“Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem…They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone.” — Daniel 5:3-4 The grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar was the king who held a great pagan feast, using the goblets stolen from the Jewish Temple some decades before. Belshazzar went white when he saw God’s literal handwriting on the wall against him. Now that story of Belshazzar the king and the astounding events of that night of his great feast have lessons which are as fresh today as they were when they were first given: Here is a picture of the foolishness of those who trust in merely the things of this world. How foolish was Belshazzar to trust in the impregnable walls of Babylon—the walls that were so easily breached by diverting the river Euphrates. It reminds us that those who will not study history are doomed to repeat it. Belshazzar had a tremendous lesson from his grandfather of humbling oneself before God. Nonetheless, Belshazzar went on his way to his unexpected destruction. Belshazzar’s sin was not just drunkenness and debauchery, but the super-abounding sin of impiety and blasphemy. Lord, God of history, teach us to heed those who have gone before us and give us the strength to live a godly life in the midst of a blasphemous people. Help us to remember that all who mock Your name and flaunt their sin in Your face will be called to account and that it is Your people who will triumph… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN LIVE AN HONORABLE LIFE.
“And He was there in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts. And the angels ministered to Him.” — Mark 1:13 We seem to be living in the time when angels are getting much attention, even in movies or television. One of the most common myths is the idea that an angel was once a human being and now is in the process of earning his wings by returning to earth and doing good things. But an angel never was, and never will be, anything other than an angel. And a human being never was, and never will be, anything other than a human being. They are separate orders of creation. All of the angels were made at once. They did not descend from original parents as we did, but they were all created at the same time and they do not procreate. Angels are far superior to us in almost any way that you can imagine. They are wiser and they are holier—at least those who have kept their first estate and are not fallen angels. The devil and demons are all angels. They are fallen, sinful angels that took part in a rebellion and now are loosed upon this earth, but they are still fallen angels. Angels are also much more powerful than we are. We realize that in the Old Testament we read of one angel who destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. The Bible makes it very plain that you are not to take on the devil in your strength, and only by Christ do we have any possibility of winning any contests that we may have with him. Jesus, King of the Angels, give me strength today to know my place in creation, a little lower than the angels, but crowned with glory and honor. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for having dominion over both Your angels, the ministering spirits who do Your will, and the fallen angels who seek to cause us harm. Thank You for Your angels who do Your will… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN WELCOME THE HELP OF HIS ANGELS.
“…and Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his eunuchs. The king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.” — 2 Kings 24:12 Higher critics have done their best to destroy trust in the Scriptures. Yet, all of their efforts only confirmed the reliability of the Bible for those willing to look at the facts. For the last 150 years, archeologists have excavated thousands of sites in the Near East, sometimes with great animosity toward the Scripture, attempting to disprove it. Yet virtually every time they turned over their spades, they discovered another confirmation of the Bible. For example, one of the last kings of Judah, Jehoiachin, was taken by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon and thrown into prison, where he and his family languished for 37 years. Then we read that a later king lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison, spoke kindly to him, gave him new clothes, caused him to sit at his table, and he provided him with an allowance for the rest of his days. Well, the critics had a field day with that—no Babylonian king would ever treat anybody so graciously as that. But in the hanging gardens of Babylon, 300 clay tablets have been found. These were written from 595 to 570 B.C., and they list many of the nations that were brought captive into Babylon, including Judah. One of these tablets is called the Jehoiachin tablet. The Jehoiachin tablet confirms exactly what the Bible has said all along. God Almighty, Lord of the kings of the earth, grant me strength today to trust You in all things. Thank You for the reliability of Your Word. Thank You for the trustworthiness of all You say. IN GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN TRUST HIS ETERNAL WORD.
