Brown's Daily Word 10-18-13

Praise the Lord for this Friday.  Pray for our weekly Television outreach which is on Time Warner Cable  channel 4 at 7 PM this evening.  I am preaching from Jeremiah 29. Thank you Lord Jesus. 

    For months we have been planning and praying for this weekend.  The Prayer Conference begins today.   Please pray for those who are traveling in today to attend and help with the Prayer Conference, especially for  Rev. Nigel Mumford.  Pray that the Lord anoint the services and the speakers and bless all the workers and all those who will attend these services.  Pray that the Lord would visit our area with  grace upon grace, blessing upon blessings, and indeed with healings in His hands.

    I have been reflecting upon the wonderful passage in Romans 8.  God is not judging our words but listening to our heart.  He hears the words we say and he also understands the heart cry and the hidden desires that lie underneath our prayers.  He can give us the substance of what we ask for even while refusing the form they take.  I love the words  of Henry Viscardi that  bring the truth home in a powerful way:

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things.

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.

I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of others.

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among all men, most richly blessed.

    Again Romans 8:26-27 tells us that when we are discouraged, when the pain is too deep, the disappointment too profound, the sense of loss so overwhelming that we cannot put it into words, the Holy Spirit prays for us with groans that words cannot express.  Even when no one else cares or knows or understands, even when we cannot understand anything around us, even when the present is bleak and the future a dark mystery, the Son in heaven and the Holy Spirit on earth are interceding for us.  We are being prayed for by the #1 Prayer Team in the universe.  One is above, one is below, and we’re right in the middle.  That ought to encourage us.

    God has given us the gift of prayer.  It was never meant to be a burden but rather the source of unlimited blessing for us and for those around us.  Moreover, God has made it possible for us to pray about anything, anytime, anywhere.  When we can’t pray, when the words won’t come, when we don’t know what to pray for, God has given the Spirit who prays for us.  What an honor, what a privilege, what a gift, and what a God who would make such provision for us!

  Let us come to Jesus and live.

    In Him ,

    Brown

 Those of you live in the area please join us for the prayer Gathering and the conference... Looking forward to seeing you there.

Come! Share! Rejoice!

 

"STIR UP OUR HUNGER" 

 

Prayer Conference with Rev. Nigel Mumford from "By His Wounds"    Worship by Binghamton House of Prayer
    October 18-19, 2013 at First UMC in Endicott 

        53 Mckinley Avenue Endicott NY 13760

 

 

    Friday October 18:

        6 PM - Registration opens
        7 PM - Worship and Teaching

     Saturday Oct 19

        9 am - Doors Open
        9:30 AM- Worship and Teaching
        1 PM - Healing Service
        7 PM - Worship night with Binghamton House of Prayer

    Sunday October 20th
        Rev. Mumford will be sharing at the 8:30 and 11:00 AM services at   the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128  Maple Drive, Endicott, NY 13760 

** Please note that Friday and Saturday sessions will be held at First UMC in Endicott to allow for more space for prayer ministry.
To register, please go to www.binghamtonawakening.eventbrite.com

  For Information Call one of the following:  607-748-1358. 607-748-6329. 607-427-9098.

Brown's Daily Word 10-18-13

    The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday Evening Supper, Fellowship, and Bible Study.  The fellowship was sweet and the study was provoking and challenging.  Last Sunday I preached on the theme, "We are not in Kansas anymore".  Symbolically speaking we live in Babylon, a foreign place which is not our true home.

    Most of you must know that I love to travel.  The Book of Daniel is a divine travel guide for pilgrims who are passing through Babylon.  Daniel is a great theological book, whose primary subject is not Daniel, nor is it Nebuchadnezzar the king. The proper subject of the Book of Daniel is God.  The people of God had been taken captive and were in exile in Babylon.  It was the place of exile, the place of loneliness, and the place of testing

    In the Bible, Babylon is not only that place where Nimrod sought to build a tower to reach to heaven; it is not only the place where God dispersed mankind by dividing them into different languages; it is not only the capitol of the Chaldean Empire in ancient Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq); nor is Babylon only a real place for Daniel.  In the Bible, Babylon is a metaphor for every group and every condition that threatens faith in the hearts of God's people.  For this reason Peter would speak of writing from Babylon in 1 Peter 5:13, though presumably he was really writing from Rome.  In Revelation, the Lord speaks of the final enemies of Christ as Babylon.  The place where our faith is under attack, the place of antagonism for the gospel, the place to which we are led that seems alien to our faith—that is Babylon.

