Pray for Help

When the 911 emergency call system was first introduced to Texas, it changed everything -even our addresses. My address changed without me even moving. My physical address changed from a 2-digit number to a little more awkward four-digit number. I like the number twenty better than 1624 so I have kept “20” on the side of my house in open rebellion for 15 years now. Because my wife is more compliant and much more sweet, she put “1624” on the other end. That pretty much sums up the Brewer house.

Just like that, I used to live in the country, now I live in the city. Again I didn’t move anywhere, everybody moved to me. I hope the last Yankee from Michigan doesn’t forget to turn off the lights.

Anyway, 911 has been a very successful funnel for all things emergency related and I appreciate the dispatchers that do their jobs well. We’ve all heard horror stories about the cases of rude and indifferent dispatchers that wouldn’t respond properly but those are few and far between. If you do a web search you can find loads of examples of how outright stupid many of us callers are and this is something that goes on every day of the week.

The following examples are supposed to be true; I have no trouble believing it one bit.

Dispatcher: 911- what is your emergency?

Caller: I heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the brown house on the corner.

Dispatcher: Do you have an address? Caller: No, I have on a blouse and slacks, why?

You are very aware that the Brewer is a highly caffeinated Christian. This kind of outburst leads me to serious prayer.

“Lord, help this Lady focus when our neighbors are being shot. Help her realize the dispatcher will never ask what kind of fashion statement she is making when in a gun battle. Help all of us, Lord, to overcome our self-conscience sence of appropriate fashion when the bullets are flying. Amen”

A Dad That’s Bad Mad

Sometimes any of us can just go brain-dead, especially when we are in panic mode. Sometimes in the heat of the alarm, we lash out at the very people trying to help us. Here’s a good example:

Dispatcher: 911- what's the nature of your emergency?

Caller: My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart!

Dispatcher: Is this her first child?

Caller: No, you idiot! This is her husband!

Lets all hit our knees together.....

“Lord, help my comatose friend pull himself together long enough to realize the dispatcher is not mistaking him for his other infant. Help him to realize that the dispatcher is not the idiot involved in this conversation. And help him, Lord, to not wait until his wife’s contractions are 2 minutes apart before he takes action the next time. We love ya Lord. Amen”

Just Plain Strange

Dispatcher: 911 - what is your emergency?

Caller: Someone broke into my house and took a bite out of my ham and cheese sandwich.

Dispatcher: Excuse me?

Caller: I made a ham and cheese sandwich and left it on the kitchen table and when I came back from the bathroom, someone had taken a bite out of it.

Dispatcher: Was anything else taken?

Caller: No, but this has happened to me before, and I'm sick and tired of it!

This sounds like my father in law. I am considering fasting while praying for this guy.

“Lord Protect us because he is out there among us. You know I believe in your resurrection power and I pray that you touch him from the neck up. In Jesus name Amen.”

A Senior Moment

Dispatcher: 911 - what is the nature of your emergency?

Caller: I'm trying to reach nine eleven but my phone doesn't have an eleven on it.

Dispatcher: This is nine eleven.

Caller: I thought you just said it was nine one one?

Dispatcher: Yes, ma'am, nine one one and nine eleven are the same thing.

Caller: Honey, I may be old, but I'm not stupid.

Ok, now look. It’s not this ladies fault the world has changed a million times since her youth. Who among us can keep up with moving technology and the ever-changing language on how to articulate it? This old Lady gets nothing but a pass and prayer from me.

“Just bless her Lord. It’s frustrating when you think no one is interested in your generation and you are expected to know everything about their generation. Wherever she is at today, I pray you smile on her and bless her big. In your name we pray. Amen”

Call for Help

God’s Hot Line for immediate help is simply 333. Jeremiah 33:3 to be precise. I encourage you to look to the mountain from where you help comes from, as the Bible says. And if you know a dispatcher, give them a hug for me.

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Jer 33:3 KJV

Visit the Brewer a www.freshfromthebrewer.com

The Gift That Keeps On Giving!

