Praise the Lord for the glorious morning. I woke up early to watch the
sunrise. The trees were still and tranquil. The birds were flying gently,
almost in a prayerful mood. The grass seemed silent yet vigorously green. Now
the sun is risen in the eastern sky. All is beautiful. The daffodils are
blooming with much beauty and triumph after a long winter. The forsythia bushes
are blooming along all the driveway and the fruit trees are coming out of a
long season of dormancy. In the world, full of wars and rumor of wars,
earthquakes, and violence, the Lord reminds us to "Be still and know that I am
God". The sunshine will be abundant and brilliant today and we all can say is:
"when morning gilds the skies. . ."
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 92. "The
Lord is King, and hath put on glorious apparel; the Lord hath put on His
apparel, and girded Himself with strength. He hath made the round world so
sure, that it cannot be moved. Ever since the world began, hath thy seat been
prepared: thou art from everlasting. The floods are risen, O Lord, the floods
have lift up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The waves of the sea
are mighty, and rage horribly; but yet the Lord, who dwelleth on high, is
mightier. Thy testimonies, O Lord, are very sure: holiness becometh thine house
for ever" (Psalm 92).
The meaning of this Scripture is fully
realized in Christ our Lord. Jesus’ ministry began with His creation in awe of
Him, as a star obediently guided Gentiles to His manger-throne-room. In His
earthly ministry, the wind and the waves obeyed Him. At His crucifixion,
Christ’s creation reacted to the Creator being crucified by the Created and
turned dark at noon, trembling from within the bowels of the earth. At His
glorious resurrection, creation received a sign of hope: Because Christ is
raised from the dead, then the world, long held under the dominion of sin and
its wretched consequences, is now liberated and moving with undeterred certainty
to its own resurrection.
Jesus Christ is the glorious King who is Risen
and who reigns. The world points out that there is a new world on its
way. Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) remarked, “A true opium for
the people is a belief in nothingness after death.” Christ, the
resurrected King of the Universe, has given us hope that the world, including
our world, our dreams, our lives, our intuitive longing for eternity, is headed
for total redemption. A new world is now on its way. The trees of the fields
clap their hands, and the sound of the great waters breaking against the shore
raise their voices, “The Lord is King. A new heaven and a new earth has been
inaugurated with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Everything has
changed.”
“Your testimonies are sure, and holiness
adorns Your house, O Lord, forever and ever more.” The psalmist grounds all that he has said in the very Word of the
Lord. He is King in His radiant wear, resurrection, world, and all of creation
because of His Word. God spoke
creation into being with His Word. God announced redemption would come and
proclaimed resurrection by His Word. Christ was raised from the dead by the Word
of the Lord. His Word is our ultimate proof of it all.
In Christ,
Brown
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Monday, April 27, 2015
Brown's Daily Word 4/27/15
Praise the Lord for a very blessed weekend. Sunita and Andy and their children
spent the whole week with us. Janice and Jeremy and their children came down
for the weekend from Boston. It was a full house. Janice, the family
photographer, took lots of time sorting out the family photos going back (at
least) to 1978, reminiscing as she sorted. It was refreshing to look back over
life spent in the last 4 parsonages, Gibson, Lounsberry, Nichols, and Union
Center. Jeremy and Andy spent a day cleaning and sorting the garage, with
contents from over the years. Our grandchildren were able to entertain each
other, playing outside and indoors. Micah was of particular help with her
cousin Addie. They had seemingly boundless energy. Grandmom and Grandpa were
abundantly blessed to share the time with them. It was a rich, bountiful, and
beautiful weekend.
In
Christ,
Brown
The
Lord blessed us with a wonderful day in the Lord's House yesterday. The reading
for yesterday was taken from Psalm 23. It was "Good Shepherd Sunday". All the
hymns and music were based on the particular theme. The message made reference
to Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to
his own way; and the Lord has laid on his servant the sins of us
all.” I
would like to compare us as human beings to sheep. We human beings are vulnerable to
the wolves of life. We know that our lives are essentially and intrinsically
vulnerable to death, disease, and injury. We know that life is infinitely
fragile and easily broken and hurt. Life is easily shattered. Suddenly, it can
happen via a car accident or a debilitating disease that strikes a person living
in our home. It may be that everything was going so well last week, and this
week it has all changed. Yesterday was glorious and today is tragic. You and I
know are well aware of the twists and turns in the pathways of life. We are
vulnerable to disease, accidents, and all kinds of disasters, enormous
disasters, that suddenly shatter our lives with almost no warning.
Sheep are known to be stupid animals. Human
beings are compared to sheep, and yet the Bible declares that "You have made them a little lower than the
angels
and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet". The Lord has made many to be brilliant and intelligent people, though some of the most gifted, talented, and brilliant people think that there is no God. They think they are gods, but they make some of the dumbest decisions with their lives. Some of beautiful people decide to abuse the bodies with drugs and thereby destroy themselves. Some of the athletes earning millions of dollars go bankrupt, because they make dumb financial decisions and poor life choices. It is like sheep we are prone go astray and make stupid decisions time after time.
and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet". The Lord has made many to be brilliant and intelligent people, though some of the most gifted, talented, and brilliant people think that there is no God. They think they are gods, but they make some of the dumbest decisions with their lives. Some of beautiful people decide to abuse the bodies with drugs and thereby destroy themselves. Some of the athletes earning millions of dollars go bankrupt, because they make dumb financial decisions and poor life choices. It is like sheep we are prone go astray and make stupid decisions time after time.
