Brown's Daily Word 7/22/15

The Lord has blessed us with an amazing day.  It has been sunny and brilliant, less humid and very pleasant.  People have been enjoying the brilliant day all around us.  I cannot believe we are just over 5 months away from Christmas.  One of our girls called us this morning and asked where we will gather for Christmas this year.   For the last 25 years we have gathered for Christmas in Union Center.  She suggested that we should consider to go to Washington, DC, for our family Christmas celebration this year.  It is all exciting. 

 

    I have been spoiled for the last many years, I have never mowed the lawn or cared for grounds at the parsonage for 25 years.  "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life". A wonderful man mows the lawn and cares for the grounds around the parsonage out of his love for the Lord and the parsonage family.  He came by this morning and cared for killing the weeds and grass growing up through the sidewalk cracks.  It looks manicured.  He offered to bring me hard wood (Cherry) for my outdoor chicken BBQ.  The church has a humongous BBQ pit, professional grade.  At Maple Festival time, the church people BBQ 800 halves of chicken.  I can use part of the same pit, once section, for my summer BBQ adventures.  I am excited.

 

    One of the members of the church dropped by today and shared parts of her life story.  She shared about the deep joy she has serving Christ all these years.  She is willing and available do any thing for sake of the Kingdom.  One of Alice's students stopped by and told the summer stories of his friends and narrated  about some of the dreams and hopes of the students.  It was refreshing to listen to him.  

 

    Later in the afternoon Alice and I drove through some of the spectacular countryside.  We stopped by to a see beautiful saint of the Lord who still lives  in her own home.  Her son and his wife live in Hawaii. She prayed and believed that the Lord would give her son, and to the disbelief of friends and neighbors the Lord gave her only one child, a son.

 

    As my wife was visiting with her, she suddenly said, "I am not ready to die".  As my wife pondered what she was getting at, she added, "I am too curious.  I want to know what the next big thing is going to be.  I have lived through radio, television, and computers, and I want to know what the next big thing will be."  We were amused to hear her view of life from her perspective as a 93 year old.  She has great expectations.  Recently she raised hundreds of dollars for St. Jude's Children's Hospital by walking around the school track using her walker.  She had prayed that the Lord would give her the strength to complete a lap, and He did.  She said that this was the first time she remembered getting an exact answer to her prayers. 

 

    Praise the Lord that we can believe in Jesus, and live our lives under His authority and grace, in all seasons.  He is the Lord in every season and the Lord of all seasons. 

 

    Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, an Old Testament Theologian, has observed that the hardest verse in the Bible to believe is Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  “If you can believe that,” Dr. Johnson said, “you won’t have any trouble with the rest of the Bible.”  I had never really thought about Genesis 1:1 in its larger context, but it is hugely important that the Bible begins with a declaration, not an argument.  The Bible simply declares that God is, and that he created all things.

 

    Twenty years ago E. V. Hill preached a powerful sermon at a Promise Keepers gathering.  In his own unforgettable style, he preached for 40 minutes on just two words: “God is.”  He said it over and over again.  He whispered it and he shouted it.  He illustrated it, declared it, proclaimed it, and dared anyone to deny it.  You wouldn’t think you could preach that long on just two words but he did, and when you think about it, you could preach a lot longer when your topic is as profound as “God is.”  Once you get it settled in your heart that “God is,” a lot of other problems will be solved as well.

