Friday, November 14, 2014
Brown's Daily Word 11-14-14
Praise the Lord for this season of
harvest and Thanksgiving. Praise the Lord from all good and perfect gifts
come. Praise the Lord for this season. Jesus is indeed is the Lord of this
season and He is the Lord of all seasons. We are preparing and are excited for
our Thanksgiving banquet that will be held on Saturday, November 15, 2014. We
will be serving at 5 PM and again at 6 PM. This will be a traditional
Thanksgiving menu with Turkey, homemade apple, pumpkin pies, etc.
We will begin the Advent season
with a very wonderful Christmas banquet that will be held on Saturday the 6th of
December at the Church Fellowship Hall. Chef Justin Clark is preparing a formal
Christmas banquet. The dinner will be served at 5:30 PM, followed by a powerful
Concert by the St. Petersburg Men's Ensemble, from St. Petersburg, Russia, at
6:30.
We are getting ready for our annual
Living nativity presentation that will be held at the center court of the
Oakdale Mall on Saturday the 20th of December, 2014. It will be held from 5 to
7 PM. We will be participating in Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah at
6:30 PM. It will be a "Flash Mob". All musicians and singers are warmly
invited to join. It will be glorious as we sing a part of "Handel's Messiah".
The Down Town Singers will be presenting Handel's Messiah in Binghamton on
Friday the 19th of December at 8 PM. It will be a full length presentation with
full orchestra and gifted soloists. We are so blessed. We get to celebrate
... we get to worship.
We are joining churches around our
great Land in collecting Christmas Shoe Boxes on Sunday the November 16, 2014.
Indeed, we will get to give and share in the work of the Gospel around the
corner and around the globe. Let the Lord provoke all of us rise up as the
shepherds did and go to the Manger where, "the Holy Child of Bethlehem is
born".
Before we get into the Advent
season, let us celebrate Thanksgiving with gladness and gratitude.
Thanksgiving Day was near. The
first grade teacher gave her class a fun assignment—to draw a picture of
something for which they were thankful. Most of the class might be considered
to be from poor families, but still, many would celebrate the holiday with
turkey and other traditional goodies of the season. These, the teacher thought,
would be the subjects of most of her student's art, and they were.
But Douglas made a different kind
of picture. Douglas was a different kind of boy. He was the teacher's idea of
a true child of misery, frail and unhappy. As other children played at recess,
Douglas was likely to stand close by her side. One could only guess at the pain
Douglas felt behind those sad eyes. Yes, his picture was different. When asked
to draw a picture of something for which he was thankful, he drew a hand.
Nothing else. Just an empty hand.
His abstract image captured the
imagination of the other students. The teacher asked the class, "Whose hand
could it be?" One child guessed it was the hand of a farmer, because farmers
raise turkeys. Another suggested a police officer, because the police protect
and care for people. Still others guessed it was the hand of God, for God feeds
us. And so the discussion went—until the teacher almost forgot the young artist
himself. When the children had gone on to other assignments, she paused at
Douglas' desk, bent down, and asked him whose hand it was.
The little boy looked away and
murmured, "It's yours, teacher."
She recalled the times she had
taken his hand and walked with him here or there, as she had the other
students. How often had she said, "Take my hand, Douglas, we'll go outside."
Or, "Let me show you how to hold your pencil." Or, "Let's do this together."
Douglas was most thankful for his teacher's hand.
I have been reading Psalm 145,
which encourages us to think about God's hand in our lives. As we get ready to
celebrate Thanksgiving let's remind ourselves that his hand is always there
for us even when we might not sense it. Of
150 psalms, this is the only one that has the title "A psalm of praise." David
said, "Every day I will praise you." Whether in good times or in dark times
he would offer up praise to God. Psalm 145
reminds us that God's hand touches our lives. We are called to praise
Him.
Our God's mighty acts are
awe-inspiring and his greatness is without limit. Even with intensive search no
one can find its depths. Psalm 145:3, "Great is the LORD and most
worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom." Our God is
able to supply all that we need. He is mighty, loving, forgiving, and His
resources are more than adequate for all our needs.
We are used to limitations in life:
We all have a limited amount of time. We have a limited amount of patience. We
have a limited amount of money. We have a limited amount of strength. We have
a limited amount of insight. God, however, has no limits. We can never exhaust
the depths of his love, mercy, understanding, generosity, and so much more.
A person who recognizes that God is gracious,
loving, and merciful understands God more completely than a person who merely
realizes that God is powerful. God's glory is in his grace to people, his
generosity and goodness. God is gracious, which means he is full of generosity,
kind, good, and his gifts are given freely to his people.
In spite of all the wrong that I
have done, the Lord is gracious and compassionate to me. As the father of the
prodigal son welcomed him home after his rebellion, so God welcomes home his
children.
During a British conference on
comparative religions, experts debated what, if any, belief was unique to
Christianity. They began eliminating possibilities. The Incarnation? Other
religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form.
Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from the dead. The
debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's
the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were
discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis
responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace." After some discussion, the others had
to agree.
