Engaging Scripture

What is the Trinity and what is Jesus’ role in the Trinity? – Our Identity: In Christ, Part 1

Have you heard of the idea that God is a Trinity? Can you explain it?

The Trinity is how we Christians view God. The word Trinity is a combination of two words: Tri-unity, meaning that God is Three, but One. Because that math doesn’t add up, three doesn’t equal one, people have used illustrations or analogies to teach the concept of God as Trinity.

An apple has three parts: a skin or peel, fruit or flesh, and the core. All three parts are apple, but each is different. In the same way God is Father, Son and Spirit.

CS Lewis’ illustration of the Trinity is my favorite. He said the Trinity is like the three dimensions: Height, Length, Depth. All three dimensions are equal, but each also has a different direction.

There are many such illustrations of the Trinity, and while none is a perfect analogy, they can help us at least begin to understand the mystery of the Trinity.

I’m talking about the Trinity because our current sermon series on Identity follows our Christian understanding of God as Trinitarian. Not all Christians agree on the concept of the Trinity. You may have heard of Unitarians. They believe differently from Trinitarians. Unitarians believe there is God, and that is all. Trinitarians, however, believe not in three gods, but in God as three persons, coequal and yet distinct: God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit.

We look to numerous Scripture passages to support our belief in the Trinity. Jesus often talked about how he and the father are one, such as in John 14. There he also equated the Spirit with himself and with the Father. Paul talked about all three persons of the Trinity indwelling the Christians in an equal way in his grand prayer in Ephesians 3. So, while it is a mysterious doctrine, we believe the Bible teaches God as three-in-one.

Last week we talked about our Identity as adopted children of God. In the coming weeks we’ll look at our identity as temples of the Holy Spirit, and then we’ll conclude the series studying our identity as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. So let’s begin to investigate our identity in the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, God the Son.

When it comes to Jesus’ role in the Trinity, though we refer to him as God the Son, is he actually a son? Yes, and no.

At Jesus’ baptism and at his transfiguration, the Gospel writers tell us that a voice spoke from the clouds, both times talking about Jesus: “This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well-pleased.” Considering the Trinity, we read that God the Spirit descended on God the Son at Jesus’ baptism and God the Father spoke over him. It is normal, then, for us to call Jesus, “the Son of God”.

He isn’t actually God’s son, however, in the sense that he had not previously existed and then was conceived and born just like a human son. God uses the label “son” to describe Jesus because, though sonship is a human concept, it helps us understand certain things about Jesus. But let’s be clear, Jesus existed eternally before he was born as a human. He himself said this, such as in John 8:58, when he said, “Before Abraham was born, I am,” equating himself with the eternal, pre-existent God. Paul said the same thing about Jesus in in in numerous places, such as in Philippians 2:6-8, where he talks about Jesus giving up the exalted position he could have held onto as God, but instead Jesus emptied himself of that right and privilege, and was willing to become a human. Also Paul says in Colossians 1:15-20 that Jesus is the image of God, that through him all things were created, and the fullness of God dwells in Jesus. Jesus was fully God before he became human.

But Jesus did give up his exalted place as God, and he became a human, as Paul taught in Philippians 2. This is the miraculous astounding truth that God took on human flesh, which John wrote about in John 1:14, “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This act of God becoming human we call “the incarnation” from the Latin word carne which means “flesh or meat.” God took on flesh in the person of Jesus who was born as a human son. It is amazing and surprising, and why we make such a big deal of Christmas. In addition to God the Father calling Jesus his beloved son, Jesus’ incarnation also gives us reason to call him God the Son, because he was born as a human son, of Mary. Though he is God the Son, let us never consider him as lower than God. He is equal with God; always has been and always will be.

Think about the significance of Jesus as a human son. When Jesus submitted himself to become one of us, he not only showed us how much he loved us, but he also brought a significant update to the way the Trinity related to one another. One of them took on human flesh! This is why Jesus is called Emmanuel, which means “God with us,” as we hear so frequently through the Advent and Christmas season. When he was born, God was with us in a whole new way, as one of us.

The next important question we should ask is, “Why?” Why would God do this? Check back in tomorrow as we attempt to answer that.

How to move out of the crowd and get near to God – Our Identity: In God, Part 5

Remember the parable of the princess who hid her identity, and never spent time with her father, the king? There’s more to the story. The princess was an adopted child of the king with all the rights, benefits and privileges of being in his royal family. But she did not actually spend time to get to know the king, to know what he is like or what it means to be a child of the king. Instead she spent her life living apart from him. Yeah, as the parable told us, she checked in once a week as a part of a crew of reporters that attended his weekly briefing, but she never met with him personally.

