Brown's Daily Word 3/14/11

The Lord blessed us with beautiful and full weekend of worship, witness, and fellowship beginning with Saturday evening worship, continuing through yesterday. It was great blessing to be in the House of the Lord worshipping, and praising. He always blesses us as we draw into His presence through His grace. Alice and I, along with Laureen and some of her friends, attended a Christian Concert, by Selah, Shaun Groves,and Aaron Shust, that held in Binghamton last night. It was a wonderful 3 hours of worship and praise. What a treat!
I love to read and preach fro Romans 5: 1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

4And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

In the words of Jurgen Moltmann, “Expectation makes life good, for in expectation we can accept our whole present and find joy not only in its joy but also in its sorrow, happiness not only in its happiness but also in its pain. Thus hope goes on its way through the midst of happiness and pain, because in the promises of God it can see a future also for the transient, the dying and the dead. That is why it can be said that living without hope is like no longer living. Hell is hopelessness, and it is not for nothing that at the entrance to Dante’s hell there stand the words: ‘Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.’”

Christians are people of hope. For us, sorrow is always a temporary emotion, and joy is the norm. The reason is that we know that life overcomes death, love is stronger than hate, light overcomes darkness, good will ultimately triumph and Jesus reigns. Jesus came to have his joy live in us (John 15:11).

Brennan Manning says, “I believe that the real difference in the American church is not between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and charismatics, nor between Republicans and Democrats. The real difference is between the aware and the unaware. When somebody is aware of that love — the same love that the Father has for Jesus — that person is just spontaneously grateful. Cries of thankfulness become the dominant characteristic of the interior life, and the byproduct of gratitude is joy. We’re not joyful and then become grateful — we’re grateful, and that makes us joyful.” When you are a grateful person you possess joy, even when you may possess little else.

What if we lived every moment as though our Lord was all around us? What if we lived as though nothing could happen to us that our Lord, could not take care of? What if you lived as though the power of the Holy Spirit lived in us, and we were walking around in a world created by our Lord, loved by him and blessed by his presence? What if we lived as though we were not meant to be alone, but an important part of the family of God?
In 1741, and an old man was wandering the streets of London, by the name of George Frederick Handel. At this point, he was angry at life. His mind kept returning to the time when he was famous and had the applause of royalty and the elite of London. But now his mind was full of despair and hopelessness about the future; the applause was gone. Others were now in the spotlight and envy began to possess him. Added to that, a cerebral hemorrhage paralyzed his right side. He could no longer write, and doctors gave little hope for recovery. The old composer traveled to France and began to soak in the baths which were said to have healing effects. The hot mineral baths seemed to help, and his health began to improve. Eventually, he was able to write once more, and his success returned.
But then he faced another reversal. Queen Caroline, who had been his staunch supporter, died. England fell on hard economic times, and the heating of large auditoriums for concerts was not permitted. His performances were canceled, and he began to wonder where God was.
Then one night, as he returned from his walk, Charles Jennens was waiting at his home. Jennens explained that he had just finished writing a text for a musical that covered both the Old and New Testaments, and believed that Handel was the man to set it to music. Handel was indifferent as he began to read the words which Jennens had put together. But then his eyes fell on such words as, ‘He was despised, rejected of men. . . he looked for someone to have pity on him, but there was no man; neither found he any to comfort him.’ His eyes raced ahead to the words: ‘He trusted in God. . . God did not leave his soul in hell. . . He will give you rest.’ And finally his eyes stopped on the words: ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth.’ He became aware of the presence of God. He was aware in a new and profound way that as he picked up his pen the Spirit of God was moving, and music seemed to flow through him. He finished the first part in only seven days. The second section was completed in six days.
Many will remember that when the classical work was first performed in London, and the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ was sung by the choir, King George II was so moved that he stood to his feet. To this day, people still rise to their feet as the great chorus is sung in praise to God.
In reflecting on Handel’s Messiah, Joseph E. McCabe wrote: “Never again are we to look at the stars, as we did when we were children, and wonder how far it is to God. A being outside our world would be a spectator, looking on but taking no part in this life, where we try to be brave despite all the bafflement. A God who created, and withdrew, could be mighty, but he could not be love. Who could love a God remote, when suffering is our lot? Our God is closer than our problems, for they are out there to be faced; He is here, beside us, Emmanuel.”
In Christ,
Brown


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-qBsHhFEgA



Fundraiser at Phil's Chicken House, Monday, March 14th from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM in the downstairs dining room. This will benefit the Union Center United Methodist Church Youth Group to allow them to attend Youth Retreats. The buffet is $9:99 and includes choices of dessert. Menu items can also be ordered. 10% of all income will be donated to the Youth. Tipping is allowed, and all tips will also be given to benefit the Youth. Please come out to support this good cause.


Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott

Saturday, March 19, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Laureen Naik
Speaker: Rev. Brown Naik

Brown's Daily Word 3-11-11

Praise the Lord for this Friday. Spring is almost here. Let us remember to spring forward (on our clocks) one hour this Saturday night. Plan to be in the House of the Lord wherever you might be. The secular culture that has rebelled against the ways of the Lord focuses on a path of human justification and self-righteousness This life style promotes the theme of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps". A common theme in our culture encourages people to dig in and get the job done. Foolishly, people feel that they can atone for their own sins, and then hold their heads up high, proud of personal accomplishment. They try and do “good” to cover the hardness of their own hearts. Many find the path satisfying and pleasing for awhile, but they eventually realize that the road leads to destruction, absolute emptiness, and abject despair.
In this Lenten season, we focus on the way of the Cross. This path does not gleam with the glitter of fame, accomplishment, or a rising self-esteem. This path is splattered with the blood, sweat, and tears of Another. To some it would appear to be the path of defeat and surrender, not victory and valor. On this path there is no room for pride or arrogance. There are no class distinctions, no self-satisfied soldiers who claim the victory. All of those who travel this path know their absolute spiritual bankruptcy, they are all too familiar with their own depravity, and they are well acquainted with their moral degeneracy.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written to friends, brothers, and sisters in Christ, and he urged them to reject the path of human justification and self-righteousness, and continue on the path of mercy and grace, to walk in the Spirit. "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14 NIV)
Let those who are self-righteous glory in their outward show for the masses, but we will glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word, “boast” in Greek means, “to glory or praise.” It is not “boasting” as we think about bragging or boasting today. Paul said that he would glory in the shame of the cross. That which is a shame and an embarrassment to so many in our society was Paul’s glory and the object of His praise.
Paul said that the world has been crucified to him and that he had been crucified to the world. The “world,” written about by Paul, is not the physical world full of plants, trees, animals, flowing rivers, and galaxies beyond our reach, but it is the world’s system. Paul wrote about the ways of the world, the fruit of the flesh, the manners and customs of those who live to please themselves and justify themselves. Paul had become dead to that kind of thinking, that kind of living, that type of religion. It is not that they no longer had and influence on Paul, but that all those things had lost their power to hold him captive as they once did.
Paul considered everything he had ever done that he could pride himself in as nothing. Paul considered everything he had ever accomplished as nothing. It is not that what he had done was nothing, but in comparison to knowing Jesus—it was all junk, worthless junk.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God". (1 Corinthians 1:18 NIV)
Paul also wrote to the Colossians, saying, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.
He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." (Colossians 2:13-15 NIV)
We were dead in our sins and yet God has made us alive in Christ.
I love the way John Bunyan depicts the power of the Cross in his epic drama"

"Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Isaiah 26:1. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.
He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, "He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death." Then he stood still a while, to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. Zech. 12:10. Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold, three Shining Ones came to him, and saluted him with, "Peace be to thee." So the first said to him, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," Mark 2:5; the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment, Zech. 3:4; the third also set a mark on his forehead, Eph. 1:13, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate: so they went their way. Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing,

"Thus far did I come laden with my sin,
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came hither. What a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sKcw9_PQYA



Fundraiser at Phil's Chicken House, Monday, March 14th from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM in the downstairs dining room. This will benefit the Union Center United Methodist Church Youth Group to allow them to attend Youth Retreats. The buffet is $9:99 and includes choices of dessert. Menu items can also be ordered. 10% of all income will be donated to the Youth. Please come out to support this good cause.



Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott

Saturday, March 12, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Laureen Naik
Speaker: Rev. Bill Turner

Brown's Daily Word 3-10-11

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. One of the highlights for the mid-week for us is our Mid-week gathering at the church. We have been meeting every Wednesday since 1990. The Lord blessed us with a very special Wednesday gathering. The food and the desserts were delicious. The fellowship was sweet. The study was inspiring and provocative. The psalm that is designated for Ash Wednesday is Psalm 51.
Psalm 51 is one of the few psalms where we are given the historical background. The inscription reads, "A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba." That identifies clearly for us the incident out of which this psalm arose. It was the time when David became involved in the double sin of adultery and murder while he was king. He had walked with God for many years. In that time he had gained a reputation as a prophet, a man who understood the deep things of God; and he had established himself as the long time spiritual leader of his people. Then suddenly, toward the end of his reign, he became involved in this terrible sin.
The interesting thing is that David himself records this sin for us. It must have been a painfully humiliating experience for the king. In Psalm 32 David recorded how he felt during that terrible time when he was trying to cover up his sin. He said, “When I kept things to myself, I felt weak deep inside me. I moaned all day long.” (Psalm 32:3, NCV). In fact, for about a year he tried to live with a guilty conscience.
I love Edgar Allen Poe’s story, “The Telltale Heart”. In that story, the main character has committed murder and he buried the body of the victim in his basement, but the murderer is unable to escape the haunting guilt of his deed. He begins to hear the heartbeat of his dead victim. A cold sweat pours over him as that heartbeat goes on and on, relentlessly, getting louder and louder. Eventually, it becomes clear that the pounding which drove the man mad was not in the grave below but in his own chest.
That must be how David felt when he committed the sins of adultery and murder. The guilt he felt became almost unbearable. So God sent the prophet Nathan to David. God loved this king far too much to let him continue to try to hide his sin, thus damaging himself and his entire kingdom. When David was confronted, he acknowledged the terrible sin he had committed. He fell on his face before God and out of that experience of confession comes this beautiful fifty-first Psalm. He wrote, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10).
The concept of forgiveness, of being made right with God, is pictured in the Bible in many different ways, sometimes as a new birth, sometimes as the crossing out of a debt, sometimes as the breaking off of a heavy chain. The picture of forgiveness that David uses here is perhaps the most common picture throughout the word of God -- he describes it as a cleansing. “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” A few verses earlier, he had written, “Wash me thoroughly from my sin, and cleanse me from my sin.” He continued, “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:7).
Sin is dirty, even filthy, and it stains our lives. Isaiah put it this way, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6). The NCV translates the first part of that verse, “All of us are dirty with sin.” There is the need for us to be cleansed, so David sid, “Purge me, purify me, wash me.” David did not say, “Change the way I behave”, but he rightly said, “Change my heart.” To paraphrase David, “Even if I never ever commit murder or adultery again in my entire life, there’s still something here that’s a problem. So God, I want you cleanse my heart. I want to cleanse the things I think about, my priorities, my desire to serve you -- all of it.”
The most beautiful part of this story is that God did that for David and he’s willing to do the same for any of us. God’s delights in having the opportunity to forgive us. When he forgives, he removes it "as far as the East is from the West". He will not continue to hold it over our heads.
I heard the story a few months ago about the owner of a Rolls Royce. True or not, it certainly sounds as if could be true:
That great British automaker takes great pride in the reliability of their handcrafted automobiles. An obviously wealthy owner of a Rolls Royce took it to Europe on an extended trip. While traveling in France the car had some mechanical problem. He called the Rolls Royce factory and asked that they send out a mechanic immediately to fix the problem. The company responded in royal fashion. They put a mechanic on a private jet with all of the necessary tools and flew him over to France to make the repairs. The owner was so wealthy that he was not at all concerned about the cost, and would spare no expense to make sure that his beloved Rolls Royce was properly repaired.
After several months he realized that he had not received a bill. He had his secretary contact the Rolls Royce factory to inquire about the bill. He received this reply from the Rolls Royce company: In typical British fashion, it said simply, "We have no recollection or record of any Rolls Royce having ever had a breakdown or being in need of repair anywhere in France."
That reminds me of how God treats us when he forgives us of sin. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
In this Lenten season, may we deny ourselves, take of the cross and follow Jesus daily.
In Him,
Brown


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsCp5LG_zNE&tracker=False

Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott

Saturday, March 12, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Laureen Naik
Speaker: Rev. Bill Turner