Brown's Daily Word

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Brown's Daily Word 4-24-12

Praise the Lord for the beauty of the earth. Praise the Lord for the blessings and the beauty of Easter Season. Praise the Lord for the way He makes all things beautiful in His time. We have two crab apple trees in front of the parsonage which are in full bloom. One tree was planted by Howard and Dorothy Woodward in 1969. The other was planted much more recently. We have planted several fruit trees in back of the parsonage, where we used to have a vegetable garden. The yard is in luxuriant bloom. Springtime in New York is out of this world. "Wish you were here". We have several bird feeders behind the parsonage. When our grandchildren were here they filled each of the bird feeders. We see lots of birds of diverse colors, shapes, and sizes flocking at the bird feeders. It is a wonderful sight to see carefree birds that sing and feed from the bird feeders with great mirth and song. Jesus our Lord taught us how to be "Bird watchers and star gazers".

The Bible is the Book of Grace. As it is woven with a scarlet thread we see the grace notes of our Lord in every page. I was reading the story of Jacob, running away as a fugitive. The Hound of Heaven was pursuing him as we read about it in Genesis 28. The story of Jacob and his brother Esau is a tangled one, filled with deceit, intrigue and animosity. Esau despised his birthright and sold it to Jacob for a pot of stew. Jacob then deceived their father and got him to bless him as the ruler and chief heir of the family. Thus tensions ran high between the two men. Those problems continued until Jacob eventually had to leave home. Jacob feared for his life so, taking his belongings, he packed up and left his home and went far away to stay with relatives in the east.
Jacob did not seem to have much time for God. We never read of any conversations about God or with Him before he left home. We never read about him worshiping, nor any encounters with God in all of his life up until his moment of crisis. Jacob had little time for God, because he was too busy scheming and planning how to get ahead. Too much of his time was wasted thinking only of himself. There was no time for God, and there was no time for anyone else but himself. But God was about to dramatically interrupt Jacob's self-centered life.
Jacob had been on the move all day, running from his problems. Finally, night came and Jacob fell asleep, with a rock for a pillow under his head, and above his head, the open heavens. As he slept, God revealed himself to Jacob. In his dream there was what appeared to be a large ladder, or staircase of light, the top of which reached to heaven and the very throne of God. On it the messengers of God were traveling up and down between heaven and earth. They were delivering people’s petitions to God and bringing God’s help to the people of the earth. Jacob was one of the privileged few who saw with his own eyes the workings of the kingdom of God and the spiritual activity of heaven itself. God was revealing Himself, and He gave His promise to Jacob that Jacob would be the heir to the promises which God had made to his father, and his father before him. The Lord repeated those promises to him personally saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth... All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:13-15).
Jacob called the place Bethel, which in Hebrew means ‘House of God.’ This special place seemed to him to be the very dwelling place of the Lord. Jacob met God. He wasn’t expecting to meet him. He wasn’t even thinking of God. It was purely grace. It was probably the last thing on his mind. He was only thinking of getting away from his brother, his mind full of thoughts about where he was going and what was ahead of him, but God broke into Jacob’s self-absorbed world in an amazing way. God came to Jacob even when Jacob was not seeking God. God opened his world to Jacob, even when Jacob had closed his world to God.
This whole incident tells us something very important about the Lord. Isaiah, the prophet, quoted God as saying, “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I’” (Isaiah 65:1). God is full of surprises. Just when you do not expect to meet Him, he comes to you. God can interrupt our self-centered lives in the most amazing ways. Think of times in the Bible when God came into people’s lives in surprising ways. Moses would say: “The funniest thing happened as I was taking a walk one day. I was walking by a bush that caught fire and God spoke to me out of it.” Moses was not expecting to see God, and he was sure that God was not interested in seeing him, but God had a surprise for Moses. Paul, on the Damascus road, had only hate on his mind when the Lord stopped him in his tracks and changed his life. Gideon was busy with his job, threshing wheat, when the Lord came to him and announced that he was going to use his life in ways that Gideon had never dreamed of. The list of Bible characters could go on and on, but there is enough evidence to show us that God sometimes interrupts the ordinary in our lives to come to us in extraordinary ways. And He is still doing it today.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/vcmXgqK4klU

Friday April 27, 2012

Television Outreach

Time Warner Cable Channel 4

Time 7:00 PM

Saturday Evening Worship Service:

Location: First United Methodist Church

53 McKinley Avenue

Endicott, NY

Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church

Time: 6:00 PM gathering for Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service

Date: Saturday, April 28, 2012

Speaker: Jason Garen from Davis College

Special Music by Praise Band of the Cross Point Church , Binghamton.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Brown's Daily Word 4-23-12

Praise the Lord for this new day. The Lord blessed us with a full weekend ministry of sharing, fellowship, and worship. I preached from Luke 24:13 ff yesterday. This is the record of the post-resurrection appearance of our Lord on the way to Emmaus. The Lord is Risen but not recognized. It is written that two of the Lord's disciples were going to Emmaus. It was the evening of the First Easter day. These men who were walking along were dejected, depressed, and disillusioned. Jesus, the Risen Lord drew near to them as they journeyed to Emmaus. Rather than proclaiming a message of a victorious and risen Savior, we find that these two disciples were in retreat, leaving Jerusalem, scared, dejected, and perplexed. It was a walk of sadness and gloom, of frustration and doubt; a walk filled with deliberation and discussion, but without answers and understanding, without comfort and without a sense of mission and purpose.

“And it came about that while they were conversing” shows us that right in the middle of their plight of perplexity, the Lord Himself came on the scene. Here, then, we see the love and desire of the Savior to draw near and to draw us to Himself, to make the things of Christ dear and real to us. He brings comfort and change to our countenances, but more importantly, He wants to change our lives and make us like Him. Christ is not in the grave. He is risen, but even as the risen Lord who has ascended, He is still never remote to us though we may not be relating to His love and presence. He is always near and interested in us wherever we go whether in the city, in the country, on the road, in the garden, in the church, in the home, at work, every place. Matthew 28:20, “… Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”

As the men draw near the village the stranger seemed to be going further. The disciples then invited the stranger to come to stay with them. We entertain angels unaware, and they entertained Jesus unaware. As they sat down for the meal: “… He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it he began giving it to them.” How interesting! They had invited the Savior to come in to abide with them in their home, but as He did, in keeping with who He is, He assumed the position of host and not just a guest. It was He who took the bread, broke it, and gave it to them. The Lord Jesus is not just the unseen guest in our homes. He is always to be much more. He comes in to be the unseen host. He comes in to take charge and to lead in our fellowship that He might minister, lead, feed and sustain. He leads, we follow.

This was the same truth, though presented through a different figure, in Joshua 5:13-15. There Joshua was suddenly faced with a man with his sword drawn, none other than the pre-incarnate Christ, who had come on the scene not to take sides, but to take over as the Commander of the Lord’s Army.

“And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him . . .” We then read that “He vanished from their sight.” Literally it is, “He became invisible.” “And they said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?’”

“while He talked with us on the road,” showed they learned He is our Companion in the Way. The disciples reflected on the fact that it was Christ Himself who talked to them as they traveled along the road. Who was speaking with them? The Christ of the cross? Yes, but more. It was Christ who had now entered His glorified state and body. He was neither remote nor lacking sympathy with their needs and distress. On the contrary, He came to them in their need and distress, even in their retreat, and from this encounter we learn a wonderful lesson, the lesson of His availability. He pursued us and shows sympathy with us as our kindred, as one made like unto His brethren. He is our faithful High Priest who is intimately interested in us and interceding for us (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 2:17-18; 4:14-16).

No wonder the author of Hebrews spoke of our “so great salvation” (Heb. 2:3 ff). What love, what faithfulness! Christ cares, and He wants to come alongside and minister to our lives,, to bring forgiveness, strength, purpose, and joy as the companionable Christ.

Jesus walked with them and He talked with them. “While he was speaking to us on the road." How we need to capture the significance of these words “in the way” or “on the road.” He is not only the Christ of heaven , but indeed, He is the Christ of the way, the Christ of our daily walk whether on the road, in the office, or at home, wherever. Indeed, we can’t do without Him in the heavenly sanctuary at God’s right hand, but how wonderful to know he is also the companionable Christ, the Christ of the way, the Christ of our everyday path, with all our trials, frustrations, sin and failures, victories and joys.

Let us, therefore, with the perception of His presence, walk with Him, talk with Him, depend on Him, worship Him, and go, tell, and teach others about Him.

In Christ, the Risen Saviour.