I write this sip of flavored wisdom on my birthday. I know its later than December 6^th when you read this but its takes the Brewer a little more than a week to grind his column, but please feel free to send gifts.

December 6^th is not only known for the glorious day God blessed the world with my 3 pounds of splendor (my how I’ve grown since then) but it is also famous for being known as the day America got drunk. About 30 years before I was born, prohibition ended on December 5^th and most of America went to have a legal drink on the next day. I think God has a big sense of humor about a lot things and having me born on that day is somehow poetic. I have probably driven several people to drinking. Sorry, but still feel free to send gifts.

Kill the Grinch

The whole world is about to celebrate the birthday of the greatest troublemaker and peace giver ever seen. Christmas might have an X in the name of your holiday but you probably are still going to give or get a gift or two. The whole gift-giving thing goes back to the original scene. Wise men from the east of Israel came to Bethlehem with three kinds of gifts that would bank role Mary and Joseph on their exiled trip to Egypt.

If you look at those three gifts in the book of Matthew, we discover an important, yet often-overlooked, theological fact; in this account, there is no mention of wrapping paper.

If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said, "And lo, the gifts were encompassed about with 7 square cubits of paper. The paper was covered within and without with pictures of Frosty, a man of snow.

Joseph purposed in his heart to cast the paper into the barrel of refuse, but Mary saith unto him, ‘Cease man. Thou shalt not. For Mary had purposed in heart that the paper should be set-aside for future generations, and Joseph didst roll his eyeballs at the wonder of his wife. It came to pass that the babe was more interested in the paper than the frankincense.”

…But these words do not appear in the Bible, which means that the very first Christmas gifts were NOT wrapped. This is because the people giving those gifts had two important characteristics: 1. They were wise. 2. They were men not women.

Men are not big gift wrappers. Men do not understand the point of putting paper on a gift just so somebody else can tear it off. You can tell when I have wrapped a gift because it’s either in a hefty bag with a bow on it or it looks like a giant spitball.

For some reason, I can never completely wrap a gift. I can take a gift the size of a deck of cards and put it the exact center of a section of wrapping paper the size of a rodeo arena but when I am done folding and taping, you can still see a piece of the gift poking out.

On the other hand, if you give my wife a 12-inch square of wrapping paper, she can wrap a C-130 cargo plane. My stepmother, like many women, actually likes wrapping things. If she gives you a gift that requires batteries, she wraps the batteries separately, which to me is bordering on mental illness.

Roll Your Own

The editors of Woman's Day magazine recently ran an item on how to make your own wrapping paper by printing a design on it with an apple sliced in half horizontally and dipped in a mixture of food coloring and liquid starch. Those people are smoking crack and need to get a job!

Remember that the important thing is not what you give, or even how you wrap it. The important thing, during this very special time of year, is that you save the receipt. Because most of us knucklehead men don’t have since when it comes to buying gifts anyway.

I find that Jesus Christ, who the Bible calls the unspeakable gift, does tend to come gift-wrapped. Part of the journey of Christianity is about discovery and revelation. Jesus Christ is not the guy that lives in the building with a big steeple on it, take that wrapper off and you discover He’s the God that lives with you in your living room even when its messy. He loves it when we unwrap him from religion and our pain and see him for who he really is. Yes wise men and girls still seek him and yes, incredibly blessed people still receive Him for the gift He really is.

Unwrapping Jesus as a gift is not a one-time thing. God’s goodness towards us is ongoing and never ending. It’s a progressive journey into an inheritance that is so awesome it will take an eternity for us to unwrap it. Keep unwrapping guys, and see Him this season in a way you’ve seen him before.

"Thanks be unto God for his UNSPEAKABLE gift.''--II Cor. 9:15

Thoughts on "The Book."

In 1986 I completely dedicated my life to Christ. I was so blown away that God would want anything to do with a guy like me that I signed up for the full ride. I dedicated my life’s work to furthering the Gospel, advancing the Kingdom and generally trying to be useful somehow. Consequently, I became a Bible thumper.

