Month: July 2024

“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.  If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 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.” Daniel 3:16-18 NIV

In the third chapter of Daniel, The account moves from Daniel for a moment and focuses on his 3 friends, Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego. Leading up to the verses for today, King Nebuchadnezzar had ordered that every person from every land would bow before a golden statue that he had his workers make when they heard music. The music was their signal that it was time to bow to the statue in obedience to the king. If anyone did not bow to the statue then the punishment would be death by being thrown into the fiery furnace that was used to melt metal and bake the bricks to build buildings.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had not bowed when the music was played and one of the other individuals had informed King Nebuchadnezzar that he had 3 people in his court that were not obeying his order. King Nebuchadnezzar has the 3 men brought to him and questions them. This is where they make a hard choice and glorify to God. The king gives them one more chance to bow to his statue and obey his order.

In the verses for today, we see their answer to King Nebuchadnezzar when he asks them one last time if they will bow to the statue. The reply that they are not defending themselves and that they are not bowing to any statue, that they only worship God. They knew this meant death by burning alive in a furnace that was extremely hot.

They placed their trust and very lives in the hands of God, they showed how much they trusted God and how much faith they had in God to deliver them. They even said that if God chose not to deliver them, then they still would not bow to the king’s statue. They made the hard choice to follow God when it wasn’t convenient for them, their lives were on the line.

They could have bowed to the statue and then given a number of excuses as to why they did and how it was ok for them to do that. They could have said that they were only doing it this once so the King would stop harassing them about it or they could have said that they did it but didn’t mean any part of it. The problem with that is that once they did it, they would not have been able to undo it. Once they bowed to the statue, they were in. It was going to become harder to not do it the next time and what was the next excuse that they would use?

If they had chosen to bow, they would have been discredited as followers of God, their God, the God who had been faithful to them, protected them and who they had followed for all of their lives. God would have known that they obeyed the king and showed others that they had no trust or faith in God. They were in a tough situation and then chose to do the right thing and the hard thing.

Have you ever made a hard choice like this? One where you were going to lose something or someone if you chose God instead of what the other person wanted you to do. What did you do? Did you choose the other person or did you choose God? I pray you chose God.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23 NIV

Have you ever made a promise and then either chose not to keep it or were unable to keep it? I know I have, and unfortunately the person I promised probably remembers it more than I do. Whether I chose to not keep it or I was unable to keep it, the fact that I didn’t is one of the many things that makes me and you different from God.

God doesn’t choose to not follow through with a promise. God isn’t unable to keep a promise. When He promises something, He is faithful and follows through with what He promised. There are 2 types of promises that God has made with us, conditional and unconditional. Understanding which type of promise God has made to us helps us to realize why a promise may appear to have not been kept.

Conditional promises involve both parties having responsibilities. The first party has responsibilities to fulfill before the second party is able to fulfill their part of the promise. For example, from the life of a parent, it would look like this. A parent promises their child dessert after they have eaten their supper. The child needs to eat all of their supper before the parent will give them the dessert. In our spiritual life, it looks like this, God promises to answer prayers with either Yes, No or wait. However, this promise is conditional in that if we don’t pray and ask for anything of God then there is no prayer for God to answer. He won’t answer a prayer He has not received.

Unconditional promises involve both parties but only one of them has responsibilities in it. The responsibility is held by the party who made the promise. The party who bears the responsibility does not need the other party to do or say anything, their part in this type of promise is to simply accept that the promise is being kept. For example, God promised Noah that He would never again destroy everything on the earth with a flood. He has kept that promise to this day and I believe will continue to keep that promise. Our job as His children is to accept that He is keeping that promise.

God has promised us, His children, many things and some of those promises are solely His responsibility to keep, but some of them require us to do things. We need to make sure that we know which type of promise we are holding on to before we decide that we believe God isn’t keeping a promise. We may be surprised when we think about it that either God has not kept His part of the promise yet because we haven’t done our part yet or God has kept the promise and we don’t like the result.