Brown

http://youtu.be/9p4G2GbPYQA

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Brown's Daily Word 4-18-12

The Lord has blessed us with a brilliant and beautiful week, with showers and plenty of sunshine. We are blessed to have Micah and Simeon with us here for a week. They have been riding their bikes in the parking lot - a big thrill to ride their bigger bikes here for the first time. We have been able to take them to some of the beautiful places in the area - farms, parks, playgrounds. Yesterday afternoon I spent some time in the garage, when I found it needful to take something to the basement. When I did so, Micah and Simeon, not having seen me go, got worried about me. They looked for me, but couldn't find me, so they called 911 to say they couldn't find Grandpa - he's lost! We were all delighted once we found each other. There is always joy somewhere when the lost is found.

We will meet for our mid-week service beginning with a meal at 6:00 PM, followed by Bible study at 6:30 PM, then adult choir practice at 7:30 PM.

I have been reading on the post-resurrection appearance of our Risen Lord. One of the moving and powerful appearances of our Lord took place in Luke 24. It was an evening scene taking place on the First Easter Evening. As the travelers made their weary way to Emmaus a stranger fell in alongside them. For them it was going to be one of the most wonderful walks in history! We know, of course, that it was the risen Jesus, but somehow the travelers didn’t recognize him. In fact, Luke tells us, "they were kept from recognizing him." It wasn’t an accident that they didn’t notice who he was, or else they were too preoccupied to look Him in the eye. Our Lord was Risen but not recognized. The stranger asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" Then they poured out their sad story to someone who seemed so willing to listen.

How wonderfully kind and compassionate is our Lord. He could well have been upset with them, to say the least, for their lack of faith in him. Hadn’t he told them that "unless a seed dies, it abides alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit"? (John 12:24). Yet, Jesus did not berate them; rather, "In his infinite courtesy, Jesus remembered the frailty of over-strained nerves and bewildered minds and came, not too suddenly or overwhelming upon them, but in a way which He alone could do, revealed Himself as the Risen Christ."
The way that Jesus dealt with the situation is a lesson to all that are in a position to help those who have lost hope. Those who are without hope need companionship. They need a listening ear more than a stream of good advice. The last thing needed is a brisk "cheering up", idle talk, the well-meant instruction to "snap out of it". Instead, let us come alongside, and love them by listening, by accepting what it is that they feel.

The spokesman for the travelers, Cleopas, expressed surprise at even being asked what was worrying them, "Are you the only one living in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have happened there in these days?" There seems to have been a note of incredulity in the voice of Cleopas, but Jesus continued patiently and asked, "What things?" "About Jesus of Nazareth," they eagerly replied.
The two Emmaus-bound disciples were correct in their theology as far as it went. They told the stranger that this Jesus "was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people" (20). The use of the past tense implies that He wasn’t relevant to the present; otherwise they wouldn’t have been in their present downcast state of mind. Their experience of Jesus was in the past, and they thought they were alone. The Cross had taken Him from them, and their minds could not make sense of the changed situation, or adjust to it. Their understanding of the Cross limited, and the experience had only negative connotations to them.

We have all heard exciting testimonies of what Jesus has done in the past - but what about the present? The past is history. Jesus is, and must continue to be, a present reality. He continues to come alongside us. Do we always recognize him beside us? Life has many distractions - hard work, routine, tiredness, ill health - which can so grind us down that we carry on mechanically, never lifting our eyes - or minds - from the dust of the earthly road we travel. We become unaware of the glory and strength of His presence with us. Life loses its meaning and leaves us washed out, but this story gives us hope.
Jesus is still here among us. He is the unseen "stranger", walking with us, listening to us and, if we are willing to hear his voice, revealing himself to us. Christ is risen from the dead! Christ is the Savior! Christ is the hope of the world!

The two disciples lost no time in retracing their steps to Jerusalem to share the Good News. May that be our experience this Easter time and for the rest of our lives.

In Christ,

Brown

Friday April 20, 2012
Television Outreach
Time Warner Cable Channel 4
Time 7:00 PM

Saturday Evening Worship Service:
Location: First United Methodist Church

53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott, NY
Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church
Time: 6:00 PM gathering for Coffee Fellowship
6:30 PM Worship Service
Date: Saturday, April 21, 2012
Speaker: Dave Hettinger
Special Music by Jane Hettinger