In Every Facet

A nation divided because of a failure to worship properly, not a disagreement over politics, national security, or taxes.

Solomon inherited a united kingdom from his father David. Israel was a nation of 12 tribes united together. God had stated plainly that if Israel did not worship Him alone then the kingdom would be divided. When Solomon died that promise rang true.

Like his father, Solomon had difficulty controlling his lust for other women taking many women from other nations to be his own. These women did not come alone. With them came their pagan worship practices and foreign gods who robbed God of His proper worship as people worshipped those who are not gods at all.

At the moment of Solomon's death, the kingdom divided. As we often do, the division could be seen as the result of heavy taxes or political differences. But the Scriptures state clearly that the reason the kingdom split was due to a worship issue.

Today in our own nation, we often make the issues about taxes, deficits, political differences, political issues, red and blue states, and more. Today in our churches, we often make the issues about the music, preaching style, attire, building aesthetics, and more. Rarely, if ever, do we frame the discussion as an issue of worship.

Israel failed as a nation and a people because worship drifted from God into an eclectic, polytheistic enterprise. The people didn't stop worshipping. Instead, they worshipped more as they multiplied their gods. Sometimes bigger and larger isn't better, especially when there is One God and Him alone should we worship. The failure and division over worship led to the division in everything else.

Worship is still the most important issue for we were made as human beings to be worshipping beings who worship God alone. Only through the door Jesus opened by His death and resurrection can we access God's throne to worship Him properly and as we were created. Are we making worship central to our lives, our family, our work, and our churches? Are we accurately seeing worship as more than the music, preaching, and place of our worship and more about our response of all that we are in light of the revelation by Christ and the Scriptures of all that God is?

Take a Daniel moment:
1.  Worship God for all that He is with all that you are.
2.  Pray that worship (responding to all He is with all we are) will be central in every facet of our lives.

All In - Part Two

The Bible tells of a young man of great wealth who came running to Jesus one day eager to ask his question. This man wanted something that he believed Jesus could tell him how to receive. So he asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"

After Jesus asked the young man what the law would say one must do, the young man professed with confidence he had sufficiently kept the law. So to this Jesus said, "Go sell all that you have and give to the poor. Then come follow Me." At this the young man was greatly saddened and walked away from Jesus. The reason the writer tells us is that the man possessed great wealth.

Jesus was much more concerned not with us possessing wealth, but that wealth would possess us.

It is often said that the most difficult thing for a pastor to preach upon in any church is the topic of wealth, money, and possessions. This may be true. But what is for sure true is that often the last thing to come under the lordship of Jesus is our wealth, however big or little it may seem to us.

Being all in to follow Jesus means being all in to give to advance His work. We want to see God work. We want our local churches to thrive. Yet we can be withholding the resources God intends to support that very work.

Some today have called tithing (giving 10% of one's income to God's work in the local church) an obsolete concept and something erased by the New Testament. Certainly the New Testament speaks less of tithing and more of sacrificial giving. However, the New Testament does not negate the teaching of tithing and also presents how grace should demand we give more than the law ever did and not less.

Are you all in in following Jesus? Would you resources and wealth reflect this?

God intends to fully fund the work of His kingdom through the giving of His people.

God has already demonstrated the greatest generosity we can ever know in the giving of His Son who in turn has given to us the gift of eternal life.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Celebrate God's generosity to us in giving us His Son and eternal life.
2.  Worship God as the giver of all good gifts and all things we possess.
3.  Ask God to empower you to by faith go all in by giving to Him generously and sacrificially.
4.  Pray that the work of Christ's kingdom would not be hindered by our lack of faith and giving.

All In

We go all in for a business venture, all in for a romantic relationship, and all in for sports. While some have made following Jesus a half-hearted pursuit or a part-time commitment, being a disciple of Jesus has always been a call to go all in.

Jesus said the only way to follow Him was to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. In short, Jesus said you have to go all in. This is the great commandment. We are to love God with everything that we are and all that we have. It isn't a command to love God with part of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. It is a command to love God with everything.

The work of God in our world for the transformation of our generation demands that we go all in as followers of Jesus. We must trust in Him with all our heart. We must rely totally on His wisdom and understanding. In everything we plan and do, we must go all in to submit to Him and His ways. Only then will He make our paths straight and advance and accomplish His mission in and through us.

