Brown's Daily Word 3/7/17

    Praise the Lord for He is worthy of all our praise.  The Lord has blessed us with beautiful week. Spring is in the air. The days are getting longer and warmer.  Alice and I walked for over one and a half miles yesterday. The walkers were out, young people were  busy playing on the basketball court.  The children were smiling and laughing.  We saw a few Canadian geese circling around town as the harbingers of Spring.  We saw daffodils, Tulips, and Crocuses about burst to forth with vibrant colors and smells.  We saw the snowbells in full bloom.  Our hearts were gladdened and stirred with gratitude to Jesus who makes happen the beautiful season for the good of His people all over the world.  

    I get to watch Aerial America on the Smithsonian Channel.  I am overwhelmed and deeply blessed as we watch magnificent natural wonders, valleys, prairies Mesas, canyons, rivers, lakes, and National parks all over America the Beautiful. It seems magical and mysterious and yet it is all true and real.  I get to watch Bizarre Foods with host Andrew Zimmern.  Praise the Lord for the diverse foods the Lord gives to His people.  It is all wonderful and I say, "What a wonderful world!"   Wonderful and glorious is the world that is yet to come. 

    We are able to talk to our grandchildren on Google Chat.  Last evening we had a beautiful chat with Sunita and her 3 beautiful little ones.  It is always a great treat. 

    We praise the Lord for you all.  During my active ministry I was part of the Board of Directors for the Mission Society that is headquartered in the Atlanta area in Georgia.  I got to meet and know some of the wonderful missionaries  who are serving all over the world.  Missionaries are a breed apart.  I hear and I read what the Lord is doing through missionaries and evangelists all around the globe.  It is exhilarating and exciting to see the work of Jesus that is on the move.  The Savior's work and his workers are relentless and undaunted. Praise the Lord for all those who give, those who send, and those who go.  It is an amazing enterprise with eternal returns.  This enterprise has been under same management for over two thousand years.  May Jesus increase His tribe.  May He bring forth great harvest.  It is an exciting time to be alive and be part of His eternal Purposes and Kingdom.

     During this holy season of Lent we are invited walk with Jesus in His passion and suffering as He marches to Jerusalem as the victor and conqueror.  The reading for last Sunday was  focused the temptation of our Lord in the wilderness. In Gospel according to Mark the account is brief and poignant, and encapsulates the mystery and wonder of it all.  It is written that the Lord, soon after His Baptism, is driven by the Spirit into wilderness, where He was for forty days, tempted by Satan.  He is with wild beasts and the angels ministered to Him.  The Good News is the that even when we are wandering in the wilderness, tested and tormented  by the adversary, Satan, and the place where we find ourselves becomes the habitation of dragons, the Good News is that He places His angels around us and amongst us and the ministers to us.  WOW!

    In and of ourselves we are no match for Satan, but the Lord is the strength of our lives, and He will come to our aid.  We believe 1 John 4:4: "the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."  Though Satan tried to manage the death of Jesus, Jesus did not die a victim, but a sacrifice.  He did not die forever as all other mortals had, but rather he rose again, seizing the very keys of death from the grip of the devil.

    Colossians 2:15 says, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities [meaning Satan and those he controlled], He [Jesus] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."  In the book of Esther, Haman was not merely defeated but he was hanged on the gallows he had erected to disgrace and destroy Mordecai.  According to Revelation 20:10, Satan, who is now the prince of the power of the air, will be "thrown into the lake of burning sulfur … [to] be tormented day and night for ever and ever."  We celebrate because the ancient, vile enemy who once controlled our lives has been brought low by the might of our God.  "[Thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Cor. 15:57)

    Each of us know people whose lives are heavy under the oppression of death, torment, guilt and fear.  Our Christian privilege is to tell them that God has provided for their salvation.  We may not go galloping into people's lives shouting, "You're saved!  You're saved!"—but neither do we dare to pass silently without ever a whisper of the good news from us.

    John, in the book of Revelation, saw a vision of our future—"a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.  They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  They cried out in a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb'" (Rev. 7:9-10).  God not only saves us, but he exalts us until we worship with the nations in his presence.  The promise of an amazing future in Jesus propels us to celebrate even now.  

    In the Book of Esther the word "God" does not occur not even once, yet the Lord is at work throughout the book.  The Lord defeats the schemes and wicked plans of the enemy.  People celebrate the victory of our Lord God that He bestows freely on His people.  Purim is this celebration of the victory of the Jewish people in this amazing book - a kind of Jewish Mardi Gras.  Eugene Peterson, in his book Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, writes, "The rabbis had a saying that although moderation is required throughout the year, on Purim it was permitted to drink wine 'until you didn't know the difference between blessed be Mordecai and cursed be Haman.'"

