Brown's Daily Word 10/15/14

    Praise the Lord for this wonderful Wednesday.  It is still like summer.. warm and bright.  Once again praise the Lord for the way He decorates the earth with so much beauty that is endless and extravagant.  We will meet for our Wednesday Evening gathering this evening at 6 PM.  I will be away for the next few days in Washington, DC, attending a prayer conference.  I will be spending some time with our daughter Laureen and many of our dear friends in  Washington.  During our days in Texas, in the mid-seventies, I had heard about a woman named Judith MacNutt.  She will be one of the leaders in this prayer conference. 

    This coming Friday at 7 PM pray for our weekly television ministry on Time Warner Cable channel 4.  I will be preaching this coming Sunday from 1 Thessalonian 1:1-10.  Dr James Geer, PH. D will be presenting "Martin Luther' this coming Sunday at 7 PM. 

    Praise the Lord.  He is indeed our peace.  He is indeed our joy.  He is indeed our Life.  He is indeed the Way and the Truth.

    We have two friends from India visiting us .   They are spell bound by  the Autumn colors the Lord is displaying with so much love all around us.  The Autumn colors look much brighter and more brilliant this year and the colors seem more lingering.  Indeed, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever". 

    Several years ago a news report detailed the story of an adult man who received his sight back through the wonders of modern medicine.  An interviewer asked the man, "What's life like now?  Tell us what does it mean to after all these years suddenly be able to see?"  And the man initially said what you would expect—things like colors are amazing and it's a wonderful gift to be able to see the faces of those that he loved.  But the interviewer expected him to say those things.  He wanted the man to say something extraordinary, something totally unexpected about how his life had changed since getting his sight back.  So he asked him, "What's the most unexpected thing?"  Now if you were asked that question how do you think you would respond?  Perhaps you might talk about a sunset, the corner of a child's lips when he smiles, the beautiful hues of the Grand Canyon yawning at dawn.  The formerly blind man didn't mention anything like that. Instead, he said that the most incredible thing was watching the leaves falling every autumn.  He said, "I know that leaves fall.  I know that people rake them and put them in piles and burn them or throw them away.  But I'd always imagined that the leaves would come down just like a blanket.  I didn't know that when leaves fall that they pitch and glide and turn in the wind as they come down to the ground.  It's beautiful."

    I remember that story not because of the artistry of his expression, but because of the irony of what he said.  The greatest beauty he saw was in dying things.  The leaves are dying.  That's why they fall to the ground.  That's what he identified as the most beautiful thing about getting his sight back.  Our Lord, who is the Resurrection and life, did some thing magnificent and brilliant at the grave side of Lazarus.  The Lord of life and the giver of life abundant and eternal did something magnificent at the Cross and at the Grave.  Jesus declared, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world". 

    I was talking to one of dear and faithful servants of Jesus our Lord.  He discovered recently that He is battling with a very deadly health concern.  The doctors have given him a prognosis of a few months.  This dear brother is blessed with a heart for Jesus.  He and his wife are married for 50 years.  He has been a very faithful, devoted part of our church family.  He has worked as an engineer, praising and glorifying the Lord at his work place.  He has lived well.  When he heard the grave news from the doctors he did not get panicked.  He began to praise the Lord for His faithfulness to himself and to his dear family.  He shared about the great promises we have from Jesus.  One time he shared about the great piece by Bach, "Come Sweet Death".  John Wesley said " Our people die well".  Jesus brings the greatest beauty out of dying things.  Blessed be His name.

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." T. S. Eliot
In Christ,
 Brown
http://youtu.be/yE6VZRAtI2E

Brown's Daily Word 10/10/14

Praise the Lord for this fabulous Friday.  It is all colorful and all glorious around here.  Praise the Lord for the way He lavishes us with so much beauty and so much bounty of His grace and mercy.  Those of you live in the region join us for our weekly Television Telecast this evening at 7 PM on Time Warner  Cable channel 4.  Plan to be in the House of the Lord this coming Lord's day to worship,  to witness, and to celebrate.  Praise the Lord that we get to celebrate His grace and witness to His faithfulness.  Indeed, Jesus  never fails and His love never ends. 

    Laureen spent some time with her dear friend Kelly in Memphis this week.  She flew back to Washington on Wednesday and drove up to New York to spend a few days with us.  Lord provided for her dream job in Washington.  She will start working in a few days. Tom is recovering from his surgery.  Jessie and Tom are planning to be with us for the weekend.  Sunita, Andy, and Gabe are flying  back to the States from Cypress to attend a family wedding in Michigan.  Then they will be returning back to Cypress next week following the wedding.  Our granddaughter Ada (Three years old) dislocated her elbow - with what is termed nursemaid's elbow.  She spent two days in pain as it took 6 attempts to reset the joint.  Praise the Lord that her arm has been reset and Ada is once again living life out loud. Janice and her family are planning on coming to New York for the weekend.   

