Brown's Daily Word 9/10/16

It is Saturday now, but Sunday is coming.  We will gather for Sunday School at 9:30 AM and gather for worship at 10:30 AM followed by Coffee Hour.  Sunday is a day of victory - a little Easter.  It is a day of celebration of the Majesty and power of the Lord, the King of all Nations.  One of my new-found friends wrote me a note to remind me that 9/11/2016 is the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11/2001, when the Psyche and Ethos of America the beautiful was shaken and overwhelmed.  I remember most vividly and lucidly, like a bell, the moment and the place where I was on that morning of 9/11.  I had just spent some time in prayer over the phone with a dear servant of Jesus.  Alice was away at school.  All our girls were scattered around the Land.  When I saw the initial images of the first plane I had no comprehension of the devastating damage and death it had caused.  It is written in Proverbs 18:10, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe." 

    As we take a brief journey down memory lane, back to the scene of the inferno, we can recall that not everyone who could have run away from the towers did so. That is, everyone ran away except for the first responders – policemen, paramedics, and firemen and  chaplains.  The firemen did what firemen do – they bravely ran into the towers to save whatever lives they could.  None of them considered for even a moment that in a matter of minutes they would lose their own lives as the Twin Towers would come crashing down upon them and those who were already at work.  We can rightly find great inspiration in the sacrifices of those first responders and in the lives of those who followed in the search and cleanup efforts.  “In whom do we Christians really place our hope when faced with great tragedy?  In the face of unprecedented tragedy and massive grief we raise the question, "To whom do we flee when everything comes crashing down around us?"  “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs INTO it and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10 ESV).   When it comes to the troubles of life in this world, the memory of 9/11 reminds us that we are not “above it all.”

    The terrorism we see on the news is too close for comfort –  It reminds us that we can find no comfort in our own names and titles, no matter how influential we might be, no matter how many people might look to us for advice and security. Most of our names will not be written bronze but, even if they are, 3 generations from now our own descendents will know almost nothing of us.  They will have no clue about things we did, what we built, and the things we treasured.  Those things  will mean nothing to them, for the most part.  It is written  that God’s name is a strong tower.  God’s name is everything He has revealed Himself to be: His titles, His attributes, and His promises.  When our enemies pursue us, when all hell breaks loose and Satan unleashes every weapon he has against us, we have God’s omnipotence, His holiness, His love, and grace, and His faithfulness.  So we sing, “One little word can fell him”.  That is, the Evil One cannot stand up to the name of God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

    That God is a gracious saving God, and desires the salvation of all mankind is the highest characteristic of God which He has revealed most clearly.  In the cross and the empty tomb of Jesus is revealed the immeasurable wealth of God.  We run to God for safety – to God our eternal God, creator of heaven and earth.  The Bible declares “the Lord is a strong tower.”  This means, the wealth and weapons laid up in this tower are more than enough to protect us.  So when all hell breaks loose we flee to God our Savior and find safety.  As God’s name stands for everything He is and the inexhaustible wealth of resources we have for our eternal and spiritual security, so the Twin Towers were symbolic also.  Once the tallest man-made structures on earth, the towers stood for the freedom and the opportunities which have allowed our nation to prosper beyond that of any other nation in history.  As Christ’s crucifixion, death, and burial did not put an end to Him or man’s longing for eternal life, the events of 9-11 did not extinguish the flame of freedom but made it burn all the brighter in our hearts. Terrorism did not put an end to the Christian Faith as so many of our fellow citizens have turned to God in the weeks and now years after.  Firemen and police and other workers at Ground Zero found great hope and comfort in a cross which was found in the rubble; a cross which is made of intersecting beams of iron from the towers.  The cross reminds us that our security is found in Christ Jesus.  A husband in the flight over Pennsylvania prayed to God with his wife after he told her he was not   going to be coming home. We declare and proclaim, "The name of the Lord is  a strong tower."  it is a strong one, it is a high one.  It is a rock of refuge, higher than men, or angels, or heaven itself; and such as those who are in it are out of the reach of all danger and every enemy.  As the hymn writer penned:

    "Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace,

    Over all victorious, in its bright increase;

    Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day,

    Perfect,  yet it groweth deeper all the way.

·        
"Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest."

·          In Jesus .