Another characteristic of sheep is that they
tend to wander away from their shepherd. Likewise with human beings, we wander
away from God and do not fully realize what we are doing. I know very few human
beings who have said: "I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in Christ. I
renounce God and Christianity and therefore I am going in a new direction with
my life." That rarely happens. Instead, human beings drift away from God,
drift away from Christ, ever so slowly, losing the closeness and deep faith that
they once had. Then, one day, after months or years, they wake up and say,
“Where is God? Where is Christ? What happened to the faith that I once had so
many years ago?”
Another characteristic of humans that likens
them to sheep is that not only are we vulnerable to the wolves of life and not
only are we herd animals who follow the crowd, but we human beings do not have
strong homing instincts. When sheep get lost, they do not find their way home.
A dog living can be placed twenty or thirty miles from his home and that dog
will find its way home. A dog has a very strong homing instinct. A sheep has
absolutely none. A sheep when it is lost, does not find its way back home.
Somebody has to go out and find that sheep and bring it back.
One of the great deceptions of life and one
of the great pretenses of life, is that we are not sheep. Some think they are
strong, self-reliant men or women, who can control their own life and destiny.
They think they do not need a shepherd. Yet, we need a good shepherd who will provide with provisions and
protection. If we are sheep, the greatest need for us is to have a
shepherd. God provided a shepherd for us in the person of Jesus Christ.
A personal relationship is
formed between the good shepherd and the sheep. The shepherd knows the name of
the sheep and Jesus Christ, the good shepherd, knows our name. Christ knows us
personally, our names, and the sound of our voices. Jesus, the Good and Winsome Shepherd, leads us to green pastures and
still waters. The good shepherd, Jesus, also leads us in the paths of righteousness
for his name sake. Christ leads us into a right relationship that pleases God.
There are relationships that please God: relationships with Christ, with our
spouse, with our children, our grandchildren, our friends.
The last place that the good
shepherd leads us is to the cross where it all becomes very strange as the
shepherd becomes the sheep. The lamb of God is led to the slaughter and killed
on our behalf, and his blood cleanses us from all sin. It is all so very
strange to the mind that the good shepherd leads us to the cross only to become
a lamb and be sacrificed for our sin.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Brown's Daily Word 4/22/15
It is going to be a wonderful Wednesday. We will gather for our Wednesday
evening fellowship and study starting at 6.00 PM followed by Choir practice at
7.00 PM. Praise the Lord for every day that the Lord gives us as His gift to
live on earth and to enjoy His beauty and love and to glorify Him. We had a few
days of travels this past few days. Alice and I drove to see Jessica and Tom last
Friday. Alice attended a baby shower for Jessica. Saturday I took the train
from Philadelphia to Washington DC. I had not traveled by train lately. During
my college days and graduate school days in India I traveled all the time by train. All
of my long distance and cross country travels in India took place by train. So
it was a treat to travel by train to Washington. The travel was splendid. I
was asked to preach during the Anglican ordination service of Rob, one of the
sweet servants of Jesus. Laureen played for the service. The Bishop and many
clergy were present. It was a high honor for me to preach for the ordination
service and a great blessing. While in Washington DC we took two trips to the
National Arboretum. It is a spectacular time of the year in Washington DC with
the the world famous cherry blossoms. We got to see all kinds of spring
flowering trees in full bloom. There are so many flowering trees and bushes. It
is breathtaking. Praise the Lord that He allowed us to see Spring one more
time. The spring has already come to places like Pennsylvania, Maryland and
Virginia that the train route goes through. The temperature reached into the
80's while we were there. Sunita , Andy, Gabe and the family came for a week
to New York. We are having a great time.
I would like to share with you a story. It is also a parable. The story is about a six-year old boy by the
name of Saa. He was an Asian boy and he grew up in the land of Laos, where there
was devastating war going on. Saa was separated from his mother and father
during the war, and he had to live with his grandma, grandpa, and cousins. The news finally arrived that his father and
mother had been killed in the war. Saa
was so sad. He was utterly sad. Well, the years passed by, one and two and
three years. Now, Saa was a little
nine-year old boy and he loved his grandma, grandpa and cousins, and he was
getting used to his cousins being his new brothers and sisters. One day, in the mail, came a telegram and it
said: “Your mother and father are alive
and they are living in Seattle, Washington, and they want you to come and live
with them.” “O no, it can’t be
true. It can’t be true. I mean, it’s too unreal. It can’t be true,” Saa thought to himself.
“How do I know that it is not a hoax?
How do I know that it is not a joke?” he wondered to himself. And then Saa looked at his grandma and
grandpa and his cousins now brothers and sisters and said: “I don’t want to leave here. I love you.
I know this place. Do I really
want to go to an unknown world? Do I
want to go?” Saa left and got into an
unknown airplane; he had never been in an airplane before. He listened to unknown languages being spoken
by unknown tall white people. He was
afraid. He came to the Seattle airport
and the doors were opened, and there were his mom and dad, standing there,
beaming, and waiting for him. And Saa
ran up and hugged his parents. He was so
happy. He was so relieved that the
telegram was true. You see, Saa had been
afraid of the future, afraid of the unknown.
In
Christ,
Brown
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