Now I wasn’t always like that. There was a day when the Bible looked more like a Chinese tech manual than anything actually worth reading. Stephen King had taught me how to read giant novels. I’ve been blessed with a good reading aptitude so I didn’t think reading the bible would be any problem. It wasn’t that easy.

Carrying My Security Bible
Volunteering for an outreach ministry in Dallas, a friend suggested that reading the Bible could “save my life”. I had no idea what he was talking about. Less than a week later I went to a James Roberson convention in downtown Dallas and survived an attempted robbery in the parking lot by slamming my King James up side the head of the perpetrator.

I was only 19. Sitting in the nosebleed section of the Dallas Convention Center I looked at my bible and thought, “This thing really CAN save your life”.

I started taking it with me everywhere I went. I struggled through the “thee’s” and “thou’s”. I learned to focus on the red letters. I began to comb through the Commentary and Biblical history books. Slowly, the light began to come on.

It’s not the black ink on the white pages. Its not the actual book itself but rather what the book testifies of. I am amazed at what happens when “the book” gets into the hands of the average Joe.

This book combined with the power of the Holy Spirit, changes lives, families, lifestyles, society, nations and entire generations.

There Goes The Neighborhood
The Bible transformed the entire world when the early Christians startled the pagan world of Rome by their unselfish love and caring for the poor, the sick and the hopeless. The Romans didn’t know what to do with this bunch, so they tried to snuff them out.

Despite the overwhelming wealth of the Roman Empire, Historians have not found one single example that these societies had a single hospital, housing for the poor, orphanage, or old folks home. There were not even universities for the masses. This great example of worldly civilization didn’t give a rip about the betterment of others until people with the book showed up.

The Egyptian empire, the Babylonian empire and the Syrian empire were the same way. Nations never had any of these things until the Bible got into the hands of common people.

The Greeks and the Spartans prided themselves on the being the “light of advancing wisdom and higher thought.” These same people threw infants off of cliffs for having birthmarks.

The idea of taking on the cause of the betterment of ordinary people didn’t show up until the idea of equality showed up. The value of life and the cause of the helpless are Biblical principles. The dark ages and the atrocities of that time didn’t end until the common European had access the Bible in his common language. Hundreds of thousands died during the 1500’s so the average Joe could get his hands on the book.

Say Uncle
One person that stood up for his faith and conscience during that terrible time was my ancestral Uncle, Robert Farrar. We recently discovered that his family was an important part of the modern Brewer bunch. He was a Bishop of St David’s and Protestant martyr that was burned at the stake in London in 1555. He wanted people to have access to what was written about in the book.

Ironically, somebody was quoting the Bible wile they set him on fire. I know that some of the meanest people on earth have thumped their bibles while living hate-filled lives. I also know this; people that study the Bible either allow it to change them and they become world changers, or they remain the same and use the Bible to somehow support their evil agenda.

Loving the Author
This tells me that the book is not enough. There have been and still are today, people that love that book but do not love the Lord the book is testifying of. There are people that love to study the track but do not care a bit about the foot that actually made the track.

The Bible is awesome because Jesus is awesome. As soon as we get away from that, we get into big trouble.

“I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given man. All the good from the Savior of the world, is communicated through the book.”
Abraham Lincoln

Baseball and Bullet Proof Bibles

Americana. It’s a word related to our history and culture. When I think of Americana I tend to think of baseball, hotdogs and cowboy hats. So there I was, next to one of my teenagers, Luke, eating a hotdog and watching the Texas Rangers beat up on Kansas City.

We were sitting in the lower balcony on what is called “the homerun porch” and for a brief while I actually believed I could catch a ball that was sent my way. I said a small prayer thinking how cool it would be if we actually got our hands on a real major league ball.

At the lead of the fourth inning, Michael Young hit a homerun exactly to my seat. If you saw it on TV, I was the fat guy pushing people over trying to protect myself. There, on national Television and with my son watching, I screamed like a little girl and jumped a full two seats to left to try and get away from it.

The really awesome dad on the row in front of me held his glove up above my face and after catching it, handed the ball over to his slack jawed 9 year old. Luke looked at me, I looked at Luke and we both busted out laughing. Lesson one on baseball night; be careful what you pray for, you might just get it. Lesson two; sometimes you just look stupid when you get what you pray for.

