Praise the Lord for this new day. Praise the Lord for the Good News that Jesus our Lord came to seek and save the least, the lost and the last. He came to rescue both rich and poor. In Mark 2:17 we read On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (NIV). Jesus befriended the despicable. In his book, The Kingdom of God Is a Party, Tony Campolo talks about an experience he had late one night in Hawaii. He was in one of those sleazy places that deserves the name “greasy spoon.” The fat guy behind the counter, came over and asked him, “What d’ya want?”
Tony Campolo ordered some coffee and a donut, and while he was sitting there at 3:30 in the morning, to his discomfort, in marched 8 or 9 rowdy prostitutes. Their talk was loud and crude, and he felt completely out of place. He was just about to make his exit when he overheard the woman beside him say, “Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m going to be 39.”
When Tony heard that, he made a decision. Instead of leaving, he sat and waited until the women had left. Then he called over the fat guy behind the counter, and asked him, “Do they come in here every night?”
“Yeah!” he answered.
“The one right next to me, does she come here every night?”
“Yeah!” he said. “That’s Agnes. Yeah, she comes in here every night. Why d’ya wanta know?”
And then Tony Campolo told him, “I heard her say that tomorrow is her birthday,” and he suggested that they throw a birthday party for her. He promised to return at 2:30 the next morning and decorate the place. The man and his wife, the cook, liked the idea and decided to bake a birthday cake.
So at 2:30 the next morning, Tony Campolo was back at the diner. He had picked up some crepe-paper and had made a sign out of big pieces of cardboard that read, “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” Word must have gotten out on the street, because by 3:15 every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place.
At 3:30 on the dot, the door of the diner swung open, and in came Agnes and her friend, and they all screamed, “Happy birthday!” Agnes was stunned. Her mouth fell open. Her legs began to buckle, and her friend grabbed her arm to steady her. As she was led to sit on one of the stools along the counter, they all sang “Happy Birthday” to her. Then they brought out the birthday cake, and that’s when Agnes just lost it and openly cried.
Unable to compose herself, she excused herself and went home with the cake. When the door closed, there was a stunned silence in the place, and Tony Campolo, not knowing what else to do, broke the silence by saying, “What do you say we pray?”
So he prayed for Agnes, and when he was finished, Harry, the fat man behind the counter, leaned over and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he said, “Hey! You never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?”
Tony replied, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.”
Harry waited a moment and then almost sneered as he answered, “No you don’t. There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. I’d join a church like that!” Well, that’s the kind of church Jesus came to create – a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning? (Tony Campolo, The Kingdom of God Is a Party, Word, 1990)
Jesus calls us to touch the untouchable, forgive the unforgivable, and befriend the despicable.
As the song-writer (Charles F. Brown) put it…
Reach out and touch a soul that is hungry;
Reach out and touch a spirit in despair;
Reach out and touch a life torn and dirty,
A man who is lonely – if you care!
Reach out and touch that neighbor who hates you;
Reach out and touch that stranger who meets you;
Reach out and touch the brother who needs you;
Reach out and let the smile of God touch through you.
Jesus help us,
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhoZYci-_ro
Doctor, take a look at me . .
This woman rushes to see her doctor, looking very much worried and all strung out. She rattles off, "Doctor, take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hair all wiry and frazzled up, my skin was all wrinkled and pasty, my eyes were bloodshot and bugging out, and I had this corpse-like look on my face! What's wrong with me, Doctor?"
The doctor looks her over for a couple of moments, then calmly says, "Well, I can tell you one thing...there ain't nothing wrong with your eyesight."
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Brown's Daily Word 6-26-09
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this last Friday of June. Praise the Lord for His amazing grace. I have to conduct a funeral service this morning and a wedding celebration tomorrow. Those of you who live in the area, join us for our weekly television outreach this evening at 7 p.m. on Time Warner cable channel 4. Thank you for praying for me. I feel blessed and strengthened. Alice is going down to Washington, DC this morning, taking our for nieces to visit with Sunita and Andy. Micah and Simeon called a couple of times this week; they are doing well. They are planning to be here as the Fresh Air Kids towards the first part of July, Lord willing. Praise the Lord for His amazing love and everlasting grace.