That princess is you and me.

We’re adopted into the family of God. But how often do we spend time getting to know him?

Our weekly check-ins with our church family on Sundays are very important. They are family gatherings, to change the metaphor a bit, when the family of God gets together. But there is so much more an adopted child of God can do to spend time with our heavenly father.

It starts with making space in your life to get to know him. I urge you, if you’re aren’t already doing this, to make this a priority for 2020. And do it with a friend. Maybe someone in your small group. Maybe someone in your Sunday School class. Here’s what you do to get to know God who is your adopted parent:

Pick a book of the Bible, and read one chapter per week. Read it every day, asking the question: “What does this teach me about God? What is there about God in this passage that I can learn to be like?” Write it down. Through the week, read the same chapter, every day, seeking God. Then get together with that other person or persons, and share what you learned.

Then the next week you move to the next chapter. Read it every day, studying it, asking, “What does this teach me about God?” Next meet up at the end of the week with your friend to discuss it. And keep going.

Thus day by day you are learning about God.

It starts with a choice to get to know God. It’s a decision to make getting to know him such a priority that you actually do something about it. It is a choice to go beyond the idea that your identity is a child of God, to living out that reality in your day to day, hour by hour world.

God won’t force this upon you. He is not a dictator parent. He allows you to make the decision. I believe sometimes he is actively wooing us, drawing us to him, and he always desires to be closer to us, but he doesn’t overwhelm and force us. In the end we have to be the ones who choose him. Quite frankly, we have so many options in our society to allow ourselves to give attention and priority to other things.

I’m preaching to myself too. It can feel much more pleasing or entertaining to read a good book, watch a TV show, go to a sports event, work on a hobby, go on vacation, or go out to eat, you name it, than to sit down and get to know God. Those things are not wrong, but they are not the most important.

In 2020 I urge you to move out of the crowd, to decide to make a move in God’s direction.

Here’s a look ahead at the rest of the series, because I want you to see how this works together. This current series of posts (of which this number 5 of 5) we have been learning how we locate our identity in God the Father (and mother!). Next up, we look to Jesus, the example of one who lived out that identity perfectly as a human. Third, we will study the Spirit, God living in us, empowering us to live out that identity as Jesus did. Finally we will examine the how we are citizens of the Kingdom of God, as we are the family of God living out our identity in the world.

The rights and privileges we have as adopted children of God – Our Identity: In God, Part 4

When my wife, Michelle, and I were talking about this idea of being adopted as God’s children, she reminded me of one of her favorite parts of the adoption ceremonies. At those adoption ceremonies one of the final components is that the judge reads the decree of adoption. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a decree of adoption states that:

“The person proposed to be adopted shall have all the rights of a child and heir of the adopting parent or parents and shall be subject to the duties of a child to him or them.”

Think about how that relates to our adoption as children of God. We have all the rights of a child in God’s family.

We’re not just staying in his house as a guest. We recently vacationed in Vermont, and we stayed at my cousin’s AirBnB. For the weekend we were living in his house. Yes, we’re extended family. He’s my cousin. But I’m not one of his children. Not an heir.

Our friend, Becka, lived with us for nine months, and she became very close with our family. We had house guests before, but never one who lived with us for nine months. So of course we got close, right? But still she wasn’t our child. We didn’t adopt her. We remain friends, but Becka doesn’t have the rights of our children.

But adopted children do! When my brother and sister-in-law adopted their son, Chase, his was one of the four adoptions I witnessed in a courtroom. All four adoptions involved a name change. The child’s last name was changed to that of their adopted parents. So Chase became Chase Kime. But in order to more deeply identify Chase with the family, my brother and sister-in-law went a step further. All four of my kids and all of my brothers’ kids have a middle name that is a family name. My brother and sister do too. You could say it is a kind of family tradition. The middle names can be first names of grandparents or middle names of parents. To make Chase just like the rest of the family, they allowed him to choose a family name for his middle name. Pretty cool, right? Well, he chose the family name that is arguably the least contemporary and coolest of all the male names in my family. My name? Nope. My middle name? Chase’s older brother Carson already had that. He chose my dad’s middle name. Alfred.

And with that, Chase was deeply entrenched in the family.

When you are adopted, you take on the name, the rights, and the privileges of your new parents. And that is what we do with God. We fully identify as God’s, both his father and mother aspects, and everything about him.

