Who is the boss in your heart?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 Peter 3-5; Psalm 34

TO CHEW ON: "But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. 'And do not be afraid of their threats nor be troubled.' But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts." 1 Peter 3:14-15. 


The fact of God actually living in people is a concept that spans the Old and New Testaments. However, Jesus sheds new light on it ("new" at least to the people of His time) when He explains the role of the Holy Spirit in the process.

• Jesus calls Him the "Helper" whom He has petitioned the Father to send. This Helper will live with, indeed, in them - John 14:15-18. 
• He will give them assurance of eternal life, interaction with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and He is the assurance of God's love - John 14:19-21.

Paul talks often about this life of Christ within people. Some of the things he tells us about it:

• It is a life of faith that begins when we accept Christ's substitutionary death for our sin as our means of salvation (not our own works) - Galatians 2:20.
• It helps us know the love of God - Ephesians 3:17-19.
• It is the hope of a wonderful future beyond this life - Colossians 1:27.

Peter's words in our reading today talk about this life to believers who are in the middle of persecution. His short statement, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts" comes right after he addresses their apparent puzzlement over bad treatment. They are righteous but they are suffering. Why? He reminds that this suffering is, in the Kingdom of God's upside-down way, a blessing (Matthew 5:10), and not to fear but rather to "sanctify (or set apart) the Lord God in your hearts."

He is telling them, in effect, Let God be the Lord (boss) in these things. Accept even persecution as from Someone who knows about it, who has power over it, yet is allowing it. 


The Message puts it this way:

"Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master" - 1 Peter 3:15

As Paul explains in Romans "...all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." That purpose includes being conformed to the image of Jesus. Persecution may be a part of it. But the end of the story is good. It is glory - Romans 8:27-30.

Whatever we are facing, have we done this — set apart Jesus as Lord? Settled once and for all that He is in charge of our lives and is working His good purposes in them even through negative circumstances? Let's put this into practice:

• By faith accept that Jesus lives in us by the Holy Spirit.
• Believe that He loves us.
• Sanctify Him as Lord — our hands off; He's in charge.
• Let the good and bad things (at least 'bad' according to how we feel about them) He sends our way conform us to Jesus' image.
• Live in hope not of this world's rewards but of glory in eternity.

PRAYER: Dear God, how often I take the steering wheel of my life back into my hands. How easily I question whether You know what You're doing when unpleasant things come my way. Help me to enthrone You as Lord in a moment-by-moment way today. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 34

**************
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The smells God loves

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Ephesians 5-6; Psalm 10

TO CHEW ON: “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” Ephesians 5:2

Paul's description of Christ’s sacrifice as a “sweet smelling aroma” only makes sense when we put it into the context of the Old Testament.

The first instance we have of the connection between God and the smell of a sacrifice is when Noah left the ark and made a burnt offering. Then “… the LORD smelled a soothing aroma…” and determined to never again curse the ground or wipe out humanity - Genesis 8:20,21.

The Old Testament sacrifice system was full of smells;

• The aroma of sacrificed (burning) animals, animal parts (like fat), and grain (Leviticus 1:9, 8:21).

• The aroma of a specially concocted anointing oil to be used exclusively for setting  aside people and things as holy (it contained the fragrances of myrrh, cinnamon, sweet-smelling cane, and cassia) - Exodus 30:22-33.

• The aroma of incense, burned on a special altar—the Altar of Incense in the Tabernacle and in censers which only authorized people were to offer in the prescribed way (Leviticus 10:1,2).

Here, in Ephesians, when Paul speaks of Christ in His death as being a “sweet-smelling aroma,”  keeping all the above in mind, we get it.  Jesus’ death was the appeasing smell of sacrifice to God like the smell of the OT animal, grain, and incense offerings had been. (Of course we realize this is metaphorical because Jesus wasn’t burned; there was no literal smell of smoke involved in His death.)

• Paul also speaks of aroma as it applies to our witness in 2 Corinthians 2:15,16.

• In Hebrews 13:15, 16 the writer speaks of us bringing a “sacrifice of praise” (though no smell is actually mentioned).

• And in Revelation 5:8, the prayers of the saints are described as “golden bowls full of incense.”

What strikes me about the connection of fragrance with worship is what it signifies of being set apart (in the case of the anointing oil) and destruction (sacrifice, burning) of the thing being sacrificed (animals, grain, incense).

Romans 12:1 comes to mind:

“I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

I ask myself, I ask you: are we that “sweet-smelling aroma” to God in death to self, holiness, witness, worship, and prayer?