Are you all in?

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise the God who went all in for us so that we can be all in with Him.
2.  Celebrate the price Jesus paid at the cross to go all in to the Father's will to purchase our ransom.
3.  Ask God to reveal any area of your life that doesn't have a white flag staked in it.
4.  Choose to go all in today in whatever way God asks you to do so.

The Only Way to Please Him

There is only one way to please God the Father. Spending time in Hebrews makes this one way abundantly clear. The write says that faith is the only way to please God. Whoever draws near to God must believe the He is and that He rewards those who seek after Him.

Faith is the unwavering, unflinching, unreserved trust in God. It is a trust built on the confidence of God's character and God's track record of deeds. 

Faith that pleases God chooses Christ's sacrifice for our sin over my feeble attempts to earn salvation.

Faith that pleases God leads us to obey His perfect will rather than follow our own wisdom.

Faith that pleases God spurs us on to seek Him daily instead of seeking Him at our convenience.

Faith that pleases God focuses our eyes on the reward stored in heaven as opposed to earthly treasures.

Faith that pleases God dares to live a life of impact for God's glory over living for safety and my glory.

How will we live today? 

It is by faith that the people of old have received their commendation. Noah, Moses, Rahab, David, Joseph, Joshua, Seth, Enoch, Samson, and more have all received their commendation because of a faith fixed upon the unchanging, unmovable, unstoppable God of heaven.

How should we expect to receive the commendation of Christ our Savior and King any other way?

We either live by faith in the One who sees all things perfectly or we live by the sight of what we can see, grasp, and figure out.

Will we live today a life of faith that pleases God? Will we live today pursuing hard after a God who has rescued us from darkness into His marvelous light.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Celebrate God seeking after us that we would be found in Him.

2.  Thank God for giving us faith to believe in Jesus Christ.

3.  Ask God to enlarge your faith in Him.

4.  Pray for strength to live every moment, every situation, every decision, and every day by faith.

Defining Love

How many times have you entered a conversation in which another person asks you to define love? Those conversations are always fun and quite interesting as individuals take their turns give their definition.

Today will be spent talking a lot about love and the ones we love. Gifts will be exchanged with individuals among just about every age and generation. Yet the world knows little of what love is and how true love demonstrates itself. 

The great fear is that this may be also true of me and many within the church today. We define and think of love as some mystical experience that comes upon us without us having any warning or responsibility. We describe love as a feeling. While our love for one another will be accompanied with feelings, our love is a decision to act toward one another for his or her good and as Jesus Christ has acted toward us.

Jesus said His new commandment was that we love one another as He has loved us. Paul's famous chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13 perhaps describes Christ's love for us in a most illustrative way. He writes:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Christ's love is patient and kind, otherwise He would have erased us from history at the first act of rebellion. Instead, He has showed kindness to us. When Jesus came to earth, His love was demonstrated in humility and humbly He went to the cross. There was no boasting or arrogance. When in the garden He prayed, He did not insist on His own way, but rather He surrendered Himself anew to the will of the Father. And this all because of love for the world. 

His love for us did not rejoice in our rebellion and wrongdoing. Instead, He came to declare the truth to us so that the truth would make us free.  His love is stronger than all forces of evil and evil acts of humanity. It bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. His love never ends.

The cross expresses the unimaginable love of God through Jesus Christ. This is the love He expects of His followers. And I have failed miserably.  The tragedy beyond my own disobedience and sin is that the world fails to see God's love displayed every time I fail to live out His love.

More important than us defining love is that love define us.

Jesus said by our love the whole world would know that we are His disciples. The love of Jesus should define everything about our lives. It doesn't mean we don't stand firm or speak truth. It just means it defines how we do so.

When I begin to love as Christ has loved, the world will know I am a follower of Jesus Christ. This may not always mean the world will come to follow Jesus, but it will be a compelling testimony that, for some, will lead them into the Kingdom of Christ.

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Praise God for the unconditional, unimaginable love He has shown toward us.
2. Ask God to teach you what it means to love all others as He has loved you.
3. Pray that our love for one another would compel sinners to follow Jesus.
4. Specifically pray for those you have difficulty loving. It is a great first step to God changing your heart.