The Challenge 8 Sept, 2004

Okay so I wrote it on the 8th and was not at a computer to send it.

Hello everybody...man has it been a long time. 1^st there was vacation in Virginia Beach which was very relaxing and much needed. Then I had a week of getting things done back in the office followed by two weeks of school that I'm currently still in at Fort Belvoir, VA (not far away but not my own office either)... In the mean time, school has started back up for the kids and Deb. Both my kids are in new schools and the family is really trying hard to get back into the whole routine of it all. I'm getting ready to start teaching again on Sundays and have been trying to do a bunch of projects around the house. There's tons more going on as usual but those are the highlights.

Bold

Have you ever done something just because you knew it was the opposite of what you were told to do? I mean, someone tells you to not go somewhere and you go anyway just to see what the big deal is. How about a movie that your parents told you not to watch and you want to watch it all the more? It's kind of like the movie Lion King where Simba is told not to go to the Elephant graveyard. His uncle Scar entices him a bit more but Simba wants to go there and eventually does. He knew it was forbidden and that he'd probably get in some trouble if he was caught but he went anyway. So, there are two sides to this weird quirk of humanity...first is that sometimes we just really feel motivated to do things that might be forbidden to us... we are drawn to them...we are curious... and the more people tell us not to do something (especially when we are younger) the more we really want to find out what the big deal is and the more some of us are attracted to the "forbidden thing". Not all of us and not all things but definitely some of them. Secondly, there is the aspect of consequences. Most of us know that there are consequences to doing what we were forbidden to do, but most of us also believe we are careful enough to not get caught! We also know that if we do get caught that all that is going to happen is that we will get yelled at, get punished, lose respect of another person... in other words the consequences are not usually "life and death".

A couple of years ago I was in Israel on a business trip. The conflict in Israel had just started up again between the Palestinians who live in the West Bank of Israel and the Israelis. We were taken aside almost immediately when we got into the country and briefed by the embassy that we were not under any circumstances go into the West Bank of Israel. They told us it was because they were afraid of our safety and of causing an "international incident". There were some other reasons but basically they told us don't go into the West Bank. So, a while later we were on a military tour of the dividing line between Israel proper and the West Bank looking at many of the sights and what the conflict areas were and such. At one point we were near an old beaten fence on a hill... one side was the "safe" Israel side and the other side was the "dangerous" West Bank side. Me and a couple of my friends on the trip purposely detached ourselves from the rest of the tour group and when we had the opportunity, we crossed over to the other side of the fence, took pictures of ourselves standing in the West Bank and then quickly rejoined the group without anyone knowing. We were so proud of ourselves for defying the Embassy warning and ever so slightly stepping into the West Bank and getting away with it. Of course, there was no real danger or we would not have been that close to the border and there was no one around to even see us do it. I don't know what it was, but to us it was something we all purposed to do and "get away with" from the moment they told us not to. Do you also feel that way sometimes? Like the more someone tells you not to do something the more you want to do it? Especially if you think you can get away with it without suffering any consequences?

Would it be different for us if we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we would be caught? I mean we end up not doing many things because of the fear of being caught, right? Or, we don't do them because we know the consequences are really life and death type things. We are deterred from doing many things because we know that the consequences of doing it are too pricey in our minds, right? What would you say to doing something knowing full well that you would get in huge trouble for doing it? What would you say to doing something that you knew full well would end you up DEAD? I'm not talking about saving somebody's life, or going to war, or something like that. I'm talking about doing something that society or public law says is wrong and punishable by Death? Things today that are punishable by death are murder, high treason and things such as that. In America, sometimes these crimes are not even punishable by death.

I've been reading the book of Daniel recently. In fact, I've read it about 4 times through to date, and there are two things that stand out to me as key to us in the story of Daniel. First is that Daniel wore his faith in God on his sleeve. Everyone knew that Daniel was a godly man and at least 10 times in the 12 chapters of the book of Daniel there is someone else talking about Daniel saying, "the Spirit of the Holy God is in him". Everyone knew it. He was very open about his faith- so open that people who did not believe in the one true God knew that the one true God's spirit was resident in Daniel. We could spend a whole challenge on this issue but it is the second thing that stood out to me more as I read Daniel over and over again. This is that Daniel was Bold, and he was Bold for GOD. There were several instances of this in Daniel but none of them stood out more than in the story we've all (or many of us) heard before in Daniel and Lions' Den. We know that the King was forced into signing a decree that said that everyone had to worship him (the King) for 30 days and if they didn't they were to be put to death. The King signs the decree, Daniel gets dimed out by some jealous wise guys, King has to throw him into to lions' den, an angel saves Daniel by shutting the mouths of the lion, and the King and Daniel both end up glorifying God for doing this. But take a look at this verse in Daniel...

"Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home." Daniel 6:10a

It says that after he knew that the decree had been made law. It means that he was not hiding out. He knew what was going on. Who knows- but I envision that there were people who were trying to look out for Daniel and they came up to him and told him, "hey Dan, buddy, if you are seen praying to God, the King is gonna kill you! So, watch out!" or "hey Dan, those guys who are out to get you...yeah, they got the King to sign a decree saying that he'll have to kill you if you're caught praying to God." Maybe there were some other folks who didn't like Daniel who were throwing it in his face..., "ha, ha Daniel, you have to pray to the King now or else they're gonna kill you...we got ya now Daniel". Who knows? What we do know is that this verse says that he did something after he knew what the law and its consequences were. Now he had some choices. He could have prayed in secret to God. I mean there is nothing wrong with praying to God in private, right? So, Daniel could have gone to his room, closed the windows and pulled the shades and prayed to God. He could have saved his life and had no consequences come from it.

It's kind of like what we are doing today. We don't pray in school in front of everybody because someone might kick us out of school. Society says we have to separate church and state so we do. We worship our God but many of us do it safely. In our churches, in private, without many people knowing - we separate our daily lives from our life with God in many instances. We don't have death hanging over our heads in America but we have public opinion, court cases, peer pressure and a constant barrage of secular society...so we do what is safe. We go into our houses and we don't intentionally hide what we are doing like an underground church does, but we kind of do what is safe in many instances. What did Daniel do? Read on...

"Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his room, with his windows open towards Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks, before his God, as was his custom since the early days." Daniel 6:10

He went right up to his room, flung open his windows like he always did and prayed 3 times in plain view of everyone. He boldly disobeyed the new law knowing full well that the result would be death. You almost get the picture of some cockiness in these verses when he understands what the decree says and he goes right up stairs and defies the decree immediately in front of everyone. Doing what is opposite of what the law says, doing it in front of everyone, and doing it regardless of what others thought is Bold. Things that we do that are opposite of what we are told to do are not necessarily bold. Sometimes they are silly and sometimes they are just completely stupid. My jaunt into the West Bank was just a silly little thing, drinking and driving is just plain stupid... but many of us have done both silly and stupid things in our lives before but how many of those types of things can you say are BOLD? He knew he would be put to death and yet he disobeyed the law anyway. He boldly followed God first and the laws of man second. He knew that doing what was right in God's eyes was more important that his own life...which was God's to give and take away anyway.

I know that there are hundreds if not thousands of stories of people who were Bold for God. Most martyrs did this. There are tons of stories in the bible that show folks who were bold for God. This one just stuck out to me because it was so obvious how bold Daniel was. How bold are you for God? Society is telling you to quit wearing your faith on your sleeve. Society is telling you that talking about God and Jesus is wrong. In fact, it is against the law already for Pastors of churches to preach on political issues for fear of losing their tax exempt status. Increasingly, there are courts who are telling you to take down your displays of crosses, that you can't have a bible club in a school, that you can't have a cross posted in your workspace, that you have to accept the killing of unborn children as normal, that marriage is no longer between a man and a woman, and it goes on and on. How bold are you for God? I'm not very bold most of the time. I am no Daniel in any way shape or form. I only wish I was that bold. I have to be more bold. Oh, I justify my lack of boldness away by saying that well I have to obey the rules or I'll lose my job, or I won't get promoted, or my neighbors will not like me, or the kids at school will think I'm a freak. God didn't make me that way. God wouldn't want me to do anything stupid...God did say to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's didn't He? Did you notice that all those excuses have an "I" or a "me". Are you being Bold for God? Are you following God 1^st and then Caesar? Are you standing up for God? God does not promise us an easy time of things down here on earth, He promises us that He will be with us always, and that we will have an eternal life with Him after this life on earth... so are you being Bold for God?

I know I'm not. I hope that God can speak to all of us through Daniel to be more Bold for HIM!

Until next week time ~ Dave
To make comments, to suggest topics you'd like me to tackle, to get past devotionals, or to be added to this weekly "devotional email" please write to: Dave Hansen at philip419@earthlink.net