Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this last Friday of September. It is going to be summer-like today, expected to reach almost 90 degrees. Join us those live in the area this evening for weekly TV outreach at 7 PM on Time Warner Channel 4. We will gather for our weekly Saturday Evening worship at the First United Methodist Church 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott. "A Touch of Christ" will be leading in worship. Jane Hettinger will be leading at the piano. I will be preaching from Mark 2:1-12. Please pray for us the Lord would grant us His grace and favor. We will gather for worship Sunday at 8:30 and 11:00 at Union Center and at 9:.30 at Wesley. It is great thrill to serve Christ with those love Him and it is a great blessing to offer Christ and His Good News to those who are around the corner and around the globe. As I was writing these reflections we got a call from India telling us that my aunt, my mom's older sister, went to be with Jesus 10 AM last yesterday Indian time. She was 85 years old. I went to live with this aunt and her husband when I was four years old to go to school,and stayed there through high school. I grew up with her children, my four cousins, who became like brothers and sisters. My uncle was my elementary school teacher and the school principal. He was also a very good Sunday school teacher and lay preacher. He is 95 years old and still alive and well. My aunt never went to school and never learned how to read or write. Yet she loved the Lord and loved me. She loved my family, my wife and children. She lived a life of simplicity and deep faith. Many of the short-term missionaries I have taken to India have met her and were blessed by her. I praise the Lord for her life and for her witness.
Mike Huckabee will be speaking at Davis College next Friday, October 1, at a banquet. Those who live in the area can get the tickets for the event by calling Davis College at 607-729-1581. The proceeds from the banquet will go to the Scholaship Fund of the college.
Psalm 90 was written by Moses. In light of the brevity of life, Moses and the community of Israel asked for wisdom, for the restoration of God’s favor, for a fresh revelation of his power, and for his blessing upon their labors.
C.S. Lewis gave us the timely reminder, "Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."
When frail human existence is measured beside God’s sovereign eternality, a one word picture came to Moses’ mind – dust. We have been compared to dust, a watch in the night, a flash-flood, and a blade of grass. These are pictures of brevity, underscoring our need to make the most of the present moment. “When as a child I laughed and wept, time crept. When as a youth I dreamed and talked, time walked. When I became a full-grown man, time ran. And later as I older grew, time flew. Soon I shall find while traveling on, time gone.” The words of the Psalmist remind us that the eternal God has existed from everlasting to everlasting, from the vanishing point to the vanishing point. In light of the fact that we have three score and 10 (70) or if we are lucky four score (80) years and in light of the fact that those are filled with labor and sorrow and will pass as the morning mist we need to learn to number our days and give ourselves to wisdom. I think that the words of Moses tell us that life is short and that its brevity is due to our own sinfulness many times.
These verses can be terrifying, especially to those who do not have God as a point of reference. The beauty found in all of this for the believer is that God’s wrath does not fall on those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 5:1). Moses said, "So teach us to consider our mortality, so that we might live wisely." Let us not waste time needlessly like the children of Israel in their wanderings. Let us be aware of how few our days really are and how we must live in the present moment. Maybe that’s what Jim Elliot meant when he wrote: “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God." (Swindoll, Growing Strong… 318)
Chuck Swindoll gives us the testimony of an anonymous friar in a Nebraska monastery, written in a letter in his latter years. He said some surprising things, admitting the need for being in the present moment. (Remember, he lived an entire life of rigorous self-discipline in such a way that he felt he’d been cheated out of his present moments. “If I had my life to live over again, I’d try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, and I would be sillier than I have been this trip… I would be crazier. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets. I would do more walking and looking. I would eat more ice cream and less beans… You see, I’m one of those people who lives…sensibly hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I’ve had my moments, and if I had to do it over again I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead each day. I’ve been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat, aspirin, and a parachute. If I had to do it over again I would go places, do things, and travel lighter than I have. If I had my life to live over I would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. (Swindoll, …).
Life is beautiful, even more beautiful for its brevity, because Jesus Christ came that we might life and have it abundantly. He makes this life, and beyond, very beautiful beyond compare.