·          Brown

·         https://youtu.be/fn-cdzBju0A

Brown's Daily Word 9/8/16

    Praise the Lord for another day of grace and blessings.  It is going to very hot and humid here in Central New York, the Empire State.  I was visiting with one of the professors from Binghamton yesterday.  He was sharing with me that summer ends not on September 21, when Autumn makes its official debut, but rather Summer comes to an abrupt ending when the school buses begin their first  rounds to pick up the students for the first day of school.  The buses in full gear come out of the bus garages roaring like the Harley Davidson motorbikes, making way onto the Highways and byways, collecting excited and anxious students.  Indeed, Summer comes to an abrupt ending when the first day of school arrives.  It is fascinating look at FACEBOOK as parents post pictures of their sons and daughters with their new school garb on the first day of school.  I was reminiscing about when our girls were in school, how Alice made all new clothes for our girls for the first day of school and equipped them with all the required and necessary School gear.  Sweet memories, how they linger.

    We are getting ready for Sunday worship and celebration.  Sunday, 9/11 is "Back to Church" Sunday.  Wherever  you might be, plan to gather  in worship and witness this coming Sunday.  We will meet for Sunday school at 9:30 AM and gather for worship at10:30 AM.  Please make a note on the time change.  We used to meet at 10:00 for Sunday school and at 11:00 for worship.  Starting on 9/11 we will meet for Sunday school at 9:30 AM and for worship at 10:30 AM.  There will be a Coffee fellowship hour following the morning worship service.  Please plan to invite family and friends for this special day.  See you in church.

    A few years ago I was at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California attending a conference.  One of the speakers for the conference was Bruce  Wilkinson, who is the author of many books including a book called "The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life".  The book focuses on a little known character of the Bible whose brief story is found in 1 Chronicles 4.  Wilkinson,, says:

"Asking the Lord to bless you is not self-centered.  Why not make it a lifelong commitment to ask God every day to bless you, and while he's at it to bless you a lot?  God's bounty is limited only by us, not by his resources, power, or willingness to give. ."

    I have a copy of this book in my library.  What I love about this prayer is that it is right and good to ask God to bless you.  God wants to bless you.  God is by nature generous and good and kind.  Jabez said, "Bless me."  He also said, "Enlarge my territory" and "Let your hand be with me."  Jesus our Lord and friend says that we  can ask God to bless us with His choicest blessings .  Our Father God  cares.  There's no request too small or too trivial or even too selfish.  You can bring our needs to God.

    Our Lord's  teaching doesn't stop there.  It's linked to the following sentence. "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33).

    The Catholic author, John Powell, had this fascinating statement.  He said, "It's very hard to love others when you have a toothache."  When you have a toothache you aren't thinking about anybody else.  You're totally absorbed with that side of your face that's causing you agony.  I have found myself wrestling with the "Tooth Aches" of divers diseases in my life several times.  Something happens when we are preoccupied with what we need and want.  We tend to stop thinking about other people, focusing on our own wants and needs.  We don't think about God. We don't think about others.  We just think about what it is that we want and need.

    When we feel anxiety it means we have some wants or some needs that have not been articulated and expressed to God.  Don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation where we feel anxiety rise, take our anxiety and turn it into a petition, make a request for our wants and needs.  It is written, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)  Through our prayer and thanksgiving the Lord somehow deals with our anxiety.  He gives us grace and power over anxiety.  Somehow He  who is the Prince of peace breathes His peace into our troubled hearts.  It becomes like a river flowing from the heart of Jesus in to our bruised and broken hearts.

    We are invited to come to the Throne of Grace with supplications and petitions. We are invited to come to the Throne of God in confidence and boldness based on the finished work at he cross and ask for blessings— not so God can serve us—but so that we  can have our wants and needs taken care of  and can get on with serving others, seeking first God's kingdom, God's justice, and God's dream for the world as it should be.

    Bruce Wilkinson acknowledges this in his book when he talks about the phrase "enlarge my territory."  He uses that to say, "God, enlarge my influence for you in this world."  That's a beautiful prayer to say, "God, one of the blessings I want most from you is that I can have an influence for you.  In my family, in my job, in my neighborhood, in my social settings I can be an influence for you.  Let that increase, Lord.  I can help other people get closer to you.  I can help other people learn more about you.  I can help other people come into a relationship with you and live more the way you want them to live."

In Christ the Winsome Shepherd.

Brown

https://youtu.be/B1nyzGR3tUE

Brown's Daily Word 9/7/16

Praise the Lord for this Wednesday.  It is apparent that we are going through another midsummer heat wave in our region.  It is going to be in the nineties over the next few days.  The students in our region are going back to school today.  Our grandchildren living in Boston are going back to school tomorrow.  Another season, another adventure, filled with all the promises of our Lord indeed.  We will be starting Fall Bible Study and fellowship hour beginning next Wednesday, the 14th of September. 

    I spent some time yesterday just hanging out with the senior saints and citizens at the our town Civic Center yesterday during the lunch hour.  It is always interesting and intriguing to hear their stories and testimonies. 

