SCRIP-BITS

Daniel 2:20.   Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his. 
 
Ah Friends, this being the season of winter, it’s nothing special to wake up and find a beautiful layer of snow covering the ground. I can’t help remarking how wonderful the snow looks when it lies quietly in the dark, or even in the sunshine, as yet undisturbed, undefiled by human hands and feet. (smile)
 
But you know that once we humans get into anything, or any place, we always cause disturbances and confusion. I guess that such is the nature of the beast. But that doesn’t mean because something’s in our nature that we have to automatically give into it.
 
For though sinfulness is our natural state, we don’t have to be always or thoroughly sinful, because Christ died and paid for our sins, so that we could be set free and live in holiness and righteousness before Almighty God.
 
And this Lenten season is a time for us to consider who God is, and what He means to us. It’s a time to delve into the Word of God to discover His truth, and also delve into our own souls to see how the contents of both match up. 
 
Then we need to aspire to, and work diligently to bring them into sync. For unless our lives are in sync with God’s Word, we are being disobedient, being rebellious, and will eventually pay a hefty price for that disobedience and rebellion.
 
So Friends, this is the ‘rightest’ time to consider how we’ve done so far in keeping our New Year’s Resolution to improve our walk with Christ this very meaningful year of 2014. Has there been noticeable progress, have we regressed, or have we just stood still? Only you and God can decide the answer to that question.
 
But it’s rather important that we monitor our walk with Christ, to ensure that we are indeed growing and maturing, as we journey along on our earthly pilgrimage. And we can see from the Scriptures that that is what Daniel and his three amigos, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (their Jewish names) were doing, when Daniel blessed the God of heaven and declared in our Bit:
 
‘Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his.’ And there’s not one iota of doubt on that proclamation my brethren!
 
For as Daniel continues: ”And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth (raises) up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know (have) understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
 
I thank thee and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter.’ (Dan.2:21-23)
 
Yes mih people, our omnipotent, omniscient and omni-present God does all those things… and more! And I guess some of you who don’t know the story of Daniel are wondering what all the fuss is about.
 
Well Friends, it was a rather serious matter, one of life and death! The powerful Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, had a dream that deeply disturbed him, and so he called his wise men, his magicians and sorcerers to interpret it for him.
 
But when they asked him to tell them the dream, he refused. He wanted the wise men to both tell him the dream, then its interpretation. On top of that, he threatened to kill them all if they couldn’t do both things. (Dan.2:1-9)
 
In exasperation, the wise men finally told the king: ‘There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.
 
And it is a rare (difficult) thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can show it before (no other who can tell it to) the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.’ (Dan.2:10-11)
 
And they were quite right my fellow believers, except for one point; not ‘gods’, but the ONE and ONLY TRUE LIVING GOD, He of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who is a most mighty and powerful Spirit!
 
Now that answer certainly didn’t sit well with king Neb, and he commanded that all the wise men in Babylon be destroyed. Now Daniel and his buddies were numbered amongst the king’s advisers, but when Daniel heard of the king’s decree from Arioch, the captain in charge of the cleansing, he wondered about the king’s haste, and was told the reason by the captain.
 
Daniel therefore went before the king and asked for some time to consider the matter. (Dan.2:12-16) And the scholars’ note here that ‘Daniel was obviously held in high esteem, as his ready access to the king demonstrates.’
 
And the Good Book declares: ‘Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing (decree) known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: That they would desire (seek) mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish (be destroyed) with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.’ (Dan.2:17-19)
 
Then our Bit comes in. Oh Friends, oh Friends, I can’t help reminding us every day of the wonderful God we serve and worship!
 
The problem though is that you’ll never see it until you truly believe it! And unfortunately, there are too many of us who don’t believe it, consequently we don’t do the things necessary for God to show up in our lives, that’s why we are sadly plodding along in desperation.
 
But you can see, as the scholars wisely note, that ‘Even though Daniel had special, God-given attributes, he and his friends still had to pray.’
 
And that’s the crux of the problem right there, my people! We’re never too mature, too holy, too righteous, or too anything else that we don’t need to pray. If even, Jesus Christ, the mighty Son of the mighty Jehovah God had to pray, why wouldn’t we, poor mortal minions, His fickle and fallible creation, need to do likewise eh?
 
So Friends, please, let’s note the necessity of prayer in all our lives. For prayer is the method of close and positive communication with our Creator, and without it, we can do NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL, in our own strength!
 
Please let that bit of wisdom sink deep into our hearts and souls today, so that we can walk a better and truer path to heaven and Father God Himself! Much LOVE!
 
…no prayer…means no communication with our Maker and heavenly Father…truly an unwise deed…for the consequences can be rather painful…