April 21, 2015

Our obsession with productivity is partly a reflection on our beliefs about the American dream, the idea that our potential for happiness is intricately tied to our freedom to pursue wealth. When you consider that 80 percent of the country thinks they will one day become rich, when in reality less than 10 percent will, it makes sense that many people live life like a race.

We’re competing to beat the odds. We think we must work harder and longer than the majority, squeeze more into our day than other people, if we’re to amass a fortune so we can escape the drudgery of work as we know it. That perception turns the present into something to endure instead of something to fully enjoy. (Lori Deschene, Tina Buddha, Simple wisdom for complex lives)

In our day to day encounter with friends and co-workers, when we ask, or they ask us, that oh so familiar salutation, what’s happening, how is your day. The response is always the same, which has little to do with what we ask but how busy we are which has become the “default response. “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.” “Wish there were more hours in the day.”

Well my busy friends, if we in the 21^st century got to have it now society are so busy, is God still relevant? The one who should be the most important asset and treasure in our life, where does He fall into our to do list for today? Maybe we can fit Him into our evening meal and the resent episode of Empire? Or maybe we can squeeze Him in between our morning bagel, orange juice, and the today show which is a must watch before we head out to work?

The problem we have in today’s society is that we have reduced the One who created Man and woman after His own image, to a as needed support figure, which we usually call upon in our emergency situations; death, health issues. Child rebellion, marriage, and the list continues. But we have not made God the focal point of our everyday lives. We have reduced Him to a 911 call that doesn’t require going through our cell phones to reach.

”As Mary’s tears of love flowed down her cheeks mixing with the fragrance of Love and gratitude of our Savior, she stoops to wipe the feet of the master, Her thoughts were only “I can’t forget the way life used to be when I was a prisoner to the sin that had me bound, I was lost in sin far from the peaceful shore. Then one day Jesus came to me and healed my soul with the wonder of His touch and I have never been the same.

And  I’m giving back to Him All the praise He is worthy of. Unlike Mary, have we forgot so easily what life had become before Christ abiding love came into our busy lives? Before we had acquired so much of the material things of this world? Each week as we sit in our pews at our churches, and fill the presence of God’s Spirit impressing upon us to give it all to the Master.

The god of this world waits for service to end and then reminds us what a hectic schedule we have this week. In addition, once we get home and our minds begin to focus on the things of this world we lose sight of Calvary and what God’s will for our life in this short probationary period we have here on this earth between life and death.

Remember my Friends, when each of us stand’s before God the only thing that will matter will be what was our Relationships with Christ, while we were here on this earth. And as Christians we can never lose our focus on where Christ is leading us as we Study his Word, and seek His Spirit. And if that remains our focus, Eternity, and Gods pure and holy kingdom will soon be ours, but are we to busy to make it relevant.

So friends stay focused, remain faithful, love one another and endure till the end and never forget to STUDY&PRAY

April 19, 2015

MY FRIENDS, ARE WE WILLING TO SEEK WISDOM AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER?

“The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher” Luke 6:40 (KJV) So my friends are we willing to sit at the feet of the master and allow “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” to become a driving force that takes us from earth to eternity. But we must also remember, this becomes only possible, if we believe in His word.

And that “in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” Col.1;16 (NIV) and if we believe He is the creator of all things, we must also believe that the Lord will not “alter the thing that is gone out of His lips.”

In addition, In His great mercy the Lord has permitted still greater light to shine in these last days. To us He has sent His message, revealing His law and showing us what is truth. In Christ is the fountain of all knowledge. In Him our hopes of eternal life are centered. He is the greatest teacher the world has ever known,….. The greatest wisdom, and most essential, is the knowledge of God.

Self sinks into insignificance as it contemplates God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. The Bible must be made the foundation for all study. Individually we must learn from this lesson book, which God has given us, the condition of the salvation of our souls;” (E.G. White, Fundamentals of Christian Education, 450, 451)

And my friends, our training is not part time, but a lifetime achievement and the more we allow ourselves to be in the presence of the Teacher, the more we begin to see lost souls as God sees them and Individuals that the god of this world has blinded the light from the countenance of God to shine on them thus leaving their conscience unfazed by the good news of Christ return.

As we learn more and more from Christ and become His disciples, the Spirit then begins to give us the discernment to move out and become a witness for Christ, it also enables the listener to see Christ light through us and therefore is willing to seek that same  inner peace and hope. Remember God’s word is the process by which God’s character is cultivated in everyone who believes and endures.