When we hold onto the promises God has made, it helps us to walk through life on this earth with faith. We are able to walk in faith even when our circumstances are not as we would like them to be. That does not mean that God is not fulfilling His promise, it simply means that we would like the promise to have been different.

We know that God is faithful, that He is going to keep His promises, He always does. Any promise between us and God that is not kept occurs when we don’t keep our promises to God.

Have you made God any promises lately?

Have you kept those promises or have you walked away from them? Remember, God doesn’t walk away from us or His promises.

“Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Psalm 90:2 NIV

Have you ever sat back and thought about how wonderful God is? How about how wonderful His creation, all of the world is? I am amazed at how wonderful He is and that He is eternal. When I was younger both physically and spiritually, my mind struggled to understand that God has always been and will always be. There was never a time when God was not.

Over the years, as I have grown and began to accept that God is eternal, it has brought me a great deal of comfort. I came to realize that I could trust God to always be there which has propelled me forward in building my relationship with Him. I know that He is not going to just disappear one day.

God created everything that is in the world, all the trees, plants, animals, you and me. I am in awe of His magnificent greatness. To be able to plan out the vast number of different plants and animals and it one’s unique design. No two types animals are exactly alike, no two types of plants are exactly alike and no two humans are exactly alike. This all amazes me and I love that my God is everlasting, He has always been and will always be.

Thank You Lord for being eternal, for always being and never ending. As we walk with You, learn from You and love You, we can rest in the fact that You have always been here and You will continue to always be here. Thank You for creating the earth, the plants, animals and us. Thank You for loving us even after we have sinned against You. Please be with each one of us as we move through our day and do our best to honor and glorify You in all we think, say and do. In Jesus’s precious name. Amen

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” Matthew 5:11 NIV

This verse is not considered to be an additional Beatitude because it does not follow the pattern of a virtue and then a reward for having the virtue, as the other 8 do. It is considered to be an extension of the final Beatitude in verse 10. Either way, I feel that this verse needs to be paid attention to because this is still a blessing coming from Jesus. As Christians we have a choice everyday, actually moment to moment each day, about how we are going to live and what we are going to show others.

If we choose to live life in such a way that no one ever knows that we are Christians, then we are not living for Jesus. If we do not show the “Love of God” to others, we are not following the commandment of “Love one another” that Jesus gave His disciples. That commandment still applies today to each believer. It did not disappear when Jesus ascended into heaven.

When we live life showing others the “Love of God” and making the right and most of the time hard choice about behaviors, we are going to anger our enemy. The devil does not like it when we are committed to Jesus and live life trying to imitate Jesus. He will do his best to have people in our lives who will insult us, who will persecute us and who will say false things about us simply because we worship Jesus. This verse states that we are blessed with that happens.

It does not feel like a blessing when it is happening, but Jesus sees what each one of us is going through and He is there with us every step of the way. When the devil ups his game and tries new tactics such as placing people in our lives to insult us or falsely accuse us, we need to remember that he is doing this because we are a threat to him. If we didn’t pose any kind of threat to the devil, then he would not even bother with us.

Even though it is not considered an additional Beatitude and it doesn’t seem like a blessing when we are being insulted, having the character trait of courage to openly declare your allegiance to Jesus is how the world is to be. It is how God planned the world to be in the first place, glorifying and honoring God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

So, if you are being insulted, persecuted, or falsely accused, please turn to God in prayer and ask for His strength to get you through the situation you are in. He knows why it is happening and God is blessing you by making you stronger because you are walking or have walked through it relying on him.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10 NIV

Jesus ends the list of the “blessed” in what we call “The Beatitudes” with the persecuted. Being persecuted is defined as ‘facing hostility or being ill treated’ and may look differently for different people. When we think of persecution, our minds go to severe situations such as torture, imprisonment and even death. However, there are other forms of persecution that Christians have suffered over the years that are either not as well known or are not viewed as being as severe.

Some of those situations include being fired from a job because of your Christian beliefs, being insulted, being made fun of, having family exclude you from family gatherings. Christians who are willing to follow Jesus and live their lives in the manner that is asked of them will probably face judgment and even persecution at some point in their life.

