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Standing In The Fire

Daniel 1-3

We begin the book of Daniel today and it kicks off with some of the most well-known stories in the entire Bible.  The first of these is the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.  The king had a dream and he wanted to make sure that whoever gave him the interpretation knew what they were talking about so he commanded his wise men to not only tell him the interpretation but to tell him the dream as well.  Since none of them could do such a miraculous thing the king ordered that all “wise men” be killed.  Daniel prayed to God for the necessary information and then went and told the king his dream and the interpretation thereof.  This elevated Daniel to a high position in the king’s court.  Daniel asked the king to promote his three friends to positions of responsibility in managing the king’s lands and the king was happy to do so.

The dream the king had concerned the empires that would come into being after he was gone as represented by a large statue.  The head of the statue was made of gold and it represented the Babylonian empire.  The arms and chest of the statue were made of silver and represented the Persians and Meads who joined together to defeat the Babylonians.  Next was to come the Grecian empire of Alexander the Great represented by the belly and thighs made of bronze.  The legs of iron represent Rome.  Iron is stronger than gold, silver, or bronze as the Roman empire was stronger than the others.  That empire eventually split into two kingdoms and eventually crumbled as if it were made of clay.  Here was real prophecy.  The mountain that came at the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is the kingdom of Jesus Christ.  Just as the other kingdoms came, so will His kingdom come.

The second story that almost everyone knows is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace because they refused to bow down to the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar.  Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of this story concerns a mystery man.  After these three men were thrown into the fire, Nebuchadnezzar saw something rather shocking.

Daniel 3:24-25

“Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”  He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

Who was this fourth person?  Most commentaries view this individual as the “pre-incarnate Christ”.  There are several places within the Old Testament where we believe we have seen the pre-incarnate Christ.  Most memorable to me is the moment the pre-incarnate Christ stood with Abraham discussing the coming punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah.  I believe this is a wonderful analogy for what the faithful servant of God can expect.  You may be persecuted and reviled for your faith and faithfulness but the fires of Hell will not touch you.  I can only imagine how frightening it must have been for those three men to stand before Nebuchadnezzar and, knowing it meant a fiery death, remain faithful to the One True God.

I’m reminded of the early Christians in the Roman Coliseum who refused to renounce their Lord even though that refusal meant being torn to pieces by wild animals.  We are not guaranteed an easy life because we accepted Christ.  In fact Christ warns us that the opposite is true.  As we come closer to the end of the age expect that the rather comfortable life we have come to expect may one day be gone.  One day we may have to stand before some earthly authority and, knowing it means our death, state that we will remain faithful to our Lord.  Are you prepared to stand your ground in the face of death?  I hope you are.  I hope I am for that matter!

Have a blessed day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

Time Is Running Out

2 Kings 20-21

Way back in Genesis, when God promised to give the land of Canaan to his descendants, God explained to Abraham that his descendants would spend 400 years in Egypt before claiming their inheritance because the time of the Canaanites was not complete.  In other words, the people of Canaan were sinful but they had not yet become completely irredeemable.

Genesis 15:13-16

“Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.  But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.  As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.  And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

Here we get the first indication that God postpones His judgment, or wrath, until a people is finally unredeemable.  God did not unjustly take the land of the Amorites, which is Canaan, and give it to the descendants of Abraham.  God gave the inhabitants of Canaan an additional 400 years to return to Him or face the consequences of their sinful ways.

Another indication of God’s patience prior to judgment is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  God made it clear to Abraham that He was going to annihilate these twin cities of abject moral corruption.  Abraham pleaded for the cities, bartering with God and receiving a pledge that He would not destroy those cities if just 10 righteous people could be found living within them.  Of course there were not 10 righteous people within those cities as God well knew.  Their time for judgment had come.

What does any of that have to do with today’s reading you ask?  Take a look at the following verses.

2 Kings 21:8-9

“And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.” But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.”

The Northern Kingdom had already been taken into exile and the Southern Kingdom was about to take a similar road to the end.  Back when Israel first entered the Promised Land God warned them that His protection would last as long as they were faithful.  They weren’t faithful.  They weren’t faithful for a long time.  They weren’t faithful for a very long time.

 2 Kings 21:10-12

“And the Lord said by his servants the prophets, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.”

Judah’s time had come.

Billy Graham has been quoted as saying “If God doesn’t punish America He will owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.”  When will America’s time come?  When will the World’s time come?  Some wonder why Christ has delayed His return for 2,000 years.  I submit it is because the iniquity of the World is not yet complete.  Christ told His followers to make disciples of all nations.  The Gospel has moved westward from Jerusalem and today China is experiencing phenomenal growth in the number of Christians.  As the Gospel continues its westward trek back toward Israel the time is running out.