That means we need to keeping asking what God is like. What IS God like? How much do you ask that question? How often do you think about God? As children of God, let us think about what God is like, and who God is, so that we can not only know him, but fully embrace our identity as his adopted children. Then we make the choices to live out our identity as children of God. For example, consider what Jesus said about this in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:9-12, when he said the following:

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

We, though we are not perfectly loving like God, know how to give good gifts to our children, Jesus says. How much more God in heaven gives good gifts to those who ask. That’s what God is like!

Thus we have the wonderful opportunity to be like God, if our core identity flows from his, and this is why Jesus said what he said next. The Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In other words, just as God loves us, we are to love others.

Or consider reading Matthew 18:23-35. God is forgiveness, we learn in Jesus’ parable. Adopted into his family, we take on his identity, allowing the forgiveness he first gives us to them flow through us to our families, workplaces, and throughout our churches. Who do you need to forgive?

Jesus also once said, “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” This sets the standard that our identity is so linked with him. Perfection sounds intimidating and impossible, but my hunch is that Jesus was simply saying that our goal is to be like our heavenly father. How do we do that? Check back in to the next post!

My six visits to a courtroom – Our Identity: In God, Part 3

Lancaster County Court of Common Appeals

I have been inside a courtroom for official court proceedings six times in my life. The first time was my fault. I was 17, very guilty, and scared to death. I’m not going into the whole story today. If you want to learn more, I’ve written about it here. The summary is that I was convicted of vehicular homicide for hitting an Amish buggy and a lady inside the buggy died. It was accidental, but still totally my fault, and I regret it. God has done a beautiful work of redemption through it. I bring it up because I want to talk about my other courtroom experiences.

My second time in a courtroom was for a high school field trip later that school year, and it was such a relief because it wasn’t about me this time!

The most recent four times? Well, they have been astoundingly beautiful.

In each of those last four times I sat in the courtroom, I heard the judge declare that a child was now part of a new family. I cried tears of joy as my brother, sister and close friends each welcomed those children into their lives. Those were each adoption ceremonies. The most recent one was just a couple months ago, as of this writing, when my sister Laura and brother-in-law Kyle adopted their second daughter Mya. We got our younger kids out of school, our oldest son and his wife took the morning off of work, and our middle son drove home from college, all to be there. The courtroom was packed full with our family and their friends, because this was a momentous occasion. It was a celebration!

Mya has a new identity now. She is no longer a child of the state, but a child of Laura and Kyle.

In October 2017 I blogged about the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, looking at what are called the Five Solas. When we talked about Sola Gratia, “Grace Alone,” I wrote that, “The beautiful New Testament teaching about grace is summed up in the picture of adoption. God, we are told, in his grace, adopts us as his sons and daughters, through the work that Jesus did in his life, death and resurrection.”

A scholar I found describes it like this, “Grace is not God’s way of helping us to become obedient children; it is rather God adopting us; unworthy though we are.”

We who did not have a family, because of our sinfulness, can become part of God’s family, because of what Jesus did for us. Think about that. We are all orphans because of our sin. Separated from family. Across that chasm of separation God says, “I want you in my family, but there is something keeping us apart, your sin. But I have good news for you! I love you so much, I’m going to fix that.” And he did fix that, through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Now all who place their faith on Christ can receive the gift of God’s grace. When you receive that gift, God adopts you into his family.

I love how Ephesians 1:4-5 depicts God saying to us, “I chose you to be adopted into my family.” Have you received the gift of God’s grace to be adopted into his family?

There is something important to bring up here. We can also choose not to accept the gift. God doesn’t force us to be in his family. We have to hold out our arms with open hands, and receive the gift of grace. When we receive the gift, we are saying that we want to be a part of God’s family. And not just in name only. It is not just a label. “Christian”.

Titus 2:11-15 says that it is a total change. In a previous post during our Titus series, I wrote:

Paul tells Titus, this purification allows us to be adopted into God’s family. Once we were not the people of God, but now through Jesus giving himself, we can be part of his family. Think about the richness of that. When you receive the God’s gracious gift of salvation, believing in him and giving your life to follow him, you become his very own. That means, to God you are not just a nameless face in the crowd. You are not just a number or a statistic. You are his very own. This word carries the idea of how special you are to God. He knows your name, he is close to you. He wants to talk with you and walk with you and spend time with you. That’s what Jesus wanted to happen when he gave his life for you. Think about that! The almighty God of the universe actually cares that much about you! Did you know that? So not only does he want to break the chains of what is destroying you, he wants to cleanse you, and make you a whole new person, and be close to you.