A determining factor in the level of persecution depends on where you live. For example, in North Korea, India and Afghanistan, people are sentenced to death if it is determined that they are Christians. Thankfully in the United States of America, we are free to practice whatever religion we choose to practice and have safeguards against being discriminated and persecuted because of those practices. However, the safeguards do not stop individuals from making fun of Christians, insulting Christians or excluding Christians from their own friend circle or families.

I believe that the idea of being persecuted because of your righteous actions is listed here because you can avoid being persecuted all together. You can choose to not let others know that you are a Christians, you can choose to not do what is right. When you are committed to Jesus, just as Jesus is committed to you, remember He died on the cross for you, then you choose to show others your belief in Him.

For a large group of people, making that choice to show their love of Jesus results in them losing family relationships, connections with friends and even their freedom to be in certain places such as particular restaurants. When we choose to let everyone know that we are a child of God, and risk losing something to make our love for Jesus well known, we are blessed.

It is interesting to me that the first beatitude and the last beatitude have the same reward of “the kingdom of heaven”. Jesus started the list with the action that had to do with our inward acknowledgement of dependence on God and He ends the list with the action of our outward acknowledgment of choosing to follow God even when it costs us by the world’s standard. We can’t enter or have the reward of heaven if we are not willing to believe that we need Jesus and accept Him as our Lord and Savior. We should rightfully not be allowed to enter or have the reward of heaven if we do not choose to stand for Jesus when it will cost us. Afterall, Jesus stood for us and lost His life to show everyone that He loves us and wants us in heaven with Him.

Are you proud to be a child of God? I am and I even had that very statement – “Child of God” tattooed on my arm because I am proud that God is willing to have me in His family. Whether or not you have been persecuted because of your belief in Christ or your actions as a Christian, other Christians have been and please pray with me for their deliverance.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9 NIV

How is a peacemaker different from a peacekeeper? These are two terms that are mistakenly interchanged a lot. There is a difference and the difference is in how the person goes about obtaining peace.

Peace keeping occurs as a result of fear. For example, imagine a person who has a short fuse and becomes upset very easily if they are challenged in anyway about any of their beliefs. If this person, another person and a peacekeeper are having a conversation, the first thing a peacekeeper will do is try to not have the conversation become about anything that they believe will upset the person with the short fuse, especially if they are not in agreement with that person.

If a topic does arise that is possibly upsetting to that person, the peacekeeper will try to change the subject or even pretend to agree with the person with the short fuse so they do not become upset. This is done out of fear about how the person will act once they become upset. What this does is create an environment where the person who has the short fuse is able to say what they want, act the way they want and over time have a relationship where no one questions them. This is not the way in which God planned for us to live. God gave us a spirit of courage and not of fear and when we rely on Him we can do amazing things.

Peace making occurs as a result of courage given to us by God. A peacemaker keeps in mind the spirit of courage that God has given each believer when they are facing this situation. If a peacemaker instead of a peacekeeper was present in this conversation, the peacemaker is going to behave differently. They are not going to try and keep everyone happy. They will not seek out an argument but they will not avoid it either. Instead they are going to try and help both parties understand that each of them is able to hold their own opinions and still be in a relationship that does not need to become volatile.

Peacemaking, not peacekeeping is important in God’s kingdom. Peace is spoken about throughout the Bible. The ultimate peace that we can strive for is peace with God and Jesus became the peacemaker that was able to achieve that so that we can have peace with God. When Jesus died on the cross, He created peace, breaking the barrier that was present between us and God by paying the final price of sin for us.

The second half of the verse says that those who are peacemakers are called the children of God. Another time when we are referred to as children of God is when we become saved. Both of these times are in reference to the privileges those who are adopted into a family obtain. The same privileges as children born into the family. The adopted child is viewed the same as the biological child and therefore is called a child of the parents in that family. As children of God through salvation, we can then be seen as having a resemblance to Jesus, the ultimate peacemaker, when we imitate Him by carrying peace in us and promoting peace outwardly wherever we go. God is the God of peace, and we should imitate Him in all areas of our lives.