    We don't need to get drunk to celebrate, but we should know how to celebrate our salvation.  Ephesians 5:18-20 says, "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.  Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

    If the Jews celebrated so exuberantly, how much more should we?  If they feasted, how much more should we—If they were generous with gifts to one another and to the poor around them, how much more should we be joyfully generous?  After all, "you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9).

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/l-bAXm-A3Ls

Brown's Daily Word 3/4/17

    Praise the Lord for this first weekend of March.  We have had a short interlude of wonderful winter with fresh snow.  It is very brief and very transitory, as it will start warming up beginning tomorrow.  We had some beautiful and heart-warming moments on Google chat, with our grandchildren from Washington, DC this morning.  Janice and Simeon (from Boston) are currently in Washington, DC. Tom, Jessica, and Lindy are also in Washington, DC spending the weekend together.  This is the first time since August that all four sisters were able to get together, so they went out to eat together at a trendy Mediterranean restaurant last evening.  They were celebrating Janice's milestone birthday (from last September).  Today, while Janice is at a conference in the city, the rest of the crew are spending the day going to some of the museums- most particularly the Air and Space Museum.  Some of the Spring Flowers are in full bloom and they are waiting for the iconic and historic Cherry Blossoms that will start in the middle of March this year - way ahead of the regular season that comes in the first weekend of April.  Our oldest grandson, Simeon, who is adventurous, very curious, very bold, and very energetic, loves to explore. He is having a wonderful time in Washington,DC.

    We are getting ready for worship tomorrow, the First Sunday in Lent.  We will meet for Sunday School tomorrow at 9:30 AM and for worship at 10:30 AM followed by a Fellowship Hour.  Plan to be in the House of the Lord tomorrow wherever you might be.  It is a great blessing and honor to be in the House of the Lord in worship, in Celebration, and in witness.  Jesus is exalted.  He is upon His Throne and all is well.

    As Jesus was on the road to Jerusalem, He walked ahead of the disciples, His face riveted  on Jerusalem.  He was unafraid, and He marched with a great sense of mission and a great sense of triumph.  Jesus warned his disciples: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.  What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:25-26).  If our main concern is that life go well for us, then we are concerned about the wrong things.  If our main concern is that people think well of us, then we are not concerned about pleasing God.  Following Christ may mean living a difficult life.  We are called and commissioned to follow Christ, denying our ourselves and taking up the cross.  We are  Kingdom people.  We belong to Jesus.  We are safe and secure in Him.  We have foretasted the joy and the blessings of the Kingdom. . . No turning back, No turning back.  We press on following Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.  He gives us grace and courage to finish it well.  The Lord has promised  a glorious Kingdom which is already here and yet to come in full splendor.

    I have been blessed to have met some beautiful, fervent, and zealous servants of Jesus.  They have encouraged me, inspired me, and provoked me to love Jesus and follow Him with tenacity and full abandon.  One of those of those beautiful servants of Christ is Joni Eareckson Tada, a woman who has experienced a lot of suffering.  Paralyzed from the shoulders down after a tragic diving accident as a teenager, Joni often wanted to die instead of working to live and overcome her disabilities.  She still lives in pain every day, but God has given her a world-wide ministry that she could never have dreamed of before her accident.  She has proven faithful through it all.  She writes devotionals faithfully.  One devotional she titled, “Closer to the Other Side”.  She tells about something that happened to her recently — something that for most of us would be rather mundane, but to her it spoke of something far deeper. She wrote, “For me in this wheelchair, shampooing my hair requires parking in front of my bathroom sink, leaning forward, and letting my friend Dana ‘go at it’ as she stands to one side and lathers my hair.  ‘Joni, would you like me to wash your face while you’re under the faucet?’ she asked.  ‘Sure,’ I gurgled.  She took her soapy hands and began lathering my cheeks, using the flat of her fingers to gently wash around my eyes.  I gasped.  ‘Am I hurting you?’, Dana asked.  ‘Oh, no, not at all!’, I said.  ‘Please… please keep going!’  How could I explain?  For that brief moment, it felt as though her hands were mine!  She was rubbing my face exactly the way I used to do with my own hands, decades ago.  Those few brief moments were about as close as I’ve ever felt to being healed!  When we finished, Dana patted my face and hair dry with a towel.  She also had to wipe away my tears.  But they weren’t tears of sadness or regret.  They were tears of joy about the future.  I told her, ‘This was a reminder that soon I will be able to wash my own face with new, glorified hands!’”  Then Joni said, “There is less distance between me and the future than me and the past, before I was injured.  I have come to the place where a memory can push me joyfully into the future rather than pull me somberly back into a sad past.  Because we are believers, the future has a happy, magnetic pull on our hearts.  Take just few minutes today (maybe while you’re on a walk in the sunlight) to think about the new, marvelous, perfect, immortal body that awaits you — really, just a few years away on the Other Side. She ends with the scripture that says, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me.” (Philippians 3:13).  And then she prays: “Lord how good you are!  The promises you have given us for that radiant tomorrow help us walk through the darkest of days on this side of heaven.” She is following Christ in her wheelchair, carrying her cross, and has her eyes set on the kingdom heaven.  She is living for him now that she might live with him there.