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8LP-sZZWxU
Weekly: Saturday Evening Worship Service
To be held at: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinney Avenue
Endicott, New York
The Worship service is sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church
128 Maple Drive
Endicott, NY
An evening worship services will be held on Saturday September 25, 2010 at 6:30 PM. Rev. Brown Naik will preaching. "A Touch of Christ" will lead in praise and worship. Ministry for the youth and children will be provided. We will gather for coffee and fellowship at 6 PM. The public is invited to join us. For information call: (607)-748-6329 or (607)-427-9098.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Brown's Daily Word 9-23-10
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this beautiful day. Praise the Lord, for He is our eternal companion and He is our eternal contemporary. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Christ in every culture and He the Lord of every culture. Without Christ every culture in deep crisis. Without Christ every culture becomes decadent and rotten; it decomposes and finally disappears for good, into oblivion.
The story of Josiah, King of Judah, is one of the most unusual in the Old Testament in many ways. He was only eight years old when he took the throne. He is one of the last kings to reign before the nation was overrun by the Babylonians. Josiah’s father and grandfather were evil kings, but in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, he decided to repair and restore the Temple of the Lord. The Temple was in a disastrous state, and it symbolized the calamitous spiritual condition of the people. As recorded in 2 Kings 23, Josiah had to do many things in order to clean out the Temple area and repair the Temple itself. He had to have the priests remove all the articles and altars dedicated to pagan gods, including Baal and Asherah, (which means there was child sacrifice taking place there in the Temple area). Josiah had to remove all the pagan priests that now served in the Temple. Homosexual male prostitutes had actually set up their quarters in the Temple. Other rooms in the Temple were occupied by women making religious objects for the goddess Asherah. Josiah had to remove the chariots and images of horses that past kings had dedicated to the sun. He had to rid Jerusalem of the mediums and spiritists. He told the people to get rid of their personal household gods. He tore down the high places all over the land of Judah and Israel where people worshiped pagan gods and offered human sacrifices.
Is it any wonder that God was bringing the nation to an end? Then another shocking thing happened as the priests were cleaning out the Temple. A scroll was found, and it was not just any scroll, but the Torah, the book of the Law, the Scriptures of the Jewish people. In following the practices of the world and worshiping pagan gods, the people had first ignored and then lost the Word of God. It had been buried under a pile of debris somewhere in the Temple. Hilkiah the priest gave the scroll to the king’s secretary. The king had the scroll read to him, and when it was read, he tore his robes, because he knew the people had broken every command in the book of the law, and judgment was sure to follow. So Josiah extended his reforms from just removing the pagan altars and repulsive religious practices from the Temple. He also restored the worship of the true God, and had the people return to the religious feasts and rituals which were a part of their history. The Scriptures tell us that Passover was observed in Israel for the first time since the days of the judges. None of the other kings of Israel or Judah had celebrated the Passover. Great reforms were beginning to take place.
Jesus talked about a type of reform where someone turns over a new leaf, but there is no real repentance or change of heart. He said, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation” (Matthew 12:43-45).
The New Yorker magazine had a cartoon in which a young boy in math class stood at the chalk board with other students. The teacher had written the problem on the board for each student: 7 x 5 = __ . All the other students have the answer right: 35. But this boy has written 7 x 5 = 75. The teacher obviously had told him it was wrong, and the boy said to her, “It may be wrong, but it’s how I feel.” That is a perfect metaphor of our culture. Responding to the cartoon’s message, Stephen Carter, a professor of law at Yale University said, “Faith is dead, reason is dying, but ‘how I feel’ is going strong.”
Many in the world today are not interested in the Word of God because they are not interested in the truth. They are not interested in God’s will, because it is too easy to be wrapped up in our own will and doing what we want to do. We want to go by our feelings which are much more to our liking. We must turn to Jesus, the real life giver. It is He who has the authority to transform our lives and make them new .
Adrian Dieleman told the story of one man’s transformation: “Oscar Cervantes is a dramatic example of the Spirit’s power to transform lives. As a child, Oscar began to get into trouble. Then as he got older, he was jailed 17 times for brutal crimes. Prison psychiatrists said he was beyond help. But they were wrong! During a brief interval of freedom, Oscar met an elderly man who told him about Jesus. He placed his trust in the Lord and was changed into a kind, caring man. Shortly afterward he started a prison ministry. Chaplain H. C. Warwick described it this way: ‘The third Saturday night of each month is “Oscar Night” at Soledad. Inmates come to hear Oscar and they sing gospel songs with fervor; they sit intently for over 2 hours; they come freely to the chapel altar. . . . What professionals had failed to do for Oscar in years of counseling, Christ’s Spirit did in a moment of conversion.’”
