Obedience Brings Oppurtunities

Have you ever thought that something didn't matter because it was such a little thing? Or have you ever decided to tell a lie thinking that it was just a white lie? Daniel lived a life dedicated to following the truth. He lived a life of no compromise. I wonder how many times I compromise my faith by the choices that I make.
The other week we went through the book of Daniel in class. To sum it up, it blew my mind! I was so challenged by the book of Daniel. It made me want to live a life of no compromise in my faith. We all know the story of Daniel and the lions den from Sunday school but the way Daniel lived his life gave him oppurtunities for God to be proclaimed among the nations.
Daniel was exiled as a young man to Babylon around 605BC. He could have been a teenager. So imagine yourself in a foreign country. Who knows where your parents are, and you are forced to learn another language. You are given another name. You are given different food. You are given different ideas, thoughts, and introduced to different religons. This is what Babylon did to Daniel, they tried to disciple him and turn him into a Babylonian.
Coming from a conquered nation where the most common mindset towards the higher powers was that when one nation conquered another that meant that that nation's god was more powerful than the nation that was defeated. Also that same mindset believed that gods were territorial which meant that one god didn't have any power in another gods territory. This was a common mindset even among the people of Judah who were exiled to Babylon.
Daniel had all this stuff going on, he was bombarded with pagan mindsets and people wanting to change him into what they wanted. Yet Daniel stayed true to God. He chose to continue to follow the law and continued to worship the Lord and pray to Him. He trusted in the Lord and believed in Him even though horrible things were happening to him, around him and to his countrymen. Daniel stayed faithful and God blessed him for it. Daniel lived for the Lord, he didn't care about fame and riches which is why I believe that he rejected the gifts of Belshazzar. Daniel lived for the Lord and no other. He didn't want to compromise his faith to the Lord even in the little things. Because of this God used him to proclaim the Lord's name throughout the nations. Once under the Babylonian Empire and another under the Persian Empire. Just think, being obedient in what may seem small at the time could possibly be used to disciple nations.
Daniel didn't start out thinking that he was going to change Babylon for the Lord. No he started out thinking that he was going to remain holy to God, walk securly in truth. Everyday he likely awoke thinking how can I serve the Lord today. It was that obedience that ended up proclaiming God to the nations and discipling the nations. So I wonder if I am compromising my faith by doing something that hinders the gospel of Jesus from my mouth. I would like to say no but the answer is yes. So my challenge is to live a life without compromise, serving the Lord everyday, and choosing to be a discipler of the nations rather than being discipled by the nations.

Us versus Them Mentality

If you've ever read the book of Jonah at least one part will stick out to you. The whale or fish or whatever it was that swallowed Jonah for 3 days. But the part about the whale isn't what the book is about. The book is about God's love for the nations.

Jonah starts out with him running away from God because God told him to go to Nineveh the capital of Assyria which was rising to be the next super power. And no one liked a super power because that meant that the surrounding nations needed to bow to the super powers' wishes or face destruction. So Jonah ran away, but when he told the sailors that he was running away from the God who created the waters and the earth, that didn't jive with what he was doing. He didn't believe in what he said because if God created the earth and the waters there would be no place for Jonah to run away to. Then Jonah as you know gets swallowed by a whale or something in the big blue, well small blue as it's the Mediterranean. Then Jonah thinks that dying in a whale or something isn't the greatest way to go so he decides that it may be in his best interest to do as God commanded. So he gets spat up with all the fish goo on the beach and has to walk a few days to get to Nineveh. He gets there and speaks his piece and then goes up on a hill fully expecting for God to rain destruction on Nineveh.

"Bring on the fireworks God!" I can imagine Jonah saying this.

But God doesn't bring destruction on Nineveh because they repent and fear the Lord. Jonah, as he is sitting on the hill with the sun beating down on him, grows faint; so God makes a tree grow to provide him with shade. Then the day after the tree is grown God makes worms attack the tree and it dies, killing the tree and the shade that Jonah had. Jonah then gets angry about the tree. This is what the book is about. Jonah was mad about the tree being destroyed but looked forward to seeing the city of Nineveh destroyed. He cared more about the shade than a city with thousands of people in it.