In Christ,

Brown

https://youtu.be/EtyVdC7E6Wo

Brown's Daily Word 3/1/17

    Praise the Lord for this first day of March.  It is going to be mild and beautiful.  It appears that the month of March makes its debut like a lamb in Spring.  I have not been posting any blogs lately since I have been traveling between Boston, MA  and Binghamton, NY for my doctors visits.  Thank you for praying and interceding.   The Lord has blessed with some amazing days filled with splendor and His majesty.  The Lord certainly has a sense of humor.  Over the weekend, in just 3 short days back to back, we experienced Summer, Springtime, and Winter.  Alice and I have been walking briskly and with jubilant feet gazing at the beauty of the Lord all around us.  The maple syrup producers of our area are busy producing  some of the best maple syrup in Central NY.  We have noticed that some of the Spring birds are returning back to the region with mirth and joy.  

    Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.  It is a somber day of reflection.  "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10.  Lent is a season that reminds us to repent and get our lives centered, our priorities straight, and our hearts clean.  This holy season offers us a new chance to say, "yes" to the Lover of our Souls who created us, who made us in his own image.  Lent is a season of hope and we go forth to love and to serve.  By God’s grace in Christ, we do not have to stay the way we are.

    Praise the Lord for His church around the corner and around the globe.  People of Jesus are entering the season of Lent marching towards Jerusalem with Jesus.  "And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.  And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him,  saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles;  and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise.”  Mark 10:32-34

    Praise the Lord for the multitude who will be planning for various special worship services as a part of their Lenten journey.  May Jesus be praised.  May He draw countless millions to a closer walk with Him during this Holy Season.  Our Church will be hosting community-wide dinner on Wednesday March 15.  A very special and seasonal dinner will be served  starting at 4:30 PM, concluding at 6:00 PM.  Plan to change your clocks one hour forward on the March 12, 2017

    We are planning for a Special Lenten Event on Saturday the March 25, 2017. There will be a very special meal prepared with much love which will be served at 6:00 PM in the Church Fellowship Hall, followed by a special dramatic presentation of "Simon Peter".  It will be presented at 7:00 PM in Sanctuary by Dr. James Geer Ph.D.  Dr. Geer is a distinguished professor of Mathematics at the Watson School of Engineering at Binghamton University.  He is also a deeply committed Christian and a faithful servant of Jesus.  He has been presenting "Simon Peter", a dramatic monologue of the bold, impetuous, disciple, since 1976.  All are invited to join us. You will be blessed and challenged.

    April 1 and 2, Saturday and Sunday, are the dates for the iconic Central New  York Maple Festival of Marathon, NY.  Mark your your calendars.  Our church is in charge of cooking and serving the Chicken BBQ.  Our church will be preparing close to 1000 BBQ chicken dinners.  We are thrilled.  Last year it was blast.  I was visiting with the families who were sharing the meal in the dining hall.  I met one young family and inquired where they were from.  They said that they read about the Maple Festival Event on Internet and they drove that morning from Brooklyn NY, 205 miles one way.  I said, "what a country".

    April 16, 2017 is Easter Sunday.  We will meet for Sunday School at 9:30 AM and glorious Easter worship at 10:30 AM.

    Saturday May 13 there will be a special banquet in honor of Moms.  All families and friends are invited.  Ron and Barb Barnes and the team are in charge of this Holy event.

    Sunday June 18 we will be recognizing Grads and Dads.  There will be a very Special Banquet served in celebration.  Denny and Lynda Randall and their team  are in charge of this event.

    Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 6:00 PM there will be a retirement party and celebration for my wife, Alice.  There will be a mega-reception at the Marathon Civic Center. You are all invited.

