Daniel 6: Daniel's Longest Night

So much to say and not enough blog space to say it in! When I read this chapter, two things about Daniel just jump off the page at me: his integrity and his prayer life. I am humbled and challenged by his example in both areas… okay, let’s be honest – his example in both just kicks my fanny!

Daniel was now eighty years old; he had been involved in national politics in both Babylon and Persia for years (not exactly a profession known for integrity!). His competence and character led to greater and greater influence for him – and he made some enemies who wanted to trip him up. But no matter how hard they looked for some crack in his integrity, they could find nothing – and they knew his impeccable character was because of his faith in God. I wonder, what can unbelievers who work with us determine about our faith?

When it came to prayer, Daniel was a man of consistency. There is so much that we can learn from him. Take a moment and reread verse 10. Daniel has been in a foreign land his whole life. Three times a day he stops whatever he is doing – and he was a VERY busy man – and prays at a window facing Jerusalem. Why? Because, three times a day…

• he reminds himself that Persia is not his home
• he remembers that God has promised to take him somewhere else
• he prays for God to deliver his people out of captivity
• he gives thanks for the good things in his life  
• he asks for God’s help in remaining faithful
• he bows towards Jerusalem to remind himself who the true God is

Due in large measure to Daniel’s integrity and prayerfulness, God used him to influence an entire kingdom for good. How might he want to use you? Is there one small step that you can take to more closely align yourself with Daniel’s example?


Ken Jackson

Daniel 5 – Like Father, Like Son

So what does one do when the Medo-Persian army has surrounded your city? Why throw a party, of course! Belshazzar was so arrogant that he thought he could just divert everyone’s attention to something else instead of dealing with the impending danger outside the city walls.

We find Belshazzar in a similar prideful state as Nebuchadnezzar years earlier. Belshazzar knew what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar, but clearly hadn’t learned from it. In fact, he blatantly challenges God by bringing out the goblets that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem. He shows further disrespect by praising man-made, lifeless gods. All the while failing to recognize that his life was held in God’s hand. 

God crashes the party in quite a dramatic fashion! Did the disembodied hand stand out to anyone else? I’m just trying to picture the scene. There’s a crazy party and everyone’s having a grand time, when all of the sudden a hand shows up to put the writing on the wall. That’d get some people’s attention, eh?

My prayer this morning is that we would learn from those that have gone before us, walk humbly, and glorify the One who holds our breath in His hand and owns all our ways.

-Gina G.

Daniel 3 - Trial by Fire

Sorry for the delay today.
faith

noun

1.

confidence or trust in a person or thing: 

2.

belief that is not based on proof: 

3.

belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion:

Lets look at verses 17 and 18.

¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us^[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

I want you to read that again. 

They tell King Nebuchadnezzar that you can throw us into the furnace, and our God will deliver us, but even if He doesn't He is still God. What an amazing statement of faith!!

As a kid I can remember thinking that God would answer all my prayers just the way I wanted. I would lay in my bed, say my prayers, and ask God for all the toys I wanted at that time. I was really into He-Man (see photo below for those too young to know who that is) and I would ask God to place He-Man action figures on the door step of our home. The next morning I would run out to the front steps, and be highly disappointed that God had not place the He-Man action figure where I told Him too. Basically as a child, I saw God as a glorified Santa Claus. 

How many of us look at God in that way? We look at Him and say, "If things don't go my way then I'm checking out." We turn our back on God, because we lose our jobs or we lose an important relationship in our lives. Even if it's for a season, a lot of us grow tired of God, because we feel He isn't performing the "miracles" we need right now.

You see it doesn't take much faith to believe in something that always pulls through or always puts things back together when we ask Him too. If God made everything okay in the world then why would we need faith? 

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's faith did not depend on God saving them from persecution or making things right. Their faith solely came from a genuine love and zeal for God. 

I want that type of faith. I want to stand on the doorstep of death and despair, pray to God for help, and no matter His answer give Him the glory!!  

John

Daniel 1 – Enemy Employers

The past few weeks have been a delightful chaos of kids graduating from high school or college, kids getting engaged, kids getting married.  That so many of these kids have grown up here at Cedarbrook makes it all bittersweet.  Tears come easily for me this spring.  And over it all hangs this thing we call hope.  As they clutch their diplomas or walk back up the aisle, they dream dreams of their future.

Daniel and his friends were at that same place in life – at the beginning.  But now over their young lives hung, not hope, but despair, anxiety, fear.  Their future was gone, robbed by choices not of their making and powers beyond their control.  Then a window opened, a little ray of hope.  Imagine the sense of relief they must have felt at being chosen.  They were to be trained as servants in the royal court – not the life they wanted, but given their options, a good life.  A chance.  A future. 

But the good life has a price.  In this case, compromise.  (Some of you are at that same place in life right now.)  To climb through that window, they would have to compromise their convictions.  We can already hear the internal dialogue.  But it’s such a small thing.  It’s only lunch.  No one’s asking us to fall down before an idol.