Incoming!

One of the guys that I crawled all over was a sitting next to my son. He was a 19 year old solider on leave from Iraq. We had already thanked him for his service and told him we would be praying for his safety. He said he was headed back to “the sandbox” on Monday.

I told him to keep his Bible with him and asked him he had heard about Private First Class Brendan Schweigart. He said no, so I told him the story I’m telling you now.

Brendan is a 22 year old from Andover, New York. He had his bible tucked in a pocket beneath his bulletproof shield when he was shot with a high-powered rifle while on a mission in Iraq. It saved his life by shielding the bullet from his heart.

According to reports, Schweigart told his mother, Kim Scott, that he always carried a Bible into battle. The Bible he was carrying was one he got at boot camp and there inside the actual book is the bullet that was meant to kill him. He still carries it with him today.

The sniper put bullets through his arm and another through his body but the one that was ment for his heart stopped somewhere past the book of psalms. Schweigart, who received a Purple Heart, has since been released from the hospital and is back on light duty. I think it’s a great idea to keep your heart protected with God’s word.

There is a bible with a bullet in it on display in the Alamo. It has a similar story with a different time and setting. I’ve looked at it through the glass in the long barracks on more than one occasion. This week’s sip from the master’s cup comes with a little advice about protecting your heart. I have been really trying to wrap my head around what that might mean, lately. When that solider hid his bible under his vest he didn’t know that it would cause him to dodge a bullet.

I think keeping Gods word hidden in our heart causes us to dodge something much more lethal.

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
Psalms 119:11

PVT 1st class Brendan Schweigart

A Big Shout Out To All Our Graduates

The Party Is On!

People that are Godly and people that are thankful, observe accomplishment. We know that God loves to reward achievement because the Bible says, “He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

In the book of Genesis the Bible also says that at the end of the day, and in every stage of creation, God stopped what He was doing and said, “IT IS GOOD.” That means He celebrated the accomplishments of creation, not just at the end, but also at every stage along the way.

Even before He created people and even before He could share anything with anybody, at the end of every single phase, God stopped what He was doing, put a little party hat on, threw some confetti into the air and said “IT IS GOOD.”

In this world it is so easy to make a big deal out of bad things. It’s so easy to be upset over failure and disappointment. That’s why God wants us to make a big deal out of achievement and realization. Your graduation ceremony is mostly about celebrating the fact that you finished what you started out to do. Way to go graduates!

Old School

22 years ago I sat at my high school graduation ceremony. I sat in that seat listening to an old codger like me talk about something that I can not even begin to recall and I could not have imagined that in 20 years I would be the one giving the speeches. When it comes to remembering graduation ceremonies, there is one that I will never forget.

On one of our many missions’ trips to Mexico, we were feeding people in the trash dumps of Matomoros. It was a hot day and the lines were long. In the midst of handing out food I heard what sounded like applause and excited laughter behind me. I turned around just in time to see a beautiful little girl taking her very first steps.

That day, the same scene was being played out in comfortable air conditioned homes all across America, but there in the trash dumps of Matomoros, the great moment of triumph was every bit as exciting and worth celebrating. She might have had to learn how to walk in a filthy trash dump but make those steps she did. Everybody in line began to clap and cheer as the daddy swept up his little girl in his arms!

Crossing the Stage

In no way did it end all of that family’s problems, but still it was progress. The Lord taught me right there through a living sermon that you have to stop looking at what stinks long enough to rejoice over the achievement of forward progression. Even if those steps are little bitty. Even if there are yucky things all around us, progress should be celebrated.

Congratulations graduates on your big walk across the stage as you cross this stage of your life. We celebrate this victory and believe God for many more.

I hope to see you all on that great graduation day in the future when we meet the Lord eye to eye and hear him say,” Well done, good and faithful servants." I plan on throwing the Brewer’s Cup (or at least my hat!) way up into the air.

Contact:

The Brewer welcomes your input at FFTB@OpenDoorMinistries.org or by phone at 817-297-6911.