Brown's Daily Word 3/16/15

   Praise the Lord for this marvelous Monday.  The Lord blessed us with a wonderful weekend.  Laureen was visiting some of her friends in Beirut, Lebanon for a few days, and she returned back to Washington, DC yesterday.  The Lord blessed her days in Lebanon.  She said she walked where Jesus walked in Sidon, a part of Lebanon.  Lord gave her His favor and His grace.  The Lord blessed us  with His joy and gladness in His House with His people in House yesterday.  All Praise belongs to Him.

    One of the readings for yesterday was taken from Ephesians 2, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—  among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

    From my readings I have  discovered that the highest spot in the continental United States in Mt. Whitney in Northern California.  It stands a majestic 14,495 feet. From it’s top, a beautiful panoramic landscape unfolds.  But just 80 miles southeast is Death Valley, the lowest spot in the Unites States at 280 feet below sea level.  Death Valley is also the hottest in the country with temperatures reaching 134 degrees in the shade.  It is a stark contrast to Mt. Whitney.

    In these verses Ephesians 2 we see the stark contrast between the "Death Valley" of sin and despair and the mountain peak to which God lifts us up.  D. L. Moody once said: "God is so anxious to save sinners He will take everyone who comes.  He will take those who are so full of sin that they are despised by all who know them; who have been rejected by their fathers and mothers, who have been cast off by their wives and their husbands.  He will take whose who have sunk so low that upon them no eye of pity is cast."  Because of His great love and mercy,  our Lord reaches down to the very depths of our sin, saved us from death and lifted us up. Indeed He "has raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus".

In Christ,

  Brown

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