Serving Like Daniel

As he came near to the den where Daniel  was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, "O  Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually,  been able to deliver you from the lions?" Then King Darius wrote to  all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: "Peace  be multiplied to you. I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people  are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living  God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion  shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders  in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions."  Daniel 6:20, 25-27, ESV

Today I wanted to focus on the  phrase "whom you serve continually." In previous posts, I have  mentioned the concept of doing everything as onto the Lord. Whether we  are working, playing, resting, ministering, or whatever else it might be,  our hearts and spirits should always be reaching out to him in an attitude  of reverential and worship fear of him, an attitude that says that "in  him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28)

The passage above refers to the  king of Babylon, whom Daniel was supposed to be working for. However, note  that this king is very aware that Daniel did not serve him. Darius acknowledged  that Daniel served the God of Israel as his ultimate master, through the  service he provided for him. Daniel served God at the place where God had  placed him, by doing everything as onto Him, to bring Him glory, and doing  the best work he could. For Daniel, it was in an advisory position to king  Darius. Where has God placed you to serve Him and bring Him glory?

Today I want to ask you two questions:

Are the people you work with/for  as aware of whom you serve as the king of Babylon was sure of whom  Daniel worked for?

Why or Why not?

Lord, help us to become your servants  in such a way that everyone we come into contact with, everyone we work  with/for, will know that we serve YOU ALONE, not money, ourselves, or anything  else. Use us in such a way that those that do not know you may proclaim  praises to you, just as king Darius did, by witnessing our lives and work.  Let us do everything for your glory. Thank you for your amazing grace,  use us to extend that same grace and love onto the lost that are in our  lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Faith

If understanding and experiencing God's loving-kindness yields loving-kindness in ourselves, and the same happens with His wisdom, why would understanding His power not yield power in our lives?

The answer to that question is simple. Faith is power. If you look carefully throughout the gospels, you will notice that a great majority of the miracles performed by Jesus were based on faith. A specific instance comes to mind where Jesus, seemingly, performed a miracle without even meaning to do so. This miracle happened, apparently, based completely on the faith of the recipient. Let's take a look at it.

"And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, 'My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.'
And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, 'If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.' And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my garments?' And his disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'' And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.' " Mark 5:21-34, ESV

Similarly, where there was no faith, He performed very few, if any, miracles (Matthew 13:53-58). Now, lets clarify that faith is not an absolute necessity to have a miracle. God can perform any miracle anytime He wants, regardless of whether He is asked to or whether there is faith.

The movie "Bruce all Mighty" makes a good point. In this movie God grants Bruce all of His power to do as he wills. Bruce uses this power and, by the end of the movie, manages to make a complete mess of His and everyone else's situation, except maybe his dog. The point is clear, even if God granted man His power, man would not be better off, but probably worse. Along the same lines, Jesus said that whatever we ask for will be granted to us, as long as we ask for it in His name. This is a biblical legal disclaimer. What He was saying is that those things will be granted to us as long as they are in accordance to His will and His nature. God's power, bestowed onto man, would be a terrible curse.

True power, however, is demonstrated in living a life of peace, in loving our enemies, in forgiveness, humility, in a tame and encouraging tongue. All these things stem from our relationship with God, from our intimacy with Him, and from learning to walk by faith, following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Understanding how powerful He is, combined with His wisdom and loving-kindness towards us, will yield greater trust and intimacy with Him. It will lead to a life of true Christian power, which is our faith in Him.

Judgmentalism

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." Matthew 7:1-5, ESV

I want to suggest that this scripture does not refer to the final judgment, but to our everyday life. The final judgment will not be based on actions or attitudes, but on our faith on Jesus Christ alone.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV

In my life, I have experienced times of peace and times of strife. I have found that how judgmental I am of others has a direct affect on how judgmental I am towards myself. My struggle with perfectionism has a lot to do with this. My expectation of myself and others is another aspect of this issue.

Over the last several years, I have become more and more judgmental. A trait that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I am working on eliminating. However, during my younger years I was not this way. It is an interesting coincidence that during my earlier years I was not only a lot more acceptant of people, but I also had a much greater sense of peace and acceptance towards myself. This yielded a much more peaceful life, in terms of my peace of mind and heart. I was much more friendly and easy going. Similarly, as I have grown more judgmental, I have become less friendly, harder to get along with, and angrier.

This is what I believe Jesus was trying to tell us when he said that in the same way we judge other, we will be judged. Not that we would be judged by Him at the final judgment, but that we would judge ourselves in this way during our earthly life, and make it a miserable one.

Today I want to challenge you to look inwardly and be honest with yourself. Once you have done that, ask yourself: Am I judgmental of other? How much?

Father, thank you for opening our eyes and showing us those sins that are keeping us from the life you want us to have. Please help us loose our lives, that we may find it. Help us lead the life that you want us to lead. Help us be your image here on earth. Thank you Jesus for how good you are. Thank you for teaching us. Thank you for wanting what is best for us, even if we don't understand it that way sometimes. Amen.

Wisdom

The word "wisdom" has many definitions. One of them is the ability to use or apply knowledge to life. The key in this definition is in the knowledge part. Not only does God know how to use knowledge correctly (which few of us do, my self excluded), He has an infinite amount of it. His wisdom, therefore, is immeasurably greater than any amount of wisdom a man could ever attain.

