Walking among Lions(05-Mar-2006)
Walking among the Lions March 5, 2006
(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
Did you see the TV ad during the Olympics which featured a plump, middle-aged couple in their living room watching Olympic pairs figure skating?
The husband’s hand is on his wife’s, they give each other a knowing look, and they end up going that night to a frozen lake for their own attempt at the pairs’ competition.
The man ends up skating backward, awkwardly (as if to day look at me I can go backwards!) and ends up crashing into an outdoor tin shed behind him. He shakes himself off and says, “I’m not hurt.” Just then a large sheet of ice he has dislodged from the roof of the shed slides off and destroys their car.
If you’ve watched people like Olympic medalists Shizuka Arakawa, Sasha Cohen, Plushenko land the double, triple, and quadruple jumps…
It’s so obvious, the announcers don’t need to say, don’t try at home…
To be able to land a double, triple, or quadruple jumps in figure skating takes more than luck, it takes a life rhythm to make room for disciplines necessary to become a great figure skating: the stretching, the muscle training, the coordination drills… diet and rest etc..
So, it is the spiritual life…
When we look at a person like Daniel in the book of the Bible that bears his name, we see an athlete for God… a person who’s able to face tremendous life threatening pressure with extraordinary, spiritual strength, and poise… Today as look at Daniel 6 we’re looking at the rhythm of life a person to become a spiritual athlete and what it looks to be a person of spiritual strength in the world…
If you have your Bibles please turn to Daniel 6…
Daniel 6
Daniel in the Den of Lions
1 It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, 2 with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. 3 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. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. 5 Finally these men said, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God."
(So out of envy administrators proposed to the King that all the governors had agreed that a law be passed that stated that anyone who prayed to anyone but the King would be thrown into a lions den (this was a lie Daniel had not agreed to this),
10 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. 11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. 12 So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: "Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or man except to you, O king, would be thrown into the lions' den?"
The king answered, "The decree stands—in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed."
13 Then they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day." 14 When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.
15 Then the men went as a group to the king and said to him, "Remember, O king, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed."
16 So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions' den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!"
17 A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. 18 Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep.
19 At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions' den. 20 When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?"
21 Daniel answered, "O king, live forever! 22 My 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. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king." (more literally they have done me no harm for I have done you no harm).
23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
In this famous, passage, we see how Daniel’s fellow government administrator’s are envious of Daniel’s success, so they urge the King to pass a law that they know will trap a person devoted to God, like Daniel… they pass a law that will not allow a person to pray for 30 days to God and if person does prayer, he or she will be thrown into the Lion’s Den. Daniel comes to know about law, but he continues to pray to God. He’s spied out, he’s caught, and he’s thrown into the Lion’s Den…
If we’re really familiar with this story, it’s possible for it to lose some of its edge…
so think about some you we admire they were willing to face death for something they believed in…
Remember Wang Wei Lin? In 1989, near Tiananmen Square in Beijing China, he stood up unarmed and alone to the tanks, in an effort to keep the troops from striking the demonstrators. When a tank he stood up against tried to go around him, he then moved to stand is front of the new trajectory the tank was taking… (show the photo).
And Daniel is willing to face death for his conviction that he must seek the living God through prayer…
The passage in vs. 3 in the New International Version tells us that Daniel distinguishes himself among administrators and satraps.
The passage literally reads there was an excellent spirit was in Daniel….
How does He become this way?
As is the case with an Olympic figure skater, this just doesn’t happen.
As there is a rythum or a structure that helps a person prepare their mind and body so that an able athlete, so there is a rhythm or structure of life that prepares Daniel to become a spiritual athlete, able to live with extraordinary inner strength…
What was that rhythm of Daniel?
The text gives us a clue.
In verse. 10 we read that Daniel prays 3 times a day toward Jerusalem, where the temple of God had stood, and in praying toward God’s temple is saying I depending on the living God…
Daniel has a life rythum, where 3x a day, he seeks to consciously in the presence of the living, expressing his dependence on God and the life of God…
When we become who structure our lives so we spend time conscious of the presence living God: in prayer, mediation, the Word, nature, with people, music and the places where we are uniquely meeting God… we become people who bear the life and are able to live in a new kind of way in the world.
