Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. Sunita called from Kampala, Uganda, yesterday. The Lord gave her an amazing and incredible time in Uganda. He gave her His favor with government officials and with some international Christian leaders. She said she was blessed to attend concerts by Kirk Franklin, Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin. She saw many miracles of Jesus in the lives of His servants in Uganda. She is flying back to Washington tomorrow and flying with Andy to Toronto Friday to attend the wedding of one of their friends. Praise the Lord for His wonderful working power. He said what is impossible with man is possible with the Lord.
Emily Dickinson said, “I dwell in possibility.” Every follower of Christ ought to dwell in possibility. It is our birthright as believers. I love the way Soren Kierkegaard said, “If I were to wish for anything I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of what can be, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating as possibility?” The Lord asks a question in Jeremiah 32:27: “Is anything too hard for me?” II Kings 6 records one of the most improbable miracles in Scripture: One day a group of prophets came to Elisha and told him, “As you can see, this place where we meet with you is too small. Let’s go down to the Jordan river, where there are plenty of logs. There we can build a new place for us to meet.” When the prophets arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees, but as one of them was chopping, his ax head fell into the river. He said, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed.” Notice the verb tense. He uses the past-tense because, as far as he is concerned, this ax head is gone for good. This young man regarded his loss as final. He had no expectation whatsoever that it would retrieved. I think he wanted a little mercy or a little sympathy, but he was not expecting a miracle. “Where did it fall?” the man of God asked. When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water. Then the ax head rose to the surface and floated. “Grab it” Elisha said to him. And the man reached out and grabbed it. I think his student was so surprised to see what he was seeing that he just stood there. He was in shock. Finally, Elisha had to say something like, “Don’t just stand there. I’ve prayed this thing to the surface. You might want to GRAB IT.” I love the King James Version of this verse: “And the iron did swim.” Miracles can’t be taught. They can only be believed. Miracles can’t be planned. They can only be experienced. Here is the irony of this story. These apprentice prophets were building a bigger school so that more prophets could take classes from Elisha, and while they are building a place to learn, God gave them a course in miracles. It’s almost as if God was saying, “While you’re busy building your school, why don’t I teach you something that can’t be learned in a classroom!” So the greatest class taken and greatest lesson learned happened while they were building a school for prophets. The greatest lessons are rarely learned in a classroom because they can’t even be taught. They can only be experienced. Great lessons usually start with an impossible situation like a borrowed axhead falling into a river! Though this was not a life-and-death situation, doesn’t it seem like maybe God ought to save such an amazing miracle like this for a little bigger tragedy? But I would put this in the category of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding party. Why “waste” your first miracle on helping a bride and groom save face because they didn’t stock enough wine for the reception? I think it says something about our God who is revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ. It tells me that our Lord God cares about the little things—the wedding parties and borrowed ax heads! Nothing is too small - or too large - for our God. The slave-trader turned pastor and song-writer, John Newton, once penned these words: Not one concern of ours is small If we belong to Him To teach us this, the Lord of all Once made iron to swim Most of us have never seen an iron ax head float because we have never prayed for it. Most of us live way below the level of our God-given potential because we are thinking small, living small, and dreaming small. God is too big to fit in our tiny little boxes! God is not looking for people who tell Him what He cannot do! He is looking for people who believe there is nothing that He cannot do!
All Hail the power of Jesus Name,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYeNfXpZ0pU
Diet Club
A woman in our diet club was lamenting that she had gained weight. She'd made her family's favorite cake over the weekend, she reported, and they'd eaten half of it at dinner.
The next day, she said, she kept staring at the other half, until finally she cut a thin slice for herself. One slice led to another, and soon the whole cake was gone.
The woman went on to tell us how upset she was with her lack of willpower, and how she knew her husband would be disappointed. Everyone commiserated, until someone asked what her husband said when he found out.
She smiled. "He never found out. I made another cake and ate half!"
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 6-3-08
Good Morning,
We have been studying the book by John Ortberg, "If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get out of the Boat". It is about risking. It is about being doers of the word and not hearers only.
Henry David Thoreau said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” Abraham Maslow put it this way, “A musician must make music, a builder must build, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.” I think we focus way too much on not doing anything wrong and way too little on doing something right. I’m not convinced that the greatest tragedy is the thing we do wrong. Albert Schweitzer said, “The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.” I think too many of us are playing so as not to lose instead of playing to win.