It’s a theory.  Have a blessed day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

What Is Right In Your Eye?

Judges 19-21

The book of Judges ends today with this phrase which we heard several times throughout this book:

Judges 21:25b

“…Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

I’ve read the story of the Levite and his concubine several times before, but that never keeps me from being shocked by what I read.  This story has portions that are eerily similar to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Visitors to a town are invited to stay with someone, the men of the town demand that the male visitor(s) be tossed out to them so they can “have their way with them”, and the women are offered to the mob in place of the male visitor(s).  It sickens me that the offer was made in both cases and even more so that the man’s concubine was actually thrown out to them.

How did a tribe of Israel fall so far from God as to not only embrace homosexuality but to do violence in its practice and go to war in its defense?  The answer to this question can be found in that early failure to obey God.  God had told Israel to drive the inhabitants of Canaan out of the land.  He warned them that if they didn’t these people would become a snare to them.  All of Judges shows this warning to have been spot on.  And now we see how low these folks have gotten.  Let me ask you something, why did God cause Israel to lose 40,000 men in the first two days of fighting with Benjamin?  Benjamin was clearly rejecting God’s word and the people of Israel were following what God had directed them to do in fighting Benjamin.  Shouldn’t Benjamin have been wiped out in the first day with little loss of life on the part of the other tribes?

Brother, the more sin spreads, the more painful it is to be rid of it.  The rest of Israel had not been perfect little angels while the tribe of Benjamin alone forsook God.  Depending on the Bible translation you use, either the Levites concubine committed adultery and was sent away for her infidelity or the husband was over bearing and she went away of her own volition.  Either way, this couple was not the picture of moral purity.  The rest of Israel was no better.  The Israelites had moved from obedience to rejection of God and eventually to absolute moral corruption.  Remember that every man did what was right in his own eyes.  The next step downward on Israel’s journey away from God was political anarchy and civil war.  I see a lot of America in that sentence guys.

At any rate, by the time it was all over the number of Israelites dead from this conflict was well over 65,000 people.  What kind of society can we have when everyone does what is right in their own eyes?  I have heard many people say that “you can’t legislate morality”.  That is one of the most idiotic things I have ever heard.  All law is the expression of someone’s sense of right and wrong – morality.  In a representative democracy the elected officials pass laws to encourage what they think is good and discourage what is bad.  Law is morality – a codification of society’s view of right and wrong.  By having an established list of unacceptable behavior we all know where the line is drawn.  When someone crosses that line we know they have done wrong.

How can we live together when we have a law but because it doesn’t seem right in your eyes you will disobey that law while expecting me to follow it?  That is what is happening in American law today.  The law is not equally applied.  There are those in this country who say that if a gay man is murdered it is a hate crime while if a straight man is murdered it is not; if a black man is murdered by a white man it is a hate crime while if a white man is murdered by a black man it is not.  America has pushed God out of the town square and the moral corruption of this nation has sunk below the gutter.  The political chaos that Israel experienced is beginning to percolate today in America.

These are natural progressions as true today as they were back in the day.  A morality based on what seems right in the eye of every individual is a recipe for incredible pain and suffering.  This is true for nations and it is true for individuals.  If you do what seems right in your own eye you are headed for a truck load of pain.  Brothers, God made the universe and set down the rules.  He has provided you with a rule book.  How you think things should be, or how “innocent” your disobedience seems to you, is irrelevant.  God is the Creator.  He is the Chief Executive.  He is the Legislator.  He is also the Judge.  Let me implore you to do what is right in the eyes of God.

Have a blessed day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

What Are You Looking At?

Genesis 19-20

What was Lot doing in Sodom?  Yes we know that Abraham had come to him and said chose the left or the right and I will go the other way.  Lot had chosen to go toward the Jordan Valley.  This was a choice made by worldly logic.  The valley was green and well watered.  The valley also contained Sodom and Gomorrah; cities known for their godless ways.  Inevitably Lot found himself living in Sodom.  Do you see how the world can seduce a man away from God?

God decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah only after every man there was totally corrupt.

Genesis 19:4

“But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house.”

Lot’s house was surrounded by all the people of that town down to the last man.  Abraham had negotiated God down to 10 righteous people.  If there could be found just 10 righteous people in all of Sodom God would not destroy the place.  Even if you could count Lot and his family, which you can’t, you still wouldn’t have 10 righteous people in all of Sodom.  So again, why was Lot there?