Praise be to Jesus our Lord.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoPlwPUYWaw
Weekly: Saturday Evening Worship Service
To be held at: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinney Avenue
Endicott, New York
The Worship service is sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church
128 Maple Drive
Endicott, NY
An evening worship services will be held on Saturday September 25, 2010 at 6:30 PM. Rev. Brown Naik will preaching. "A Touch of Christ" will lead in praise and worship. Ministry for the youth and children will be provided. We will gather for coffee and fellowship at 6 PM. The public is invited to join us. For information call: (607)-748-6329 or (607)-427-9098.
Praise the Lord for this beautiful day. Praise the Lord, for He is our eternal companion and He is our eternal contemporary. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Christ in every culture and He the Lord of every culture. Without Christ every culture in deep crisis. Without Christ every culture becomes decadent and rotten; it decomposes and finally disappears for good, into oblivion.
The story of Josiah, King of Judah, is one of the most unusual in the Old Testament in many ways. He was only eight years old when he took the throne. He is one of the last kings to reign before the nation was overrun by the Babylonians. Josiah’s father and grandfather were evil kings, but in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, he decided to repair and restore the Temple of the Lord. The Temple was in a disastrous state, and it symbolized the calamitous spiritual condition of the people. As recorded in 2 Kings 23, Josiah had to do many things in order to clean out the Temple area and repair the Temple itself. He had to have the priests remove all the articles and altars dedicated to pagan gods, including Baal and Asherah, (which means there was child sacrifice taking place there in the Temple area). Josiah had to remove all the pagan priests that now served in the Temple. Homosexual male prostitutes had actually set up their quarters in the Temple. Other rooms in the Temple were occupied by women making religious objects for the goddess Asherah. Josiah had to remove the chariots and images of horses that past kings had dedicated to the sun. He had to rid Jerusalem of the mediums and spiritists. He told the people to get rid of their personal household gods. He tore down the high places all over the land of Judah and Israel where people worshiped pagan gods and offered human sacrifices.
Is it any wonder that God was bringing the nation to an end? Then another shocking thing happened as the priests were cleaning out the Temple. A scroll was found, and it was not just any scroll, but the Torah, the book of the Law, the Scriptures of the Jewish people. In following the practices of the world and worshiping pagan gods, the people had first ignored and then lost the Word of God. It had been buried under a pile of debris somewhere in the Temple. Hilkiah the priest gave the scroll to the king’s secretary. The king had the scroll read to him, and when it was read, he tore his robes, because he knew the people had broken every command in the book of the law, and judgment was sure to follow. So Josiah extended his reforms from just removing the pagan altars and repulsive religious practices from the Temple. He also restored the worship of the true God, and had the people return to the religious feasts and rituals which were a part of their history. The Scriptures tell us that Passover was observed in Israel for the first time since the days of the judges. None of the other kings of Israel or Judah had celebrated the Passover. Great reforms were beginning to take place.
Jesus talked about a type of reform where someone turns over a new leaf, but there is no real repentance or change of heart. He said, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation” (Matthew 12:43-45).
The New Yorker magazine had a cartoon in which a young boy in math class stood at the chalk board with other students. The teacher had written the problem on the board for each student: 7 x 5 = __ . All the other students have the answer right: 35. But this boy has written 7 x 5 = 75. The teacher obviously had told him it was wrong, and the boy said to her, “It may be wrong, but it’s how I feel.” That is a perfect metaphor of our culture. Responding to the cartoon’s message, Stephen Carter, a professor of law at Yale University said, “Faith is dead, reason is dying, but ‘how I feel’ is going strong.”
Many in the world today are not interested in the Word of God because they are not interested in the truth. They are not interested in God’s will, because it is too easy to be wrapped up in our own will and doing what we want to do. We want to go by our feelings which are much more to our liking. We must turn to Jesus, the real life giver. It is He who has the authority to transform our lives and make them new .
Adrian Dieleman told the story of one man’s transformation: “Oscar Cervantes is a dramatic example of the Spirit’s power to transform lives. As a child, Oscar began to get into trouble. Then as he got older, he was jailed 17 times for brutal crimes. Prison psychiatrists said he was beyond help. But they were wrong! During a brief interval of freedom, Oscar met an elderly man who told him about Jesus. He placed his trust in the Lord and was changed into a kind, caring man. Shortly afterward he started a prison ministry. Chaplain H. C. Warwick described it this way: ‘The third Saturday night of each month is “Oscar Night” at Soledad. Inmates come to hear Oscar and they sing gospel songs with fervor; they sit intently for over 2 hours; they come freely to the chapel altar. . . . What professionals had failed to do for Oscar in years of counseling, Christ’s Spirit did in a moment of conversion.’”