But it must be a daily process we seek, and in so doing, we become aware of our own existence, sensations, thoughts, and surroundings, through Christ, and as a result, each day we begin to walk into Gods divine wisdom, a wisdom that allows us to focus and walk along the same path that Christ did when He was own this earth. A path of a humble and loving servant to all.

Christ has made it very plain in Matt.16:24 (KJV) It is foolish to allow the knowledge of this world to outweigh the knowledge we receive from Christ being our teacher. So “Seek first God’s kingdom and one day we will be rewarded, according to the power that worketh in us through God’s Spirit.

My friends “when we as God’s chosen learn how to give it all to the Master as we sit at His feet and allow every word that we receive by being in his presence to work within us, we will then be transformed by the renewing of our mind in him. Then we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Is for our life that will lead us to His pure and holy kingdom” Rom. 12:2 (NIV)

Remember my friends, Gods grace gives us the “diligence to make our calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, we shall never [stumble or] fall,” on our journey to the promise land.

So friends stay focused, remain faithful, love one another and endure till the end and never forget to STUDY&PRAY

April 18, 2015

MY FRIENDS, DO WE HAVE TIME TO SERVE AND SPEAK OF CHRIST SECOND COMING NIGHT AND DAY?

“And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. 38 And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.” Luke 2:36-38 (NKJV)

Anna a prophetess of God. In her youth had only seven years of marital bliss and then came a broken heart due to the death of her husband, but she did not “sorrow as others who have no hope.” For she studied the scriptures and believed the Messiah would come one day, so she did not sit about in self pity bemoaning her tragedy, but decided to dedicate he life to serving God.

And now at 84 years old her focus was forever on the coming Messiah. In addition, forever serving God with fasting and prayers night and day. My friends what a testimony to the one who serves God night and day and is forever in His presence. The necessities of life that we take for granted was not a problem for her because God was her everything “He’s [was her] joy in sorrow He [was her] hope for tomorrow, He [was her] rock in a weary land and a shelter in the time of storm”

In addition, She never stop praising God and because she was daily in His presence, she had no doubt when she saw the baby Jesus who He was. And she was Forever a light to all who came into the temple in the midst of their storm as they also looked with great hope and anticipation for Israel’s Redeemer. So today my friends there can be no doubt if you are a child of God that our “Redeemer lives, and one day he will stand upon the earth again.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4:16-18 (NKJV)

But like Anna the prophetess are we telling everyone that will listen that our redeemer cometh a second time and “His reward is with Him, and He will give to each person according to what they have done. [for He is]the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. ”Rev. 22:12-13 (NKJV)

In a speech made in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, “We have been the receipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prospertiy; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”

Now Lets move the clock forward 150 years later to April 18, 2015 and ask ourselves has anything changed? My friends Christ needs workers He needs each of us to make a commitment to give it all to Him like Anna the prophetess as we tell the world the good news that our savior will return one day and there is hope for everyone, because He will save all who believes in His name, Jesus Christ.

So friends stay focused, remain faithful, love one another and endure till the end and never forget to STUDY&PRAY

MY FRIENDS, HOW FAR WILL YOUR SPIRITUAL PORTFOLIO TAKE YOU?

The mental faculty by which we  deliberately choose or decides upon a Plan for our life is usually placed into what the world calls a financial portfolio, which are the total holdings of our most valuable assets and securities that we have accumulated; 401k, stocks, bonds. money market, real state, etc. So my friends what about our spiritual holdings and securities as it relates to our salvation?

What are our most valuable assets spiritually, or do we have any? Or have we become bankrupt spiritually do to the fact we have allowed this world to dictate to us how we will spend eternity? God has created a glorious universe, images from the Hubble telescope reveal awesome galaxies and planets that goes beyond what man can see without it.

Have you sometimes gone out at night and envisioned, where does it all end? Oh the astronomical phenomena that limits our imagination by time and space, yet we all have a desire to understand what is out there.

Even as a child of God, we cannot begin to explain, what is beyond what man can see with his eyes. But what we do know is that God has planned for the redeemed a place “eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Cor. 2:9 (NASB)

But the question we must ask ourselves, do we have the faith to include the promises of God into our Spiritual Portfolio? Each of us as candidates for God’s pure and holy kingdom need to remember, God will not force us to Choose His Spiritual advice of How we will spend Eternity over Satan’s advice that leads to perdition.