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself (Daniel 1:8).

Any battle with sin begins here, with an internal choice, a resolve, a fixing of the heart, a purpose not to be defiled.  There may be many steps to follow: prayers prayed, verses memorized, prayers enlisted, accountability partners, Bible studies.  But it all begins here, alone, deciding not to take even the first step.

And my story, your story, begins here.  The kind of life we will build, the sort of man or woman we will become begins with a resolve, a fixing of the heart, a decision about what we will or will not do to earn the good life.

In the end, Daniel and his friends didn’t find a good life.  They lived charmed lives.  They walked through the fire and faced down lions and lived to tell about it.  (You really should read the whole book.)  And it was far more grand than anything they had ever dreamed those long years ago skipping rocks across the Jordan.

– Paul Abbott

Ezekiel 37 – Resurrection Time

If the One80 blog had an accompanying soundtrack, I’d be cuing up Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” right about now.  Wow!  This has to be one of the most outlandish passages in the Bible: dry bones of the long-dead come rattling back together, their bodies rising again with new breath.  If we already thought God had turned up the extreme teaching illustrations on Ezekiel, He cranks it to the max here.

Just one chapter before, in Ezekiel 36:24-38, God announces the future restoration of the nation.  Bible scholars believe God then gave Ezekiel a vision of what this restoration will be like.  Drawing from the vivid imagery God gives here of lifeless bones rising from the ground, scholars make these connections:

• The “bones” in verse 11 represent the whole house of Israel, their resting place the unmarked graves of foreign nations they have fallen into.

• Verses 12-14 prophesy the bringing of God’s people out of these graves and back together into one body, one nation—like tendons on the bone.

• Verses 13-14 speak of their conversion back to God, the breath of His Spirit filling their souls and restoring their lives.

All great news indeed for the embattled nation of Israel, but don’t miss the prophecy just for the gentiles in the last verse of this chapter—when God hints at His even wider plan of redemption (see Acts 15):

“Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.”

Reuben Smith

Ezekiel 4 - Write Loud and Shout

Okay, lets just be honest here.  There is a lot of really weird stuff in this chapter.  I am with Gina G...Ezekiel just does not fit the "flannel graph" picture of God we have.  In fact, some of the stuff in this chapter if put into a flannel graph would be down right disgusting.  I don't know any one that wants to see a representation (in any way shape or form) of bread being baked over human excrement (vs 12).  I would have been at least mildly interested to see what kind of clay representation he could have made of Jerusalem and it certainly would have been entertaining see him destroy the clay model.  It kinda made me think back to when I was a kid and would set up vast amount of those green army men in the yard and then wipe them out in a glorious battle scene.  Clearly there is some cultural references at play here that we may not fully understand with the lying on his side for well over a year and the very specific ingredients to the bread he was to eat during that time (it was a kind of bread that was typically used in times when food was scarce).   But all the weirdness aside the end of this chapter is very powerful.

"He then said to me: “Son of man, I am about to cut off the food supply in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair, for food and water will be scarce. They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of their sin." vs 16 & 17


Why is all of this happening....BECAUSE OF THEIR SIN.  At the end of the day...weirdness of this chapter and the sometimes apparent harshness of God in the Old Testament aside...it comes back to us.  They were being punished because they strayed away from what God wanted for them and from them.  And they suffered for it.  Important for us to consider when we are faced with the daily decisions of God's way....or our way.

Mathew McCabe

Ezekiel 2-3: Toughening Up

Like Jeremiah, God called Ezekiel to a pretty tough gig. Ezekiel was to be a lone voice that would speak God’s word – not very popular at this time – to a “rebellious”, “obstinate and stubborn” people (Ezekiel 2:2-3). Sounds like fun doesn’t it?

But, at some level, can’t you relate to Ezekiel? Don’t you feel sometimes like a lone voice as you seek to live for and speak up for Christ in a world that continues to revolt against God? Has it ever crossed your mind that it might be easier just to keep your mouth shut about God and what he says?

I bet you Ezekiel had those thoughts. I observe two instructions that God gives to Ezekiel that I think we can benefit from today:

• “Do not be afraid” (Ezekiel 2:5-10). Here we read God telling his spokesman three times to not be afraid. God knew what Ezekiel was up against – just like he knows what we are up against. God always provides us grace to accomplish what he asks us to do.
• “Take to heart” the words of God (Ezekiel 3:3-11). Ezekiel needed to make sure that he had taken God’s words deep into his heart before attempting to tell others about it. The same is true for us: we must allow the message of Christ to sink deep into our hearts before we can help other understand the gospel.

The next time you have an opportunity to speak God’s words to someone and find yourself double-clutching, remember these two instructions to Ezekiel. As with Ezekiel, may God find us faithfully reaching out to others, regardless of how they respond.

Ken Jackson