I think Lot was continually drawn away from godly living by the lure of the world around him.  You know, you can start out as a pretty godly guy, but if you keep your eyes on the world, and start to desire the things of this world, you will be steadily drawn further and further from God.  Do you know how to cook a frog in a pot?  If you have the water boiling before you put the frog in the pot he will jump out as soon as you drop him in.  If, however, you put him in a pot of room temperature water and slowly increase the heat he will sit there thinking he is enjoying a nice relaxing day at the spa until it is too late.

It seems to me this is the case with Lot.  I think it may also be the case with many of us who call ourselves Christians today.  Let me ask you something.  Which would you say has the greater impact, you on the world or the world on you?  If I’m honest with myself I must admit that the world has had more impact on me than I have had on it.  Our world today is full of sex and violence.  Ours is a society that worships itself.  Every member of our society is encouraged to view himself as a god.  The magazine racks, the TV shows, the movies, the games, the music all push sex and violence and the godhood of man.

Brothers, Lot chose to go to the Jordan valley and eventually to Sodom.  Most of us have not made a conscious choice about the society we live in, but we do make a choice as to what we allow in our homes, on our TVs, our radios, and computers.  Are you allowing yourself to be pulled toward Sodom or are you rejecting the call of the world?

When Christ says that those that wish to follow Him must deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow Him, part of that denial is a rejection of the things of this world.  I’m reminded of that old hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”.  Guys I pray you will do just that.  Don’t look toward Sodom.  Look toward your Savior and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Have a blessed day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

Different

Ezekiel 14-16

Do you know what I thought when I finished reading today’s passages?  I thought “Boy is God mad!  He is really, really mad!”  Now we have been reading of God’s condemnation of Judah for a while but in today’s verses He used some pretty strong examples to get the point across.  The first verses that really stopped me in my tracks was this:

Ezekiel 14:13-14

“Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God.”

The reason these verses got my attention is that Ezekiel and Daniel were contemporaries.  Ezekiel was using Noah and Job as examples of righteous men and I understood that.  These were examples from the earliest of recorded history.  People had millennia to read of them and learn to revere their righteousness.  Daniel could very well have been alive at the time of the writing of these verses.  This meant that his renown as a righteous man had spread fairly quickly.

God’s point in mentioning these men was to help the wayward people of Judah to understand that not only did they lack righteousness to save themselves from punishment, but that, even if these three righteous men themselves were among them, even their righteousness would not be enough to save them.  You see Noah’s righteousness saved his sons and their wives and even the future of all mankind.  Job’s righteousness had allowed him to survive his trials and saw children and wealth restored to him.  Daniel was the current “rock star” of righteousness.  His fame as a righteous man, and the protection God had afforded him, was obviously known far and wide.   Ezekiel was simply using the most widely recognized person of righteousness known to the people of the day as another example of righteousness that could not save the condemned.

The people of Judah considered themselves righteous and they were horribly mistaken.  God was trying to get that point across to them.  I recently spoke with an individual who was as lost as lost can be.  He was rather nasty in his attitude toward Christians.  He was one of the most arrogant men I have ever met.  He viewed himself as a purveyor of peace and justice and love – all while cussing up a blue streak at me for the crime of being stupid.  He has it all figured out you see.  The rest of us are just too stupid to understand his brilliant truth.  He is his own idol.  He has no intention of repenting and turning away from all his abominations.  He is dead meat.  It breaks my heart.

The reason God said that even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were among them they would only deliver themselves, is because these lost folks would not listen to even these righteous men.  That man I spoke with?  I wonder if he would repent even if Jesus Christ himself appeared before him.  That is how hard his heart seemed to me.  That is how hard the heart of the people of Judah’s time had been.

Moving on, all of chapter 16 is a vivid example of how horribly Judah had behaved toward God.  God gave an analogy of infidelity as a way to communicate the severity of Judah’s transgressions.  I pictured a Hollywood movie as I read that chapter.  I’m sure I’ve seen some version of this on the silver screen.  The man that finds a down and out, helplessly wretched woman in a gutter and saves her, and pours his love and riches on her only to later discover her cheating on him and giving away his extravagant gifts to her many lovers who simply use her and cast her aside.  How would you feel if your wife did something similar to you?  Would you be angry?

Finally, this next verse made me wonder about the church in America.

Ezekiel 16:47

“Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.”

Judah had become more corrupt than the nations that surrounded them.  What was God’s purpose in establishing Israel as His people; His nation?  He established them to show His power and grace to the rest of the world.  What did His chosen people choose to do?  They chose to cast Him aside and chase after foreign gods.  They became even more debauched than the rest of the nations around them.  In today’s reading God mentioned Sodom in comparison to Judah.