 In Christ,

  Pastor Brown

https://youtu.be/bfveawSAHJA

Brown's Daily Word 7/21/15

    I love the summer days here in central New York.  It has been sunny and very warm.  It is raining torrentially at the moment, drenching fields and valleys with friendly rain making all the vegetation joyful.  We had a couple join us for lunch yesterday.  We fixed some Indian curry. They loved it.  We talked about some possible ministries starting in the fall.  Alice and I walked in the evening, meeting some neighbors again, who are very friendly and gracious.  We stopped by the local Ice Cream store where we met some of Alice's former and current students and their parents. 
    Our new church is located in the "city center", as they say in Great Britain.  In the same block you will find the Ice cream shop which was pretty busy, along with the bank, a medical clinic, funeral home, library, restaurant, and barber shop  The beautiful and laconic river flows dividing the town in the middle.  The parsonage is located in the upper section and the church is located at the lower level.  The High School, behind the village green, is just across from the church.  The town center is generally busy with people of all ages.  Praise the Lord for the villages, towns, and cities all over the world.  Praise the Lord for the people who live there, work there, play there, and, best of all, worship the Savior there.  May His Name be praised and glorified where people of every tongue, language, and people group serve Him and worship unafraid and unashamed.
    Romans 1:16 states, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power for salvation for all who believe.”  All of us have numerous experiences in life where we have felt ashamed.  It is the very nature of human experience, the very nature of all human beings, the very nature of human personality to feel shame.  It starts very early in life and ends late in life.  Shame is part of the human condition and the very nature of human personality, from the time we are very young in life to when we die.
    Shame, it seems to me, grows out of an egotistical love, a sinful love, a selfish love that is too concerned about me looking badly.  In New Testament times, we find that there were a great number of people who did not want to admit that they were followers of Jesus Christ.  Today, we would call them “closet Christians.” These “closet Christians” were ashamed to let anyone know that they were Christian.
    The primary and most popular image of this behavior was Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling senate of Israel. Nicodemus did not want his fellow senators to know that he was a follower of Christ.  Nicodemus was ashamed to let the other “big shots” in the senate know that he was a “born again” Christian, that he had deep religious feelings, that he was committed to Jesus Christ.  There were many “closet Christians” in those days who didn’t want other people to know that they were followers of Christ because it could cost them their life, their family, their job, their life itself.
    Knowing that there were many “closet Christians”  who were ashamed of being disciples, the Apostle Paul said very clearly, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God for salvation."  The Good News we proclaim and share is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is not ashamed of you and me, no matter how bad we have been, no matter how rotten we have been, no matter what we have said or done.  It needs to be clearly said today that Jesus Christ is not ashamed of your life and mine, though this concept is hard for us to comprehend because we are so prone to shame, and so prone to being ashamed about our bodies, our brains, our behaviors, and our brothers and sisters.  We are so prone to shame that it is difficult for us to conceive of the possibility that God is not ashamed of us.  Because shame is so deep within us, it is almost impossible for us to conceive that God is not ashamed of us.
    We need to be very clear and without any doubt that our Lord and Savior is not ashamed of you and me.  He, the one who is Sinless and stainless, is  not ashamed of us in the midst of our sinfulness. Jesus loves sinful people.  He loves selfish people.  He loves failing people.  He  loves rebelling people.  He loves runaway people.  He  loves people who are ashamed of all the ugly things that they have done.  It is all about and because of His "grace," which is a free gift.  He freely gives us his love to sinful people.
    We boast in the good news that Christ loves us just the way we are.  We boast in the Gospel,  that all of our sins are fully and freely forgiven.  We boast in the cross that Jesus Christ has died for our  sins and that we are invited to walk the way of the cross.  We boast that Jesus is Risen from the dead, and He gives eternal life to all who believe in him and walk in His ways.  We boast in the church of Jesus Christ.  We boast in the great cloud of witnesses all around us.  Because we boast  in Christ and His Gospel, it is natural that we want to share with the world around us about Jesus Christ.
In Christ our Lord and Savior.
Pastor Brown   https://youtu.be/1vmY2ztb5xc

Brown's Daily Word 7/20/15

Praise the Lord for this new day filled with our Lord's promises and fraught with with His power and grace.  The Lord blessed us in His House yesterday in worship, witness, and fellowship.  I always get energized by the Lord and the Holy Spirit as we join the people of the Lord praising Jesus and declaring His might and majesty.  The Lord is faithful to keep His promise that He is with as we gather in His name around the corner and around the globe.  It was very hot, humid, and sweltering as the daytime temperature reached into the 90s.    

 

    The area surrounded with green hills, green pastures, and still waters makes it an amazing summer time.  The Lord blessed us with some friendly rains in the afternoon.  Our grandson Simeon was not feeling well this weekend, but he has recovered well, and he and his family have gone to the state of Maine for vacation, where they are attending a blue grass festival.  As I write this i can hear the morning doves singing and serenading around the house.  Their sound of music makes my heart glad and jubilant.  I am excited about this new day and brand new week that the Lord has given to each one of us that we might serve Him, worship Him, and honor Him.

 

    I am reminded that we are pilgrims on this earth, marching to Zion onward , forward, and upward.  Moses led the homeless nation of Israel out of Egypt, where the people had been enslaved for several generations.  God demonstrated His power through the 10 plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, and the provision of food from heaven and water from a rock.  He also provided a supernatural GPS system and led them via a cloud during the day and pillar of fire at night.  Despite all of this the people still didn't have much faith.  They constantly whined and complained.  It should have been about a month-long hike to the Promised Land, but God caused them to wander in the wilderness for nearly 40 years.  Moses and his generation died before entering the land God had promised.  Joshua replaced Moses as the leader of God's people and brought them into the Promised Land.

    By the time we come to Joshua 24, Joshua was an old man, about 110.  At this part of the story, Joshua had been a general through many wars.  He had seen the walls of Jericho come thundering down in miraculous fashion.  He had fought the battles, and he bore the scars—and the wisdom and faith that grows and deepens with the struggle.

    Joshua seemed to know he didn't have much time left in this world.  He gathered the people of Israel together for what was apparently a farewell address.  He stood and  the assembly turned toward him expectantly.  He no longer was the pow¬erful figure he once was, but still his voice carried power (see Josh. 24:14-15).  Joshua got right to the point and issued a challenge: It's time for the people to make a choice.  The people can follow the Lord God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or they can choose a different god.  It's time to select a god to follow, to accept a worldview and allow it to remake them.

"It's up to you," Joshua said, "but I can tell you this much: As for me and my house, our decision is made. We know whom we will serve; you must make your own choice."  Although Joshua was a commander, a general used to giving orders, he knew a choice must be made.  No one can be ordered into the kingdom of God.  It's a path individuals must choose.  Upon closer inspection, we find many  are sacrificing a great deal on the altars of power, pleasure or finance—it's really all the same: People are choosing their gods and bringing their offerings. At the end of the day, the real offering is one's self.

    Philosopher Peter Kreeft puts it this way: "The opposite of theism is not atheism; it's idolatry."  In other words, everyone is going to worship a god.  We were created to be worshipers.  The question for us is: Who or what will be the object of our worship?
In Christ,

Pastor Brownhttps://youtu.be/CoxopsRSfdU