PRAYER: Dear Father, I pray that my life will be a “sweet-smelling aroma” to You today. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 10

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Who scripts your life?

Image: pixabay.com

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Acts 9-10; Psalm 123

TO CHEW ON: "And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together." Acts 10:27

I love the sense of order and planning that fills this story—divine, not human order and planning.

Peter's thrice repeated vision, followed by the explicit instructions of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:19,20), followed by the arrival of Cornelius's servants and Peter's trip to Caesarea with them, followed by his meeting of Cornelius, hearing his story and seeing the crowd gathered in anticipation of his arrival—it all feels scripted. That's because it was, by God the Spirit Himself!

Suppose Peter had done what I am too often prone to do? What if he had rationalized away the vision (I sure get crazy when I'm hungry), doubted the voice of the Spirit (it's probably just my imagination), and refused to drop everything and go with Cornelius's servants (but my day is all planned)? But he didn't and we have the wonderful story of Acts 10 with its reverberations down to our day as a result.

A snippet from the devotional book I read last night comes to mind. In his meditation on James 4:5, Rick Renner concludes:

"So make your relationship with the Holy Spirit your top priority. Don't give Him a reason to feel betrayed by or envious of other things in your life that have taken His place. Get to know the Holy Spirit's voice in your spirit so He can help you set your life in order. Make sure every area of your life is under His loving control" - Rick Renner, Sparkling Gems from the Greek, Kindle Location 3791.

PRAYER: Dear Holy Spirit, I want to get to know You so well that I always recognize Your voice. Then help me to have a willing spirit that allows You to script my life. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 123

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Our very costly oil

Image: debdebdeb / pixabay.com

TODAY'S SPECIAL: John 11-12; Psalm 108

TO CHEW ON: "Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil." John 12:3

Some of the questions that come to me as I read this story are:
- What was special about spikenard oil and why did Mary have it on hand?
- What was she intending to do with it?
- Why anoint Jesus' feet?
- What would motivate her to give such an extravagant gift?

Study Bibles to the rescue!

According to my New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, "Spikenard was a valuable and fragrant ointment derived from the dried roots of the herbal plant called nard. By the first century A.D. it was already being imported from its native India in alabaster boxes because of its costliness" - Siegfried Schatzmann, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible p. 1465.

Why did Mary have this oil? According to the Quest Study Bible, she had purchased it to anoint Jesus' body when He did die (I'm sure not expecting it to be mere weeks later). "It was not uncommon for family or friends to spend enormous sums of money on strong perfumes and spices to mask the door of a decaying body" - Quest Study Bible, p. 1486.

As for anointing Jesus' feet, the custom was to wash a guest's feet and anoint his head. QSB suggests that Mary (and another woman who also anointed Jesus' feet—Luke 7:37-38) felt unworthy to anoint His head.

Recalling what had recently happened in Mary's life (Jesus' resurrection of her brother Lazarus), we can understand the gratitude and love and respect, and frankly awe, she had for Jesus. Her lavish gift (calculated to be "equivalent to the annual income of a labourer" - QSB, Op. Cit.) was her way of expressing all these feelings to the living Jesus.

As the scene played out, what started as a private gesture soon became very public as the perfume scent filled the house, leading to both ridicule and praise.

Applying this story to life, we in the 21st century have no physical Jesus on whom to pour our love and gratitude—for changed lives, hope for the future, help with our day to day living, healing (both physical and spiritual), etc. But we can still say thank you with the most precious gift we have—our lives. Paul makes the very comparison of our lives to perfume in 2 Corinthians 2:14:

"Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place."

For most of us this is a private gift—a habitual and daily "yes" to what He asks of us. The perfume of this gift may not seem to be going anywhere. But there are sacrificed lives—which were also given in private—whose fragrance has "filled the house." people like David Livingstone, David Brainard, Jim Elliot and many others. I believe heaven will be full of the fragrance the the "very costly oil" of lives poured out for Jesus. May ours be among them!

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, help me to continually give you my most valuable possession, my life, with words and actions that say "Yes, help Yourself to me." Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 108

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Yielded bodies

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Daniel 1-3; Psalm 55

TO CHEW ON: "Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, 'Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego,  who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king's word and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God." - Daniel 3:28

I love the way Nebuchadnezzar spells out what these three rebellious officials have done this day. He says, in effect, 'You thumbed your noses at my law, yielding your very bodies in order to obey God, whom I now see is greater than I am.' Not only had these men  faced the possibility of giving up their positions and reputations but their physical lives to stay loyal to God.