One of the ways we know that we are bearing the life of God in our souls, is that we become who reflects God’s heart and character…
And when we become people who reflect God’s heart and a character, like Daniel we will end up experiencing clashes with the character and values of the world.
When I was working with a multi-national corporation in Japan, some times I would meet who would want to purse a business degree (an MBA) in North America and wanted me to help them apply.
But, I’d typically remind them it was a bit of a risk doing a degree…in North America.
If you are a Japanese person and you go to North America chances are some of your values will change… you might develop with a different view of women’s role, you might come to different perspective of the importance of career, vs. family, you come back different view of the value of the individual vs. the value of the group and if your going to back to traditional Japanese company, those kinds new values could mean you clash with your company’s corporate culture… you may experience opposition…
Once you really begin to receive the life of God into your being, spiritually speaking it’s like spending time in an foreign country and you if sink some of your roots there and you start hold values that can clash with the culture of your origin, you may experience oppostionn…
For Daniel, structuring his life in such in a place where he could receive the life God through prayer, meant he became a person of distinctive character and was promoted but he also generated hostile opposition.
And some of his colleagues wanted Daniel “done in” by being thrown into a den of lions.
Most of us here will not face starving lions, because our faith in God, but if we are receiving the life and character of God, we will face opposition.
What might this look like? Let me some possible “based on real cases.”
Let’s say in a dating relationship and you’re sleeping with your partner, as you come to know God more fully, you realize that God’s intent is for sexual intercourse between two people who are committed in the covenant of marriage, and you pull back until you’re married… it will generate opposition…
Or let’s say you are married and come to know God personally and you realize part of way you show your dependence on God is that you tithe on your income… it tax season and your partner of sees you’ve given been 10% of your income away, that might generate opposition.
Or let’s say you’re part of a corporate culture, where telling lies to cover for a colleague or for company is as present as the air you breath, as you spend in this other spiritual country, you come believe there must be congruence between what’s on the inside and what’s on the outside, but that generates opposition.
Now if you’re find you’re being opposed and persecuted all the time, it may mean that you’re just obnoxious.
If you find that you’re never opposed, that there’s never a clash, it may you’re not as yet been in a way that makes you truly distinct…
OR you’re not in the world, you’re existing in kind of a bubble…
Daniel is in the world, but he’s receiving the life of God, allowing God to transform him, and he becomes truly distinct so experiences opposition…
The satraps and administrator’s despise his being different and envy his success and they offer make a proposal to the King that appeals to the King’s vanity… they urge the King to pass a law that says, anyone who prays to anyone or anything will be thrown into the Lion’s den…
Daniel ends up praying toward Jerusalem 3x a day as was his habit.
He’s not grandstanding as he prays, but apparently envious people are spying on him and he’s caught praying and King Darius is caught because he cannot change an edict that he has ratified with his signet ring.
So King Darius doesn’t want to do, but he’s forced by law to have Daniel is thrown into a den with Lion’s that apparently haven’t been fed for some time.
In the novel, The Life of Pi the main character in the story is a boy named Pi from India who’s dad owned a zoo in India.
One day when Pi was a young boy, Pi’s dad wanted to show him just how dangerous a tiger could be… so before the zoo opened dad led Pi’s had to the cage of their 550 pound Bengal tiger…who had not been fed in 3 days.
Pi’s dad then had a goat put in a cage next to the tiger’s cage. Only Bars and trapdoor separated the two. Immediately, the tiger began paw through the bars and woof. The goat started to jump--with click click of the goats hooves against the cement floor. Pi says the goat jumped to amazing heights. Pi had no idea a goat could jump so high.
With sudden ease the trapdoor slid open. Pi saw, a blur of blood, turned his head toward his mom, he heard bleating, clicking of the hooves, then silence…
Daniel as an old man, is facing starving lions because of his faith…
Our spiritual heritage is one of followers of Christ where countless times have faced death for their faith….
We have many, many of illustrations of courageous from church history… let me pick one…
Stephen Neil, in his book the History of Christians Missions describes how in the 1600s Christians were being persecuted. He describes how at one time 70 were crucified upside down at on the beach Yado… as the water lapped up onto the beach as the tide came in… these people: fathers and mothers, teenager kids… were drowned to death…
How do people become that courageous?