Jonah is a picture of Israel and the tree is a picture of the promised land. Israel was given the promised land as a gift just like Jonah was given the tree as a gift. But Israel didn't follow through with their calling of being a blessing to the nations and bringing others into a knowledge of who God is. They bought into the pagan mindset that Jonah shows. A pagan mindset was thinking in territorial gods. One nation's god was the god over their territory which is what Jonah believed and showed by running away from God. Also, Jonah would have likely thought that God, because He chose Israel, was against everyone else. Again thinking territorial because when one nation attacked another and one was defeated, it showed that the god of the victor's nation was stronger than the god of the loser nation. Israel believed that God was for them and against everyone else because they were chosen by God. Even though they said that God created the world they thought in a pagan mindset that placed God in a territory and acted like other territorial gods.

Christians today can sometimes act the same way as the Israelites did. Us versus them. Christians against non-christian, church against church. But that's not what God created. God created mankind to have relationship with. Mankind. Not different levels of mankind but simply mankind, all on the same level, all having the same opportunity to have relationship with Christ. No one better than the other, but all loved just the same. God loved the Assyrians, He gave them a warning and a chance to repent and forgave them even though they weren't His "chosen" people. God loves all and wants relationship with all. But we as humans make distinctions where there should be none. We say to one person that they have to meet this certain standard in order to become a part of the church or a certain community. But really Christ followers should be loving and accepting all as they are. That doesn't mean we agree with sin, but that means that we love all people and form relationships with them. Christ followers need to be pointing the way to Christ by how they live their lives and interact with others.

This has challenged me. Is there any us versus them in my life as a Christ follower? Is there any in your life? It's definitely something to work towards becoming more like Jesus. Accepting all, loving all.

The Purpose of a Prophet

I used to think that prophets were this special breed of a
person who had this higher level of spirituality than anybody else. You may
have guessed already that in the Bible school we are already in the prophets.
This week we have started on the books of Amos and Jonah. Prophets are
important both to those who were in the days of the Old Testament and today as
well. I’ve learned that the role of the prophet though is to realign people on
the path that God has for them. I used to think that being a prophet was solely
predicting the future but it is so much more. I think that more importantly
than telling the future is the role that the prophet has in the moment to point
out wrong and call people to repentance and seek God so that they can live. When
the Kings of Israel or Judah were falling away from the Lord and the priests
were no longer teaching the people the ways of the Lord then that’s when the
prophets would step in and remind the people of their calling to be God’s
people. The prophets would call the people to repentance so that they would
come back to the Lord instead of going down the road to their destruction which
ended up happening anyway. I think the role is still the same today, to call
people back to the Lord. There is obviously more to it but I believe that this
is a major part of a prophet, to correct wrong, call people to repent and to
point people to seek the Lord. If this is the case then being a prophet isn’t
so impossible.

A Warrior Spirit

Over the past couple weeks something has been stirring inside me. The need for change.
After studying the life of David I was both convicted and inspired. After going through Samuel and learning of David we have looked at Psalms and studied Proverbs and Song of Solomon. Don't worry I won't go into detail with Song of Solomon.
After studying Samuel and learning what a great man of God David was, seeing his Psalms which he cried out to God and the wisdom of Solomon in Proverbs I was convicted.
Am I truly doing enough?
Am I honestly seeking God as much as I could?
Do I honestly love the Lord with all my heart?
The answer to these questions is no. I think that as humans we go through seasons, where one moment we can be on fire for God and the next we can be dragging our feet hoping for it all to end. It is so frustrating for me at times to look inward and see the ugly mess that I truly am. I've realized this week, once again, that I need more of God in my life. David had it figured out. Most of the time. He loved God and he placed his confidence in God. It was in God that David was able to live and do the great things that he did. David knew this and he knew who he was in God, he knew he was nothing without God and that for him to survive he needed to have God in his life. He made it his life to seek God and not only battle physical enemies but also spiritual ones that could have brought him away from God.
I need more of that in my life. More of that fighting spirit within me to protect my relationship with God and to fight for righteousness in my own life. I need to be a man after God's own heart and I need to fight to get their.