Praise be to Jesus our Lord.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoPlwPUYWaw
Weekly: Saturday Evening Worship Service
To be held at: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinney Avenue
Endicott, New York
The Worship service is sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church
128 Maple Drive
Endicott, NY
An evening worship services will be held on Saturday September 25, 2010 at 6:30 PM. Rev. Brown Naik will preaching. "A Touch of Christ" will lead in praise and worship. Ministry for the youth and children will be provided. We will gather for coffee and fellowship at 6 PM. The public is invited to join us. For information call: (607)-748-6329 or (607)-427-9098.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Brown's Daily Word 9-22-10
Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. We will gather for our mid-week service of Fellowship and Bible study, beginning at 6 PM. It is always a thrill to be in the house of the Lord with His people. Every time the Lord visits we are blessed, we are renewed and we are refreshed.
In 2 Chronicles 33 we meet King Manassah. Manassah had the opportunity to have the greatest impact on the nation of Judah because he was the longest reigning king. He ruled for 55 years. His father had been a king who loved the Lord and did a lot in leading the nation back to serving God. Yet, as soon as Manassah had the opportunity, he undid everything his father had tried to do spiritually for the nation. Manassah spent most of his 55 years doing evil in the eyes of the Lord. He worshipped idols, he tried talking to dead people through witches and sorcerers, he sacrificed his sons as human offerings to idols, and he put to death innocent people who challenged what he was doing. The account of Manassah in 2 Kings tells us he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. Tradition tells us he had the prophet Isaiah sawn in half.
Manassah was full of pride and arrogance. He felt that he did not have to answer to anyone. He did not apologize to anyone for anything he did. He did not care about God. One day, however, enough was enough and so God sent the King of Assyria to invade Jerusalem. Manassah was captured, and a hook was put through his nose, chains shackled his hands and feet, and he was led away as though he was some wild animal. This former king was thrown into an Assyrian prison. All the riches and power of which he had boasted now meant absolutely nothing. None of the many idols he had made could do anything to help him. His situation was hopeless, and he was helpless.
How many Manassahs are around us today, on the verge of having some circumstance in life to come and humble them? There are many who may be on top now, and the future may look bright, and they see no need of God in their lives... Yet, as God sent an Assyrian king to humble Manassah, God will deal with them as well because God hates pride. He will bring down all those who are proud of heart. God’s purpose in humbling us is to bring us to our senses that we might make a change.
It was in the dark of prison that Manassah remembered the God of Israel; it was a second chance to humble himself before God and honor Him. This murderous, lying, abuser of people, had the audacity to think that if he humbled himself, God just might here his prayer. I’m amazed at the people who cannot comprehend how great the heart of God is. Many actually believe they have done things so bad that God could not possible love or forgive them. As desperately wicked as King Manassah had been, when this evil man humbled himself before God, God had a plan for his life.
The Scriptures tell us in 2 Chronicles 33:12-14 "In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God."
Our Lord God is gracious and merciful who sends rain upon the just and the unjust. He humbles those who are exalted and He cares for those those who are downtrodden and beaten by the enemy. He is the Lord of all.
Columnist L. M. BOYD described the amazing blessing of a man named Jack Wurm. In 1949, Mr. Wurm was broke and out of a job. One day he was walking along a San Francisco beach when he came across a bottle with a piece of paper in it. As he read the note, he discovered that it was the last will and testament of Daisy Singer Alexander, heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. The note read, "To avoid confusion, I leave my entire estate to the lucky person who finds this bottle and to my attorney, Barry Cohen, share and share alike." According to Boyd, the courts accepted the theory that the heiress had written the note 12 years earlier, and had thrown the bottle into the Thames River in London, from where it had drifted across the oceans to the feet of a penniless and jobless Jack Wurm. His chance discovery netted him over 6 million dollars in cash and Singer stock.
