher, entitled "The Will of God". Weatherhead used a strange but very helpful illustration. He said, "Let's suppose that the toddlers of the world were to have a mass meeting. Let's suppose that they could communicate quite well. The chairman, after adjusting his bib, might declare, ‘I am sure my parents don't love me. Look at my knees, all red and scratched. Your knees look as bad as mine. Will someone here propose a motion?' "Suppose that a chubby little baby raises his hand and says, ‘Mr. Chairman, I move that we protest the carelessness of parents and demand that in the future no furniture can be made that has sharp corners, that all asphalt and other abrasive materials be banished from play areas, and that claws be removed from the paws of all household cats.' No doubt, such a motion would pass almost unanimously. "Similarly, we sometimes complain to God saying, ‘Look at my frustrations and sorrow and pain. How can you be so callous? Don't you care?' Just as a parent's perspective is different from a toddler's, so is God's perspective different from ours. A delegation of parents could attempt to explain to these toddlers their different perspective, but I have a feeling that they would have a hard time selling it."
There is much about God and this world that I don't understand. Some of it can and does break my heart. Yet, if God were to give me all the answers, I'm not sure I could understand them. Still I know the character of God because I have experienced Him through Jesus Christ. I know that God loves me. One day, when I meet Him face to face, I'll ask all my hard questions. But until then, I am simply going to trust Him." I love the hymn written by another Methodist preacher of Philadelphia , USA, Charles Albert Tindley, entitled "Stand by Me". Let this be your prayer of faith in the midst of an unfair world. "When the storms of life are raging, stand by me. When the storms of life are raging, stand by me. When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea, Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me. In the midst of tribulation, stand by me, In the midst of tribulation, stand by me. When the host of hell assail, and my strength begins to fail, Thou who never lost a battle, stand by me."
 In Christ, Brown
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