UMC bulletin 9/21/14

Brown's Daily Word 9/19/14

Praise the Lord  for this Friday.  It is going to be one of the ten best days.  The awesome autumn season begins this coming Monday.  We can see the Lord is beginning to display His brilliant colors all around us.  I talked to Sunita, who is in Cypress.  She said the Lord is blessing their time in that part of the beautiful world the Lord has  made.  She met a couple from England last Sunday in church. The couple shared  with Sunita that one of their family members served as a missionary in Orissa, India many years ago.  It so happened that I had known this missionary from England serving the Lord in Orissa,  India. 

    Our church has begun its preparations for the Annual Apple Festival to be held  Saturday, September 20, on historic Washington Avenue in Endicott.  Our church has a booth with all kinds of gifts and apple baked products.  Those of you live in the area please stop by.  I will be participating in a Jewish Wedding tomorrow (this weekend).  It is all exciting.

    We have been studying the Book of Hosea in our Wednesday Evening Study. We read in Hosea, "The Lord said to me, 'Go, show your love to your wife again, though she's loved by another.  She's an adulteress.  But love her as the Lord loves the Israelites.'  It is written again 'You are to live with me many days. You must not be a prostitute or intimate with any other man.  And so I will live with you.'"  Hosea was saying, in other words, "Look, I've redeemed you.  I brought you to myself.  Now I ask you to live with me and for me in faithfulness."  In the story of the prophet and his unfaithful wife the Lord demonstratesHis unmerited love to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.  This is the gist of the Gospel.  The Lord does not love us because of what we do.  He always loves us in spite of what we do.  He does not love us because of what we are.  He always loves us in spite of what we are.  When we understand how much He loves us, we are to respond to him with love and praise and sacrifice and service.  Once we receive by faith and through His grace the gift in the person of Jesus Christ we are loved and cared for, for eternity.

    Our Lord God in Jesus Christ, does not love us because of what we are.  He does not love us because of what we do.  He always loves us in spite of what we are, in spite of what we do.  This is all about prevenient grace.  It is all about amazing grace.

    Clovis Chappell was a noted preacher of the last century, and he told of a young man who lived in Chicago who went down to the bluegrass regions of Kentucky where he met, wooed, and won a young woman whom ultimately he brought back to Chicago as his bride.  They enjoyed three lovely years of marriage, and then one day in the midst of a sickness in a seizure of pain the young woman lost her mind, so even when she was at her best she was a bit demented.  At her worst she would scream and neighbors complained because the screams cut the air and it was hard to live with.  For this reason the young businessman left his home in the middle of Chicago and went out to one of the western suburbs where he built a house, determined that there he would try to nurse his wife back to health and sanity again.  One day the family physician suggested that perhaps if he were to take his wife back to her Kentucky home that something in those familiar surroundings would help her restore her sanity, and so they went back to the old homestead.  Hand in hand they walked through the old house where memories hung on every corner.  They went down to the garden and walked down by the riverside where the first cowslips and violets were in bloom.  Even with the surroundings of home, after several days, nothing seemed to happen.

    Defeated and discouraged, the young man put his wife back in the car, and they headed back toward Chicago.  When they got close to the house he looked over and discovered that his wife was asleep.  It was the first deep, restful, sleep she had had in many weeks.  When he got to the house he lifted her from the car, took her inside, placed her on the bed and realized she wanted to sleep some more.  He placed a cover over her and then sat by her side and watched her through the midnight hour, watched her until the first rays of the sun reached through the curtain and touched her face.  The young woman awoke, and she saw her husband seated by her side.  She said, "I seem to have been on a long journey. Where have you been?"  Then that man, speaking out of days and weeks and months of patient waiting and watching said, "My sweetheart, I've been right here waiting for you all this time."

    Our Lord, the Emmanuel, is with us, waiting for us to cast ourselves with a reckless abandon upon the grace of God.

 In Jesus our Lord,

 Brown 

http://youtu.be/JEJ8C77yy70

Brown's Daily Word and Birthday!!

    Praise the Lord  for this glorious and brilliant day.  We will meet for our Wednesday Gathering for fellowship and study at 6 PM.  Today is my birthday.  Thank you all for your birthday wishes and love.  I have heard from all over the world... I am so blessed and so loved.  It was on this day I was born in a small village in Orissa India surrounded by majestic mountains, scenic beauty, and, best of all, surrounded by a very loving affectionate family.  I was the oldest of 7 children.  All of us were born at home... we were all home grown.  My mother is for the first time is not on earth on my birthday.  She is in heaven with Jesus preparing celebrate her First Christmas in heaven.  My mother had told me that my grandma and my aunt served as the mid-wives during my birth.  My mother never once saw a doctor during her pregnancy.   I had a long conversation with Bishop Mohanty of Cuttack, India, my mentor and a very dear friend of 50 years.  We ere sharing our lives in Jesus and because of Jesus.  We both were blessed to have committed Christian moms.  I praise the Lord for all His blessings through these years.  You are part of that blessing.  Blessed be His Name.  We know that WE change as we get older.  I remember the days when it seemed that Christmas or a birthday would NEVER get here; and now I think, "Is it here again ALREADY?".  LOTS of things change with age.

    Not long ago, someone noted some of the more obvious adjustments.  It was entitled, "YOU'RE NOT A KID ANYMORE WHEN...:"

    * Your back goes out more than you do.

    * You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room.

    * Your arms are almost too short to read the newspaper.

    * You sing along with the elevator music.

    * You are proud of your lawn mower.

    * People call at 9 p.m. and ask "Did I wake you?"

    * You dream about prunes.

    * You enjoy hearing about other people's operations.

    * Your best friend is dating someone half his age and isn't breaking any laws.

    * You answer a question with, "Because I said so!"

    I am reading Psalm 90 , the only Psalm written by Moses that has been included in the Book of Psalms.  The Psalm is focused on the passing of the years, familiar to us because it is so often heard at funerals.  It talks about  "all generations... everlasting to everlasting... a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night [three hours]."  There is the reminder of the transitory nature of human life: "[humanity is] like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers...our days pass away...our years come to an end like a sigh."  Then those famous words in the sweeping poetry of the King James Version in which so many of us were nurtured, "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."

    This is a hymn for grown-ups in  that it takes seriously the passing of the years as any mature person does.  It takes seriously the fleeting nature of human life.  The older we get, the more likely we are to read the obituaries every day.  We may not be able to add more years to our life, but we surely can add more life to our years...IF we go about the process with some intelligence and wisdom.  The Psalmist's prayer is, "So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart."  Wisdom, Lord.  Give us wisdom, so that we might make the most of these fleeting years!

    Lord, "So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart."

 In Jesus our Lord and our Life.

   Brown

http://youtu.be/mCueI9YLcG8