    I was talking with a young family in the evening.  The husband is one of my wife's former students, who is married and blessed with two children.  His wife shared with me that she is going to home school her oldest daughter.  As a family  they are going to visit her parents, who live in Colorado where her dad owns a dairy farm, milking 5000 cows. 

    Praise the Lord for the farms and ranches.  We praise the Lord for His abundance.  Alice and I picked to well over two bushels of garden fresh and (mostly) garden ripe tomatoes last evening.  Thank you Jesus.

 

    Our town is gearing up for our Annual "1890 Union Fair", which will be held this Saturday the 10th of September.  The fair was started by the Methodists of Marathon in 1890.  The theme for this years fair is "For Those who Serve - Past and Present".  The Exhibits will start at 9:00 AM, which include Baked Goods, a Flower Show, Garden Stock, Poultry and small animals, Handwork, crafts collections/ hobbies, and an American Quilt show.  The Parade will start at noon on Main Street.  Things to eat include Hamburgers, Hot dogs, BBQ Pork, Hot Sausage, French Fries, Pop corn, Elephant ears, Maple Cotton Candy, and Ice Cream. The Party is on.

    One of  my favorite Psalms is Psalm 91.  Known as the Messianic Psalm, it is both powerful and provocative.  The Lord of life and peace infuses us with His abiding presence and overwhelming peace as we allow the Lord to converse with us in and through His word as we  read this Psalm prayerfully and worshipfully.

    In the Believer's Bible Commentary, William MacDonald begins his comments on Psalm 91 by telling of a five-year-old boy who was dying of diphtheria in 1922. As his mother turned her back so she could not see him take his last breath, her brother-in-law knocked at the door.  He said, "I've come just to tell you that you don't have to worry about the child.  He is going to recover, and God is going to save his soul."  He then explained that the Lord gave him this assurance as he read Psalm 91.

    MacDonald, the author of the commentary, was that dying boy.  God spared his life.  Thirteen years later, God saved him, and for many decades God used him to preach and write the gospel.  MacDonald labeled his comments on Psalm 91 as "My Psalm."  He stated his willingness to share the psalm, but insisted that it was his psalm.  So it is with every believer who knows what it is to live in the protective custody of God.

     Psalm 91 is good news for everyone who trusts in God.  Psalm 90 is a warning about the reality of death, but Psalm 91 is a promise of protection for life.  Martin Luther called this psalm "the most distinguished jewel among all the psalms of consolation."  This psalm must not be used to turn true faith into religious superstition, but the message of this psalm is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  The Lord will protect the one who trusts in him.  It is a life of confident trust, total security, and divine assurance.  This psalm does not guarantee immunity from trouble in life or tragedy and  death.  Instead, it celebrates the benefits of confident trust in God. 

    Trust in God will not keep us from experiencing the trials, tragedies, and tears of  life, but it will keep us in the grip of His grace as we walk through the valley of shadows of doubt, despair, and even death.  "Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."  God is a shadow for those who trust in him.  A human shadow produces fear, but the divine shadow gives comfort.  It means God is near to provide relief.  Warren Wiersbe wrote: "The safest place in the world is a shadow, if it is the shadow of the Almighty."

    Lord Craven was a Christian nobleman who lived in London during a plague that ravaged the city in the 15th century.  Craven determined to flee the city for his country estate to escape the spreading plague, but as he prepared to leave, he overheard a servant innocently say to another, "I suppose by my Lord's quitting London to avoid the plague that his God lives in the country and not in town." Convicted, Craven canceled his journey, declaring, "My God lives everywhere and can preserve me in town as well as in the country.  I will stay where I am."  He remained in London to help the plague victims but never caught the disease himself, because God is a refuge and fortress to those who trust in him. God provides perpetual protection.

    It is written, "You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday."  In the face of terrors, arrows, pestilence, and destruction, the believer refuses to succumb to fear.  This is not personal courage; it is confident trust.  In Christ and because of Christ, we are  under His  round-the-clock protection, under His  eternal surveillance .

 In Christ our solid Rock.

 Brown

https://youtu.be/dy9nwe9_xzw

Brown's Daily Word 9/6/16

 

    Praise the Lord for the stunning, sizzling, simmering summer that makes its way into an awesome and brilliant Autumn season.  Jesus is beautiful and all glorious in all seasons.  He blessed us with some fantastic days that we spent with Jessica, Tom, and Lindy in Philadelphia.  We also spent a few days with Sunita, Andy, Gabe, Addie, and Asha in Washington, DC, along with our daughter Laureen.  We celebrated Asha's September 1 birthday on the 3rd of September.  Her birthday is celebrated along with her parents' 9th wedding anniversary.  It was all blessing.  Lindy, Jessica and Tom's daughter turned 1 on the 8th of July and Asha turned 1 on the first of September.  They both have a few teeth and both have started walking. 