The life and times of David.

Saying I learned a lot last week is an understatement. Saying that David blew my mind last week would be closer to the truth.

Last week we studied Ruth and Samuel and let me tell you that David came alive in a whole new way. I always knew that he was a man after Gods own heart but to see him and Saul together and to study the differences! Man! I learned a lot about them and myself as well.

Saul was afraid, he did not want God's calling for his life and he proved it by hiding. But even though Saul was chosen and had all the outer signs of a leader, like the spirit of God, bravery, courage, warrior etc., even though he had these qualities he did not trust in God the way he should have. And that was his downfall. He tried to control the outcome using his own sources instead of trusting God and letting Him use His heavenly sources.

Now if you compare Saul with David you will see that David accepted his calling, he never hid from it. But just because he accepted it doesn't mean he got it right away. He waited for Gods timing to bring his calling about. David never tried to control the outcome of a situation or he never tried to force Gods plan into being. He simply waited for Gods timing and trusted that God would show him when it was time and what he should do.

How often do I try to put Gods plan into action, or what I think His plan is into action using my own strength when what I should really be doing is trusting, waiting and listening for God to reveal to me what He wants me to do? I've learned more of what it truly means to wait and trust on the Lord. My prayer is that the Lord will give me the strength to walk it out.

Thank goodness I am not God!

This past week we studied Joshua and Judges and while going through it I realized that if I were God I would have ended Israel's run long before their exile. God's grace and patience is amazing.

Joshua is such an amazing story, it really shows how great of a leader Joshua is. He is an example of Godly leadership. While going through the book you can see that he is a man of God because he is constantly pointing people towards God especially in the last section. He is also humble because he is willing to obey, admit that he is wrong and he is also willing to ask for forgiveness when he is in the wrong and even when he is not but someone else is. Joshua is an amazing read and I would highly suggest it to everyone. It really shows that God is faithful and gives what He promises.

And then their is Judges. To be honest Judges made me depressed. In just a generation the Israelites had strayed very far away from the Lord. Again and again they rebelled against God but to see God's reaction is absolutely amazing. The amount of love that He shows towards the Israelites is hard to imagine because if I were God I would have left the Israelites. Judges is a great book if you really want to see God's character. Again and again He comes to their rescue even when they rebel, and don't turn from their sin, He still loves them and rescues them. The amount of patience that Judges shows God has is unfathomable.

This coming week we will be doing Ruth and Samuel so I'm excited to see the redemption process move forward. Thank you for reading.

Nothing but Bible

As you may know by now I have started the Chronological School of Biblical Studies (CSBS). And let me tell you that it has been a ride so far!

It was difficult to adjust to being a student again but between the hard work and God's grace I've really enjoyed the books studied so far and believe that I've recieved some good revelation from them.

So far we've studied Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. We are currently studing Dueteronomy.

Now I could go into detail on what I learned from each book but I really don't think I could put it into words or type that much. So I'll just tell you some key points.

As you may know the first 5 books of the Bible are traditionally believed to have been written by Moses and the last 4 of them have to do with the exodus from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land. One thing that stood out to me was the amount of effort and planning that God put into making Abraham and Israel into a nation. He gave them everything from descendants, freedom, sturcture, laws, and land. God had a plan for Israel and I firmly believe that He has a plan for everyone else as well. Which makes me wonder how much faith do I have in God providing what is needed to accomplish what I think His plan is for me. He provided everything, from one man, God created more than one nation. So I need to trust that God can accomplish His goals even without my help because He certainly didn't have Abraham's after he died!

Something else really struck me as we have been going through the exodus. The saying "it's about the journey and not the destination" really fits for the Israelites wandering through the wilderness. It was the journey that built the relationship with God which prepared them for the Promised Land. I often look at the promises that God has for me and focus on them when it's the journey that I need to look at and learn from in order to walk out the promises the God has for me.

This school is a journey for me and I need to have a balance of focusing on the present and learning from it while being encouraged by looking ahead at what God has promised.