Praise the Lord for the gift of this new day. The
Lord has blanketed the region with fresh snow that is glistening. The
snow lovers and the winter lovers are filled with great delight. Alice
has started decorating the house. It is getting transformed into a
Christmas house. We are getting to celebrate the Advent
and Christmas season by His grace. We join you all around the corner
and around world, singing, " O come, all ye faithful, joyful, and
triumphant ... What child is this?... Joy to the world the Savior reigns...
Many of you know that I have been battling my health concerns
- prostate cancer - since 2005. I had the first surgery in 2007
followed by radiation. By His grace, the Lord gave me His grace and mercy
to remain fully active in ministry. He gave me grace to be involved in
the ministry of our Lord around the corner and around the globe. After
serving full time for almost 40 years I retired and moved to Marathon,
where I serve part time. We have been blessed. I had a surgery on my
spine this past February followed by Radiation. I had to have another
surgery in the same vicinity this past October followed by radiation. Now
I am scheduled for chemo treatment which begins today at Lourdes Hospital in
Binghamton. I am scheduled for a treatment every 3 weeks, for a total of
6 treatments. Thank you all for your continued prayer. Many
of you have praying for me fervently and faithfully. Our Lord God is
into mystery big time. We do not fully understand all about His ways and
purposes.
Alice
and I praise the Lord for you and join you in celebrating the
wonder-filled and joy-saturated Advent and Christmas season. May the
Christ of Christmas propel us to dance like John the Baptist when he danced in
his mother's womb. May we be delightfully disrupted as the shepherds
were, and come in haste to the manger of Bethlehem once again to adore the
newborn King. May we give selflessly and extravagantly as the wise men
gave to the newborn King. May Jesus pervade our homes, our hearts, and
our hearths with His grace and glory. May He pour upon us - and upon our
children, our grandchildren, and the Church - His fresh
anointing. May He replace our mundane with His majesty, with His
celestial. May He somehow, by His touch, transform our ordinary into His
extraordinary and our transitory into His eternal. We are so blessed, so
loved. What a way to live! What a way to serve!
"For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9
"And
we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those
who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
Romans 8:28
"Some
trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our
God." Psalm 20:7 (ESV)
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord
delivers them out of them all." Psalm 34:19
"When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him
in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will
satisfy him and show him my salvation." Psalm 91:15, 16
With much Gratitude.
Brown
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