Brown's Daily Word 12-10-14

    Praise the Lord for this Wednesday.  It is going to be a snowy day here in the Southern tier of New York.  We will not meet for our Wednesday evening gathering today.  The choir will not meet either.  It is beginning to look a like Christmas every where you go.  

    Praise the Lord for the way He prepared the way for the Birth of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Our God is the Lord of History.  History is His story.   He orchestrates His divine plan and purposes according to His perfect will and design.  Shakespeare wrote that "all the world's a stage," and Luke 2:1-4 details how God set this stage for His grand and glorious Christmas production!  In fact, more than seven centuries before we come to the scene of Jesus' birth, the prophet Micah told us that the setting would be Bethlehem.  When we consider that God was making preparations for the birth of Christ, we have to think about the message of the prophet who said, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth …" (Micah 5:2).  

    `The Lord of history caused Joseph and Mary to go to Bethlehem in the Lord's timing.  As De Boylesve states, "Augustus, while sending forth his edicts to the utmost limits of the East, little knew that on his part he was obeying the decrees of the King of kings."  God's direction is evident even in the movement of the population.  Caesar had thought to feed his pride and eventually fill his coffers through this census and taxation process, but God was using this to get Mary and Joseph where they needed to be.  W.H. Van Doren wrote that "to locate an infant's birth, 60 millions of persons are enrolled."  God prepared a world and set the stage for His Christmas production.

    God prepared the woman for the first Christmas.  Some of the most amazing aspects of what God was doing in preparation for the first Christmas pertain to a young lady named Mary.  We are reminded in Luke 2:4-5 that Mary was espoused to Joseph.  The espousal involved a period of nearly one year in which there existed the commitment but not the cohabitation of a marital relationship.  It was a time when the couple focused upon their preparation and purification for marriage. Mary and Joseph had not lived in the same household, nor shared the intimacy of marriage, but by the time Jesus was born there was both a mother and a stepfather who were together called "the parents" (Luke 2:27).  In His providential preparation, God saw to it that this would be no single-parent household.  Then the single most important aspect of all this Divine preparation is highlighted as we are reminded that Mary was expecting, for Luke 1:5 says that she was "great with child."  When Mary was told that she would have this son, she said, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" (Luke 1:34).  Who can understand the miracle of the conception and the incarnation of Christ?  Surely Mary could not, but somehow the Holy Ghost came upon her and the power of the Highest overshadowed her (Luke 1:35).

    The Lord indeed prepared "the way" for the first Christmas.  I love the Christmas carol, "Away In A Manger".  The Lord God, who became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, prepared the Christ child — "the way" in a manger.  God prepared a way of deliverance in the person of Jesus, "For," as the angel said unto the shepherds, "unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).  That Christ was a Savior tells us that He was literally, a deliverer Who has given us rescue and safety through His great salvation.

    Furthermore, in the person of Jesus, God prepared a way of delight.  The angel said to the shepherds, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" (Luke 2:10), and this word "joy" has the idea of cheerfulness and a calm delight.  God made a way for us to know Jesus and, through knowing Jesus, subsequently to know joy.  Jesus is our deliverer and our delight.  He is God's glorious gift for you and for me.

    Had Almighty God not intervened in human history and made preparation for that first Christmas in every detail, there would be no holyday, no hope, and no joy to the world. I'm glad that God prepared and orchestrated the entire event and that, in the fullness of time, He brought forth His inexpressible gift in Jesus wrapped up in the swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger.  Praise the Lord that we have a direct access to that gift.

In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/6mRkOvbCUkU

Brown's Daily Word 12-9-14

    Praise the Lord for the season of waiting. . . the season of longing. . . the season of expectations.  "O come O come Emmanuel".  "Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus".  As we wait in Christ we have the "sure and certain hope".  This hope does not disappoint us.  The long-expected Jesus came in the "fullness" of time and He will come in Glory and splendor in His time.

 

    Samuel Beckett’s play, entitled "Waiting for Godot", is a satire on the human condition.  As Beckett sees it, humanity is waiting for Godot, or God, to come and save them, but he never shows up.  Their waiting is in vain, for although they have been repeatedly told that God is coming, he never has, and never will.  The characters in the play are told to wait for Godot, for he might come tomorrow.  So they continue to wait in their dreary existence.  The only prop in the play is a dead tree.  The implication in all this is that there is no God and no Savior.  Life, according to Beckett and his fellow Existentialists, is absurd.  There is no ultimate meaning to existence, and so we have to create our own meaning, without artificial props like a belief in God.  The tradition of God coming to earth to save humankind is very strong so that it pervades our thoughts and conversations.  Beckett wants to dismantle this belief for us.  He believes that many people live their whole lives waiting for God to show up, but their waiting is in vain.

    However, the futility of life apart from God is more than evident in the play.  The characters are pathetic and they contemplate suicide several times, even though they cannot even find the emotional energy to carry it out.  For people like Samuel Beckett all this talk of waiting in hope is foolishness.  God is not going to show up. We have been deceived, so what we should do is stop expecting God to show up. That way we won’t be disappointed when he fails to make the scene.  Interestingly enough, Beckett wants people to give up waiting on God, but he never offers anything in its place except despair.  Some people become apathetic as the wait goes on.  They don’t care anymore.  Some lose faith.  Some become bitter, angry and hostile toward God.

