it's with both shocking and sadness to begin with, having read the news of three cn girls beheaded on their ways to a private cn school in the central sulawesi. one doesn't have the rights to take-away another man's life! such is the bitterness of those never experience the gift of forgiveness... God is just!
Read more...Still looking out! – Still mission impossible?
Daniel 4
‘Instant’ Societies
We live in a society that wants things to happen instantly. We don’t have much patience to wait for things. But how long is long enough we ask ourselves in keeping praying for our non-Christian friends that they will come to know God. Most of us are being very impatience, but God is not like that. God was indeed patience toward the stubborn Nebuchadnezzar in winning his heart.
God kept reaching out to Nebuchadnezzar, in fact two to three times. Daniel 2 recorded one occasion. Then in Chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar once again was given the opportunity to learn of a God who saved His people (i.e. God saved Daniel’s friends who were put in a fiery furnace of fire because they wouldn’t bow down to the golden statue that Nebuchadnezzar built to represent himself). Nebuchadnezzar kept thinking that he wouldn’t give up in keeping God out of his life. But did God give him up, because Nebuchadnezzar was utterly stubborn and slow?
Who is Number 1?
Nebuchadnezzar had lots of reasons to think that he was someone special. He was a great military commander, a great king, a great builder of the hanging garden of the Babylon (one of the Seven Wonders of the World). He was an arrogant king who wasn’t ashamed at all in bragging his contended and prosperous life for his own glory.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Answer – I Am!! (v. 4-30)
Life was going really well with Nebuchadnezzar. God shake him up again, through the same mean, a dream, as was the previous occasion in Chapter 2. The magicians again failed to interpret the dream as it was told (v7). Therefore, Daniel was Nebuchadnezzar last resort. However, Nebuchadnezzar still refused to acknowledge that God was supposed to be his personal God, even though he knew that God was a ‘top’ God. Nebuchadnezzar only acknowledged that God was one of the gods, and Daniel was someone special, but it wasn’t because of God (i.e. in v18, Nebuchadnezzar said, “…but you [Daniel] can, because the spirit of the holy gods is in you”).
Daniel understood that Nebuchadnezzar was still a stubborn un-believer. However, Daniel’s attitude was gentle toward Nebuchadnezzar; he wasn’t being judgmental at Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel offered advices (v27) out of his concern for Nebuchadnezzar’s salvation, instead of preaching him out right that might destroy the relationship (i.e. pointing finger at a sinner who still doesn’t acknowledge they are sinners in a turn-or-burn kind of ‘preaching’!).
There are many things in the Bible that are hard sayings, i.e. sin, judgment, and death. But we need to talk these truths out to others. However, we have to be very careful with the tone of our voice.
God had given Nebuchadnezzar lots of opportunities to learn of Him, but he refused to learn the easy way. Nebuchadnezzar still thought he was No. 1 (i.e. in v30, Nebuchadnezzar said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”). How is that for a challenge toward God!
We are sometimes like Nebuchadnezzar, thinking that we are the centre of the universe, and everyone else is there to serve us, even ignoring God in our life! This is sin essentially, thinking that we are No. 1.
God’s Answer – I Am!! (v. 17, 31-37)
This time, God hid hard at Nebuchadnezzar, not for the sake of being harsh in His judgment because of Nebuchadnezzar‘s stubbornness, but because of His love for him. God wanted Nebuchadnezzar to repent. God had indeed been very generous toward Nebuchadnezzar in giving him the warning through the dream, then the interpretation, and twelve months to repent before the dream was fulfilled (v29). But Nebuchadnezzar had wasted all these time, until his royal throne was taken from him that he was driven away from the people and lived with animals (v31).
Mission Accomplished? (v. 1-3, 34-37)
God was teaching Nebuchadnezzar a lesson so that he would acknowledge, honor, and glorify God. After all these years, has the mission accomplished? Where was Nebuchadnezzar at, spiritually?