Similar sacrifice is found throughout scripture. In the Old Testament

• Caleb and Joshua followed the Lord to the extent that their fellow Israelites were about to stone them when when they defended Moses after their spy mission - Numbers 14:10; 32:12.

• King Josiah promised and then made good on his promise to follow God with all his heart, soul and might - 2 Kings 23:3,25.

• In the New Testament Paul models that kind of surrender, facing stoning, riots, and imprisonments to spread the gospel.

Surrender to the point of physical pain—even death—is foreign to us, or to me at least. I wonder how I would have done under the pressures of Nebuchadnezzar's edict or the hounding that the first Christians lived with. No doubt the spirits of these stalwarts were first steeled in the mental, emotional and spiritual way Paul talks about in:

Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.


Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.


Galatians 5:24
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.


2 Timothy 2:21
Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.

PRAYER: Dear God, you are not asking me to yield my body to a fiery furnace, but to honour You and achieve Your purposes in my own setting. Help me to discern what Your purposes are, and to give myself, soul, spirit and body, to You. Amen.

The Bible Project VIDEO: DANIEL - (Read Scripture Series)

***********

Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A bright future

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 26-29; Psalm 20


TO CHEW ON: "For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11
If you've been around church or Christians for a while, you've probably heard someone quote the verse above. Perhaps you've read or recited it to yourself, maybe in a time you felt confused, directionless, or discouraged for some reason.

It is interesting to come across it in context. We discover these words are part of a letter Jeremiah wrote to people who were being punished. They were former Jerusalem dwellers who the Babylonians had taken captive.

These words assured the exiles back then, and us now, that no matter what situation we find ourselves in, God's intentions toward us are good. His ways in our lives move us toward a bright future.

But that future seems contingent on some actions on our part — actions that no doubt arise out of our confusion, difficulties and troubles: "Call upon Me...go and pray to Me...seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:12-13).

A sidebar article in my Bible says about these verses;

"Implied in this passage is a quest for God that includes a level of intensity beyond what might be termed ordinary prayer. The word 'search' along with the phrase "with all your heart" suggests an earnestness that borders on desperation" Dick Eastman, "Seeking God and Spiritual Warfare," New Spirit Filled Life Bible, p. 999.

I am reminded of other passages that speak of our search: Hosea 6:3; Matthew 6:33; Matthew 7:7-8.

There is no question: I want that hopeful future God has in mind for me. No doubt you do too. So let's do what it takes to get it, in terms of praying, seeking and searching to find, not a bright career or a satisfying human relationship, or power, or wealth, but Him.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for all the ways You draw me to Yourself — even using problems, difficulties and punishment to accomplish Your plans in my life. May these things drive me to seek You with all my heart.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 20

*************
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Vine life

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: John 15:1-17

TO CHEW ON: “'These things I have spoken to you that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.'” John 15:11

Jesus here relates life in the vine to joy—the joy that comes as a result of “these things.” What things is He referring to?

If we read back, we find Jesus has described life with Him using the metaphor of a fruit-bearing vine. He has talked about “abiding” in the vine, being part of it, dependent on it for life. In fact, we risk being severed from the vine if we don’t “abide.” When we do, we are pruned to bear more fruit.

We get the idea that living this way contains elements of giving up a right to be separate, to choose one’s own way, be one’s own self-determining, egotistical self. There is also love in the mix—God’s love for Jesus playing out in Jesus' love for us.

Leaving the metaphor aside, we might ask, how does this look practically?

I think one word sums it up: OBEDIENCE: “'If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love'” - John 15:10.

However, doesn’t “obedience” often conjure up visions of boring duty, being hemmed in by what we should and shouldn’t do, rather than what we want to do, feeling stymied by “don’ts” or guilt-ridden when we mess up?

Yet, following His description of the compliant vine, Jesus says:  “'These things have I spoken to you that My joy may remain in you, that your joy may be full.'”

What is He talking about? How does such surrender and obedience lead to joy?

The IVP NT Commentary gives this helpful insight:

But the obedience Jesus is talking about is an obedience not to societal rules, but to the Father who is all love. To obey him is to conform one's life to the very pattern of God's own life. Such obedience shares in his life, which is characterized by harmony, grace, goodness and beauty. We are in intimate union with him and swept up into his dance for which we were created and which brings the deepest fulfillment and deepest joy to our lives.