“After this Samson loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The Philistine rulers came up to her and said, ‘Trick him!’” — Judges 16:4-5 How many people have flirted with sin only to find they have fallen into a miry pit? I think of a man who was away on a business trip, and he saw a very attractive prostitute on the same side of the road. He stopped his car and picked her up—a man who had never done anything like this before in his life; a man who had a wife and two or three kids at home; a man who was a respectable businessman, but now was far from home. He picked her up. When he woke up the next morning he was disgusted with himself and went into the bathroom to wash his face. There on the mirror written in lipstick were the words, “Welcome to the world of AIDS.” Samson foolishly dabbled with sin by seeing the Philistine woman, Delilah. She was offered large sums of money by her people if she would discover the secret of his strength. She began to entice him and provoke him and tried to get him to reveal where his great strength lay, but he would not reveal it—at least initially. Sounds like some young people today: “Honey, if you really loved me, you would do it.” “Buster, if you really loved me, you wouldn’t ask,” is the proper response, girls. Finally, Delilah wore Samson down; he revealed it, and they captured him and blinded him. Giving in to sexual sin was the weakness of the world’s strongest man. Dear God, give me strength to withstand temptation. Keep me pure and holy and let me never flirt with sin. Keep my family from falling also. Lord, let me never disgrace your church and never bring shame to Your holy name… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN AVOID THE MIRY PIT OF SIN.
“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.” — 1 Corinthians 10:12 Did you realize that virtually no drunkard on skid row ever thought he would end up there? They all flirted with sin. So did Samson in the Bible. Now if any man ever had the right to be self-confident, certainly Samson did; as the strongest man in the world, he was not impressed by anyone. You remember that one time when the Philistines came upon him, he had no weapon but the jawbone of an ass; and with that one jawbone, he killed a thousand Philistine soldiers and he boasted about it. The word confident comes from con-fide, literally “with faith.” We should all have faith, but the world tells us that we should have faith in ourselves. The Bible tells us that we should have faith in Christ. Well, Samson thought he had enough strength to have confidence in himself, and unfortunately, it was that confidence that caused him to dally with sin—ultimately in the form of his dalliance with Delilah. When you have self-confidence and you deal with normal problems and you overcome them, it can lead to self-conceit and pride. When you run into a problem big enough, it leads to despair and fear. But in the case of confidence in God, there is nothing bigger than God. Supposing in their self-confidence that they are never going to fall, some Christians have flirted with alcohol or drugs or tobacco or whatever kind of sexual sin it might be, quite confident that they are never going to become an addict. This can lead to tragic endings. Don’t dabble with sin. Dear Lord Jesus, give me strength today in order to build Christ-confidence. Help me to rely on You and not myself. Help me in humility to know that I am not strong enough to withstand temptation. I put my trust in You… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN RESIST TEMPTATION AND NOT DALLY WITH SIN.
“I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.” — Ecclesiastes 7:26 The name Samson was derived from the Hebrew word for sun, and he certainly was the light of day for not only his parents, but for all of the people of Israel who had been suffering under the grinding tyranny of the Philistines for so long. But he also had a great weakness: he had an eye for women—the wrong kind of women. His calling was to deliver the people from the Philistines, and yet he couldn’t deliver himself fast enough to them. He saw this one that pleased him well, and he asked his parents to go get her for him. But they remonstrated: “Are there no women among your relatives, or all of our people, that you are intending to take a wife from among the uncircumcised Philistines?” (Judges 14:2). He replied, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well” (verse 3). Strange, unbelieving flesh; and so we see that every such woman he went after betrayed him—every one. And how many Christians have gone after unbelievers, men or women, and found that their lives have been destroyed by such betrayal because at the very heart of the marriage there is a great divide that cannot be covered over? Lord Jesus, give me strength to stay faithful to You and to my loved ones. Help me to never form an adulterous relationship. Help me teach this truth to others to keep them from eternal harm. I pray today for the people I know who are unequally yoked that You would save the unsaved… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN MAKE OUR EARTHLY RELATIONSHIPS COUNT FOR THE KINGDOM.