    The good news of the Book of Daniel is that God is also in Babylon.  God is with us in the hard places of life.  God is in the prison with us.  God is in the antagonistic classroom with us.  God is in the wicked workplace.  He is in the unbelieving home. Furthermore, in Daniel God doesn't minimize the pain of Babylon; He reveals it as it truly is.

    Discipleship is not always as clean as we would like it to be, but if our goal is to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, and if God is in control, then we can trust Him that He knows what He is doing.  We can believe that even when we have been encircled by Babylonians, God is there.  If we are His, then we can trust Him. We can know that He intends for us to follow Him through it all.

    We are called and sent to be be the living testimonies for God, whatever our situation or station.  In the very hard places of life where we are led, the mysterious places where we don't understand why the innocent suffer or why we suffer, small decisions are made to trust Christ regardless.  Thus, it is in those places that we become living testimonies for others.  Babylon, an evil place, a place of paganism, became for one tried and true young man a place where other disciples were made.  Daniel was a great evangelist although he was in a foreign land.  Daniel was a great theologian who taught others about God although he was a slave.  Daniel was a leader while he was just a lad.  In Babylon Daniel stirred up the faith of his friends who would later need strong faith themselves.  Ultimately Daniel witnessed to a pagan king.

    This reminds me of Paul who, as he was in prison in Rome, wrote to the Philippians to encourage them about his situation: "I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ" (Philippians 1:12-13).

    Through faith in Christ, the hard places of life become sacred places.

 In Christ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/3Lab0SHGXkA

Brown's Daily Word 10-16-13

    Praise the Lord for this Wednesday.  We will gather for our mid-week fellowship and study at 6 PM, followed by Choir practice at 7:30 PM.  We are getting ready for our prayer and healing conference, expecting miracles and blessings .  Those of you live in the region please join us at First UMC, Endicott on Friday evening and Saturday. 

    We worship and serve a God who answers prayer.  In Jeremiah 33:3 it is written, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know".
    According to pollster George Barna, almost 90% of Americans say they pray. Over 60% of unchurched Americans say they pray.  Of those unchurched Americans, one in three believe that prayer makes a difference in their lives. Among “born again” respondents, nearly 70% say that God personally answers their prayers.  But exactly how do Americans pray?  Barna offers these insights:
        95% express gratitude to God.
        76% ask God to forgive particular sins.
        61% make specific requests of God.
        12% pray in tongues.
    There are days when we seem to touch heaven with our prayers, and other days when our words seem to bounce off the ceiling.  Regardless of how we feel, if we want to know God better, nothing matters more than our prayers.  Nearly 1,400 verses in the Bible speak about prayer.
    Bruce Goettsche points out a few facts that we all know about prayer:
        Prayer makes a difference … we don’t know how … we just know it does.
        Prayer brings wisdom.
        Prayer provides strength for difficult times.
        Prayer convicts us of areas in our life that need changing.
        Prayer brings us assurance of our position in the Father.
    We know these things by heart.  We know by experience that “prayer changes things.”  We know that prayer changes us and it changes the world around us. We know that God gave prayer to us as a wonderful gift.      Colossians 4:2-4 is not a prayer by Paul for others, but a prayer request Paul made of his readers.  “Devote yourselves to prayer” (Colossians 4:2a).  The word “devote” means to grab hold of something and not let go.  We must always be ready to pray, whether or not we feel like praying.  We are to pray when we believe in it, and pray when we doubt it.  We pray when our heart is filled with faith, and we pray when it is by habit.  When we feel like giving up we must, as Paul says, “Keep at it!”
    James 5:16 speaks of the “effective fervent prayers” of the righteous person. They “avail much” with God.  They matter to God.  Eugene Peterson (The Message)  paraphrases, “Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude.” Gratitude is the doorway to every spiritual blessing."  If we don’t know what else to do when we pray, we can always find reasons to be thankful.
    Someone has said that there are only two basic prayers, and each is only one word: “Help!” and “Thanks!”  If we say, “Thank you” to the Lord more often, we might get the help we need more often.
    O Lord, make us a praying people.
   In Jesus our Joy,
    Brown
http://youtu.be/iPeVIuRjUi4