Jesus' joy came from such intimacy with the Father and his delight to do that which pleases the one who is all love and goodness.

Jesus is showing how our joy may be complete…. Indeed, we might ask ourselves, what does bring us joy. The answer will reveal to us our own hearts” - IVP NT Commentary on John 17:11 (accessed through Bible Gateway "Study This") emphasis added.

 That last question “What does bring me joy?”  is what I leave myself (and you) with today. If obedience to Him doesn’t bring us joy, we may discover why in the answer to that question.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, help me to experience vine life and its end product of joy to the extent that You describe it here. Amen.

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Poured out life

David pours out water - Caspar Luiken

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 2 Timothy 4:1-22

TO CHEW ON: "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand." 2 Timothy 4:6

Paul uses the image of a drink offering to speak of his own impending death.

These liquid offerings were part of Old Testament worship.

• Jacob worshiped God that way when he returned to Bethel, the place God had first met him on his flight from home (Genesis 35:14-15).
•  A drink offering was part of the consecration of Aaron and his sons (Exodus 29:40), the Feast of Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:13), and the Feast of Weeks (Leviticus 23:18).

We can't help but think of other pourings.

• David poured out the precious gift of Bethlehem water—his way of acknowledging God was worthy of the best and most desirable (2 Samuel 23:15-17).

• Mary poured out precious perfume, the most valuable thing she had, on Jesus' feet (John 12:1-8).

• Paul's picture of his life as a libation here implies that he may expect to be martyred (as in poured out blood).

•  He uses the drink offering image in another place as well. In Philippians 2:17 the picture is of his drink-offering-life poured over their sacrifice and service. It's as if his life and theirs work together to complete the sacrifice—a "living sacrifice" he calls it in Romans 12:1.

Can we live drink offering lives? They will seem wasted, perhaps, as David's poured out Bethlehem water and Mary's perfume seemed a waste. But in the apparent waste is new and surprising life. Read words of Jesus:

"Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.

He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." John 12:24,25.

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to live my life like a drink offering—poured out for You. Amen.

MORE: Pour My Love on You (by Phillips, Craig and Dean)



*************
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

"Whatever You say, I will do"

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Ruth 3:1-18

TO CHEW ON: "And she said to her, 'All that you say to me, I will do.'" Ruth 3:5

I wonder if Ruth understood the full meaning of what Naomi was asking her to do. Whether she did or didn't, her simple, "All that you say to me, I will do," shows her faith in Naomi's wisdom and her complete willingness to comply with whatever she had in mind. She had cast her lot with Naomi and Naomi's God when she turned her back on Moab and she was  along for the ride, wherever that took her.

Her reply to Naomi reminds me of Mary's when the angel came to her with the troubling message that she would bear a son by the Holy Spirit: "Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to Your word" - Luke 1:38.

In the responses of these two women we see the total surrender that Paul talks about in Romans 12:1 - "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service." - Romans 12:1

I ask myself, am I that surrendered? When God reveals the next step—through a person, circumstance or His word, do I say, "I'm dead. A sacrifice on the altar. All that you say to me, I will do"?

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for the beautiful example of Ruth and Mary. Help me to view my life as a sacrifice, dead to myself, available to You for whatever You have in mind. Amen.

*********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Lord has need of it

The Donkey at Bethphage - James Tissot, 1886-96

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Mark 11:1-19

TO CHEW ON: "And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it,' and immediately he will send it." Mark 11:3

Jesus' curious instructions to His disciples to just 'take' someone's colt have always fascinated me. He could have told them to buy it, which would have been less controversial. But instead, it was to be a loan or an outright gift.

The unquestioning and generous response of the donkey's owner is beautiful. Did he know that when the disciples said, "The Lord has need of him" they were referring to Jesus? Do you suppose that later he witnessed Jesus' ride into Jerusalem on 'his' colt? What a thrill that would have been.

I ask myself, would I have been as willing to let the disciples just take possession with the simple explanation, "the Lord has need of it"? Would you?

Perhaps a better question to ask is, are we as welling to give the Lord what He asks for when He comes with a claim on the stuff we consider ours—our time, our friendships, our hospitality, the use of our car for a trip to the airport, help with grocery shopping?

Did the disciples ever return that colt with the explanation of what they had used it for? Whether they did or not, I hope that generous man had the satisfaction of knowing that the release of his possession into Jesus' use was a significant and essential part of God's plan.

I wonder, If we felt that the fulfillment of God's plan was connected to whether or not we give Him what He asks of us, would we be as possessive and protective of what we feel is ours?