That means our core identity is rooted in the truth that God is real, and that he created us in his image and loves us to the point that Jesus gave his life so we could be adopted into the family of God. An adopted child of God! When you choose to believe in God and give your life to him, that is your identity.

Why we need to see God as both Father and Mother – Our Identity: In God, Part 2

The Bible says that God is not just our creator, but our parent. The Bible uses both Father and Mother imagery for God. We normally call him God, the Father. But God does not have a gender. God is not actually male. God is not human. God is a Spirit.

We could be missing out on the ways in which God loves us in a fully feminine way. And that has ramifications for our identity.

For example, there are numerous times when God is described in the Bible symbolically as having a womb, such as Deuteronomy 32:18, “You forget the rock who begot you, unmindful of the God who gave birth to you.” Consider what is perhaps the most common metaphor of salvation: being born again. We find that in John 3:3, when Jesus met one of the religious leaders, Nicodemus, under cover of night, and he said, “you must be born again.” The central salvation metaphor is feminine! Did you ever think about that?

Sometimes God is described using feminine terms in other ways, and these verses tell us about what God is like.

In Isaiah 66:13 God says, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” In Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34 Jesus says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

Why does it matter that we see God as both mother and father? Because our core identity is not rooted only in God as masculine father, but also in God as feminine mother. Fathers and mothers each have unique tendencies. Think about your own fathers and mothers and how different they are or were. God is both. If we only think of God as masculine, we are missing something very important, and that has great implications for our identity. We would do well to rest our lives on God as both mother and father, the perfect loving mother and father. This is an important image because none of us had perfect mothers and fathers. None of us are perfect mothers and fathers. Yet God is. It can be very difficult for those of us who had difficult experiences with our own parents to view God as the perfect parent. So it starts with a decision to trust in God that he is not only creator, in whose image we are made, but also the loving perfect parent we long for. We know how important stable family is for children to develop their identity as loved, cared for. We have that stable parent in God. He loves and cares for us like no other, in both the masculine and feminine ways of parents.

The king and the secret princess – Our Identity: In God, Part 1

I want to tell you a parable.

There was a king who wanted to have more connection with the people in his kingdom, so he decided to have a weekly briefing. At the briefing, reporters from various news agencies in the kingdom would come to the briefing, and they would talk with the king, and disseminate the information through their news outlets. Newspapers, TV, internet.

There was one reporter who came weekly who had a special relationship with the king. No one else knew it, but that reporter was actually the king’s daughter. The reporter was a princess. Yet the only other person in the room who knew her identity was the king. This princess not only hid her identity in the briefings, she never asked questions. Furthermore, she and the king knew that these briefings were the only time the king ever saw the princess.

That is what we we’re talking about in this sermon series to start the new year. Our identity. We want to start 2020 with clear vision, with more of an understanding of who we are. With the goal of then being able to interact with our God, our families, our community in a more real and genuine way. In a way more like Christ. In a way that we were created to be. Do you ever find yourself questioning who you really are? Often times when asked about who we are, we state our occupation, or who we are married to, who we parent, whose child we are. But that is not the same as WHO we are, what our identity really is as a person. So who are you?

Often those questions come in the form of fear and self-doubt or self-loathing. “Am I good enough?” can lead to, “I am not good enough.” “Does anyone really like me?” can lead to, “No one really likes me.” We can dwell on our mishaps and failures, on our weaknesses, thus defining ourselves that way. Often we form identity by these kinds of negative views, maybe even by the lies that people have told about us. And we can rarely consider the truths about ourselves. We either don’t know our identity or we’re actively hiding it like the princess. The result is that we live out of a false identity. So what is our identity? Let’s find out. We start at the beginning. If you want, open a Bible to Genesis chapter 1.

The foundational biblical teaching is that all humans are created in the image of God. That is found in Genesis 1:26-28, when God says, “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness.”

As I’ve said in another post, “In that sense all humans everywhere are created by God, made in his image, and therefore have equal value. So there is a real way, and this is not just symbolic, in which we Christians can say that all humans are God’s children. In God’s eyes we are all equally precious and valuable. Even ISIS fighters, even child rapists, even your jerk neighbor, your arrogant coworker, difficult family member or bully classmate. Even the person sitting across the church sanctuary that you have a hard time with. All are created equal. All are desperately loved by God.”

But there is more. The Bible says that God is not just our creator, but our parent. The Bible uses both father and mother imagery for God. We normally call him God, the Father. But God does not have a gender. God is not actually male. God is not human. God is a Spirit.