How would you like to have been in Mr. Wurm’s footprints on that San Francisco beach? What a find! Yet 6 million dollars doesn’t even begin to compare with our spiritual inheritance we have in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessed be His Name.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNbLtiG2dWU
Weekly: Saturday Evening Worship Service
To be held at: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinney Avenue
Endicott, New York
The Worship service is sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church
128 Maple Drive
Endicott, NY
An evening worship services will be held on Saturday September 25, 2010 at 6:30 PM. Rev. Brown Naik will preaching. "A Touch of Christ" will lead in praise and worship. Ministry for the youth and children will be provided. We will gather for coffee and fellowship at 6 PM. The public is invited to join us. For information call: (607)-748-6329 or (607)-427-9098.
Praise the Lord for this new day. We will gather for our mid-week service of Fellowship and Bible study, beginning at 6 PM. It is always a thrill to be in the house of the Lord with His people. Every time the Lord visits we are blessed, we are renewed and we are refreshed.
In 2 Chronicles 33 we meet King Manassah. Manassah had the opportunity to have the greatest impact on the nation of Judah because he was the longest reigning king. He ruled for 55 years. His father had been a king who loved the Lord and did a lot in leading the nation back to serving God. Yet, as soon as Manassah had the opportunity, he undid everything his father had tried to do spiritually for the nation. Manassah spent most of his 55 years doing evil in the eyes of the Lord. He worshipped idols, he tried talking to dead people through witches and sorcerers, he sacrificed his sons as human offerings to idols, and he put to death innocent people who challenged what he was doing. The account of Manassah in 2 Kings tells us he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. Tradition tells us he had the prophet Isaiah sawn in half.
Manassah was full of pride and arrogance. He felt that he did not have to answer to anyone. He did not apologize to anyone for anything he did. He did not care about God. One day, however, enough was enough and so God sent the King of Assyria to invade Jerusalem. Manassah was captured, and a hook was put through his nose, chains shackled his hands and feet, and he was led away as though he was some wild animal. This former king was thrown into an Assyrian prison. All the riches and power of which he had boasted now meant absolutely nothing. None of the many idols he had made could do anything to help him. His situation was hopeless, and he was helpless.
How many Manassahs are around us today, on the verge of having some circumstance in life to come and humble them? There are many who may be on top now, and the future may look bright, and they see no need of God in their lives... Yet, as God sent an Assyrian king to humble Manassah, God will deal with them as well because God hates pride. He will bring down all those who are proud of heart. God’s purpose in humbling us is to bring us to our senses that we might make a change.
It was in the dark of prison that Manassah remembered the God of Israel; it was a second chance to humble himself before God and honor Him. This murderous, lying, abuser of people, had the audacity to think that if he humbled himself, God just might here his prayer. I’m amazed at the people who cannot comprehend how great the heart of God is. Many actually believe they have done things so bad that God could not possible love or forgive them. As desperately wicked as King Manassah had been, when this evil man humbled himself before God, God had a plan for his life.
The Scriptures tell us in 2 Chronicles 33:12-14 "In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God."
Our Lord God is gracious and merciful who sends rain upon the just and the unjust. He humbles those who are exalted and He cares for those those who are downtrodden and beaten by the enemy. He is the Lord of all.
Columnist L. M. BOYD described the amazing blessing of a man named Jack Wurm. In 1949, Mr. Wurm was broke and out of a job. One day he was walking along a San Francisco beach when he came across a bottle with a piece of paper in it. As he read the note, he discovered that it was the last will and testament of Daisy Singer Alexander, heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. The note read, "To avoid confusion, I leave my entire estate to the lucky person who finds this bottle and to my attorney, Barry Cohen, share and share alike." According to Boyd, the courts accepted the theory that the heiress had written the note 12 years earlier, and had thrown the bottle into the Thames River in London, from where it had drifted across the oceans to the feet of a penniless and jobless Jack Wurm. His chance discovery netted him over 6 million dollars in cash and Singer stock.
How would you like to have been in Mr. Wurm’s footprints on that San Francisco beach? What a find! Yet 6 million dollars doesn’t even begin to compare with our spiritual inheritance we have in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessed be His Name.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNbLtiG2dWU
Weekly: Saturday Evening Worship Service
To be held at: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinney Avenue
Endicott, New York
The Worship service is sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist Church
128 Maple Drive
Endicott, NY
An evening worship services will be held on Saturday September 25, 2010 at 6:30 PM. Rev. Brown Naik will preaching. "A Touch of Christ" will lead in praise and worship. Ministry for the youth and children will be provided. We will gather for coffee and fellowship at 6 PM. The public is invited to join us. For information call: (607)-748-6329 or (607)-427-9098.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
