serve God – Roberta Writes

An example of faith

Daniel has been one of my favourite books of the Bible for years. It has all the elements of the great Bible stories, but even more so. For example, Joseph gets framed and falsely accused, and ends up wasting away in jail. But in the book of Daniel jealous elements of the court conspire to frame Daniel, and he gets thrown in a den of lions. No sissy prison for these rulers. Daniel’s friends get thrown in a fiery furnace! These guys ain’t messing around.

To a kid who loved the action of the Old Testament, Daniel is a great book. It combined visual descriptions of dreams and stories with extreme events. As a child this was pure gold!

As an adult, I love the story of the hand writing on the wall. It again is such a visual story. But now I not only react to the imagery but the also to the impact of its meaning. Belshazzar is hosting a banquet and in an act of arrogance he demands to have the spoils from their Jewish conquest, the temple goblets, brought to him. They drink from these and praise their own gods and goddess. It is an act of supremacy over the Jewish people and their God. A hand then appears out of nowhere and writes on the wall. He calls for his wise men to come interpret the writing. They all fail so Daniel is brought in to decipher the meaning.

Daniel 5: 25-30 “This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN “Here is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain
was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in
the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain,
and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

The idea I like most is the idea of an external judgement. The visual representation of a truth that is separate and beyond the powerful. The reality that the ruler by which we are measured is not held by men, or by the authorities of the day.

The events of our world lately have many people on edge. It can be easy to feel helpless and small in the currents of world affairs. And yet, the scriptures offer a different view. We like Daniel can cling to what we believe to be true. We can hold the line as individuals. This may come with hardship and suffering, but we are fighting for the stronger side. We do not need to feel like victims. We serve the All Mighty.

Kings came and went, but Daniel remained faithful. He served God.

Serving God

The counter-intuitive idea of serving God is tied up in the idea of freedom or slavery. We tie ourselves to God and to his teachings. A pile of ‘do this and shan’t do thats.’ It seems to the outsider that Christians chain themselves to a puritanical and demanding master.

Humans are wired to serve. We will serve something.

This is where the ironic bit comes in. If you ask people who have given their lives to God, they will describe the freedom that results from this choice. They speak as sons and daughters not as slaves.

Choosing God allows us to reject other far more demanding and demoralizing task masters; fear, lust, despair are a few. Take fear for example, if you have ever given yourself over to fear, you will know what awful master it truly is. Fear is an enormous black hole that will never be satiated. You will never hit the bottom. There is always more to fear.

God is the only Master who chooses to serve us. We say, “Yes, I’ll serve you God.” He then kicks in and does everything else; salvation, joy, meaning. I have to say we are getting away with an incredible deal! Take this deal! Run with it and don’t look back. Go forward in His love. Leave all the other masters behind.

1 Samuel 12: 24 Be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

Zach Williams – No Longer Slaves (Live from Harding Prison) – YouTube

A line in the sand

How do we grapple with modern Christianity? Voices on every side telling us what it means to be a Christian. What you must believe, who you should support, what cultural idea you should adopt. Its everywhere. Both sides.

We seem to have politicized our faith. This is something that causes me great concern.

Several years ago, we began a very personal road of faith and just couldn’t find a ‘church’ where we could hang our hats. We have many supportive friends, family, and a great community, which we built over that time instead. For us this was a good thing. As a result, our relationship with God has been intensely personal.

I realize this is not the answer for everyone and I would never hold our experience up as an example. But I do believe God protected us from much of the chaos that I see happening in churches today. From the outside it seems many Christians have lost focus and confidence in their beliefs. It looks to me like churches have come under direct assault from the cultural changes.

Like in the Old Testament, in the story of Joshua, the Israelites also had come to a crossroads. Joshua stood before the people and gave his great speech. I can see it my minds eye. A rousing speech reminiscent of the great orators of old. A Winston Churchill “We shall never surrender” sort of speech.

It appears to me that we are at that kind of crossroad as followers of Christ. We are reaching a point where there is a line in the sand, and we need to pick which side we will be on.

Last year I painted a sign and we put it up in our entry way. I want it to be a daily reminder of where we stand. I want my family to remember who we serve!

Joshua 24: 14-15 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River
and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”