We’ve so far looked at Daniel’s formation as a teen, and his faith and how that informed his service to Babylon. Now, we’ll take a look at the first two of the several visions that he was able to identify and explain. There are some good applications that we can make for our lives today from the wonderful gift of wisdom that Daniel possessed.Daniel 3
Archives for the month of: October, 2012
Continuing on with our ‘Daniel’ study, we are looking this week at Daniel’s faith.
A daring faith. A faith characterized by wisdom. And a faith that made Daniel humble.
In this character-study intro to Daniel, we’ll discover what made this man a cultural force for Godliness and a good friend and Disciple.
As a teenager, Daniel intersected with a totally foreign culture that wanted to erase his Christian distinctives and remake him in its image. Hey, that’s not unlike what our ‘Babylon’ wishes to do to us in 2012! Discover what made Daniel the singular man he was in this study
The beginning 5 minutes was unrecorded, and so we’re talking about Babylon taking Jewish youths into captivity in the 6th century BC. Jesus called Daniel a prophet, though the book of Daniel is in the classification of OT Scriptures called ‘ the Writings’. Under the scrutiny of higher criticism of the Bible, it was thought that Daniel wrote later than the books’ claim and that he molded the book to seem like a predictor of future events. Archaeology has since debunked that notion, and the Bible still stands as an accurate and trustworthy book!Daniel intro
Communion Sunday Oct. 7, 2012
It’s not original to conceive of a Communion-Service devotional that has the word ‘remembrance’ in it.
It is helpful, however, to realize that in our hurting world- and in daily lives that play host to so many thoughts and memories- we need to be ‘in remembrance of’ Jesus every day.
It’s not just about remembering Him. It’s about how those remembrances banish unhealthy, sinful, and crippling thoughts and memories.
Brad Williams, 51, is a man with a good idea of remembrance. He can recall minute details of a day when he was 8 and the family went on an outing. He remembers the weather, what people were wearing, and headlines that made the papers that day.
What if we could do a better job of recalling the many ways in which Jesus was faithful to us, worked out an impossible difficulty, provided for our needs, or relieved fright with His peace? Wouldn’t that kind of recall give us superior Christian-living skills?
I believe we can live ‘in remembrance of Him’ in three ways: We can remember Him as Savior. We can remember Him as Friend. And we can remember Him as Lord.
Remembering Him as Savior means that we stand forgiven if we are Christians. Things we did, do today, or will do tomorrow are forgiven by the blood of Christ. Rom. 8:1-3 reminds us that…
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1984 (Ro 8:1–4). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
What some are struggling with is the feeling of not being forgiven. Maybe you feel shame or guilt over something that you’ve done in the past. You figure Christ can’t accept you as a follower. And if others knew what you’d done, they’d be disappointed in your potential as a Christian! But for the Believer, Christ has separated our sin from us as far as ‘the east if from the west’. Maybe you’re convinced that there’s no hope. After much effort, prayer, and pleading, things remain hopelessly at odds with the ideal. Rom. 15:4 reminds us
4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1984 (Ro 15:4). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Satan wants to keep playing his ‘favorites’ list in your mind. Over and over, he wants to remind you that what you did disqualifies you from following Christ. What you used to be like gives the lie to any claim you make as to your interest in following the Savior. But we must stop letting these thoughts dominate our thinking.
Through reading God’s Word we can gain hope as we are reminded of God’s forgiveness, love, strength, and promises!
We can remember Him as Friend realizing that some struggle not with feeling forgiven, but with forgiving others. Maybe someone hurt you very much in the past. Any understanding of God’s love, trustworthiness, or maybe His Fatherly qualities, is out of reach for you because you’re hanging on to a hurt or someone’s terrible treatment of you, and it is keeping you from being what God wants you to be. He stands beside us as friend to hear our innermost troubles and hurts. He is beside us desiring that we let go of whatever is keeping us from remembering Him in our daily lives. John 15:5 states that
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1984 (Jn 15:15). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
We are also told in Galatians 6:2 to bear one another’s burdens. It’s time to tell your story. You must consider Christ your friend and unburden yourself of that ball of death inside. Tell Him your story and cry out to Him for help. And tell another Christian lady or man your struggle. We are commanded to walk alongside others when they need help with their burden. Others can help challenge us and spur spiritual growth.
Remembering Him as Lord takes us to the instructions for Communion in I Cor. 11:24,25. There we see that Christ wants us to remember Him in the observance- and by implication and by other Scriptures- every day.
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1984 (1 Co 11:24–25). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
There are many things filtering through our mind. There are all kinds of memories that make up our days. But the discipline we want is to remember Him. To forgo instant gratification in favor of a reflection upon His answers to our prayers. To replace the narrow, self-concerned perspective that we have so often for a view of Christ on the cross and the love and purpose that brings to mind. To think about how He might be glorified and our faith deepened by letting Him have control instead of scheming how to navigate a situation.
Most know that the Taj Mahal was created by a man for his beloved. An Indian nobleman built this wonder of the world for a Persian Princess. It stands as an eternal declaration of splendor-filled passion to remind the world of a man’s love. During WWII, massive scaffolding was erected to disguise it, and to avoid bombing by the Japanese. Do we put on the armor of God to deflect Satan’s attacks and so that we can be an organic, powerful memorial to the Lord? Do we take care to preserve ourselves a living memorial to the Savior who died, the Friend who stands ready to listen and heal, and to the Lord who wants to fashion us into Disciples?
Let’s remember Him today!
With the Godly pattern of working in the church as preparation, someone will then be ready to respond to God’s call to work in the harvest field. We all are called; some are led to go the mission field. In this sermon, we explore some’ hows’ and ‘whys’ of MissionsWork as Worship3
Work as Worship2The Biblical philosophy of work was our previous topic, now we’ll look at what it is to work in the church. Working alongside other Believers gives us an opportunity to work together to accomplish our mutual goals of building each other up and becoming equipped to reach our community. The exercise teaches us how to bear with one another and be “graceful” in our approach! This practice is what makes faithful followers of Christ who might eventually go into a wider world to spread the Gospel.
West Paris Baptist Church 