Remember Satan has a legal claim to our mind and body because of the choices we have made that allows him to be our master. John 1:12 (KJV) tells us “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” So if I understand that text correctly my faith in a Crucified Savior gives me the right to be a Child of God. and spend eternity in His pure and holy kingdom.

Oh what love, that He would give such a right to a wretched sinner like you and I, and then through our faith, if we do allow Christ and His Spirit to take total control of all matters relating to our Salvation, then it will be our responsibility to “go into all the world” and inform others of the good news of Christ soon return.

My friends as we follow the word of God we should understand that Satan’s motives are only to keep us blinded with what this world, which is bound for perdition deems is right and acceptable. 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe…” “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

What a Portfolio for His Children. walk in the Spirit, submit to God and “take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” As I read the Word of God I can see that if we just follow a step by step course of action that our Savior has laid out for us, Salvation and life eternal will be ours.

And When Christ enters those clouds for a second time, with no reservation we can be assured, He will say to the faithful who has endured and allowed their portfolio to be washed in the saving blood of Christ “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

So friends stay focused, remain faithful, love one another and endure till the end and never forget to STUDY&PRAY

April 16, 2015

MY FRIENDS, DO WE HAVE THE PASSION TO BE MADE WHOLE BY A SIMPLE TOUCH?

“A nominal faith in Christ, which accepts Him merely as the Saviour of the world, can never bring healing to the soul. The faith that is unto salvation is not a mere intellectual assent to the truth. He who waits for entire knowledge before he will exercise faith, cannot receive blessing from God.

It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in Him. The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal Saviour; which appropriates His merits to ourselves. Many hold faith as an opinion. Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God.

Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power. ” (E. G. White, Desire of Ages, The Touch Of Faith) And behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment.

For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. Matthew 9:20-22 (KJV) Whenever we speak of this Bible Story, we usually deal with the healing aspect of the story instead of the power of Jesus Christ to save the sinner sinking deep in sin.

Let’s not miss the message of Christ actions by focusing only on the miracle of healing and not on the Saving Grace of the Master and all He is willing and able to do for us. Often when Jesus healed in the gospels, He told the person that was healed not to tell anyone. It was not because He was trying to hide the power of His miracles, but He knew the need of our focus to be on His name, and journey to Calvary.

Twelve years of constant blood flow. What physical strength the woman with the issue of blood must have endured to get to the Master, exhausted and smothered by the crowd, oh the desperation just to touch the hem of His garment. My friends, how desperate and with what passion are we willing to be made hold and not just physical but most of all spiritual, by a simple touch?

The lady with the issue of blood told herself “If I may but touch his garment, I shall be made whole” reaching, crawling, hyperventilating just for a simple touch. Oh what passion as she reached out her hand and touched His garment as He passed. That was all it took my friends. She did not have to have some long psychological analysis of how she got to that point; were you abused as a child, did you live in a two parent home.

Were you discriminated against as a child. None of these questions needed answering only her faith because she knew the power of her Savior, because once we seek Christ, we know when you have entered His presence, because then we realize “what a friend we have in Jesus” because we than know “He, has searched us and knows us.

He knows when we sit down and when we rise up; He understand our thoughts from afar. He scrutinizes our path and our lying down, and He is intimately acquainted with all our ways. Even before there is a word on our tongue. Behold, O Lord, You know it all. Ps. 139:1-4 (NASB)

And from that point she or any of His children, once we enter  into His presence, than all we need from that point on is faith and the endurance to reach out to Him and not let go until we have been healed by the blood of Jesus Christ that takes away the sins of the world.

So friends stay focused, remain faithful, love one another and endure till the end and never forget to STUDY&PRAY

April 15, 2015

MY FRIENDS, ARE WE AVAILABLE, OR HAVE WE MADE OTHER PLANS?

“I am available to you lord!!” Those Six words gives our Master the full assurance that we are His and that we are willing to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, [so now with nothing to hinder us, we can] run with endurance the race that is set before us [by God].” Heb. 12:1 (KJV) Webster tells us being available; is “being ready for use; of use or service; at hand,” at all times.

My friends we cannot pick and choose when we are available to serve Christ, when He calls we must be ready to Serve. Once again let’s use Christ disciples as an example “And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.

Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.” Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.” Matt. 4:18-22 (NKJV)

In addition, the disciples recognized the presence and authority of what had been missing out of their lives, until Christ said follow me. Did you also notice there was no debate over the legitimacy of the one asking. We are living at a time in our world today where people are searching for answers, because they can see the world’s only concern is materialism; consumerism, and individualism.

Also a total departure from any and all religious, principles. But my friends, there are still many  souls that  recognize these are “perilous times, where men and women are lovers of their own selves; covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, and trucebreakers.

Also, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” 2 Tim. 3:1-4 (KJV) And as Christians if we have not allowed self to die in Christ and made ourselves available to His will for our lives, we will also take on these same attributes brought on by  Satan that only lead to destruction.

So today, we must tell the world that Satan is a defeated foe, that is what Calvary was all about. And now we all must remove every weight and the sin in our lives as we create a path that leads to Christ and life eternal so when Christ calls we will be prepared to serve. We cannot continue to sit on the side lines with the hope that things will get better, prophecy tells us they want.

So today let’s give it all to the Master and make ourselves available “for The Spirit of the Lord God is upon [His Children], Because the Lord has anointed [us] To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent [us] to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord……So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified..” Isaiah 61:1-3 (NASB)

So my friends “let’s give back to Christ, all the tools He has given to us. Our hands, our ears, our voice, our eyes, so He can use them as He please. So let’s empty out our cup, so that He can fill it up, now we are  free, and more available to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

So friends stay focused, remain faithful, love one another and endure till the end and never forget to STUDY&PRAY

April 14, 2014

MY FRIENDS, WHY ARE WE SLEEPING WHEN CHRIST NEEDS US THE MOST?

Today we will focus on Christ disciples, future ambassadors of this church we hold so dear. They were witnesses to Christ power as He cleanse the leper, spoke the words that healed the Centurions servant of palsy, cast out demons and raised Lazarus from the dead.

But their faith was still shattered when they allowed Satan to find an entry way into their lives. And it all plays out for His chosen in this generation so we can fully understand the power of Satan and why we must seek the presence of Christ Daily, and if we don’t, like His disciples we will also forsake Christ when He needs us the most “for such a time as this.”

Christ knew the faith of His disciples would be shattered and their path would be difficult, because they did not fully understand the power of Satan, so they choose to sleep instead of pray. As Christ was about to face Calvary “He went to the Mount of Olives, His disciples followed, when they arrived, Christ ask them to “Pray that you may not enter into temptation” as he went about a stones throw away to pray Himself.

Luke tells us, “He prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow He asked. “Why are you sleeping?” rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” Luke 22:36-46 (NKJV) and that my friends is the question we must ask ourselves “Why are we sleeping?”

Have we spent so much time with Christ throughout our life, Satan’s power no longer has any effect on us? Can we look at our life today and say with full assurance our Savior can brag on us like He did Job? When He ask Satan; “Have you considered My Faithful Children below who forever spends their time in my presence, there is none like him or her on the earth, a blameless and upright man and woman , one who fears God and shuns evil?”

Remember because of the power of Christ prayer life and His study of the word and His relationship with His father, He was able to calm a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee totally composed and undisturbed, He faced demonic hostility, temptation’s from Satan at every step, and the cross examination of Jerusalem’s religious Elect with total restraint.

Christ is our example my friends, He stayed focused and was able to bear His cross on Calvary, what about our Cross? Once again we must ask ourselves “why are we sleeping”  Christ constant contact with His Father especially before He went to Calvary should let us know the importance of prayer.

The disciples spent 3-1/2 years in the presence of Christ and still, at that particular time they were unprepared for what was about to take place, they did not recognize the importance of staying awoke when He needed them the most. My friends, what are we doing each day, are we unprepared for what is about to take place in the final pages of this life’s history.

Remember Christ is mediating and advocating on our behalf before His Father right now. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 2 Cor. 5:10 (NIV)

“To every soul who will suffer with Him in resistance of sin, in labor for His cause, in self-denial for the good of others, He promises a part in the eternal reward of the righteous. Through the exercise of the spirit that characterized His lifework, we are to become partakers of His nature. Partaking in this life of sacrifice for the sake of others, we shall share with Him in the life to come the “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (E. G. White R. & H., Sept. 28, 1911).