Wisdom comes only from God, all wisdom is from God, and no wisdom comes from anywhere outside of God. God gives wisdom to those who ask, but it still belongs and originated from God. Likewise, God also gives wisdom to the world and the lost, as part of his common grace. The wisdom that a Christian can obtain comes from a close an intimate relationship with God. It starts with humility and the reverential fear of God, and it is all about trusting God and His judgment.

When we fully understand that God knows what He is talking about and decide to obey Him, then we would have achieve some marginal level of wisdom. It is then that we can start trusting Him more, knowing that He will not lead us astray.

Loving Him is not enough to trust Him. I love my fifteen month old child, but I would not trust him with my finances because he is not capable in that area. We must believe and understand that God is fully capable to handle all of the different circumstances that may arise in our lives.

Once we truly believe that He is capable and He loves us enough to get involved in our lives in a proactive way, we will start to feel that sense of peace that surpasses all understanding. That peace that comes from really knowing that everything will work out fine in the end.

As a final thought, I wanted to leave you with this question:

Why is it so hard to trust God on our everyday lives?

I would love to hear your answer.

God's Loving-Kindness

What is God's loving-kindness?

The beloved John 3:16 scripture says it clearly. God loved, so He acted, as a matter of fact, He gave, He sacrificed.

There has been an increased focus on God's love lately, not as much as I would like there to be, but definitely an improvement. However, love is not enough. It is not enough to love God and others. Similarly, God does not just love us. That is why we are talking about God's Loving-kindness. God's loving-kindness is God's love expressed to us in his kind thoughts, intentions, and actions towards us. God loves us, and He expresses that love towards us. He expressed that Love for us at the cross, and He continues expressing it to us every day.

It is because of His love towards us that we can trust Him. Though we might not understand why He does what He does sometimes, we need to learn to trust His love towards us and His good intentions. The closer we come to Him, the more we will know and experience His love for us. Time and time again I have to keep my young son from playing with dangerous objects such as the electric outlet, extension cords, sharp objects, bees, and so forth. Sometimes, when my wife or I re-direct his attention to something safer to play with, he throws a complaining and grumbling fit. He does not understand that some things are dangerous to him. The same thing happens between God and us. We do not understand the dangers of those sins we think are harmless, but He does. And we throw a fit when, in His love, He tries to protect us and keep us from harm.

We go through life filling our hearts with everything but God. Looking for Love in all the wrong places. Stuff will never be able to fill that void, nor will people, money, success, or anything else. Only God can satisfy that deep yearning within our hearts that cries to be loved, respected, accepted, to feel important and cherished.

Do you truly understand God's love for you?
Do you truly believe that He loves you and has the best intentions towards you, even though sometimes you may not understand Him?

Foundational Christian Values

In an earlier post I mentioned that there are three main aspects of God's character that are crucial for Christians to understand. I listed them as: Loving-Kindness, Wisdom, and power.

These three aspects of God should be reflected in the Christian's life in a similar way. Understanding these three aspects should yield Loving-kindness, wisdom, and faith in our own hearts and lives. Over time, these should manifest themselves as righteousness, peace, and joy.

It is important to process all of our lives through these filters of Loving-kindness, wisdom, and power. To me, they are the basis of Christ likeness. I consider these (loving kindness, wisdom, and faith) to be three foundational Christian values, specially Love.

When we understand these three aspects of him, we will be able to trust Him. We will do so because He loves us and all of His intentions towards us are to our benefit.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11, ESV

He knows how to handle our lives because of his wisdom, and He has the power to control whatever circumstances might arise. So, when we are faced with any uncertainty, we can rest and trust in Him. Because He can handle it, He will handle it, and in the end, when everything is said and done, it will be to our advantage to have gone through it (though it might not necessarily be pleasant.) Even when He disciplines us, He loves us and has our best interests in mind.

"And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.' " Hebrews 12:5-6, ESV

Today, I encourage you to start pursuing these Christian values, not our of self-righteousness, but out of your love for Him!!

Do You Enjoy Your Life?

"Dear God, thank you for making so many wonderful things for me to enjoy, and thank you for loving me most of all. Amen."Michelle Medlock Adams, How Much Does God Love You?

I love this prayer. My wife reads it to our fifteen-month-old child almost every night, yet I never quite grasped the full meaning of it until last night. God gave us life so we may enjoy it. He made everything on earth for us, because He loves us. He created an amazing world, full of things that we may enjoy. He created a universe of wonders for us, so we may wonder at His Glory and praise Him; yet we go through our every day life ignoring all these things, focusing on our problems and lack.

"There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind." Ecclesiastes 2:24-26, ESV

There is so much out there for us to enjoy, let us start looking at what we have instead of what we don't. Let us start looking for, and finding, enjoyment in life, and praising Him for it.

"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24, ESV

Father, thank you for this piece of revelation. Thank you for changing our hearts and attitudes so we can start looking for those things in life that we can enjoy, and start trusting you with the other parts of life that cause us pain and fear. Thank you for how good you are. Thank you that we can trust you with our very lives. Thank you that you love us infinitely and, in your wisdom and power, you protect and guide us. Amen.