What that means is that if we only consider the masculine ways of God, we could be missing out on the ways in which God loves us in a fully feminine way. And that has ramifications for our identity which we will look at in the next post.

How to avoid assimilation and follow Jesus – Characters: Daniel, Part 5

*Photo by Vladislav Babienko on Unsplash*

A retired couple in my congregation told me about the time they attended a high school reunion, and their classmates, now all retired, each took turns sharing what they were doing with their lives. The sharing went all the way around the circle, and not a single person mentioned anything about serving the Lord. Perhaps it could be said that they all assimilated to American culture.

What situations are you being pressured to bow down or assimilated to American culture?

What will it look like for you to pursue total commitment to Jesus?

How will you use your time and resources, especially in retirement years? Spend your life for the kingdom. There is a strong temptation, even in Christian circles, to enjoy the fruits of your labor. As such the American Dream is often guiding us more than the Kingdom of God.

Jesus said, “Where you treasure is, there your heart will be.” If you have possessions, and I am talking about possessions of all kinds, from various properties, vehicles, investments, where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Maybe, in order to avoid assimilation, you might consider meeting with people who clearly live out their retirement years in line with God’s Kingdom.

Next, think about the many choices you must make in life. From the small and seemingly insignificant, such as whether or not you will go to church or sleep in this week, to the large and impactful, such as who you will marry or what job you will pursue. Make those choices in trust and faithfulness to God no matter what.

What are the results? In each story, the leaders who watched Daniel and his friends all had a change of heart. So the faithfulness of the godly impacted the ungodly leaders.

Daniel and his friends are in a position to have no impact. They are foreigners. They are in a position of weakness, extremely vulnerable. Yet because of their faithfulness to God, they make a great impact in the lives of the people around them.

The temptation to assimilate must have been intense. Just do what the Babylonians do, or just pray like the Medes pray, and you will be safe. Or just act like it on the outside. They won’t know what is truly in your heart. Pretend to be a Babylonian, a Mede. To that kind of thinking, Daniel and his friends said, “No way.” They did not eat the defiled food, they did not bow to the idol, and Daniel kept right on praying to God out in the open for all to see. They refused to assimilate if assimilation meant turning their backs on God. Yeah, it was risky. Yeah, they got close to losing their lives. But God was at work, he came through, and the result was kingdom impact.

This is not saying that God promises to make every situation work out perfectly all the time. At the Columbine tragedy, the shooters stuck a gun in a girl’s face and said, “Are you a Christian?” She said, “Yes,” and they shot her and she died. (Though read this article for clarification on the story.) And through the centuries, and in many places still today, Christians are persecuted and die for their faith.

Choose faithfulness to God no matter the circumstance, no matter the opportunity. Refuse to be assimilated. Most of us will never have a person shove a gun in our face, asking us to deny Jesus or they will shoot us. Most of us will never have to fear that following Jesus could get us thrown into a fiery furnace or lions’ den. But all of us do have to make big and little choices every single day about how we will live our lives in a culture that is not in line with Jesus. While American culture gives us the freedom to follow Jesus, which is wonderful, that same freedom also gives us the opportunity not to follow Jesus. How will you choose?

I say this to every generation, just as I say it to myself. Whether you are in elementary school, middle school or high school, whether you are in college, young adulthood, young married, married with kids, middle age, retired, grandparenting, or older adults, there are pressures for every single generation in America to buy into ideas of our culture, which are not in line with the way of Jesus. Particularly the ideas of using your time, your money and your abilities for yourself, for your comfort, and for your pleasure. Instead, the way of Jesus is to sacrifice yourself for others, for the mission of God’s Kingdom, for his purposes.

Start 2020 with a new commitment to pursue Jesus. Refuse to be assimilated.

How much should we let our Christianity show? – Characters: Daniel, Part 4

In this series of posts on Daniel and his friends, we’ve been talking about assimilation. How much should Christians allow themselves to assimilate with their surrounding culture? What areas of ethics matter, and which don’t? It’s not always easy to know. One way people seek to answer this question is about process. Do the ends justify the means? Usually the answer is No. Should the answer always be No? What about a situation where we withhold our Christianity in order to gain prestige or influence, because we’re concerned that our identity as Christians could hold us back. We do that hoping that once we gain the prestige and influence we will be in an advantageous position to advance Christianity. Is that okay? Once again, Daniel shows us how to think about this.