Philip Yancey, in his book "What’s So Amazing About Grace?", tells the following story: “A vagrant lives near the Fulton Fish Market on the lower east side of Manhattan. The slimy smell of fish carcasses and entrails nearly overpowers him, and he hates the trucks that noisily arrive before sunrise. But midtown gets crowded, and the cops harass him there. Down by the wharves nobody bothers with a grizzled man who keeps to himself and sleeps on a loading dock behind a Dumpster.
“Early one morning when the workers are slinging eel and halibut off the trucks, yelling to each other in Italian, the vagrant rouses himself and pokes through the dumpsters behind the tourist restaurants. An early start guarantees good pickings: last night’s uneaten garlic bread and French fries, nibbled pizza, a wedge of cheesecake. He eats what he can stomach and stuffs the rest in a brown paper sack. The bottles and cans he stashes in plastic bags in his rusty shopping cart.
“The morning sun, pale through harbor fog, finally makes it over the buildings by the wharf. When he sees the ticket from last week’s lottery lying in a pile of wilted lettuce, he almost lets it go. But by force of habit he picks it up and jams it in his pocket. In the old days, when luck was better, he used to buy one ticket a week, never more. It’s past noon when he remembers the ticket stub and holds it up to the newspaper box to compare the numbers. Three numbers match, the fourth, the fifth_all seven! It can’t be true. Things like that don’t happen to him. Bums don’t win the New York Lottery.
“But it is true. Later that day he is squinting into the bright lights as television crews present the newest media darling, the unshaven, baggy pants vagrant who will receive $243,000 per year for the next twenty years. A chic-looking woman wearing a leather miniskirt shoves a microphone in his face and asks, “How do you feel?” He stares back dazed, and catches a whiff of her perfume. It has been a long time, a very long time, since anyone has asked him that question.
“He feels like a man who has been to the edge of starvation and back, and is beginning to fathom that he’ll never feel hunger again.”
What did that beggar to do deserve receiving several million dollars? Absolutely nothing! He had not even bought the winning ticket. All he did was pick it up and cash it in to receive his prize. Someone else had thrown it away as though it was useless, but he saw its potential worth. He had not worked for a long time. He did not earn the money. The check was given to him as a free gift, without conditions. He did not have a job or an education. He did not have to do anything but accept the check.
Having a relationship with God does not depend on how well we do or how perfect we are. It is based solely on the mercy and grace of God. This is good news for us failures. We read in the book of Titus: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5). Here is the unique message of the Christian faith. As it says in 2 Corinthians: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). This frees us from guilt and legalistic perfectionism. We understand that we can never be perfect and that our relationship with God is based solely on grace. The Bible says, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5).
Phil Yancey writes, “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more.... And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.” The guilt and condemnation is gone and a settled peace comes upon our hearts as we realize we don’t have to do anything to gain God’s acceptance — we already have it. Our relationship with God is not based on how good we are, but on the character of a gracious and forgiving God who loves us more than we can ever understand.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXV6HJxUebg
How do we know that Job went to a chiropractor?
Q. How do we know that Job went to a chiropractor?
A. Because in Job 16:12 we read, "I had come to be at ease, but he proceeded to shake me up and he grabbed me by the back of the neck and proceeded to smash me."
Praise the Lord for this last Friday of June. Praise the Lord for His amazing grace. I have to conduct a funeral service this morning and a wedding celebration tomorrow. Those of you who live in the area, join us for our weekly television outreach this evening at 7 p.m. on Time Warner cable channel 4. Thank you for praying for me. I feel blessed and strengthened. Alice is going down to Washington, DC this morning, taking our for nieces to visit with Sunita and Andy. Micah and Simeon called a couple of times this week; they are doing well. They are planning to be here as the Fresh Air Kids towards the first part of July, Lord willing. Praise the Lord for His amazing love and everlasting grace.
Philip Yancey, in his book "What’s So Amazing About Grace?", tells the following story: “A vagrant lives near the Fulton Fish Market on the lower east side of Manhattan. The slimy smell of fish carcasses and entrails nearly overpowers him, and he hates the trucks that noisily arrive before sunrise. But midtown gets crowded, and the cops harass him there. Down by the wharves nobody bothers with a grizzled man who keeps to himself and sleeps on a loading dock behind a Dumpster.
