Pastors Desk

Writings from Pastor Reverend Dr. Gerald W. Brown

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

As MLK Jr. Day approaches, it’s important to recognize the significance of Martin Luther King Jr., and why many of us are given the day off from school or work. Not only was he a highly respected father, husband, and Baptist minister, but MLK Jr. was a humanitarian, a civil rights icon, and an activist that all of us can look up to for hundreds of years to come. So this year, make sure to reflect on what MLK Jr. Day truly represents, and why we recognize Martin Luther King Jr. as one of the most important historical heroes.

Harvest and Thanksgiving

Several thousand years ago, God spoke directly to Moses and instituted a new festival for His people. In Exodus 23:16, according to Moses’s record, God said, “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the first fruits of the crops you sow in your field.”

 

Today countries around the world do something similar by celebrating the land’s bounty. In Ghana, the people celebrate the Yam Festival as a harvest event. In Brazil, Dia de Acao de Gracas is a time to be grateful for the crops that yielded their food. In China, there is the Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival. In the United States and Canada: Thanksgiving.

 

To understand the fitting goal of a harvest celebration, we visit Noah right after the flood. God reminded Noah and his family—and us—of His provision for our flourishing existence on the earth. Earth would have seasons, daylight and darkness and “seedtime and harvest” (Gen. 8:22). Our gratitude for the harvest, which sustains us, goes to God alone.

 

No matter where you live or how you celebrate your land’s bounty, take time today to express gratitude to God—for we would have no harvest to celebrate without His grand creative design.

 

Dear Creator God, thank You so much for the wondrous way You fashioned this world—with seasons, with harvest-time, with everything we need to exist. Please accept our gratitude.

 

Gratitude is the memory of a glad heart.

Peace

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank You for welcoming me into Your circle of love.  May I share Your peace with someone in my community today.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” (John 14:27) Although as God’s children we experience hardship, we too have His Spirit living within and flowing out of us.  God’s peace can be His witness to everyone we meet—whether at a local market, at school or work, or in the gym.

When we keep our mind on God, His Spirit keeps our mind a peace.

The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made

Lord, we will praise You in our difficult times like the psalmist did.  You know us, and we turn to You because we know You are good. Doubting God’s goodness is as old as Adam and Eve (Genesis 3).  The serpent put that thought in Eve’s mind when he suggested that God was withholding the fruit from her because “God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (v.5).  In pride, Adam and Eve thought they, rather than God, should determine what was good for them. In times of discouragement, let’s listen well to each other and help each other see the truth that God is good.

The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

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    Pastor Reverend Dr. Gerald W. Brown

    Pastor Reverend Dr. Gerald W. Brown is Executive Director of the United African American Ministerial Action Council (UAAMAC). He the newly appointed pastor of Mt. Moriah Christian Church as of November 2020
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