Between Daniel chapters 3 and 6, time has passed. There is not only a new king, but a whole new empire. Darius, the king of the Medes, was victorious over the Babylonians. In the new empire, Daniel, however, remains a top leader. In fact Daniel is one of three administrators who were in charge of 120 satraps, which were like regional governors.

If you’re following along in your Bible, read verse 3. There we learn that Daniel had so distinguished himself, King Darius planned to promote him as the leader over the whole Kingdom. Think now about Daniel’s life trajectory. From decades before, losing everything about his former life when the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem, to now on the verge of becoming the leader of what was at the time perhaps the most powerful kingdom on earth.

The other administrators and satraps are not happy. They’re jealous. So they seek out any way that Daniel might have screwed up, hoping to bring charges against him. But Daniel was so trustworthy and capable, that they can find nothing on him. They conclude in verse 5 that the only way they’re going to be able to get at him is to place Daniel in a no-win situation, and there is one area of Daniel’s life they know they can trap him. You know what that is? Daniel’s religion. Daniel has remained a faithful follower of God this whole time. For decades in a foreign land, Daniel has never assimilated when it comes to his relationships and faithfulness to God.

The other leaders know this, which tells us something about Daniel. He wasn’t living out his faith secretly. He was open about who he followed and what he believed. Nothing deterred Daniel from visibly and audibly following God’s ways. So the other leaders propose a edict that everyone must only pray to King Darius for the next 30 days, and any who disobey the edict will be thrown into a den of lions. They get the king to sign it into law, which is no surprise. What narcissistic king wouldn’t want his people praying to him and him only?

In verse 10, Daniel learns about the decree, and goes home, and you know what he does? Pray to Darius for all to see so that everyone believes he is faithful, and then pray in secret to God? That would be a very wise move, if all Daniel wants is to get that top ruler position. Many people are like that when they are so close to power. They will do anything to get more of it. Not Daniel. He defies the law of the king. He opens the window in his home, and prays toward Jerusalem to his God, YHWH, three times every day, exactly as he had done before. He will not be assimilated.

The other leaders catch Daniel in the act, just as they hoped, and they report to Darius. Darius, we read in verse 14, is greatly distressed. He made the ridiculous law, probably thinking nothing of having to incriminate people for disobeying it, and certainly not the man whom he planned to make ruler of the kingdom.

So Darius is stuck. He tries to save Daniel, but it is an open and shut case: Darius made a law, Daniel broke it. There is no other way to look at it. Darius relents, throwing Daniel in the den of lions, but saying, “May your God, Daniel, whom you continually serve, rescue you.”

In another miraculous intervention, God does save Daniel, and Darius is overjoyed. I encourage you to read verses 26-28. Darius proclaims that the kingdom will must fear and reverence God! And Daniel prospered.

But it doesn’t always work out that way. Remember the girl whom Bethel Church was praying to be resurrected? She ended up staying dead. God’s answer to their prayer was No. They held her funeral this week. What is so amazing is the way the parents and people from that church lived out their commitment to Jesus. They refused to be assimilated to the way of the world.

What will it look like for you to pursue total commitment to Jesus? What situations are you being pressured to bow down or assimilated to American culture? Check back in tomorrow as we conclude with practical implications of how to avoid assimilation, and what to do if you suspect you might already be assimilated.

How teens and adults can respond to peer pressure – Characters: Daniel, Part 3

How do you handle societal pressure? Whether you are a teenager facing peer pressure at school, perhaps to try drugs and alcohol, or whether you are an adult tempted to misreport your taxes, there are multitudes of pressures in life, pressures to turn away from living in a way that is honorable to Jesus. Will we assimilate or we will choose the way of Jesus? As we continue our five-part series on Daniel and his friends, we’ve already learned how they refused to assimilate into Babylonian culture, when in a training program to serve in the palace, they were asked to eat foods that were dishonorable to God. The result was that God prospered them. But instead of living happily ever after, turn to Daniel 3 where we’ll find that Daniel’s friends are faced with a terrible challenge.

In this chapter, we learn that the king, Nebuchadnezzar, commissions the creation of a giant statue, probably an idol of a Babylonian deity, and he required all people to bow to it, or they would be punished by being burned to death in a furnace.

Daniel’s friends do not bow. It is important to remember that these guys are not no names anymore. As we saw in chapter 1, they entered the king’s service, and they were superior to all others. They are known. Look at verses 8-11 of chapter 3. Some others come forward to Nebuchadnezzar and tell on the Jews. Not only were they foreigners, but also, just as in our world today, when you are a foreigner, you stick out. Verse 12 reminds us that the king had set the three Jews over the affairs of the province of Babylon. They are top leaders now. They wouldn’t be able to just hide in the crowd. Other Babylonians could easily have been jealous of these men. Foreigners taking the best Babylonian jobs? Often that doesn’t go over well.