    In view of the family gathering and celebration Alice picked out two bushels of the best New York apples - Jonagolds and Northern Spies.  I harvested a bucket of peppers  from our garden.  There are hot, mild Hungarian, green, red, purple, habanero.  We have about two bushels of winter squash yet to harvest.  I picked a lovely summer squash the other day, probably the last for this season.  Summer squash in Autumn?  One of the gigantic Forsythia Bushes in the church grounds is in full bloom.  Spring flowers in Autumn Season?  The Lord of all seasons displays His majesty and beauty in technicolor in every season.  We can say, "My cup runneth over". 

    The Psalm that deals with still waters and green pastures also deals with death valleys.  In Psalm 23 we see ourselves laying down in the green pastures.  We see ourselves being lead by the still (quiet) waters.  We see our selves walking through the valley of shadow of death, and walking through darkness with the Shepherd as our guide.  When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we are not alone.  The Good and winsome shepherd is with us.  

    In C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as Aslan makes his way to the stone table he comes to a point where he does not allow Lucy and Susan to go any further.  They are not permitted to make that last leg of the journey with him.  It is a path which he must walk alone, into the heart of death and darkness.  We might say "What is to become of us when it is the Shepherd's valley of the shadow of death?"  Perhaps this is the place where our faith is most shaken, those long hours before the dawn, that silence in which we so often live.

    The Chief Shepherd has passed through the valley of the shadow of death. There is no valley so deep that the Son of God can not fathom.  There is no mountain so high that the Son of Man can't climb, no darkness so grim that the Prince of the dawn cannot illuminate, no sin God can't forgive, no person so lost that Christ can not find him.  There is no bondage so great that the Deliverer can not burst it asunder.  The valley is the Lord's.  The way is safe.  "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life.  And you shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."  Amen.

In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/ZIUCRXMM4pE

Brown's Daily Word 10/9/14

    Praise be to Jesus for this new day.  It is going to be glorious and brilliant.  He blessed us with a sweet Wednesday evening gathering.  As we wake up to a brand new day the fear about the ebola virus is spreading like a wild fire around the corner and around the globe.  When we look at life deeply we recognize that all of us live just a breath away from eternity.  It is easy to be consumed by fear and panic.  Those who love Jesus, serve Him, and live in Him can not live on panic and fear but in faith in His deep abiding peace.       

    I am so blessed.  One if the big blessings is the gift of the Lord in my four daughters.  We cherish our times together.  We rejoice in the blessings and the gifts of the Lord.  Often when we share our time together the Lord does encourage me through their faith and faithfulness to the Lord.   

    Whenever I participate in the service death and resurrection I quote from the Letter of Paul to the Philippians.  This letter was written by Paul while he was held prisoner.  By the world's standards, he should have been miserable, but when you read this letter, from first to the last, it vibrates with joy.  As he came to the closing verses he saide, "Rejoice in the Lord always!  Again I say, Rejoice!"

    One of Paul's favorite words is the Greek word hilarotes, from which we get the word hilarity.  It literally means "laughter from the heart."  When Paul spoke of joy, he did not mean the trivial, shallow, obscene or mean-spirited stuff we call humor today.  He meant a bone-deep, blood-rich, exuberant laughter which comes up out of the depths of a person's soul, a joy which flows from the center of our being, a happiness coming from the depth of our hearts.  Holy hilarity is born out of deep, inner peace, a peace which passes all understanding.  It is a peace which comes from knowing that we are really loved and accepted by God.

    My experience tells me that uptight people can never really experience joy. People who have everything screwed down real tight can never learn to dance. People who are not at peace with themselves, people who carry around the baggage of past hurts and failures, people who look at the world through the narrow lens of their own self-interest, people who just plain don't like themselves or others, can never really discover the hilarity the Gospel promises.  Only those who let go and discover the deep peace which comes in knowing we are loved simply because God chooses to accept and love us, can know the freedom of laughter.

    There's a line from G. K. Chesterton which I've claimed as part of the operating creed for  my life, "Angels can fly because they take themselves so lightly."  In stark contrast to this, I have known a lot of Christians who take themselves entirely too seriously.  We need to take the love of God and the good news of the Gospel seriously, but we don't have to take ourselves seriously at all.  There is great joy that comes in knowing that we can trust the goodness and love of God.

    "Finally, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."  Real joy -- holy hilarity -- is shaped by a disciplined focus of our hearts and minds and souls on things that are good, things that are beautiful, things that are filled with the joy of the Spirit of Christ.

    Paul came to a grand conclusion in Philippians 4:11 when he said, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have.  I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty.  In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

    The J. B. Phillips translation has great feeling for the emotion of Paul's letters, "I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances may be.  I know now how to live when things are difficult and I know how to live when things are prosperous... I have learned the secret of facing plenty or poverty.  I am ready for anything through the strength of the one who lives within me."  Paul said he had already learned all of that.   Jesus, the Lord of Joy, grants us the hilarity of the soul which thrives within us in any circumstances.

In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/qQ71RWJhS_M