How do we know that we truly are Christians? Jesus gave us a simple test whether we are the true followers of Him. We are likened to a tree; a good tree will produce good fruit, vice versa that a bad tree will produce bad fruit. Our actions, words, and thoughts will show who the king of our life is, whether Jesus or ourselves. If Jesus is our King, people would expect us to be different from the world. The children of God show the likeness of the father. When we are the new-born Christians, we’re like sprouts, but as we grow in Him, we become trees that produce the good fruit. God is changing us, our characteristics, and even our heart that we would have concerns for others’ salvation as well. We will be compelled by love to make known the truth to others. (See Galatians 5:19-25 for a comparison between the good and bad fruit).
So, had Nebuchadnezzar shown the fruit? Was he a believer at that point? What were the evidences in his life?
· Nebuchadnezzar had come to a right understanding or view of himself that he was nothing before God (v34). God is able to humble those who take pride in himself (v37).
· He had come to a right view of God, that God alone is right and just (v37) and His dominion is an eternal dominion (v34). God does as He pleases and no one can hold back His hand (v35).
· In fact, the greatest evidence would be that Nebuchadnezzar had then acknowledged God as his own personal God (v2).
Like Nebuchadnezzar, we may be in the middle of a painful process as we’re being shaped by God. But God crafts us that we might be like diamonds being crafted by someone who knows what he is doing, so that others may be amazed of the final result and glorify the craftsman.
Nebuchadnezzar had then been a humble person. He was ready to lose face, evidenced by the letter he wrote as an account of his personal witness to all people who are reading (v1) as he acknowledged that he was a sinful stubborn person, a rebel against God, a sinner who didn’t deserve salvation but had then repented. Though humiliating, he was ready to give it all. If we think we can just shake our fist at God, thinking that He doesn’t exist, there will then be a great awakening in our life in the future, but don’t waste that time going through the hard lesson. God is not the God who’s only up there, He has come to us, and there’s only one way, which is through Christ, that we might come to Him.
For us believers, let Him be the King everyday. We are often just one little link of a longer chain that brings others closer to their salvation. Often, we don’t see the big picture, we don’t know how long it takes before Jesus will enter their life, but we have to keep persevering, keep praying, keep trusting God to work through us. Remember that God loves His people more than we do. We must wait for His time, but let’s rejoice when we are in our tough time, because God is also making a diamond of others through us.
Mission impossible, through Jesus, mission accomplished!
people in leadership are not thinking clearly the consequences of their decision making, worse even if it's a factor of feeding the excessive pride, or perhaps the unconscious desire to be approved, let alone talking about incompetency.
ok, this doesn't need to sound as depressing as it is, when i'm only talking about the way things are portrayed in a movie. but how common have situations like these be the normal dose of our 'involuntary submission' toward bad leaderships, feeling hopeless to even to see the best in our leaders as such, let alone the consequences that the decisions cause toward others.
it was an episode of 24! last night's was perhaps one episode which people could easily react with an abnormal surge of tension having seen a person's pride at work at the worst situation ever.
what has crossed my mind ever since? leadership is crucial, it needs wisdom. wisdom comes from God. some have to be leaders, when they are, they need all the supports they could get from people. when you are, don't be a loussy one. when you are not, be willing to pray for the leaders, and corporate. it all sounds rather ideal, but none is possible when we disregard God in our life.
p.s. thank God for a tuesday morning, four days to go, and i'm feeling exhausted already, i shouldn't have written stuffs like this too early in the week. using the internet for the purposes other than works, it's recently been termed 'cyber-bluddging' ;)
i've been encouraged over the past two weekends while spending time with others. i hope the weekends may be regularly spent to catch up with a couple of friends. it's also a good thing to learn to pray together after catching up, and keep on praying for the same things over some time. last saturday was the scones making session. i hope it wasn't only a passing activity, but that people would be aware of the need to keep meeting with one another while sharing their life over the time, be prayerful, and be accountable for another's christian walk.