In I Samuel 14, Israel was held at bay by a battalion of Philistines that controlled the pass at Mikmash. What was the leader of Israel doing? Verse 2 speaks volumes as it reveals, “Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree.” I can just see Saul kicking back with a cluster of grapes held to his mouth, being fanned by palm branches. Instead of fighting on the front lines Saul was sitting on the sidelines. This was not an isolated incident in the life of Saul. Do you remember what Saul said to David when David offered to fight Goliath? He said, “You are only a boy.” But Saul didn't step up to fight Goliath in place of David. He sat on the sidelines while a shepherd boy fought his battles for him! Scripture says that Saul was head and shoulders taller than any Israelite. So the only one who even came close to matching up to Goliath physically was cowardly. In his book, "Divine Appointments", Erwin McManus says that most of us are what he calls sideliners. He says that a sideliner is “an observer of life rather than a liver of life.” He argues that most people live vicariously, saying, “We find our romance in "You’ve Got Mail", and we fight our battles through William Wallace and Maximus Aurelius.” There is no place for sideliners in following Jesus Christ. The Christian faith and walk were never intended to be a spectator sport. If we are looking for an excuse to stay on the sidelines we will find one. . . We’re all too busy. We all have too many problems. After he retired from his counseling career, Carl Jung was asked how he helped people get well. His response was pretty profound. He said, “Most people came to me with an insurmountable problem. However, what happened was through our work together they discovered something more important than the problem and the problem lost its power and went away.” That’s what ministry is. It’s something more important than our problem. If you have problems you need to start serving others in the Name of Jesus Christ the Risen one. Keep trying to solve our problems and our problems will get bigger. Let us Start serving others and our problems will get smaller. If we wait till we get our act together we will be warming the benches for the rest of our lives. Saul was sitting on the sidelines, but Jonathan was listening to the police scanner. I Samuel 14:3 says, “No one was aware that Jonathan had left.” Jonathan was tired of sitting and waiting. He wanted action. Verse 4 says, “On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistines outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez and the other Seneh. One cliff stood to the north toward Mikmash, and the other to the south toward Geba. Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, ‘Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few’.” I love the armor-bearer’s response, “Go ahead. I am with you heart and soul.” I think we underestimate the importance of armor-bearers. We all need armor-bearers in our life—people who are with us heart and soul. They pray for us, believe in us, and encourage us. I think most people spend their entire lives waiting for something amazing. Perhaps what we call waiting on God isn’t always really waiting on God. It’s lack of faith, a passive waiting, sitting under a pomegranate tree waiting for something amazing to happen. Proactive waiting is picking a fight with the Philistines. I love Jonathan’s plan because it is such a bad plan. If there are only two of you and entire battalion of Philistines, your only hope is the element of surprise. So let’s wait till the middle of the night and then sneak up on them. Jonathan did the exact opposite. Jonathan walked into the middle of a gorge in broad daylight and exposed himself to the enemy. Then he said, “If they say to us, ‘Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are and not go up to them. But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up; because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.” Jonathan made up the sign. I don’t know about you, but if I’m making up the signs I do the exact opposite. If they come down to us that’ll be our sign. In fact, if they fall off the cliff that’ll be our sign! This makes no military sense. Not only are you outnumbered, but you’re going to give up the high ground? The Philistines taunted them, “Look! The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.” So Jonathan and his armor bearer climbed the cliff, defeated an entire Philistine battalion, and triggered a panic among the Philistines so they started fleeing in every direction. Verse 20 says, “So on that day the Lord saved Israel.” The course of Israel’s history was changed by one man with the right mind set: “Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf.” What if Jonathan had sat on the sidelines like the rest of the Israelites? Are we sitting under a pomegranate tree passively waiting for something good to happen? Or are we proactively picking a fight with the Philistines? Let us go and "climb a cliff".
In Jesus, the Author and the Pioneer of our Faith,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1rqb1BG4JU&feature=related
We have been studying the book by John Ortberg, "If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get out of the Boat". It is about risking. It is about being doers of the word and not hearers only.
Henry David Thoreau said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” Abraham Maslow put it this way, “A musician must make music, a builder must build, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.” I think we focus way too much on not doing anything wrong and way too little on doing something right. I’m not convinced that the greatest tragedy is the thing we do wrong. Albert Schweitzer said, “The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.” I think too many of us are playing so as not to lose instead of playing to win.
