Balancing Ministry N' Work

Last week we got back into the Book of Daniel and found that king Nebuchadnezzar might be finally catching on to what God has been doing. As we continue in chapter 4, remember that this chapter is written as a royal proclamation. The king was retelling what had happened starting with the dream and everything that followed. As the king retells the events that have transpired, he started by once again calling on his usual wise guys and they were no help. Then he called for Daniel and shared the dream with him and proclaimed that the pagan gods could not do it. He then went on to say that Daniel could do it because he has ‘a spirit of the holy gods.’ The king having lived through all of the events of chapter 4 believes that Daniel has been touched by God. The highest political authority in the land has just stated that Daniel has the Spirit of God in him and then asks him for help. Daniel has been handed an amazing opportunity to witness to the king and everyone within earshot...

Today we are getting back into the Book of Daniel and picking up where we left off a few weeks ago and we will be starting in chapter 4. So far, we have seen week by week how God grew the faith of Daniel and his friends through the different trials they were faced with. They had to trust in their God when first taken into captivity, they choose to put their faith in God when they decided they would not defile themselves with the king’s wine and food. We saw how Daniel persevered when he hit a roadblock and was eventually rewarded for his faithfulness. Through the first chapter we saw that we need to make our Lord THE Priority in our lives and to put our trust in Him. He is the author and perfecter of our faith, and as we put our faith in Him, He will be faithful to grow our faith for the trials that are in our future.   When we got to the second chapter, we saw that God was at work in Daniel and the guys lives. He had orchestrated them being in the service of the king so ...

Happy Resurrection Day! We are going to continue in Luke starting at chapter 24 right where we left off on Good Friday. Between Good Friday and Resurrection Day, those who walked with Jesus were taking their Sabbath. For many of us that means that we do stuff around the house, maybe go for a drive, go for a ride, hang out with friends, etc… it is a time to enjoy ourselves, rest, or get some stuff done that we don’t classify as our job. To those who walked with Jesus the Sabbath day meant for the most part you stayed home or very close to home. It was a day to put your feet up and relax, even to the point that meal preparation for the Sabbath was done the day before during the day of preparation. It would be like us curling up with a good book, watching movies, or bingeing on Netflix during a cold icy day that was not safe for us to venture out and eating yesterday’s leftovers. For Peter, John, Andrew, Simon, James, Mary, and the others this Sabbath was a day to dwell on...

We were hopeful that we would be back together for Palm Sunday or at the latest Easter Sunday, but that is not in the plans for now. We will continue to worship virtually with pre-recorded sermons and trying out a virtual meeting. As much as we want to be together and have all of the guys make breakfast Easter morning, the right choice, is for us to stay safe and healthy at this time. Like the decision to worship virtually for now, we all make decisions every day. Some of the choices are simple, like what we are going to eat for dinner. Many decisions are harder like buying a car, buying a house, getting married, to forgive someone, or to hold traditional church services in a time like this. Life is full of choices. Some are easy and nothing to lose sleep over. Some are a lot more challenging. For example, where to eat lunch is relatively easy, but how about forgiving that person that hurt you? Another might be about sharing the gospel with someone or not as it might strain...