“Early one morning when the workers are slinging eel and halibut off the trucks, yelling to each other in Italian, the vagrant rouses himself and pokes through the dumpsters behind the tourist restaurants. An early start guarantees good pickings: last night’s uneaten garlic bread and French fries, nibbled pizza, a wedge of cheesecake. He eats what he can stomach and stuffs the rest in a brown paper sack. The bottles and cans he stashes in plastic bags in his rusty shopping cart.
“The morning sun, pale through harbor fog, finally makes it over the buildings by the wharf. When he sees the ticket from last week’s lottery lying in a pile of wilted lettuce, he almost lets it go. But by force of habit he picks it up and jams it in his pocket. In the old days, when luck was better, he used to buy one ticket a week, never more. It’s past noon when he remembers the ticket stub and holds it up to the newspaper box to compare the numbers. Three numbers match, the fourth, the fifth_all seven! It can’t be true. Things like that don’t happen to him. Bums don’t win the New York Lottery.
“But it is true. Later that day he is squinting into the bright lights as television crews present the newest media darling, the unshaven, baggy pants vagrant who will receive $243,000 per year for the next twenty years. A chic-looking woman wearing a leather miniskirt shoves a microphone in his face and asks, “How do you feel?” He stares back dazed, and catches a whiff of her perfume. It has been a long time, a very long time, since anyone has asked him that question.
“He feels like a man who has been to the edge of starvation and back, and is beginning to fathom that he’ll never feel hunger again.”
What did that beggar to do deserve receiving several million dollars? Absolutely nothing! He had not even bought the winning ticket. All he did was pick it up and cash it in to receive his prize. Someone else had thrown it away as though it was useless, but he saw its potential worth. He had not worked for a long time. He did not earn the money. The check was given to him as a free gift, without conditions. He did not have a job or an education. He did not have to do anything but accept the check.
Having a relationship with God does not depend on how well we do or how perfect we are. It is based solely on the mercy and grace of God. This is good news for us failures. We read in the book of Titus: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5). Here is the unique message of the Christian faith. As it says in 2 Corinthians: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). This frees us from guilt and legalistic perfectionism. We understand that we can never be perfect and that our relationship with God is based solely on grace. The Bible says, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5).
Phil Yancey writes, “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more.... And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.” The guilt and condemnation is gone and a settled peace comes upon our hearts as we realize we don’t have to do anything to gain God’s acceptance — we already have it. Our relationship with God is not based on how good we are, but on the character of a gracious and forgiving God who loves us more than we can ever understand.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXV6HJxUebg
How do we know that Job went to a chiropractor?
Q. How do we know that Job went to a chiropractor?
A. Because in Job 16:12 we read, "I had come to be at ease, but he proceeded to shake me up and he grabbed me by the back of the neck and proceeded to smash me."
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Brown's Daily Word 6-25-09
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the way He calls us to be partners in His miracles. There is a very fascinating story in the Bible about an unnamed widow of Zarephath, (1 Samuel 17) who was so poor that she did not even have a name in the story. It was the author’s way of saying she had no social standing whatever in her community. If you read the story in context you will discover that everyone in the region was suffering, as there had been a famine for the last three years. The famine, by the way, came because of the prayer of Elijah.