So the three Jews are called out and confronted, and Nebuchadnezzar is really upset with them. These some of his top men. Maybe he is wondering if he was stupid for taking a chance on foreigners. Maybe he is embarrassed. Maybe he is feeling betrayed because he trusted these guys, and now they are turning their backs on him. Look at the last line of verse 15. He says, “What god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” Nebuchadnezzar is super arrogant. He is the top leader of the most powerful nation in the world. He invaded the homeland of these guys, and he defeated them. Who are they to defy him? Clearly he is more powerful than their God. I wonder if this discussion had come up before. Maybe he had issues with these Jews refusing to assimilate to the Babylonian religion, but Nebuchadnezzar can’t deny that these guys are superior. So he is glad for them to be a part of his kingdom. They are serving him well. But when it comes to their faith in their God, they just won’t crack, and perhaps that has really been bugging him. Now, though, he has them where he wants them. Obey or die. Surely, they will assimilate now. Smart guys like this will weigh the options, and know that it is obviously better to just bow to the idol and live.

That leads to verses 16-18 which are amazing. I encourage you to read them for yourself. The three men say that they will refuse to bow, because they believe God will save them from the fiery furnace. But get this: they tell the king that even if God doesn’t save them, they will not bow. Wow. I wonder if the place where they were talking went silent at that moment. Could you hear a pin drop? I bet it was icy cold. I’m thinking Nebuchadnezzar didn’t see this coming. You simply did not defy the king like that. Right to his face, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are saying, “We will not be assimilated.”

What an amazing statement of allegiance to God and trust in God!

Have you heard the story of the people at Bethel Church in CA that were praying for a resurrection? Two weeks ago, one of their worship leaders had a two-year old daughter who suddenly and tragically died. So they began a 24-7 praise and worship service asking God to resurrect her. Her body lay in the morgue for days. I have to admit that I heard the story and was unsettled. There is much we could say about it, but I bring it up because I believe it is so similar to Daniel’s friends. The people at Bethel were trusting in God and his power. They never once said that God had to raise the girl, or they would lose their faith. Just like Daniel’s friends, they were doing what they believed was right, and if God would choose not to raise the girl, they would remain faithful to him regardless.

Back to Daniel 3. As you can imagine, Nebuchadnezzar is even more upset now by the Jews’ defiance. He throws them in the furnace, and sure enough, God saves them. This results in a total change in Nebuchadnezzar who praises God and promotes Daniel’s friends.

What situations are you faced with assimilation? I encourage you to ask yourself how you might already be assimilated, and yet thus far you haven’t viewed it that way. Consider how you spend your money, your time, your energy? Is it in line the way of Jesus? Try to avoid the line of thinking that says, “Well, so many other Christians live like that, so it can’t be wrong.” Yes, it can be wrong. Just because lots of Christians do something doesn’t mean that it is honorable to Jesus. How will you be different?

We have one more story of assimilation, and we’ll look at that in the next post.

Should Christians change their views on morality as their society changes? – Characters: Daniel, Part 2

Is it okay for Christians to update their views on ethics and morality? Can we innovate our stance on traditional theology? There’s no doubt that American society has been heavily influenced by Christianity, and still is in large part, but as our societal views change, can we adapt Christianity to fall more in line with changes, making Christianity more palatable to the society? This is the process of assimilation that I introduced in the previous post. It is a process that Daniel and his friends faced. Perhaps their approach will be very instructive to us, as we live in a society that is changing.

Daniel and his friends, as we learned in the previous post, were exiled from Judah to Babylon and conscripted into a training program that would assimilate them into Babylonian society, as they learned to serve in the palace. For exiles, it seemed they hit the jackpot. Of course they would rather be back home in Judah, but at least they could console themselves that they got to be in the palace. Surprisingly, Daniel and his friends don’t view it that way. If you want to follow along with the story, read Daniel 1 verses 8-14.

They ask the king’s chief official if they can substitute the dietary portion of the training regimen with a diet of their own. In this way, they refuse to be assimilated. Yes, they are still willing to enter the training program. But they will not do it in the way of the Babylonians. Why? Because they want to follow the law that God had given them about what is clean and unclean food. The story doesn’t tell us exactly what was wrong with the food, just that it was defiled, which could mean that it had been used in idol worship.