also, it's such a joy to be studying the Bible together with the girls on saturdays. the study is a straight-forward one, yet we hope to get out of the study learning about God and be changed as a result. this book is titled 'a spirit-filled christian', it's part of a discipleship series bible study. and we're looking into several topics such as, being an obedient christian, God's word in our life, conversing through prayers, fellowship with God's family, and witnessing for others.
it's rather amazing that one of the sharings we had after the bible study brought out one issue that every one is going through the similar situation. having such trust and priviledge to share, it's too good an opportunity to let go by not being open up to one another. after all, we won't be feeling that we're out of place and all alone with the on-goings of our life. it makes me realise that learning to be open is good when the occasion allows. it won't be easy, but it's worthed, that we can encourage one another.
my schedule needs alteration!
last night was the first class again, after a while in exile for skipping a couple, though not in a row, but this time i'm doing it in pennant hills, instead of newtown. the subject is called new testament 2 (the epistles), though i haven't done new testament 1 before :) the class is much smaller, consisting of 13 people, compared to 4 times more than that in newtown. thus, it's heap easier to concentrate for me. it's quite an interesting subject. you try to understand the big pictures in each of the books that made up the epistles (paul's letters and general ones), why they were written, the issues addressed, the structures of writings, connections between the theological and application parts in the letters, etc. also much informed is the contend of the book of acts, which you get to find out regarding paul's missionary journeys along the way as he wrote to the churches. i've got to tell you that i suffer consequently in this area considering my poor ability in reading maps!
have one assignment of short essay to hand in within four weeks. the question is meant to compare and contrast regarding christological hymns in the book of phillipians and collosians.
due to the small size of the class, i can't escape but to take the exam this time, unless i am certain that i won't ever again be taught by the same lecturer, who is rather good at explaining things that quick, but still convey the points clearly.
(canned) tuna..
the other day, i ate some, during the scones making session last saturday, my skin felt itchy when i got home. it even bugged me while i was supposed to be sleeping instead of scratching my legs and hair, gross! should i get my blood tested to find out more what food i'm allergic to? where should i start?
on another note, i now need to pay more attention on my three wisdom teeth. i suppose they need pulled out sooner or later. i can feel a bit unease now when i wide-open my mouth, hurting my jaw joint.
decided to use more of imagestation in the future, much easier to upload bulk photos at once, tho it would mean that i won't play around much with captions anymore. at one point, it's interesting to create a storyline through captions, but on the other hand, it takes my time away, i won't spare. another option is to upload to the ipc site, but this will depend on the photos occasions. it's just that at the moment i haven't got a spare time to try out the suggestions to upload to the site.
oink! am still half awake to realise of the amount of works at workplace that suddenly come my way, talk about busy-ness, just give me a simple life...
off course, the photos are here!
Looking out - mission impossible?
Daniel 2
The best kinds of stories
Daniel was a mission impossible hero for a mission impossible task that God used to reach out to a mission impossible non-Jewish of his day – the king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. We may be familiar with this whole situation, we sometimes find that we are the mission impossible ourselves (being unable to change), or perhaps the mission impossible is others whom we’d like to see them change or come to know Christ but hardly.
Looking out (v1-13)
At whom?
God was reaching out to king Nebuchadnezzar, it’s His mission. Since the very beginning, God’s people (starting from Adam until the Israelites) had kept failing to be a blessing for the other nations. Their disobedience was even a mission impossible itself. But God never gave up on them (and us) who kept on failing, therefore His interventions at all times.
Why?
Nebuchadnezzar was a mission impossible because:
· He was dead spiritually in his rebellion against God. He didn’t even know the living God.
· Not only that he’s dead, but he believed in many gods. And that these gods communicate to people through dreams, therefore the need for wise men to be mediators between the gods and the people.
· His position as a protected king surrounded by his men.
