Hey Church family...
If you are like me (and I assume you are) we are all trying to make good decisions in a complex time. To make good decisions about life, we need information, and we are certainly inundated with information, right? There are "authoritative" voices on both sides of the election, and on both sides of pandemic management. The confusing thing is that both voices speak with authority and suggest a clear -- although opposing -- direction. Who should we believe? This may be more complicated than meets the eye.....
Spiritual life is no different. There are authoritative voices that can say opposing things about God's plan and purposes. If you were hopeful spiritual things would be more clear, sorry to disappoint. There are prophets.....and false prophets. There are teachers.....and false teachers. There are sheep.....and wolves dressed up as sheep. There are spiritual experiences and dreams and visions, and...well...
Daniel 9 opens for us a window to sit and listen and watch a man of God pray. That is the content of Daniel 9:1-19. But how does Daniel know WHAT to pray for? How does he know HOW to pray and to what end? What informs his prayers? What if your prayer is motivated by the wrong information? What if the sermon you heard was exciting......but wrong? GOD'S WILL DOES NOT ALWAYS FIT NEATLY INTO OUR PLAN OR OPINION.
Should I give you a spoiler? Naaaahhhhh! I will, however, tell you that reading Jeremiah 25-29 will give some real background to what we will read in Daniel 9. Grab your Bible and, at a minimum, read Jeremiah 25 and 29 and you will be a step ahead of the game!
VIEW AND SEE!!!
Steve
Daniel 9:1-19
September 27, 2020 • Pastor Steve Feden
Daniel 1
June 28, 2020 • Pastor Steve Feden
I have had a chance to be reading through the book and thinking about the man -- Daniel. Amazing guy. Humble, gentle, courageous, stable. He is uprooted from family and neighborhood and culture and thrust into a new life of servitude in a Godless nation, Babylon. How potentially traumatizing to a teenager! But instead of seeing bitterness, anger, depression, or indulgence, we see a young man who prospers in a remarkable way, helping to lead an empire without compromise of Godly conviction. In fact, Daniel wins the respect of four kings he serves under! Maybe Daniel's influence is even behind the pilgrimage of the Magi coming from the East and following the Star of Bethlehem! How did Daniel beat the odds? How did he thrive when others would have shriveled? Think about the difference between "conviction" and "opinion". Is there a difference? What is it? Are you a person of conviction or just opinion? How does this relate to Daniel 1? Ha! You will have to tune in to find out! VIEW AND SEE, Steve
Daniel 2:1-30
July 5, 2020 • Pastor Steve Feden
We find ourselves in Daniel 2:1-30. The chapter is just too long and too important to speed through. It is one of the most amazing prophetic passages in the whole Bible! The chapter starts with a very troubling dream, and by the end of the chapter Daniel and the others have been promoted and the mighty king of the mighty Babylonian empire is acknowledging Daniel's God as the true God. This is the stuff we live for! The first 30 verses give the setup, and some important observations and contrasts. We continue to see Daniel shine in the middle of crisis after crisis. In an identity crisis -- Daniel holds to his convictions. The crisis now is a matter of life and death! Is Daniel freaking out? How does the world system operate to produce the crisis? How does Daniel respond to the crisis? As for the specific content of the dream and the meaning of http://it...well...you will have to watch the next message. It is worth it! Amazing. Steve
Daniel 2:31-49
July 12, 2020 • Pastor Steve Feden
We left Daniel standing in the presence of the Nebuchadnezzar, having announced that he knows the dream and the interpretation. Can you feel the suspense? What was the dream? What does it mean? Daniel tells the king his dream and then tells him what it means. I don't want to give away too much, but I can tell you the dream is of a magnificent, giant, stratified metal statue (idol). Statues like this would be very familiar to the idol worshipers of the day. The statue gives God a way to walk Nebuchadnezzar through the history of world dominating empires from their current time in history on into the future. There is a succession of "kingdoms" (empires) that all meet a common end as the statue ends up being hit by something like a meteor -- a stone cut out without human involvement -- which utterly destroys it! I know that you know we live in strange times. Many have a sense that things are not getting better, but getting worse. We also have a sense that things cannot go on like they are. Where does it end? What happens next? Trust me when I say you will not want to miss the next installment of our study in Daniel! Steve