How do we become peacemakers and not peacekeepers. Peacemakers have some important characteristics that we can strive to develop. Peacemakers are people who are at peace with themselves, they are listeners who respond, instead of react, to others. They are interested in other people, focusing on the group as a whole instead of just themselves. As peacemakers who are also believers, we have the extra added benefit of having the Holy Spirit inside us to help us with the courage that is sometimes needed in dealing with the possibility of conflict that can arise when you are a peacemaker.

So, which do you want to be? A peacekeeper who reacts out of fear of others and wants to simply keep peace for a little period of time or a peacemaker who acts out of courage to promote and develop peace that can last for a long time. I encourage you to pray about it and ask God for direction on how you are to proceed.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8 NIV

Pure in heart. Jesus is talking in this verse about our heart, our motives, our attitude, our desires. These are all inner matters, matters of the heart. What He is not talking about is what the world sees when they look at us, our outer being. As with the rest of the Beatitudes, the idea of pure in heart revolves around our inner being.

When we change only on the outside, we are fooling ourselves. Going to church, wearing nice clothes, tithing and making sure that others see it, these are all outward actions and do not ensure that the inward action of change in our hearts has occurred. When we are pure in heart, our motives are to please God, align with His will, and then do His will. When we are solely changing on the outside, we are hoping to please others, aligning with the will of others.

If someone is only going to church because their parent or spouse has nagged them enough, or if a person wants to impress another person in their lives by tithing weekly at church, then they are doing this to please someone else, not God. It is not pleasing to God that they are doing it so that others believe they have changed. If that is the reason why they have changed, then they have already received whatever reward, the approval of the other person, that they are going to receive.

Being pure in heart is hard. We have to die to self daily and sometimes almost hourly because our fleshly desires are not pure and therefore not pleasing to God. As humans we cannot do this alone, we are not strong enough to remove the grip that sin has on our hearts. The only way to be pure in heart is by having God clean us, which occurs when we acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, accept that He died to set us free and confess that He is our Lord and Savior.

Once we have decided to follow Jesus, the process can begin of cleaning our hearts. It is a long process because our enemy, the devil, does not like it when we choose Jesus over him. He then turns up the heat and tries to give us reasons to stay connected to our sin. I encourage us all to be pure in heart, be connected to Jesus and not the enemy.

The second part of the verse states that the pure in heart will see God. When Jesus frees us from the chains of sin and we begin to make the changes we need to make to be more like Jesus, we begin to see the world differently. We can see God in the trees, flowers, a fawn, a child’s face. We begin to see God all around us because He created all of it, the earth, the plants, the animals and especially the child. When we then turn to His word, we are able to see Him, begin to draw closer to Him.

This idea of being pure in heart is a lot to change, so what if as you go through your day today, you pick one area to examine. If you decide to pick your motives for doing things, for example, then look at why you do or say the things you do or say. What is the reason behind your action or what do you hope to accomplish by saying what you say. When we dig deep into our motives, we reveal what we really want and who we are, if we are brave enough to take an honest look.

So do you want to make outward changes for the world to see and be only partly changed or do you want to make the inward changes that truly count and make the changes that will bring you closer to God? The choice is yours and yours alone.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Matthew 5:7 NIV

What is mercy? Mercy is not giving someone something that they deserve, such as a police officer not writing a ticket to a driver who was speeding. When was the last time you were shown mercy? When did someone withhold a punishment that you should have received or showed you compassion?

The wonderful thing about mercy to me is that is costs you nothing to give and you receive in return the gift of knowing that you have given another person a chance to then go and show mercy to someone else. You do not tend to give mercy as freely to others if you yourself have not received mercy at some point. A person who has not received mercy has a hard time fully understanding the gift that mercy truly is for the person who receives it.

A person who has received mercy themselves is typically quicker to give mercy to others because they know what relief mercy brings. This has a wonderful circle effect in that we receive mercy so we show mercy which can then result in us receiving mercy again from a different source. Mercy is a component of love and since God is love, it is no surprise that mercy is a gift from God. He has been so merciful to us over the years, think of all the times He withheld punishment from all of us, but the most merciful moment was when He sent His son to pay for OUR transgressions.

