Book of Daniel

I would just like to do a quick badly written post about the book of Daniel today, or parts of the book of Daniel.

"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in the darkness, and light dwells with Him. I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king." Daniel 2:20-23

Often times when we think of 'the story of Daniel,' our minds are always drawn to 'Daniel and the Loin's den', the old childhood story we read as preschoolers. What our small minds failed to realize is this: There is so much more to the book of Daniel than we realize. Prophecies, wisdom, riddles, and so many other stories fill the book of Daniel far beyond the small story of the loin's den. Don't get me wrong though, Daniel standing strong in his faith and being completely unharmed after a night with hungry lions is very astounding and shows us God's power. But there is so much more we need to think about in the book of Daniel. 

One area which I'll write a bit about today, is Daniel's attitude. The verse above gives a good example of his willingness to give God all the glory. He could easily have marched up to Nebuchadnezzar and stated, "Oh, King, guess what I discovered all on my own! I'm amazing!" But he didn't, he gave God the glory for giving him such insight. (Not to mention I doubt God would give Daniel insight and wisdom if he took all the credit for himself.) To me, Daniel always seems to be quite confidant in God and what He can do. Often times he goes right out and says something in faith, such as: "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare out appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see." (Daniel 1:12-13) Daniel trusted God to keep them healthy, even though they only ate vegetables. Speckled all through the book of Daniel are similar words Daniel says, he possessed so much faith and trust in God. To end another one of my rambles, I say, may we try to have the faith and trust Daniel did in our God. We ARE His servants after all, He saved us from hell, we need to trust Him with ALL our minds and ALL our hearts.

Spreading the Gospel

Wow, I'm sorry, I've not been in a blogging mood lately, but now I officially decided to start blogging again-- at least for a while ;)

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore, go 'teach' and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 (note-- the version of the Bible I usually use does not have 'teach', but I added it anyways because it makes a better point)

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an exsample for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching." 1 Timothy 4:12-13

"Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near." Revelation 1:3

"In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16

Spreading the gospel and being a good testimony lay on my mind lately. I want to keep what I say short, so all I'm really doing is pointing toward the verses above. I believe in modern society we don't think of spreading the gospel or saying what we believe very often. Many times I've heard conversations where there opened a perfect avenue to share the gospel with someone, yet whoever the speaker was, did not.  Maybe because we don't know what to say, or perhaps it never even entered our minds. But I'm trying to say that it SHOULD enter our minds, and we SHOULD know what to say-- at least just a little. We should tell them what the Bible says and to do that we need to know the Bible. Sometimes I find myself fighting between two sides, one says "Talk, tell them!" and the other says, "I-I-um...well, you see, I-er...uh...". I'm sure some of you have had this before :)
Well, with this ramble, my main point is to speak when we have a chance, not just when we hype ourselves up enough to slightly mention something referring to our God. We should be proud to tell others, how He saved us from eternal death and how much He loves us, and how we strive to serve Him with all we have in us. We need to tell everyone we can, whenever we can, and not just with tracks (though tracks are a pretty good way as well).
And live it too!