How do we become like that?
When lives where are filled the presence of God, when immersed in his reality, we come to believe that are certain things more important that life on earth…
As David he spent time in the presence of God affirmed, thy loving kindness is better than life…
As we receive the life of God, we come to know that the purpose of life of earth isn’t just life on earth… we come to realize that God’s love, God’s purposes, God’s glory are more important than even our life on earth…
Many people think that courage is the absence of fear… Scott Peck, psychiatrist and author of the Road Less Traveled says a person who claims to have no fear shouldn’t brag, it’s just evidence of brain damage…
Courage isn’t the absence fear, it’s the presence of a greater love that helps walk through our fear…
When we love deeply we can act in the midst of fear… When a mother loves a child, she can and will defend the child—even when it puts her at great risk…
When we immerse our self in the presence of God we grow to love God and his purposes, more our lives on earth… we find we have sometime to die and when you have something to die for, you really have something to live for…
One of my classmates in the Arrow Leadership program, from El Salvador says… God is looking for women and men who will die up front, so they can really live… he looking to lead people where place only dead women and men can go…
When we are willing to live and die for a cause greater than us we are truly free…
Daniel so immersed our in God, that he realized honoring God was more important that life itself…
So Daniel ends up praying to God though it means he is thrown into a den of starving lions and he is, but God rescues Daniel! God sends his angel to close the mouths of the lions.
God did not deliver Daniel from the Lion’s den, Daniel, but delivered him in it…
If you were here 2 weeks ago, we talked about how God did not deliver Shadrach, Mesech, Abednego, from the fiery furnace but in it…
Here we see how does not deliver Daniel from the Lion’s but in and how meets in this place of danger through the angel of God…
After I spoke on Shadrach, Meshech and Abendnego in fiery furnace, here two weeks ago people came up afterwards and said, where was Daniel? I said, I don’t know, I just work here. Noone knows, he may have been on diplomatic assigment or something. But wherever had been I bet at he though wistfully about he could he wished have been there… he liked wished had had the experience as a young man being in furnace, but not being burned or even particularly warm, of meeting God in the furnace…
Now at 80 something years old, he meets God powerfully in the Lion’s den…
There’s something about being in the furnace, about being in Lion’s that gives us an opportunity to meet God in a deeper way….
No one in their right mind would choose jump into furnace or a lion’s den, but if it comes our way, it may just be that the worst experience becomes the best, because we meet God there.
The text tells us that the King the morning after he was thrown in the lion’s comes to see if Daniel’s God has rescued him. He was reluctant to have Daniel thrown into the lion’s den and now in the morning the King personally comes to see if Daniel’s ok, God has rescued him… When he Daniels voice, the lions have not me, for I have not harmed you, the Kind is overjoyed… He orders Daniel be lifted from the den an those who falsely accused Daniel thrown into to lions there were gobbled up and then King commands others to praise God…
We see in this closing scene that the King…loves Daniel and is drawn to God through him…
Earlier in the text we see Daniel is different, through prayer he enters in this “foreign country with different values” and he’s opposed, but here we also see he’s deeply loved…
When we expose ourselves to the presence of God and allow him to transform us, to make us like God in our integrity, courage, and love, we find that we are opposed; we’ll also find that we are loved and respected. We’ll find we are different, we’ll also find that we joy of group of people, may stable one in your family or your neighborhood, one who is loved and respected…
My grandfather, a corporate ceo, was not religious and hostile toward Christianity.
But he had employee, who he interestingly called a true Christian, whom he deeply respected… and it was through this true Christian in part my grandfather drawn in his senior years to Christ.
The King Darius, respects and loves Daniel and through Daniel is drawn to the living God. When we are athletes for God, some people love us because God in us and be drawn closer to God through us.
How do we become an athlete for God?
William Wilberforce a great political leader who helped abolish the slave trade in England, said there is no short cut to holiness. No short cut to becoming whole so let begin.
We begin and continue like Daniel by structuring our lives to spend time receiving God’s life…. In prayer, the word, where experience God’s life and place we receive God’s life is by receiving the life of Jesus through the Lord’s supper.
