Brown's Daily Word 6/20/17

This is the day the Lord had made we will rejoice and glad in it.  Today is the longest day as the Spring season makes way for the debut of the sweet Summer 2017.  The Lord has showered us with some pleasant and friendly rains.  The gardens and the farms are full of life and laughter.  It is all beautiful.  I drove towards the country settings and scenes yesterday afternoon.  The meadows are studded with spring and summer flowers that are both wild and glorious; the bees at their hives were buzzing sweetly at work.  Our garden is coming along beautifully although it was planted less than a week ago.  Thank you Jesus.

     The Lord blessed us with an extravagant weekend. The Saturday banquet was served to a "Full House".  The banquet was delicious and the fellowship was sweet.  Kudos to our chefs Denny and Lynda.  We had impromptu sharing and laughing and even crying with tears of joy.  Many gave testimonies of the Lord's unfailing faithfulness and never failing mercies.  Some shared how they grew up in a time when there was no central heating and no central air.  Many were born on small farms  and with fewer possessions, yet the life was very rich and beautiful.  Some shared about the centrality of Jesus in their homes and families.  One young woman shared that  a little over a year ago their family lost their house in a fire.  They almost lost some their children.  The Lord miraculously rescued all of them though some children  suffered some severe burns.  The Lord has fully restored them and blessed them with a very spacious house.  They are blessed with six beaiutful children, aged from 11 years to a few months old.  The mom home school their children. She was praising the Lord for His wonders and miracles.

     The Lord blessed us in His House on Sunday, the Lord's day.  The church was full of laughter, praise, prayer, and even tears.  We had some special time to honor the dads who were there.  During the day I heard from all four of our daughters.  Janice shared that they all attended their morning worship, where Micah and Simeon have joined the children's choir   The Children's choir  sang during the morning worship service. After their Father's Day Sunday dinner they went to spend some time at  Walden Pond.  Sunita and Andy took their children the National Zoo in the morning and attended the evening worship service.  Laureen shared that she spent time with her friends and led the worship in the evening at her church in Washington, DC.  Jess shared that she and Lindy took Tom for Father's Day breakfast and attended the morning worship at their church.

     I spent some time visiting in person and over the phone, conversing with a dear friend.  She was sharing that her grandchildren are teenagers now.  She and her husband, who is an Orthopedic surgeon, go to Africa on Medical missions.  This is their thrill and joy during their retirement years.   Another friend was sharing that he and his wife are blessed.  Their lives are centered around their grandchildren.  He and his wife recently spent over a month in the West with some friends visiting seven National Parks.  They came  home "Soul Full". 

     The other day I was visiting a  local man who is a business man and entrepreneur who own several local business concerns - a very successful  man indeed.  After his wife died 11 years ago, he transferred  his businesses to his sons but remained busy in some of his pet projects.  He is 75 yeers and very active and engaged.  He said that he owns two islands in Canada that he uses for vacations destinations. I visited with another neighbor friend who shared that he and his wife are travelling West late this Summer, visiting some farms and ranches in the Midwest.  One of the dairy farms they plan to visit in Indiana milks 32000 cows.  Amazing!  "What a Country!", I said.

We have been hearing from our dear friends who live out of State who send their good wishes and blessings.  One couple shared that they are celebrating their 50 th wedding anniversary this July. She is a a cancer survivor over two decades. Praising the Lord for His healings and restorations.. We had a visit another sweet couple. They love the Lord serve Him joyfully.  He had  an open heart surgery in1999. <. He is stromg and sturdy. They drive to Florida few times a year. They are atr attending a double wedding of their  nieces in Mexico. They have grand children who are in high School They are over 6 feet tall.

 

I love to read Phillip Yancey’s fine book What’s So Amazing About Grace? In an early chapter he comments that grace is the “last great word.” He means that it is one of the last of the “great words” that has retained some of its original meaning: “free and undeserved bounty.” For instance, when we pray, we “say grace” to thank God for our food. We are “grateful” for a kindness done by another person. To show our thanks we offer a “gratuity.” Something that is offered at no cost is said to be “gratis.” And when we have overdue books from the library, we may return them at no charge during a “grace period.”

It is commonly said that Christianity is supremely a religion of grace. And that is certainly true. We sing about grace, we write poems about grace, we name our churches and our children after grace. In Grove City near Grove City College, is Grace United Methodist Church. We have a wonderful saint in our church whose name is Grace.

But for all that, grace is not well understood and often not really believed. We use the word a great deal but rarely think about what it means. It’s probably true that most of us think infrequently about God’s grace. we certainly believe in grace, but outside of the worship services, the word is rarely on our lips.

Yancey points out that part of our problem is in the nature of grace itself. Grace is scandalous. Hard to accept. Hard to believe. Hard to receive. We all have a certain skepticism when a telemarketer tells us, “I’m not trying to sell you anything. I just want to offer you a free trip to Hawaii.” Automatically we wonder, “What’s the catch?” because we have all been taught that “there’s no free lunch.”

Here are a few other notes I jotted down from Yancey’s book: Grace shocks us in what it offers. It is truly not of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners. Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the not-so-bad. God starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it.
In Christ.
Brown

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