The notion of God's love coming to
us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of
humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish
covenant, and the Muslim code of law, each offer a way to earn approval. Only
Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional. God's grace sets us free
from trying to earn God's forgiveness. Common sense tells us that we can never
meet the standards of God's holiness. Grace tells us that everything is all
right in spite of so much in us being so wrong. God is patient and does not
punish us as we deserve. He is compassionate with those who are weak, make
foolish mistakes, and are discouraged. Our Lord God is powerful. He is
gracious and He is faithful. He is with us in prosperity even as He is with us
in adversity. He has promised never to desert
us. God has proven throughout history that he is faithful. God keeps his
promises. God lifts up those who have fallen. God sustains those who are ready
to fall. God provides for our needs and desires. In Psalm 94:18 we read, "When
I said, 'My foot is slipping,' your love, O LORD, supported me." And again in
Psalm 37, "The steps of the godly are directed
by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble,
they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand." Our Lord God is near
to us. He is Emmanuel ... God with us.
Our Lord is nearby to each of us and attentive to our special needs. God is near to all who call upon him. If we were to draw a picture of what we are thankful for this Thanksgiving would we draw an open hand like little Douglas? Psalm 145 encourages us in a very personal way to think about God's hand in our lives. On this Thanksgiving let's remind ourselves that his hand is always there for us even when we might not sense it. This year at Thanksgiving let us remember that God is to be praised. God is mighty—he can be your strength. God is gracious—he loves and forgives you. God is faithful—he can supply what we need. He is with us. All that we desire is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
In Christ,
Brown
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Brown's Daily Word 11/12/14
Praise the Lord for this
wonderful Wednesday. It will be a glorious day. We will gather for our
Wednesday Evening gathering for fellowship and study at 6 PM. We are currently
studying the Book of Joel. Praise the Lord for His promise, While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat,
and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.Genesis 8
It is a glorious season here in America. We get to celebrate the season of Harvest and Thanksgiving, paving the way for Advent and Christmas. Praise the Lord that we get to end the year with great celebration and jubilation.
We are planning for our community wide Thanksgiving banquet
this coming Saturday. We will have two seatings, at 5 and at 6 PM. We will be
showing a full length movie "Faith Like Potatoes' in the sanctuary. Our Church
Fellowship Hall will be transformed in to a banquet hall once again. Chef Lou
Pasquale and the team are preparing this banquet with so much love. Praise the
Lord for the way He provides for His ministry indeed. Praise the Lord for so
many of our people who are excited in participating in this event. There are
several who will be preparing the turkeys. Two women are going above and beyond
the call of duty. One is preparing two turkeys and baking 7 pies. The other
is preparing three turkeys and baking 10 pies. They are the Marthas of the
church. We praise the Lord for His faithfulness and for His generosity.
As we enter the Thanksgiving
season I am pondering on the Ten lepers who were healed by the Lord as we read
about it in Luke 17. Bill Griffin tells the story of the leper in Mark
1:40 this way: "'Hello, I'm a leper!' A man popped out from behind
a building and stood right in front of Jesus. 'Please don't run away,
Jesus!'
"'What's the matter with
your skin?' asked Jesus.
"'Can't You see I'm covered
with runny sores and crusty scabs?' No one wants to look at me, my face is so
horrible.'
"'What do you want Me to
do?'
"'You can make me better.
I know You can,' said the man, falling on his knees in front of Jesus. 'If You
don't, I'll scratch myself to death.'
"Jesus felt sorry for the
poor man.
"'Don't touch me,' said the
man. 'That's how you get it.'
"'I'm not afraid to touch
you.' Jesus reached down and took hold of the man's arms and pulled him to his
feet. The itching was gone. The sores started to dry. The scabs began to fall
off.
"'Thank You, thank You,
thank You!' shouted the man. 'What can I do to thank You?'
"'You can go to the temple,
show yourself to a priest and say a prayer of thanks to God.'
"'Yes, yes; I will, I
will!' promised the man hurrying off.
"'One more thing,' said
Jesus.
"'Anything, anything,' said
the man.
"'You don't have to tell
anyone what I just did.'
"'I won't tell a soul,'
said the man as he skipped toward Jerusalem; but the man was so happy and the
walk to the temple was so long that he forgot and told everyone he met. Then
all the other lepers along the road began to look for the wonderful Man with the
healing touch." (Calvin Miller, The Family Book of Jesus, Bethany
House, 2002.)
The story well told of the
gratitude of good lepers. Good lepers are those who are healed and never forget
the disease they once had. They remember how good clean feels. Bad lepers, on
the other hand, are those who are healed and go on acting as if they never had
the disease.
Ninety percent of all the lepers
in Luke
17 are ingrates — bad lepers pretending
they never met Jesus. What a shame! They were so completely healed that there
was not a smidgen of their former state of decay left to them. They were so
healed, they headed back to the social centers of their communities.
However, for all the joy of their
cleansing, we never would have known about them at all, except for the 10
percent of their group who knew the art of gratitude. One of the 10: "when he
saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at
Jesus' feet and thanked Him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked a most
perplexing question: 'Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was
no one found to give praise to God except this foreigner?'" (Luke 17:15-18).
"Thou hast
given so much to me. Give me one thing
more—a grateful heart. by
George Herbert (1593-1633) ...
In
Christ,
Brown
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