I remember hearing a quote attributed to Billy Graham “If God doesn’t punish America He will owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology”.   America has certainly become a rather toxic culture.  Many in our country today think the Muslim world hates us because of our politics.  I’m sure our support of Israel doesn’t go down easy for some Muslims but many of their Imams seem to harp on our poisonous culture.  If you think sex and violence is a corrosive influence in society then you must think the American culture is pure acid.

So if our American culture is so foul, why do the statistics show little difference between Americans that call themselves Christians and those that don’t?  The divorce rate is almost identical.  We hear of sexual perversion and violence committed by alleged Christians almost every day.  I don’t believe we are there yet, but is there a day when the church in America is more corrupt than the non-believers?  I find it hard to believe that such a thing could ever occur, but why is that we so closely mirror the society around us?  Aren’t we supposed to be different?

Let me ask you; are you different than your lost neighbor?  How?  How does this difference make itself known?  Would your neighbor view you as different – in a good way?  Christians in America today are not the people of Judah back in the day; not even close.  The people of Judah had surpassed the evil of their neighbors; we have not done that, nor do I think we ever will, but our behavior is getting too close to that of our lost neighbors and boy is it time for us to start pushing the needle the other way.  It is time for us to stand up and show the difference.  Will you be different?  I hope so!

May your neighbor see the light of Christ in you!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

Your Sins Have Kept Good From You

Jeremiah 4-6

Boy, some heavy duty punishment is coming Judah’s way!  As I read today I couldn’t help but think of Sodom and Gomorrah.  God let things go as far as they could and then He brought punishment.  He did that with Israel and then Judah as well.  He is doing that with us today.  Just as the prophecies of the destruction of Judah came to pass, so will the prophecies of the destruction of this age.

As I read of Judah’s disobedience and the righteous anger of God, I knew the time for destruction had come.  I watch our world today and feel the time has come again.  God tells us that punishment is coming; why should this be so surprising?

One verse really stood out to me today.

Jeremiah 5:25

“Your iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have kept good from you.”

Here Jeremiah is talking about God’s blessings.  The people of Judah have sinned against God and their sin kept good from them.  My daughter often calls me the “fun sucker” meaning I suck the fun out of “everything”.  She usually says this after she has been doing something that I felt raised a “teachable moment” as our president likes to say.  When these moments occur I stop her and I tell her that what she is doing might cause harm to herself or to others.  She takes this as being told she can’t do something she wants and likes to do.  Part of the problem is her desire to be her own boss.  She rebels against my authority.

I, on the other hand, take my responsibility as her father extremely seriously.  When it might be easier for me to sit in front of the television and ignore her minor self destructive acts, I realize that I only have so much time to guide her into right behavior.  I have to deny myself and put her future well being first.  I sacrifice for her.  I love her and want her to be happy.  When I instruct her I am attempting to guide her toward happiness.  My daughter doesn’t really see that.  She’s a kid.

Too many of us look at God as the great “fun sucker” in the sky.  He just takes all the fun out of life.  Of course, we are rebelling against His authority.  We want to be the boss and being reminded we are not makes us cranky.  But God loves us.  He sacrificed for us; He sent His son to die on the cross for us.  His Word does not attempt to take the fun out of life.  In fact, it attempts the exact opposite.  God attempts to guide us to true happiness.  He is our Heavenly Father.  He loves us.  He wants us to be happy.  If only we would accept His guidance.

Brothers we are not kids.  Kids are still learning how to control their emotions and behavior.  We men, however, are of the age of accountability.  One should not be surprised by a lost person acting like a lost person.  It is their nature.  This is not an excuse.  They will still be held accountable.  What is surprising to me is the person who claims to be a Christian who acts like the lost.  There is something wrong there.  You are forgiven if you truly accepted Christ which includes repentance; a turning away from sin.

We call God our “Lord and Savior”.  We seem to put a great deal of emphasis on the Savior part while kind of ignoring the Lord part.  Why is that?  Are we still rebelling against God’s authority?  Are we still viewing God as a fun sucker rather than the loving Father that He is?

Guys, pursuing our own desires keep us from good.  Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.  We can’t have that abundant life if we are dead set against following God’s guidance. Notice the last line of the following verse from today’s reading.

Jeremiah 5:31

“the prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule at their direction;
my people love to have it so,
but what will you do when the end comes?”

Do you want things your way or His way?  If you are lord of your own life, what will you do when the end comes?  You have accepted His salvation now acknowledge his Lordship.

Luke 9:23

“And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Deny yourself, not the good He has in store for you!

Have a self denying day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!