On the night before Jesus went to the cross, he was with some of his best friends… he took bread and break…
(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
Did you see the TV ad during the Olympics which featured a plump, middle-aged couple in their living room watching Olympic pairs figure skating?
The husband’s hand is on his wife’s, they give each other a knowing look, and they end up going that night to a frozen lake for their own attempt at the pairs’ competition.
The man ends up skating backward, awkwardly (as if to day look at me I can go backwards!) and ends up crashing into an outdoor tin shed behind him. He shakes himself off and says, “I’m not hurt.” Just then a large sheet of ice he has dislodged from the roof of the shed slides off and destroys their car.
If you’ve watched people like Olympic medalists Shizuka Arakawa, Sasha Cohen, Plushenko land the double, triple, and quadruple jumps…
It’s so obvious, the announcers don’t need to say, don’t try at home…
To be able to land a double, triple, or quadruple jumps in figure skating takes more than luck, it takes a life rhythm to make room for disciplines necessary to become a great figure skating: the stretching, the muscle training, the coordination drills… diet and rest etc..
So, it is the spiritual life…
When we look at a person like Daniel in the book of the Bible that bears his name, we see an athlete for God… a person who’s able to face tremendous life threatening pressure with extraordinary, spiritual strength, and poise… Today as look at Daniel 6 we’re looking at the rhythm of life a person to become a spiritual athlete and what it looks to be a person of spiritual strength in the world…
If you have your Bibles please turn to Daniel 6…
Daniel 6
Daniel in the Den of Lions
1 It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, 2 with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. 3 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. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. 5 Finally these men said, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God."
(So out of envy administrators proposed to the King that all the governors had agreed that a law be passed that stated that anyone who prayed to anyone but the King would be thrown into a lions den (this was a lie Daniel had not agreed to this),
10 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. 11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. 12 So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: "Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or man except to you, O king, would be thrown into the lions' den?"
The king answered, "The decree stands—in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed."
13 Then they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day." 14 When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.
15 Then the men went as a group to the king and said to him, "Remember, O king, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed."
16 So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions' den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!"
17 A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. 18 Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep.
19 At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions' den. 20 When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?"
21 Daniel answered, "O king, live forever! 22 My 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. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king." (more literally they have done me no harm for I have done you no harm).
23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
In this famous, passage, we see how Daniel’s fellow government administrator’s are envious of Daniel’s success, so they urge the King to pass a law that they know will trap a person devoted to God, like Daniel… they pass a law that will not allow a person to pray for 30 days to God and if person does prayer, he or she will be thrown into the Lion’s Den. Daniel comes to know about law, but he continues to pray to God. He’s spied out, he’s caught, and he’s thrown into the Lion’s Den…
If we’re really familiar with this story, it’s possible for it to lose some of its edge…
so think about some you we admire they were willing to face death for something they believed in…
Remember Wang Wei Lin? In 1989, near Tiananmen Square in Beijing China, he stood up unarmed and alone to the tanks, in an effort to keep the troops from striking the demonstrators. When a tank he stood up against tried to go around him, he then moved to stand is front of the new trajectory the tank was taking… (show the photo).
And Daniel is willing to face death for his conviction that he must seek the living God through prayer…
The passage in vs. 3 in the New International Version tells us that Daniel distinguishes himself among administrators and satraps.
The passage literally reads there was an excellent spirit was in Daniel….
How does He become this way?
As is the case with an Olympic figure skater, this just doesn’t happen.
As there is a rythum or a structure that helps a person prepare their mind and body so that an able athlete, so there is a rhythm or structure of life that prepares Daniel to become a spiritual athlete, able to live with extraordinary inner strength…
What was that rhythm of Daniel?
The text gives us a clue.
In verse. 10 we read that Daniel prays 3 times a day toward Jerusalem, where the temple of God had stood, and in praying toward God’s temple is saying I depending on the living God…
Daniel has a life rythum, where 3x a day, he seeks to consciously in the presence of the living, expressing his dependence on God and the life of God…
When we become who structure our lives so we spend time conscious of the presence living God: in prayer, mediation, the Word, nature, with people, music and the places where we are uniquely meeting God… we become people who bear the life and are able to live in a new kind of way in the world.