At this point, Nebuchadnezzar’s chief official could easily say, “I’m not dealing with this ridiculousness,” and send them to hard labor, prison or worse, just eliminate them. Daniel and his friends are in no position to be bargaining like this.

But God is at work! If Daniel and his friends wondered if they had been abandoned by God, they were about to see how God was right there all along. As we continue this series of five posts studying Daniel and his friends, keep note of how often God is involved in this story. Verse 9 is the first such mention, when God caused the official to show favor to Daniel and his friends. What’s more, the official knows this is a crazy scenario, because his head could be on the chopping block too! He is responsible to present the king with qualified candidates to serve in the palace, and even admits his fears to Daniel.

Perhaps sensing God at work in this gracious man, Daniel and friends propose a compromise. “Please let us try our diet for 10 days,” they ask. Daniel suggests that they receive just water and veggies for ten days, and the official can judge for himself if it was working. Wise move by Daniel and his friends, right? It’s like a cleanse!

Most of all, it is amazing to watch their passion to live out their faith in God, despite strong temptation to assimilate to the surrounding culture. It would have been so much easier just to give in. They don’t give in, and God was there at work. So the official takes a risk, allowing them ten days on their plan, and what happens? Read Daniel 1, verses 15-21 to find out.

Are you surprised that it turns out that Daniel and his friends are far superior to the others in the program? At the end of just ten days it was obvious that Daniel and his friends were better off. So the official allows them to finish out the whole program that way. After three years, all the people in the training program are presented before the king, and Daniel and friends are the best in class.

Do you see how God is still at work? The writer tells us that in addition to being best in class, God gives Daniel and his friends special knowledge and understanding, and to Daniel he gives the spiritual gift of being able to interpret dreams. Thus they start their jobs serving the king, and we are told that they were ten times better than anyone else in the whole kingdom, even magicians and enchanters.

Think about the trajectory of their lives. They are living in Jerusalem when they are attacked, defeated, ripped from their families, and taken far away to Babylon. There they enter a training program to serve in the palace. At the end of three years they have risen to the top of Babylonian royal society. They go from the deepest depths of loss and despair, to the heights of power and influence. Why? How? Because God was at work, and they remained faithful to him.

There are many ways this story relates to our world today:

Think about the parallel to kids going off to college. Daniel and his friends were leaving their culture, the protection of their families, the spiritual culture of Judah (though admittedly it was apostate in many ways.) Then Daniel and his friends are taken to a whole new culture and spiritual situation in Babylon that was not in line with God’s ways. Consider the choices they are faced with. It is quite similar to what young people face when they go to college.

Sometimes people chose party schools because they want to party. In other words, the principle of “You’ll find what you are looking for,” is so often true. Looking for loose morality? You’ll find it.

But if you are looking for Jesus, you’ll find him, even where you least expect him. Daniel and his friends chose to follow God’s ways in the midst of a pagan culture. And right there they found God at work.

We are the same. Whether at college or at work or at school, we have the choice about whether we are going to follow God’s ways in those places.

We must ask ourselves how we can we live faithfully to God in our world. Daniel and his friends, out of a heart to follow God, were willing dispense with a pagan diet in pursuit of a more healthy lifestyle. They refused to be assimilated.

There is a clear link in this story to how it is honorable to the Lord to pursue a healthy lifestyle. As I have written before in this blog, we need to remember that our body is the temple of God’s Spirit. Thus we are wise to practice a healthy lifestyle, moderation, and abstinence in some cases.

One area that I believe this especially applies is sexual integrity. We live in a culture that no longer views sexual integrity along the lines of Biblical teaching. Even evangelical Christians have changing views. I recently heard stats reporting that growing percentages of evangelical Christians no longer agree with biblical views of sexual integrity (see stats here and listen to podcast here and I also recommend this article, “Why Sexual Morality May Be More Important Than You Ever Thought“.)

We live in a culture that is telling us that it is okay to express ourselves sexually however we want. God teaches something totally different in the Bible. The summary of biblical teaching is that sexual expression is reserved for marriage between a man and a woman. Would you be willing to go against the pressures of society and follow God’s way and abstain from sexual expression until marriage? If you read the articles and listen to the blog post I linked above, I think you’ll find solid evidence as to why traditional sexual ethics are actually better for marriages, for families, and for society. Just as Daniel and his friends found with their diet, you will find the same with sexual expression.

This is far from the end of the story, however, for Daniel and his friends. We cannot conclude at the end of chapter one with, “And they lived happily ever after.” In our next post we’ll see how Daniel’s friends are faced with a terrible challenge.