So friends stay focused, remain faithful, love one another and endure till the end and never forget to STUDY&PRAY

April 13, 2015

MY FRIENDS “FAITH IS CONTRADICTORY TO FALLACIES”

And fallacies is a deceptive, misleading, or false notion, that Satan creates from within “Eve really believed the words of Satan, but her belief did not save her from the penalty of sin. She disbelieved the words of God, and this was what led to her fall. In the judgment men will not be condemned because they conscientiously believed a lie, but because they did not believe the truth, because they neglected the opportunity of learning what is truth.”(E.G. White  Patriarchs and Prophets pp 55)

And Jesus tells us “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6 (NKJV) So our passion my friends, must be to seek that truth with all of our heart and soul and it begins with our faith in God. “And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”

Up to this point Eve’s faith in God’s word allowed her to live a life that was centered around her faith in the promises of God’s law of love which is a “transcript of His character” and His wiliness to give our first parents all of their needs through their faith and not the Fallacies of the god of this world that desired only to end the peace and happiness our first parents were accustomed too.

So he gave Eve an alternative, which was contradictory to her faith in God. “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; Gen. 3:4-7 (NKJV) and thus, sin entered the world because of the unbelief of our first parents in God’s word.

In addition, 6,000 years later, we have mankind, who because of the first Adams fall, have been redeemed by the second Adam, Jesus Christ “And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.

”The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven…… And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” [if we believe] 1 Cor.15:45-49 (NKJV)

My friends, the direction we are going and whether we finish this journey, is all about holding on to our Faith in God because “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)

In addition, at times “we doubt [God’s] goodness, we doubt [His] love as if every promise from [His] word is not enough and all the while, He hear’s each desperate plea and long that we’d have faith to believe. ‘Cause what if His blessings come through rain drops What if His healing comes through tears,

what if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know [He’s] near, What if the trials of this life are [His] mercies in disguise” (Laura Story, Blessings) My friends remember “this world is not our permanent home; [we must have a passion to] keep looking forward [through our faith] to a home yet to come.”Heb. 13:14 (NLT)

So friends stay focused, remain faithful, love one another and endure till the end and never forget to STUDY&PRAY

MY FRIENDS, CAN WE DARE TO BE A DANIEL IN THE 21ST CENTURY?

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-3 (KJV)

”perfect result, complete, lacking in nothing,” those words tells us that our faith is “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Before Christ comes for the second time, our eternal destination will have to be based totally on our faith and endurance. Let’s go to Daniel chapter 6 and see how one of God’s faithful in that generation handled a situation where it was all about his faith in his God.

“Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.” Daniel 6:10-11 (KJV)

if we go back to the beginning of chapter 6, Daniel has been appointed satrap or governor of one of the provinces under the ancient Persian monarchy. Then in verse 3 it tells us “Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.”

Then the chapter goes on to tells us; the other satraps attempted to find some fault with Daniel, in other words they were jealous and prejudice; this alien outsider, how dare the king put him in such a prestigious position. So they set out to find a loophole to trap Daniel, so their conclusion; we will never be able to find any fault with Daniel, so they decide to go after the God he serves and how Daniel serves Him.

But not fully understanding, as God’s representative, the light from the living God Daniel serves, shines through Daniel, out to the world. So if they can find no fault in Daniel, how could they ever think they would fine any fault in the Creator of the universe. My friends, does the world know our God through us if not, why not?

And does He live within us to such a point that it becomes obvious that no one “shall separate us from the love of Christ [and His will for us? not tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword………..and in all these things we [have become more] than conquerors through [our faith in]him that loved us? Romans 8:35-37 (KJV)

The plot thickens, the other governors devised a plan to get the death penalty for Daniel, But God’s chosen never changed his routine so he continued, three times a day praying with his window open so all could see. So the other governors get their wish.

But Daniel’s light from God, did shine onto the king because of His relationship with him, and  he tells Daniel “Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.” not He might deliver you, but He will deliver you. Oh yes my friends, he believed in the true God and what He was capable of doing. What a testimony to the one who serves God and let’s “His light so shine that others may see Christ in him.

Daniel spends the night in the lions den and in the morning, the king hurried to the lions’den. He calls Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?” Daniel answered, “God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions.

They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight.” And then at the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.”

My friends, it all comes down to, do we have the passion and endurance to dare to be a Daniel in the 21st century and have the perfect result, complete, lacking in nothing, as we carry our cross while following Christ wherever He leads us.