God didn’t have to send Jesus. Jesus didn’t have to come down. Jesus didn’t have to let the Roman guards nail Him to that cross. He didn’t have to pay the ultimate price for us so that we did not have to spend eternity separated from God in a place of damnation. He didn’t have to do any of that, but that is exactly what He did. He showed us mercy. Jesus showing mercy for all of us, laid down on that cross and gave His life so we would all be able to choose freedom from the bondage of sin.

Have you made that choice? The choice to be free from the chains of sin. Have you accepted that gift filled with mercy from God? I beg you to come to Jesus if you have not already. Come, accept and be free from the power that sin has over you.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6 NIV

We all know what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty, I mean really hungry and thirsty. The almost unquenchable need to either have food to eat or water to drink. This is the level of hunger and thirst that Jesus is talking about in this verse. However, He is not talking about food and water, He is talking about righteousness.

Righteousness, not only in the sense of holiness, but also in the sense of behaving the way Jesus behaved. Loving others, treating others correctly, being in the right kind of relationship with others, being at peace. This verse is talking about a personal code of conduct that imitates Jesus. He lived in such a way that rendered He strange to the people of His time. He was kind when others were mean, He was generous when others were stingy, He was loving when others were hateful. He lived according to God’s will, not according to the way the world states that He should have lived.

He demonstrated throughout His entire life that this sense of righteousness, being righteous in God’s sight also included about how He treated others because in God’s kingdom, relationships are very important. This righteousness is not about personal gain, as this world would have us believe, but about having the right attitude, an attitude of humility. For example, the idea of things being right or righteous in our communities becomes more important than which person is helping to get that done.

The second half of the verse states that those who are seeking and searching after righteousness will be filled. They will be filled with righteousness because they are living a Godly life, a life modeled after Jesus. When we seek after God’s will and do our best to follow God’s will then we will be satisfied because God fills our hearts with Him. He is the only way to stop the longing for that personal relationship with our Creator because He is our Creator, who we long to be connected to.

Do you hunger and thirst for self promotion. self-gratifying achievements or do you hunger and thirst for God? Today I encourage you to look at what you are chasing after and determine if it is the worldly things or if it is the Godly way.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 NIV

This verse has always been interesting to me because I feel like the meek have gotten a bad rap. To be meek is to be gentle, to be someone who has an easy going disposition. Our society has twisted the concept of meek to be a weak person who lets everyone walk all over them. The world presents that people need to be angry all the time and be the first one to hurt the other person so you have some control over how a relationship is going to go. This is all sad to me.

In the economy of God’s kingdom, peace is valued, gentleness is valued and maintaining one’s composure is valued. Meekness is responding to persecution, injury, insults or hurt of any kind without anger and without wanting to get revenge. A meek person is a person who is quiet minded and peaceful. Meekness patiently waits for God to provide justice in the situation. When we are able to be meek towards each other, we are better able to surrender to God, to be meek in His presence, knowing He is in control.

The second part of the verse talks about the meek inheriting the earth. Inheriting blessings was a very special occurrence in the Jewish custom. For someone to inherit something it meant that there was special significance in regards to the item as well as the person who was receiving it. The meaning of the inheritance of the earth is not the earth as it is now or was then, but how it will be once Jesus returns. He is going to bring His kingdom down on to the earth, it will be a renewed earth that is the way it was supposed to be in the time of Eden.

Jesus was considered meek. It didn’t mean that He never got angry but it meant that He was able to regain His composure and actions quickly so that He could return to being at peace. I have recently, over the past few years, truly embraced being at peace and I can tell you that I do not like it when I lose that peace. It is such as wonderful, freeing feeling that I want to be at peace or in a peaceful mindset all the time.

As a Christian we strive to be like Jesus on a daily basis, and since Jesus was meek, I believe that one of the traits we should strive to have is one of meekness. Have you ever tried to be at peace for even an hour? If you have then you understand what an amazing feeling that is and that you don’t want to give it up. As you go through your day today, I encourage you to practice quieting your mind, sitting in peace and embracing meekness.