By this time in the course of the famine, only the very wealthy had reserves of food and water. One must wonder why God did not send Elijah to one of the wealthy families in the region. What could have been the purpose of sending him to this poor widow who had nothing? Widows were always the first to run out of bread during a famine. Why would Elijah ask her for the last scrap of food she has when she and her son are dying from starvation? Why send Elijah to a Gentile in Sidon (now Lebanon), and not a Jewish person who was a part of the people of promise? Why go to one who is supposed to be the enemy of Israel, and who had Israel as her enemy? Elijah and the widow were utter strangers to each other and their nations are in conflict with each other. They worshiped different Gods. They must have eyed each other suspiciously when they first saw each other. I wonder if she knew Elijah and that it was his prayer which brought on the famine, a judgment brought abou, not because of Sidon’s sin, but because Israel had turned to worship Baal, the storm god? Elijah had been living down by the brook Kerith, and the ravens had been feeding him there, but the brook dried up because of the drought. In order to survive he had to seek another resource. As he enters the city gate, he noticed a widow gathering a few sticks, and called out to her. He asked for some water, the very thing that was in shortest supply throughout the land and, without a word, she proceeded to get him some. She obviously was a person of compassion rather than judgment. Perhaps she recognized him as a man of God, but as she was going for his water, he called to her and said, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” She informed him that she was gathering sticks because she had only a little bit of flour and she was going to build a small fire to bake the last bit of bread for her son and herself, and then they would probably soon die of starvation. Elijah told her that the Lord promised that she would not run out of bread or oil until rain began again, if she would only do as he asked. Amazingly, she took him at his word. When she did so she found that her little, when blessed by God, went a very long way. This story is reminiscent of Jesus multiplying the loaves, a story that aligns Him with Elijah, the prophet. We find, through the woman's response in trusting faith, the answers to many of our questions. God chose a poverty-stricken widow because the rich can get along on their own and she needed what only God can give. God chose a desperately poor widow because the rich, trusting in their riches, might not have shared with Elijah, but a poor person would and did. God chose a poor Gentile widow who was near death because the politics and conflict of government meant nothing to her. She had come to the place where she had nothing to lose and not much to give, but she chose to give. The poor are often that way. Tony Compolo tells a story about meeting a man on an inner city street. The manwas extremely dirty, perhaps psychotic. He was one of those people you might think to be dangerous. He offered Tony a drink of his coffee from a grimy cup held in his filthy hand. Though Compolo suspected that he would be asked for money for the coffee, and he certainly had no desire to taste the coffee, he decided to accept the man’s offer as an act of grace. Tony thanked the man for the coffee and offered him something, but he refused and said, “Naw, I don’t want nothin’. It is a cold night and the coffee is just so good; I just wanted to share it with somebody. If you want to give me something, give me a hug.” So Tony and a dirty homeless man stood hugging each other on a cold, dark winter night. It is that kind of experience where we often encounter God. Those with the least to offer are often the most willing to give and actually have the most to offer. Only those who trust can dare to give like that. Trusting God results in God's blessing. For the widow of Zeraphath, trusting God meant receiving the blessing and provision of God. Without trust there would have been no blessing. Without the blessing she would not have survived. She gave the last of her flour and oil, and found that she couldn’t give it all, because she couldn’t use it up. The flour jar could not be emptied, and the oil would not stop flowing. There was not only enough for her and her son, but enough for others as well. People who trust God discover that God's supply never runs out. There is not only enough for them, there is enough for others as well.
In His grace,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrBYbjSg3kA
HOLY HUMOR – Satan goes to Church
A few minutes before the services started, the townspeople were sitting in their pews and talking. Suddenly, Satan appeared at the front of the church. Everyone started screaming and running for the front entrance, trampling each other in a frantic effort to get away from evil incarnate.
Soon everyone had exited the church except for one elderly gentleman who sat calmly in his pew without moving, seeming oblivious to the fact that God’s ultimate enemy was in his presence. So Satan walked up to the old man and said, “Don’t you know who I am?”
The man replied, “Yep, sure do.”
“Aren’t you afraid of me?” Satan asked.
“Nope, sure ain’t,” said the man.
“Don’t you realize I can kill you with a word?” asked Satan.
“Don’t doubt it for a minute,” returned the old man, in an even tone.
“Did you know that I could cause you profound, horrifying, physical AGONY… for all eternity?” persisted Satan.
“Yep,” was the calm reply.
“And you’re still not afraid?” asked Satan.
“Nope.” More than a little perturbed, Satan asked, “Well, why aren’t you afraid of me?”
The man calmly replied, “Been married to your sister for over 48 years.”
Praise the Lord for the way He calls us to be partners in His miracles. There is a very fascinating story in the Bible about an unnamed widow of Zarephath, (1 Samuel 17) who was so poor that she did not even have a name in the story. It was the author’s way of saying she had no social standing whatever in her community. If you read the story in context you will discover that everyone in the region was suffering, as there had been a famine for the last three years. The famine, by the way, came because of the prayer of Elijah.