    None of this is new.  The apostle Peter wrote to the people of God saying, “First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.  They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised?  Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’  They deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.  By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.  By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.  Let us not, however, forget this one thing: "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. . . The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare."  Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought we to be?  We ought to live holy and godly lives as we look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.  That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat” (2 Peter 3:3-12).

    There will always be those who believe it is futile to wait for God, but they deliberately forget that he has already come.  He came to the Garden of Eden.  He came in the person of Jesus, and he will come again.  In fact, God comes to us many times throughout our lives if our hearts are receptive and our eyes are open.  

    Henri Nouwen wrote a book called "Sabbatical Journeys", in which he wrote about some of his friends who were trapeze artists, called the Flying Roudellas. They told Nouwen that there is a special relationship between the flyer and the catcher on the trapeze.  This relationship is governed by important rules, such as “The flyer is the one who lets go, and the catcher is the one who catches.”  As the flyer swings on the trapeze high above the crowd, the moment comes when he must let go.  He flings his body out in mid-air.  His job is to keep flying and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to take hold of him at just the right moment.  One of the Flying Roudellas told Nouwen, “The flyer must never try to catch the catcher.” The flyer’s job is to wait in absolute trust.  The catcher will catch him, but he must wait."

    Nouwen wrote, “Waiting is a period of learning.  The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting.”  Waiting is not a static state; it is a time when God is working behind the scenes, and the primary focus of his work is on us.  

 

    I love Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Romans 8:24: “Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother.  We are enlarged in the waiting” (The Message).  We wait expectantly.  God is busy bringing about his full plan for the world and for us.  In his perfect timing he will birth that plan. The Bible says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4).  Before it was time, the birth of Christ would have been premature, but when the time came, nothing could hold him back.  When it is time for Christ to return, nothing will be able to hold him back.

In Jesus .

  Brown

http://youtu.be/fAGE1Es8IPs

Brown's Daily Word 12-8-14

    Praise the Lord for this wonderful time of the year.  The Lord blessed with a soul full weekend.  The service of remembrance and thanksgiving for Dave Ring, a faithful servant of Jesus, was a blessing.  So many people attended.  Many testified how Dave had touched their lives, how he had shared the love of Christ with them. There was a big dinner reception following the service, where there was sweet fellowship.  In the evening on Saturday the St. Petersburg Men's ensemble presented an anointed concert of Russian Classical and Sacred music.  It is always treat for us have them with us.  They also shared at the first worship service yesterday.  It was a Christmas blessing and treat.  The Lord blessed us in His house yesterday.  I preached at Union Center.  Alice preached at Wesley. During the lighting of the second Advent candle the family shared about the peace that we have in Christ. 

 

    Praise the Lord; Peace that came down to the world on the  first Christmas.  "Peace on earth and good will to all men".  The Divine peace promised by God cannot be acquired through any of the countless consumer items of our materialistic society.  Peace is the certain knowledge that everything we have been told about God is true and certain.  I have peace in times of crisis because I know "the Lord will make a way somehow."  I have peace in the time of death because I know "when the earthly house we live in shall be destroyed, we have another building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

    Yesterday, December 7, was Pearl Harbor Day.  Peace is our deeply held conviction that wars will stop not when one army defeats another but rather when all armies "beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and study war no more."  In other words, peace comes as I rely less and less on the things of this world and rely more and more on the promises of God.  That is why Isaiah 26:3(NKJV) could declare, "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you."

    Peace is not limited or reserved for those times in life when everything is in perfect order.  Peace is not the absence of tension or hardship; peace is the presence of tranquility within you in the midst of whatever storms may be raging around you.  Peace is not a guarantor that every day will be easy and smooth. Instead, peace is the fruit of the spirit that blossoms in our souls and reminds us that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we can fear no evil because God is with us.

    Living with a spirit of peace in the midst of the storms of life is what Herman Melville was describing in the character of the harpooner in his novel Moby Dick. Melville portrayrd all of the characters on the whaling vessel busy at work as they seek out the great whale that has become the obsession of Captain Ahab. Everybody on board is furiously at work except one, the harpooner.  The harpooner is sitting still and undisturbed.  The harpooner is not caught up in the frenzy that involves a ship sailing through a storm to catch up to and then kill a giant whale.  Instead, wrote Melville, "The harpooner sits in tranquility and rises with a sense of calm to do his work."  The storm and the fury are going on all around him, but the harpooner is able to maintain a sense of tranquility and calm that allows him to do his job.

    That is what peace looks like: tranquility and calm in the midst of the storms of life that allow you to get on with your life and do what needs to be done.  That kind of peace does not come from anything this world can provide.  That kind of peace comes only from God and, more precisely, from our relationship with Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. 

 In Jesus the Prince of Peace.

   Brown

http://youtu.be/-s_n_ycNvP8