My Daily Walk

Passage: Daniel 3

My thoughts: Political leaders have a nasty habit of wanting immortality.  They like to feel puffed up with pride and want people to remember them long after they leave power.  When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, statues of then dictator Saddam Hussein were pulled down, including a famous one in downtown Baghdad.  Little has changed in 3000 years.

In this passage, Nebuchadnezzar had a huge statue of gold erected of himself.  He then ordered everyone . . .everyone to bow down in worship at the dedication.  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are undoubtedly repulsed by this being faithful followers of the Lord and they refuse as this would be blatant violation of God’s law – idolatry worship.  When word gets to the king that these three weren’t worshiping his self constructed image, of course the king is offended.  What we see here faith in action.  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew the penalty for not worshiping was death.  Even so, they knew the penalty for sinning was even graver.  They decided to trust in their God who had saved them before (Daniel 1) and go against the king.  God again shows himself faithful and as they are thrown into a very fiery furnace that killed a couple of guards in the process, these three go in and after a time in there emerge unburned, and as v. 27 says,

They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. (NIV)

We know the fire was real, clearly, it just killed the soldiers; v. 22 says that.  That means this had to be nothing less than a miracle.

Application:  In every day life, we face many trials.  In some countries of the world, being a Christian is a crime punishable by death.  Nevertheless we must be firm and in the face of persecution, mockery, discomfort and even pain not deny our Lord.  Still we know as human beings we are imperfect, and we see many cases such as Peter when he denies Jesus three times just before his crucifixion.  God will forgive us for those times we are unfaithful, but he will reward us and many times save us for taking a stand.

Sorry for not posting in the last week, I have been busy visiting with family and traveling.  I am now back in Costa Rica though so I hope to now be posting every day .

Passage: Ezekiel 42-43

My Thoughts:  I was reading these two chapters this morning and they are about the vision Ezekiel has about the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem.  In verse 43:4, the angel shows Ezekiel the returning of God’s glory to the temple.  I wonder how Ezekiel must have felt . . .after seeing all of the destruction of the Israelites, their captivity, and hearing promises of God restoring the people.  Ezekiel must have wondered, “when God?”  But seeing God returning to the temple in this vision must have brought peace to Ezekiel that God had not abandoned them.

The other thing that I notice in this passage is that God says in v. 43:11, “if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple.”  Why would God say that?  Well, He knew that the people wouldn’t believe Ezekiel if they first hadn’t recognized their sins.  God wanted them to humble themselves before He would speak to them.  To me this shows that we need to have humble hearts if we are to hear God’s voice.  If we are full of pride, living our lives thinking we’ve done nothing wrong we will miss God’s voice.  Because being humble leads us to repenting and that puts us in the mindset that we need God allowing us to hear His voice.

Applying to my life:  I need this reminder daily to humble myself before others, and recognize I am a sinner in need of God’s loving grace.

Passage: Ezekiel 34

My Thoughts – This is clearly a passage directed at leaders.  It’s a warning that leaders need to take care of their people and not be self serving.  But there is also a message of hope delivered here that despite the carelessness of leaders that God would gather his people (or “sheep” as He calls them), care for them and be their Shepherd (v.23).

As I’ve been reading through the major prophets the past few months, I’ve noticed something interesting.  God speaks through Isaiah, Jeremiah and now Ezekiel words of doom, destruction and judgement for the sins of Israel.  But every few chapters, just when you think God’s anger won’t relent, it does.  He leaves us little clues of hope, signs that this is clearly loving anger intended to bring us back to Him, that he does not want to completely wipe us out.  Even more telling, He tells us about the distant future when Christ returns and when we will be rid of sin for good.

And this is precisely what vs. 25-31 talks about here.

Taking Action – Although this message is directed at leaders, there are still things all of us can take to heart.  This reveals the things God values – caring for the sick, the injured, the weak, searching for the lost.  There are each of those among us both in the spiritual and physical sense:

the sick – those who are/were Christians at one time but have since turned from the faith because of bad leadership or church hypocrisy or also medically sick people.

the injured – those who have been hurt emotionally or physically by others either intentionally or unintentionally and also of course those physically injured of natural causes.

the weak – those who are unsure who need that extra encouragement, those who are afraid and then those who are physically weak.  Children come to mind here.

the lost – those who don’t know Jesus and seek other pleasures and false gods.

So even though many of us are not leaders, we can still do things to care for God’s flock.  How can you help care for His flock?

Passage: Ezekiel 33

My thoughts: In this passage I see three main ideas.

1) The responsibility of warning the people of God’s judgement.  We see here in verse 6 that people who don’t warn others of the coming justice are responsible for their blood, but the people themselves are responsible for their sins.  In this case Ezekiel was commanded by God to warn others of the coming judgement.  I think we too are responsible for sharing God’s word with others about the coming judgement when Jesus returns.

2) We don’t live or die because of our actions – good or bad – we live or die because of our attitudes.  Verses 12-16 talk about is someone is declared “good” and then proceeds to do evil then he will be condemned for the evil in his heart.  On the contrary someone who is evil but then repents of their actions and provides restitution where necessary and begins to do good will be allowed to live.   This is evidence that God is the same in both testaments.  He cares about our attitude, not our actions in themselves.  Like James says in James 2:14-17, those who believe in God will produce good works.

3) We shouldn’t view God’s messages as entertainment, but motivation to change.  In verses 30-32, it talks about people coming to listen to Ezekiel but aren’t doing what God commands.  God tells Ezekiel that these people are like those who come to be entertained.  Although it’s true that to us, the Word of God is pleasing, it is counter to the things we want.  Many times we seek justification for our actions so we can say that one thing or another we do is “good” when really it’s something that makes us grow apart from God.

How do I apply this to my life:  As much as I want to say my spiritual life is perfect, the reality is it isn’t.  Even missionaries have their bad habits, their weaknesses and struggles.  I need to do a better job of witnessing to others, in sharing about Jesus, in being intentional.  God wants doers, not believers.  There are plenty of people who “believe”, but not enough people who are willing to act on their faith.  As disciples we need to be obedient and we need to do things that God calls us to do.  We can’t be afraid of rejection, although it’s tough to accept.

When the calendar turns to 2012, I am going to begin journaling here every day about what God is saying to me in my walk with Him.  I am posting these so that you the reader may also benefit from these lessons that God teaches me every day.  If I feel the information is too sensitive, don’t worry, I won’t post it, but for stuff that I think is of benefit for others to read, I will write something.  I will be posting them in the following format:

Passage:

My thoughts:

How do I apply this to my life:

Feel free to leave comments, it would be great to dialogue with my community of friends.  I will link the passage each day to the Bible text on Biblegateway.com in case you don’t have your Bible handy.  I will be using the New International Version (NIV), but occasionally may defer to other translations such as the English Standard Version (ESV), New Living Translation (NLT) and New American Standard (NASB).