“So the woman bore a son, and she called him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.” — Judges 13:24 Samson was the strongest man that ever lived, as the makers of certain luggage have attested. They named it in his honor. It’s indestructible because it’s Samsonite. Now Samson was a real man, he was not the idol of Homer’s mind, living on Mount Olympus. He was a humble son of Manoah and his wife, he was of the tribe of Dan in Israel, and God had gifted him remarkably. His birth was announced by an angel. He was given a high calling and purpose to deliver the people of God from the 40-year-long tyranny of the Philistines, and he was given a consecration. He was to be a Nazarite, one separated unto God. He was to be one whose separation was seen by the fact that no razor was to touch his head and no strong drink was to touch his lips. He was truly a remarkable man. Not the kind of fellow you would want to arm wrestle with, I assure you, regardless of how big you are. He judged Israel for 20 years. He heard their cases, he judged them, he bore with their problems, he led them in battle, he fought with them and for them, and yet all we remember is Samson and Delilah. He fell because of his relationship with Delilah, a Philistine woman. All young preachers take note. All the rest is forgotten in the tragedy of his fall. Oh, Lord, my strength and my shield, give me strength today to lean on You. Make me a muscular Christian. Let me go forth in Your strength, never depending on my own ability. Thank You, Jesus, that You are my strength and salvation… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN MAKE SOMETHING OF OUR LIVES.
“When they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. Then they led Him out to crucify Him.” — Mark 15:20 November 11 is Veterans Day. It marks this day in 1918, when the Armistice was signed, ending four years of bloody battles in Europe at the close of World War I. It was initially called Armistice Day but eventually was changed to Veterans Day, when in 1954, President Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower signed a bill changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day. It is a day to remember the thousands who have died for the liberties we enjoy in this country, as well as to remember all of those who were maimed and wounded and still carry—sometimes decades later, the signs and evidences of their combat. War should be avoided if at all possible. But in this evil world, that is not always possible. Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” We are so good at doing nothing, aren’t we? Not many more than half of us vote. Few of us work to elect decent candidates or do anything to advance the cause of virtue and morality in America. Freedom is not free. It was paid for by the blood of soldiers. Spiritual freedom is not free. It was paid for by the blood of the Savior, which is of infinitely greater value. Jesus Christ our Savior, give me strength for today to continue to fight evil. Help me to not take for granted either my salvation or freedom. Help me to be grateful, knowing these were purchased with blood… BY HIS STRENGTH, WE CAN DO SOMETHING TO OPPOSE THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL.
“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” — John 8:32 The world boasts about its freedom all of the time. For example, there is a poem that starts like this: It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. Hogwash! Luther put it much more accurately when he said that the will of the unregenerate man is like a dumb jackass ridden by the devil who turns it whithersoever he will. Or to change the metaphor, he is like a man chained to the oars below deck while Satan steers the ship laughingly over the precipice into the churning chasm beneath. But the Christian has been set free…free to serve Christ, free to follow Christ, free to do great things for Christ because those shackles have been broken at Calvary. It begins with repentance, a determination to turn from sin and to follow Jesus Christ. “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Colossians 2:6)—which is a continual repenting of sin and determining to follow Christ in all the ways of new obedience. Somebody said, “There are just so many people in me. If I only knew which one I was, I would know what I ought to do.” But if we set our hearts on the determination to love God with all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves, then we are fulfilling the greatest command. True freedom is the choice to do what is right. Oh, God of Truth, give us the strength today to live in the freedom which Your truth provides. Thank You for our freedom in Christ Jesus to live our lives in service and in truth. Let the truth continue to bring freedom and let us be faithful bearers of truth… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN WALK IN FREEDOM FROM SIN.