One of the ways we know that we are bearing the life of God in our souls, is that we become who reflects God’s heart and character…
And when we become people who reflect God’s heart and a character, like Daniel we will end up experiencing clashes with the character and values of the world.
When I was working with a multi-national corporation in Japan, some times I would meet who would want to purse a business degree (an MBA) in North America and wanted me to help them apply.
But, I’d typically remind them it was a bit of a risk doing a degree…in North America.
If you are a Japanese person and you go to North America chances are some of your values will change… you might develop with a different view of women’s role, you might come to different perspective of the importance of career, vs. family, you come back different view of the value of the individual vs. the value of the group and if your going to back to traditional Japanese company, those kinds new values could mean you clash with your company’s corporate culture… you may experience opposition…
Once you really begin to receive the life of God into your being, spiritually speaking it’s like spending time in an foreign country and you if sink some of your roots there and you start hold values that can clash with the culture of your origin, you may experience oppostionn…
For Daniel, structuring his life in such in a place where he could receive the life God through prayer, meant he became a person of distinctive character and was promoted but he also generated hostile opposition.
And some of his colleagues wanted Daniel “done in” by being thrown into a den of lions.
Most of us here will not face starving lions, because our faith in God, but if we are receiving the life and character of God, we will face opposition.
What might this look like? Let me some possible “based on real cases.”
Let’s say in a dating relationship and you’re sleeping with your partner, as you come to know God more fully, you realize that God’s intent is for sexual intercourse between two people who are committed in the covenant of marriage, and you pull back until you’re married… it will generate opposition…
Or let’s say you are married and come to know God personally and you realize part of way you show your dependence on God is that you tithe on your income… it tax season and your partner of sees you’ve given been 10% of your income away, that might generate opposition.
Or let’s say you’re part of a corporate culture, where telling lies to cover for a colleague or for company is as present as the air you breath, as you spend in this other spiritual country, you come believe there must be congruence between what’s on the inside and what’s on the outside, but that generates opposition.
Now if you’re find you’re being opposed and persecuted all the time, it may mean that you’re just obnoxious.
If you find that you’re never opposed, that there’s never a clash, it may you’re not as yet been in a way that makes you truly distinct…
OR you’re not in the world, you’re existing in kind of a bubble…
Daniel is in the world, but he’s receiving the life of God, allowing God to transform him, and he becomes truly distinct so experiences opposition…
The satraps and administrator’s despise his being different and envy his success and they offer make a proposal to the King that appeals to the King’s vanity… they urge the King to pass a law that says, anyone who prays to anyone or anything will be thrown into the Lion’s den…
Daniel ends up praying toward Jerusalem 3x a day as was his habit.
He’s not grandstanding as he prays, but apparently envious people are spying on him and he’s caught praying and King Darius is caught because he cannot change an edict that he has ratified with his signet ring.
So King Darius doesn’t want to do, but he’s forced by law to have Daniel is thrown into a den with Lion’s that apparently haven’t been fed for some time.
In the novel, The Life of Pi the main character in the story is a boy named Pi from India who’s dad owned a zoo in India.
One day when Pi was a young boy, Pi’s dad wanted to show him just how dangerous a tiger could be… so before the zoo opened dad led Pi’s had to the cage of their 550 pound Bengal tiger…who had not been fed in 3 days.
Pi’s dad then had a goat put in a cage next to the tiger’s cage. Only Bars and trapdoor separated the two. Immediately, the tiger began paw through the bars and woof. The goat started to jump--with click click of the goats hooves against the cement floor. Pi says the goat jumped to amazing heights. Pi had no idea a goat could jump so high.
With sudden ease the trapdoor slid open. Pi saw, a blur of blood, turned his head toward his mom, he heard bleating, clicking of the hooves, then silence…
Daniel as an old man, is facing starving lions because of his faith…
Our spiritual heritage is one of followers of Christ where countless times have faced death for their faith….
We have many, many of illustrations of courageous from church history… let me pick one…
Stephen Neil, in his book the History of Christians Missions describes how in the 1600s Christians were being persecuted. He describes how at one time 70 were crucified upside down at on the beach Yado… as the water lapped up onto the beach as the tide came in… these people: fathers and mothers, teenager kids… were drowned to death…
How do people become that courageous?
How do we become like that?