God wanted to reach out to Nebuchadnezzar because God loved him. King Nebuchadnezzar was a man of great power, and if he would be won, he could influence the whole kingdom.
How?
God grabbed Nebuchadnezzar’s attention by shaking his world through unresolved dream that none of his magicians were able to tell and interpret (v1-3). So disturbed was he in being unable to find out the answer, that he summoned the execution of all of the wise men of the Babylon. God made Nebuchadnezzar insecure through the failure of the wise men in interpreting the dream. Moreover, the insecurity was much more intensified because the failure also means that the gods had failed to communicate with the people. Similar to us, when life is easy and we are happy, we think that we need not God in our life.
The believer whom God uses (v14-30)
Daniel was there as one of the captives when Judah was conquered by the Babylonians. He wasn’t there by his own choice, but God was working to accomplish His mission through him.
Being a wise young man he was, we could actually say that Daniel had reasons to be ambitious in achieving what he was capable of should his nation hadn't been conquered. But he indeed saw his nation fell and his people took captives. In fact, more than that, his name was changed (to mean something that glorifies the gods of the Babylonians instead of his one and only God whom he served); a new language was forced to him, as well as a totally different set of culture. In the midst of all these, Daniel chose not to be bitter toward God. Daniel knew that God was in control and trusted in Him.
There he was about to be executed under the king’s order, but rather in tact and wisely did he handle the situation. Daniel asked for time to the king to interpret the dream (v16). He then got his friends along to pray that God would spare them by being able to know and reveal the dream. Daniel got his priority right in praying and praising God that otherwise would be natural of us to come straight to the king and revealed the whole thing, since Daniel knew from the very beginning that God was the all-knowing God, nothing was hidden to Him. But instead, Daniel asked for time to come to God! He understood that God’s plan for him might be that he’d be slain instead. Daniel knew that God was not controlled by anyone or him. Therefore, he chose to bring the matter to God before acting hastily himself.
As the story unfolded, Daniel faced a spiritual test (V26), and yet again and again as could be found throughout the passage. Will Daniel claim the glory for himself or will he honor God by giving back the glory due Him in being able to answer to the king?
It happened that not only did Daniel tell and interpret the dream; he did speak out the truth about God (v28). Daniel let God use him to reach out to the king while giving the glory back to God! Daniel pointed out that God was the revealer of mysteries and that God was the one in control of the future. There were in fact a couple of times throughout the passage that Daniel put God in the spotlight instead of stealing the glory for himself. Something we could learn when praises come our way, a gospel opportunity indeed!
The dream was told and interpreted. King Nebuchadnezzar had actually been given a chance to learn about Daniel and God. That Daniel was someone who trusted God, full of quiet confidence in God rather than glory in self as would normally a king with a mouthful pride in self. That God is in fact the all-knowing God (not the gods who failed to communicate to the people through dreams), the holder of the future (nothing was outside his control), the only eternal living God whose kingdom is imperishable as established in Christ –v44 (not temporal as in Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, in fact God was the one who set up kingdoms, even Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom of Babylon (v38), and those to come after him –Persia, Greece, Roman).
We often think that Daniel was an extra-ordinary one through whom God had always worked, and compared with us, we think we are just ordinary people. Daniel was in fact an ordinary man who was faithful in small matters that God kept on using him even in bigger scale ones. Daniel trusted in God and he prayed. We can also learn to trust God in all matters and keep praying. Each of us is a link in a line of chains that God can use to bring others to Him.
Mission accomplished? (v46-49)
Was the mission accomplished this time? Has king Nebuchadnezzar become a believer at this point? Far out, Nebuchadnezzar seemed to be honoring Daniel instead of God (v46). Besides, he still hasn’t acknowledged of the one and only God as compared to referring God being one of the gods instead (v47). Nebuchadnezzar was only under religious conviction but not conversion.
Will God give up on Nebuchadnezzar, the one He loves?
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