“Then the presidents and officials sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom…” — Daniel 6:4 Sometimes, people can hate us, not for doing anything wrong, but rather, for doing everything right. Shakespeare said, “Envy doth merit, as its shade [shadow] pursue.” Envy pursues after merit, even as our shadow pursues us everywhere we go. And so, if you would be meritorious, if you would rise so much as an inch or two above the common herd, you will find that envy will be hard on your heels and breathing down your neck and blowing its hot flame breath singeing the hairs on the back of your neck. And so it was with Daniel; and so it has ever been. Daniel was preferred. Daniel had an excellent spirit. Daniel was envied; and Daniel was conspired against to pull him down. One theologian noted that there is a certain tendency in evil that always wants to pull that which is good down to its own level. Evil is egalitarian. Evil men want to make everyone else just as evil as they are. If we are first place, a price has to be paid. If that primacy is as faithful and righteous as Daniel, it must be doubly paid for. The leveling demands of evil are for a democracy of being. Evil men seek to make all things evil. Men who are failures demand a universal failure; and men unable or unwilling to rise above their low estate seek savagely to raise all eminence into a common democracy of mediocrity and defeat. Daniel had done nothing wrong, but he was hated all the more. Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, give me the strength only You can give that I might stand against evil. Thank You for Your protection and Your peace in the midst of trouble. Keep me safe, Lord, and keep me strong… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN STAND FIRM EVEN WHEN ENVIED FOR BEING GODLY.
“Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and officials because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.” — Daniel 6:3 Observing Daniel in the lions’ den passage, we see a godly man standing out in an ungodly place. We see growing here in the midst of this degenerate, pagan, idolatrous, polytheistic, licentious court, a most beautiful fragrant flower. And I think that one of the first lessons to be learned in this is that such a beautiful character does not depend upon the circumstances in which it is raised. You see, there are some things that you cannot grow in certain soils because they don’t provide the necessary nutrients. But here you do not find the human soul draws from the environment around it. If it is a believing soul, it is grounded in God and it draws its spiritual nourishment from Him; and it matters not what is around. In fact, it is strangely true that some of the most beautiful of Christian characters have come forth in the midst of the most degenerate circumstances. Yet how many times have we heard it said, “Well, if only circumstances were different; if only I didn’t have that miserable, wretched boss, always riding on my back, always on my case; I could be a much better Christian at work.” “Ah me, what a wonderful Christian I could be if I had a different husband or a different wife, or my children weren’t so rebellious.” “Oh, if I just didn’t have so many physical problems, I could be a great Christian.” But Daniel gives a lie to it all. Here, blossoming in this incredibly pagan court is this character of Daniel. Oh, Lord, give me the strength today to grow in godly character. Let my inward and outward life be beautiful to You. Help me not to resist Your inner work within me… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN EXHIBIT GODLY CHARACTER, REGARDLESS OF OUR ENVIRONMENT.
“It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom one hundred and twenty officials, so that they would be over the whole kingdom, and over them three presidents, of whom Daniel was first…” — Daniel 6:1-2 In this verse, Daniel is preferred among all of these other key leaders of the great Medo-Persian empire, as he was among the Babylonians. Why? Because an excellent spirit was in him. Here is a man in his late 80’s, and we cannot help but harken back to that time when he was in a cell as a teenager, confronted with a temptation to disobey God in some small ceremonial law of his religion. At the time, you will recall, there was something that Daniel did which was to affect his entire extraordinary career for all these seventy some years that were yet to come. “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s food, nor with the wine which he drank” (Daniel 1:8). The matter at hand may seem trivial to some, but he determined to obey God in all things, even what he ate and drank. Daniel obeyed God in little things and was able to obey Him in big matters, too. I hope perhaps that the tremendous implications of that statement might become even more apparent now that he is an older man, who has been obeying God all along. That he determined that he would not defile himself before God; that the one all consuming passion of his heart was to refrain from breaking even the least of the laws of his God; was a tremendous determination. I hope that same determination is yours. Heavenly Father, give me strength to obey You in the big and seemingly insignificant details of my life. Lord, let me live my life to please You in all things and do all my work to the satisfaction of anyone over me and to Your glory… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN OBEY GOD EVEN IN THE DETAILS.