When lives where are filled the presence of God, when immersed in his reality, we come to believe that are certain things more important that life on earth…
As David he spent time in the presence of God affirmed, thy loving kindness is better than life…
As we receive the life of God, we come to know that the purpose of life of earth isn’t just life on earth… we come to realize that God’s love, God’s purposes, God’s glory are more important than even our life on earth…
Many people think that courage is the absence of fear… Scott Peck, psychiatrist and author of the Road Less Traveled says a person who claims to have no fear shouldn’t brag, it’s just evidence of brain damage…
Courage isn’t the absence fear, it’s the presence of a greater love that helps walk through our fear…
When we love deeply we can act in the midst of fear… When a mother loves a child, she can and will defend the child—even when it puts her at great risk…
When we immerse our self in the presence of God we grow to love God and his purposes, more our lives on earth… we find we have sometime to die and when you have something to die for, you really have something to live for…
One of my classmates in the Arrow Leadership program, from El Salvador says… God is looking for women and men who will die up front, so they can really live… he looking to lead people where place only dead women and men can go…
When we are willing to live and die for a cause greater than us we are truly free…
Daniel so immersed our in God, that he realized honoring God was more important that life itself…
So Daniel ends up praying to God though it means he is thrown into a den of starving lions and he is, but God rescues Daniel! God sends his angel to close the mouths of the lions.
God did not deliver Daniel from the Lion’s den, Daniel, but delivered him in it…
If you were here 2 weeks ago, we talked about how God did not deliver Shadrach, Mesech, Abednego, from the fiery furnace but in it…
Here we see how does not deliver Daniel from the Lion’s but in and how meets in this place of danger through the angel of God…
After I spoke on Shadrach, Meshech and Abendnego in fiery furnace, here two weeks ago people came up afterwards and said, where was Daniel? I said, I don’t know, I just work here. Noone knows, he may have been on diplomatic assigment or something. But wherever had been I bet at he though wistfully about he could he wished have been there… he liked wished had had the experience as a young man being in furnace, but not being burned or even particularly warm, of meeting God in the furnace…
Now at 80 something years old, he meets God powerfully in the Lion’s den…
There’s something about being in the furnace, about being in Lion’s that gives us an opportunity to meet God in a deeper way….
No one in their right mind would choose jump into furnace or a lion’s den, but if it comes our way, it may just be that the worst experience becomes the best, because we meet God there.
The text tells us that the King the morning after he was thrown in the lion’s comes to see if Daniel’s God has rescued him. He was reluctant to have Daniel thrown into the lion’s den and now in the morning the King personally comes to see if Daniel’s ok, God has rescued him… When he Daniels voice, the lions have not me, for I have not harmed you, the Kind is overjoyed… He orders Daniel be lifted from the den an those who falsely accused Daniel thrown into to lions there were gobbled up and then King commands others to praise God…
We see in this closing scene that the King…loves Daniel and is drawn to God through him…
Earlier in the text we see Daniel is different, through prayer he enters in this “foreign country with different values” and he’s opposed, but here we also see he’s deeply loved…
When we expose ourselves to the presence of God and allow him to transform us, to make us like God in our integrity, courage, and love, we find that we are opposed; we’ll also find that we are loved and respected. We’ll find we are different, we’ll also find that we joy of group of people, may stable one in your family or your neighborhood, one who is loved and respected…
My grandfather, a corporate ceo, was not religious and hostile toward Christianity.
But he had employee, who he interestingly called a true Christian, whom he deeply respected… and it was through this true Christian in part my grandfather drawn in his senior years to Christ.
The King Darius, respects and loves Daniel and through Daniel is drawn to the living God. When we are athletes for God, some people love us because God in us and be drawn closer to God through us.
How do we become an athlete for God?
William Wilberforce a great political leader who helped abolish the slave trade in England, said there is no short cut to holiness. No short cut to becoming whole so let begin.
We begin and continue like Daniel by structuring our lives to spend time receiving God’s life…. In prayer, the word, where experience God’s life and place we receive God’s life is by receiving the life of Jesus through the Lord’s supper.
On the night before Jesus went to the cross, he was with some of his best friends… he took bread and break…
posted by Shigematsu at 12:07 PM
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