In I Samuel 14, Israel was held at bay by a battalion of Philistines that controlled the pass at Mikmash. What was the leader of Israel doing? Verse 2 speaks volumes as it reveals, “Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree.” I can just see Saul kicking back with a cluster of grapes held to his mouth, being fanned by palm branches. Instead of fighting on the front lines Saul was sitting on the sidelines. This was not an isolated incident in the life of Saul. Do you remember what Saul said to David when David offered to fight Goliath? He said, “You are only a boy.” But Saul didn't step up to fight Goliath in place of David. He sat on the sidelines while a shepherd boy fought his battles for him! Scripture says that Saul was head and shoulders taller than any Israelite. So the only one who even came close to matching up to Goliath physically was cowardly. In his book, "Divine Appointments", Erwin McManus says that most of us are what he calls sideliners. He says that a sideliner is “an observer of life rather than a liver of life.” He argues that most people live vicariously, saying, “We find our romance in "You’ve Got Mail", and we fight our battles through William Wallace and Maximus Aurelius.” There is no place for sideliners in following Jesus Christ. The Christian faith and walk were never intended to be a spectator sport. If we are looking for an excuse to stay on the sidelines we will find one. . . We’re all too busy. We all have too many problems. After he retired from his counseling career, Carl Jung was asked how he helped people get well. His response was pretty profound. He said, “Most people came to me with an insurmountable problem. However, what happened was through our work together they discovered something more important than the problem and the problem lost its power and went away.” That’s what ministry is. It’s something more important than our problem. If you have problems you need to start serving others in the Name of Jesus Christ the Risen one. Keep trying to solve our problems and our problems will get bigger. Let us Start serving others and our problems will get smaller. If we wait till we get our act together we will be warming the benches for the rest of our lives. Saul was sitting on the sidelines, but Jonathan was listening to the police scanner. I Samuel 14:3 says, “No one was aware that Jonathan had left.” Jonathan was tired of sitting and waiting. He wanted action. Verse 4 says, “On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistines outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez and the other Seneh. One cliff stood to the north toward Mikmash, and the other to the south toward Geba. Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, ‘Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few’.” I love the armor-bearer’s response, “Go ahead. I am with you heart and soul.” I think we underestimate the importance of armor-bearers. We all need armor-bearers in our life—people who are with us heart and soul. They pray for us, believe in us, and encourage us. I think most people spend their entire lives waiting for something amazing. Perhaps what we call waiting on God isn’t always really waiting on God. It’s lack of faith, a passive waiting, sitting under a pomegranate tree waiting for something amazing to happen. Proactive waiting is picking a fight with the Philistines. I love Jonathan’s plan because it is such a bad plan. If there are only two of you and entire battalion of Philistines, your only hope is the element of surprise. So let’s wait till the middle of the night and then sneak up on them. Jonathan did the exact opposite. Jonathan walked into the middle of a gorge in broad daylight and exposed himself to the enemy. Then he said, “If they say to us, ‘Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are and not go up to them. But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up; because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.” Jonathan made up the sign. I don’t know about you, but if I’m making up the signs I do the exact opposite. If they come down to us that’ll be our sign. In fact, if they fall off the cliff that’ll be our sign! This makes no military sense. Not only are you outnumbered, but you’re going to give up the high ground? The Philistines taunted them, “Look! The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.” So Jonathan and his armor bearer climbed the cliff, defeated an entire Philistine battalion, and triggered a panic among the Philistines so they started fleeing in every direction. Verse 20 says, “So on that day the Lord saved Israel.” The course of Israel’s history was changed by one man with the right mind set: “Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf.” What if Jonathan had sat on the sidelines like the rest of the Israelites? Are we sitting under a pomegranate tree passively waiting for something good to happen? Or are we proactively picking a fight with the Philistines? Let us go and "climb a cliff".
In Jesus, the Author and the Pioneer of our Faith,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1rqb1BG4JU&feature=related
Monday, June 2, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 6-2-08
The Barna Research Group has been involved in gathering and analyzing information concerning the church since 1984. Many of its findings are startling and eye-opening. For instance, they have found that 33% of Americans are unchurched; they have no church affiliation whatsoever. Jesus said, “The harvest truly is plenteous.” There are people to reach; there is a work to be done. The danger within the church is that we don’t see this as the most important work. Almost everything else comes before this work of reaching these unchurched millions with the Word of God. Jesus found himself in a similar situation, recorded in Mathew 9: 35-39. I always thought what He has to say about the subject to be interesting because everything He says is truth. He saw the multitudes. He did not focus just on the disciples or his inner circle of friends but he looked out and saw the multitude. When He looked out, He was moved with compassion. That word compassion means moved to love, mercy, and pity. In other words, He did not merely see them, but He saw their need. They fainted and were scattered abroad just like sheep without a shepherd. He saw that they would soon run out of pasture and starve and that they would get lost and caught in some thicket and die. In the meantime they were helpless. Pleasures run out, the good times run out, self-sufficiency runs out, health will fail, death is inevitable, and judgment is sure. Jesus said that harvest is truly plenteous. Jesus saw the potential. He did not focus on the hopelessness of the situation, but he focused on hope. Jesus did not pity and do nothing but he said get the sickle and harvest them. Jesus did not see them as always being in that situation but He saw them being transformed. He saw the lost being saved. He saw sinners becoming saints. He saw the guilty being set free. He saw the unforgiven being forgiven. He saw the hell-deserving getting grace. Instead of moaning and groaning about the bad state of affairs he magnified the expectancy, the sense of hopefulness, that is anticipated in the harvest. The problem of lack of harvest is not in the harvest itself; the harvest is plenteous. The problem of the lack of harvest is not in the Lord, he still saves. The problem is that ”the laborers are few.” The problem is that not many are interested and involved in gathering the harvest. The play on words is obvious. Plenteous or large, and few or small. Do you know why reapers are few? It is because it involves labor. Now notice what Jesus says, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” Pray. The first thing to do is pray. Why must we pray? It is imperative that we pray because this is the Lord’s work. That which is impossible with men is possible with the Lord. Only He can heal the lame. Only He can raise the dead. Only He can heal sickness. Only He can cause dead ears to hear and dead tongues to speak. It is His power, and we must tap into that power. Moreover, through prayer we will gain the compassion we need to see the harvest through the heart and mind of the Lord of the Harvest. It is through prayer that we will see that there is great potential in the harvest, and it is through prayer that we will ask for the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers. How can we ask God to send forth someone else without first saying, Lord, send me?
In Christ, Brown
In Christ, Brown
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