“The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is His name.” — Exodus 15:3 This verse in the Song of Moses, celebrating God’s victory over the Egyptians in the Red Sea, sounds strange to our ears. God—a man of war? The liberals have had a field day with this text. God is love, they say, and nothing but love and the idea that the Lord is a man of war is an outworn ancient barbarian concept and certainly is not fitted for Christians to consider, and it is obviously not spiritual. It’s a sinful idea that God is a man of war. Well, before we go too far with that and talk about how unholy and ungodly and unchristian that is, let me call your attention to the last book of the Bible: “They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: ‘Great and marvelous are Your works, ‘Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of saints!’” (Revelation 15:3). The Song of Moses is reaffirmed in the New Testament. God has many facets to Him. He is a God of love preeminently; He is a God of grace and mercy and kindness and longsuffering; but He is also a God of holiness and justice and righteousness. In the original Song of Moses (Exodus 15), He justly punished Pharaoh’s army, as they tried to attack the Israelites. He is a God of wrath against sin, and we cannot do away with that aspect of Him—otherwise we create an idol of our own mind, something other than the true God. Lord, God Almighty, give me strength to embrace all aspects of Your character. I also tremble when I consider that Your justice will not sleep forever. Thank You for Your holiness, Your justice, and Your righteous anger against evil… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE SEEK WAR ONLY AS A LAST RESORT AND ONLY WHEN IT IS JUST.
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people mourn.” — Proverbs 29:2 Slowly but surely, more and more we see that Christians are beginning to take their proper place in every sphere of life in our society. You may recall that one of the most important founders of this country was John Jay, and he said, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian Nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” Now who was this John Jay? Was he some sort of extremist? He was the first Chief Justice of the first Supreme Court, appointed by the first President of the United States, George Washington. He also wrote some of the Federalist Papers. Well now, what he said we ought to do is being done. At one point, not too long ago, only five members of the House of Representatives could be found who were evangelical Christians. Most of them were probably nominal. But that number went up a decade later to 100, and then up to 125. Lord-willing, evangelicals in the political realm will be even more visible in the years to come. So often we hear that no one should impose their morality on anyone, but the reality is that someone’s morality is always being legislated. It is not a question of “if,” but of “what” and of “whose.” Dear Lord, You have said we should not put our trust in princes. Even the best of them can let us down. Help us to trust You alone. Meanwhile, we do pray that You would raise up more godly leaders. Help Your church to regain its role as salt and light in society… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, THE CHURCH CAN BE THE CONSCIENCE OF THE NATION.
“For to you it was granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake…” — Philippians 1:29 In this verse, Paul is saying that suffering for Christ is of grace—it is a gift given unto you, first of all to believe in Christ and secondly to suffer for His sake. I think of one writer who points out that belief brings life, and suffering brings muscles. It is a freely given weight-set given by God to you to develop your spiritual muscles as we suffer for Him. May I ask you this, have you suffered for Christ’s sake? Now you know a lot of people think that suffering for Christ’s sake is having a headache, or having arthritis or something like that. That’s not suffering for Christ’s sake; everybody suffers that way, Christian, non-Christian, all alike. Suffering for Christ is very different. Suffering for Christ is something that we endure because of our witness for Christ, and we are called upon to suffer for Him as well as to believe in Him. And we are to rejoice in that, as Jesus told us Himself in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be very glad, because great is your reward in heaven…” (Matthew 5:11-12a). And we grow in faith when we are willing to suffer for Him. If we want to have spiritual muscles, then we need to realize and accept the gift, both of believing in Him and suffering for Him. Dear Jesus, give me the strength to suffer gladly and patiently for You. Help me not take on a burden You have not asked me to carry. But when the time comes to suffer for Your name’s sake, give me the grace to endure… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE ENDURE EVEN WHEN SUFFERING FOR HIM.