    Janice, our oldest daughter, took Micah (10 years)  and Simeon (9 years) into the White Mountains of New Hampshire for Mountain Hiking for the Labor day weekend.  They spent two days backpacking and hiking up in the White Mountains, during which time they logged 12 miles. They took on their adventure with great determination and joy.  Praise the Lord for the wonders of His love.  Whenever we are in Washington we trek to Union Station and to the Capitol Building,  and at times to the Mall, from Andy and Sunita's house.  One day we all drove down to Great Falls, Virginia.  The Falls are gigantic and gorgeous.  A thing of beauty is a joy forever. 

    The Lord blessed us with a wonderful summer.  The schools in New York State will be opening today for staff and tomorrow for students.  Alice will be back to School today.  The Students will be back at school for another year tomorrow.  Praise the Lord for new seasons, new beginnings.

    John Powell wrote a powerful book called "Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am?".  In it, he writes about how we are afraid to tell people who we are because if they see "the real me," it might not be good enough.  We would be exposed as defective, broken, dirty, disgusting, or inadequate.  So it's better and safer to put on fig leaves and hide.

    In the wonderful and powerful narrative of the Creation story recorded in the Book Of Genesis,Adam and Eve  realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves."  Our children Jessie and Tom have a pig tree by their house.  We picked some ripe fog s few days ago while we were thetre . The fif leaves are big. Fig leaves represent anything we do to cover our nakedness and shame. I have fig leaves. You have fig leaves. We have fig leaves called status, awards, degrees, intellectualism, clothing, style, and morality. Blaming others is a huge fig leaf. That's exactly what Adam and Eve did : they passed the buck. Even religion can become nothing more than a big fig leaf. Fig leaves are anything we use to hide behind to prove we're not defective, broken, or sinful. They come in different shapes and sizes, but they all have this one thing in common: they're a self-made, self-covering project to cover our shame and nakedness.

    It is written in  Genesis 3:8, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day."  The words "sound of the LORD" and "walking" are often used symbolically to refer to  the Biblical revelation and the Gospel Truth.  Our God is present.  God comes looking for the lost man and the lost woman.  What is their response?  They keep running. "They hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden."

    Once again, the Bible says we are lost because we ran away and hid.  If it was up to us to seek and find God, we'd all be hopelessly and eternally lost.  The Bible even puts it this way, "There is no one righteous, not even one … no one who seeks God.  All have turned away" (Romans 3:10-12).  The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once wrote, "You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you."  Our relationship with God is the same.  That is, God catches us.  It is  Grace, Sheer Grace, Prevenient Grace, Seeking Grace. .

    God chases down fugitives.  He is the Hound of Heaven. That's what we see in Genesis, and that's what we see when Jesus pursues a crooked runt named Zaccheus.  "While we were yet in our sin Christ died for us."  WOW!

    Our Lord God, the mighty and merciful, pursues fugitives.  After all, God calls all of us to account for our lives.  There is judgment in the question, "You've lived 16, 26, 46, or 66 years of your life—and where are you?  What have you done with your life?"  Is it time for a wake-up call?  This question exposes our hiding, our running, and our fig leaves.  God didn't ask the question for his benefit.  He already knew exactly where Adam was.  Adam needed the question to wake him up and shake him.  Perhaps God is asking the question because we all need a wake up call.  This simple question is also the question of someone who loves us.  The Bible is a story of lost and found.  God is the seeker and we are the lost fugitives. Throughout the Old Testament, God keeps saying to his people, "Return to me. Come back to me.  What happened to the intimacy we once had?  You moved away."

    All throughout the Old Testament, God provided a way for us to come back, to cover our nakedness and shame, to lure us out of hiding.  As we read through the Old Testament, we see how serious our sin is.  It is deadly to our relationship with God.  It creates a debt that we could never pay.

    All throughout the Bible, God is giving us clues, mapping out a path for us to return to him. God keeps saying: A new day is coming.  There is a new way for you to come to me, a new way to heal your brokenness, a new way to cover your shame, a new way to live, a new way to love others, a new way for the entire earth.  Then Jesus comes and he says, "That new day has come.  I am the new way that was promised."

    During Labor day week,  the invitation of Jesus comes, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28-30).  Just come, Jesus said.  Let us come to Jesus and live.

In Him,

 Brown

https://youtu.be/IoezWBPGRAc