    I read about Mark Heart a fascinating and heart-warming story.  He is a Christian, a husband, a father, and an employee.  Like most husbands, fathers, and businessmen, he juggles these responsibilities and sometimes they come into conflict.  Sometimes he has to make difficult decisions about whether or not to be a good employee and do the things that his bosses ask of him, or to be a good husband and father and tend to things at home.  Just over a year ago, he had to make a decision along those lines.  He was scheduled to leave on a Sunday for a business trip, but his daughter had a doctor's appointment on the following Monday.  Because his wife also works, they were struggling to determine who would take her to the doctor.  Knowing his presence would be of great comfort to his daughter, Mark decided he would not go on the business trip. So, he wasn't sitting in seat 2A on flight 5191 as it took off from Bluegrass field on that early Sunday morning.  He wasn't on the ComAir airplane that was on the wrong runway.  He wasn't there when the runway proved too short for the airplane to get enough speed, crashing and killing everyone onboard except for the co-pilot.

    Mark's life has been different since that Sunday morning.  He has learned that those things which cause us great consternation and seem to interfere with our plans—those things that delay us from where we want to go and what we want to do—are sometimes the very things that give us life.  Sometimes God uses such things to spare us.

    But what about all the people who did make that flight?  What do we say about them?  What do we say to their families?  Was God absent on that flight?  Was God not as "in control" of their lives as he was Mark Heart's?  We never know when the delays of life will bring deliverance, but we also never know when God is going to allow things into our lives that are exactly the opposite of what we want.

    Adrian Rogers  one of my favorite preachers who  has entered the Church triumphant, said that man faces three problems: sorrow, sin, and death.  We can sum up every problem we will  ever encounter in one of these three categories. Just before going to the City of Jerusalem for Palm Sunday Jesus made a delayed visit to Bathany, the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha as it is recorded in John 11.  Jesus did  not come running when he first receives news of his friend's condition. He doesn't show up on demand.  Our  sovereign God who is in control stands in back of all things. This means sometimes he uses the things he allows as much as he uses the things he directs.  If God is truly omnipotent—if he can prevent things from happening, as well as he can cause things to happen—all things are laid at his feet.  And this means that sometimes we don't understand what he's up to.  We won't always be able to comprehend why he doesn't answer the prayer or why he doesn't show up when we want him to.

    The events in John 11 tell us that there are very dark days, even for the people whom Jesus loves dearly.  We learn that in his purpose and plan God doesn't always respond as we ask.  You and I cannot possibly comprehend why God allows things into our lives that cause us to cast ourselves on him, to come to the end of our own strength, so that we don't rely on ourselves.  Sometimes the very thing that we most want to avoid—the thing that we most dread—is precisely the thing that God uses to draw us to himself.

    To trust God's actions in the darkest of days, we have to understand his character.  It is written that Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary, and Lazarus, so when we read that Lazarus was ill, we expect John to say Jesus dropped everything and rushed to Lazarus' side.  But that's not what happened.  Though  Jesus loved them, when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.  I would say that was unanticipated!

    When we face similar circumstances, we tend only to get angry with God.  We forget that this world is not our home.  God's promises aren't all going to be fulfilled here.  There are Christians all over the world who are persecuted, who go to bed hungry, who don't have the comforts we enjoy every day of our lives.  This doesn't mean God loves them less.  It simply means that there is promise of a better world—that they are strangers and pilgrims on earth.  God will sometimes withhold, sometimes allow, sometimes take from us that which we love, that which we want and crave and hold and possess, if it's for our own good.  It's in his loving character to do so.

    When Jesus said to his disciples that it was time to return to Judea, they explained to him the danger present in such a move.  They insisted he would be killed.  Jesus responded with a question of timing, "Aren't there twelve hours in a day?  And when you walk in the day you don't stumble.  It's when you walk in the night you can't see."  What was Jesus saying to them?  He was urging them (and us) to walk in God's Word when we are stumbling our way through the darkest of days.

    You and I don't live strictly according to our own schedule, our timetable.  We live according to God's schedule and timetable, but we are not trusting God's timing when we're trying to make him conform to our timing.  When Martha and Mary realized that their brother was desperately ill, they sent for Jesus, assuming he would immediately drop what he was doing.  But he didn't do that.  He delayed. In fact, he purposefully let Lazarus die.  We know this because of what he tells his disciples: "This isn't unto death.  This is for the glory of God."  Jesus understands something we often forget: the death of our bodies is not really death.  The Book of Revelation speaks of a second death.  That's the one to fear.

    If we are going to trust God's timing, we have to walk in his Word, because in the light of his Word, we  can see that our Lord has His own divine timing.  He operates on a divine timetable, and we need to walk according to his schedule.

    There will come a day when our bodies are lifeless, laid in a grave, but the Bible teaches us that one of these days, the trumpet is going to sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall all be changed.

In His promises,

Brown.

https://youtu.be/e8HgAVenbUU