By this time in the course of the famine, only the very wealthy had reserves of food and water. One must wonder why God did not send Elijah to one of the wealthy families in the region. What could have been the purpose of sending him to this poor widow who had nothing? Widows were always the first to run out of bread during a famine. Why would Elijah ask her for the last scrap of food she has when she and her son are dying from starvation? Why send Elijah to a Gentile in Sidon (now Lebanon), and not a Jewish person who was a part of the people of promise? Why go to one who is supposed to be the enemy of Israel, and who had Israel as her enemy? Elijah and the widow were utter strangers to each other and their nations are in conflict with each other. They worshiped different Gods. They must have eyed each other suspiciously when they first saw each other. I wonder if she knew Elijah and that it was his prayer which brought on the famine, a judgment brought abou, not because of Sidon’s sin, but because Israel had turned to worship Baal, the storm god? Elijah had been living down by the brook Kerith, and the ravens had been feeding him there, but the brook dried up because of the drought. In order to survive he had to seek another resource. As he enters the city gate, he noticed a widow gathering a few sticks, and called out to her. He asked for some water, the very thing that was in shortest supply throughout the land and, without a word, she proceeded to get him some. She obviously was a person of compassion rather than judgment. Perhaps she recognized him as a man of God, but as she was going for his water, he called to her and said, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” She informed him that she was gathering sticks because she had only a little bit of flour and she was going to build a small fire to bake the last bit of bread for her son and herself, and then they would probably soon die of starvation. Elijah told her that the Lord promised that she would not run out of bread or oil until rain began again, if she would only do as he asked. Amazingly, she took him at his word. When she did so she found that her little, when blessed by God, went a very long way. This story is reminiscent of Jesus multiplying the loaves, a story that aligns Him with Elijah, the prophet. We find, through the woman's response in trusting faith, the answers to many of our questions. God chose a poverty-stricken widow because the rich can get along on their own and she needed what only God can give. God chose a desperately poor widow because the rich, trusting in their riches, might not have shared with Elijah, but a poor person would and did. God chose a poor Gentile widow who was near death because the politics and conflict of government meant nothing to her. She had come to the place where she had nothing to lose and not much to give, but she chose to give. The poor are often that way. Tony Compolo tells a story about meeting a man on an inner city street. The manwas extremely dirty, perhaps psychotic. He was one of those people you might think to be dangerous. He offered Tony a drink of his coffee from a grimy cup held in his filthy hand. Though Compolo suspected that he would be asked for money for the coffee, and he certainly had no desire to taste the coffee, he decided to accept the man’s offer as an act of grace. Tony thanked the man for the coffee and offered him something, but he refused and said, “Naw, I don’t want nothin’. It is a cold night and the coffee is just so good; I just wanted to share it with somebody. If you want to give me something, give me a hug.” So Tony and a dirty homeless man stood hugging each other on a cold, dark winter night. It is that kind of experience where we often encounter God. Those with the least to offer are often the most willing to give and actually have the most to offer. Only those who trust can dare to give like that. Trusting God results in God's blessing. For the widow of Zeraphath, trusting God meant receiving the blessing and provision of God. Without trust there would have been no blessing. Without the blessing she would not have survived. She gave the last of her flour and oil, and found that she couldn’t give it all, because she couldn’t use it up. The flour jar could not be emptied, and the oil would not stop flowing. There was not only enough for her and her son, but enough for others as well. People who trust God discover that God's supply never runs out. There is not only enough for them, there is enough for others as well.
In His grace,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrBYbjSg3kA
HOLY HUMOR – Satan goes to Church
A few minutes before the services started, the townspeople were sitting in their pews and talking. Suddenly, Satan appeared at the front of the church. Everyone started screaming and running for the front entrance, trampling each other in a frantic effort to get away from evil incarnate.
Soon everyone had exited the church except for one elderly gentleman who sat calmly in his pew without moving, seeming oblivious to the fact that God’s ultimate enemy was in his presence. So Satan walked up to the old man and said, “Don’t you know who I am?”
The man replied, “Yep, sure do.”
“Aren’t you afraid of me?” Satan asked.
“Nope, sure ain’t,” said the man.
“Don’t you realize I can kill you with a word?” asked Satan.
“Don’t doubt it for a minute,” returned the old man, in an even tone.
“Did you know that I could cause you profound, horrifying, physical AGONY… for all eternity?” persisted Satan.
“Yep,” was the calm reply.
“And you’re still not afraid?” asked Satan.
“Nope.” More than a little perturbed, Satan asked, “Well, why aren’t you afraid of me?”
The man calmly replied, “Been married to your sister for over 48 years.”
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