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I love the unquestioning generosity in the owner of this colt. Help me to be just as generous when You come to me with "I need it"—whatever 'it' is. Amen.

MORE: Palm Sunday

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, the day we celebrated Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem (our reading today). Here are a few Palm Sunday facts (gleaned from my Bible's Mark study notes by J. Lyle Story, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1371).

• When Jesus rode into Jerusalem in the way He did, he was fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9.

• The fact that the colt had never been ridden (Mark 11:2) was significant since objects used for sacred purposes must never have been used for any other reason (Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3; 1 Samuel 6:7).

• Spreading clothes on the road (Mark 11:8) was the customary way for a king's subjects to pay homage to him (2 Kings 9:13).

• "Hosanna" means save now. It came to be a customary shout of praise, like 'Hallelujah.'

Three things to remember

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 1:1-19

TO CHEW ON: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew and approved of you as My chosen instrument, and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5 Amplified

It’s reassuring to see behind the scenes into the lives of people we consider spiritual giants – like Jeremiah. According to our passage today, he wasn’t exactly low maintenance when he got started. To help him get over his worries and misgivings, God made three things clear to him at the beginning of his prophet-ship:

1. He was picked for this specific assignment. Before he ever existed, God knew him, set him apart, and appointed him.

2. God had one answer to all his objections: “I am with you…”

3. His effectiveness was guaranteed. His power would be above that of earthly kings and rulers. His word and influence would root things out, pull things down. He would have authority to destroy, throw down, build and plant.

Though on some level this passage is specific to Jeremiah, on another these three principles apply to us too.

• God knew each of us before we physically existed. From before time He had our destiny planned. (See also Psalm 139:13-16; Ephesians 2:10.)

• Though we may feel inadequate to do the assignments He gives us, God’s words to Jeremiah are also His words to us: "I am with you" (See also Isaiah 43:1-3; Matthew 28:19-20.)

• As God works through us we will have influence and authority far beyond anything that could be expected in the natural. (See also Matthew 18:18-20.)

So be encouraged. God has a specific plan for your life. He is with you. Your life will make a bigger difference than you ever imagined!

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me grasp Your potential for me and to bring it into reality in my life today. Amen.

MORE: On God’s call:

“It is easier to serve God without a vision, easier to work for God without a call, because then you are not bothered by what God requires; common sense is your guide, veneered over with Christian sentiment. You will be more prosperous, successful and leisure-hearted if you never realize the call of God. But if once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God wants will always come like a goad; you will no longer be able to work for Him on the common-sense basis…. Never consider whether you are of use; but ever consider that you are not your own but His.” – Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (March 4 reading - emphasis added)

The vision made him sick

"Gabriel Speaks" - Woodcut, Unknown artist

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Daniel 8:1-27

TO CHEW ON: "And I Daniel, fainted and was sick for days..." Daniel 8:27a

We would call Daniel a mystic and describe the experience he tells of in Daniel 8 as mystical.

[Mystical: of the nature of a direct or subjective perception beyond the ordinary range of human experience. Having a spiritual character or reality beyond the comprehension of human reason - Funk & Wagnall's College Dictionary.]

Some don't believe it is possible for people to be able to foretell events like Daniel apparently did here. Secular historians who look at the Bible, and this incident specifically, debate the date of when Daniel was written because of how his dream came true:

"The precise fulfillment of Daniel's prophecies concerning the defeat of the Medo-Persians (the ram vs. 4) by the Greeks (a male goat vs. 5) and the events that led up to Antiochus Epiphanes has caused secular historians to declare that the Book of Daniel could not have been written earlier than 200 B.C. for they deny the supernatural source of the Scriptures"  Coleman Cox Phillips, Commentary on Daniel, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1133.

Contrast this with the commonly accepted date of when Daniel was written: before 530 B.C.

Daniel, for his part, was an unquestioning believer. He gave himself to the vision and to discovering what it meant, even though the experience drained and sickened him physically. The result, for us, is the foretelling of an event that strengthens our faith in God and His sovereignty over history. Our commenter calls it "... a confirming testimony to the remarkable prophetic anointing that rested on Daniel for the detailed foretelling of forthcoming events" p. 1133.

I can't help but look with awe on the prophets who heard God's voice and gave themselves soul, spirit, and body to communicating God's messages to the people of their time, whatever the cost to them.

What is God asking us to give soul, spirit, and body to for the advancement of His kingdom? Are we willing to abandon ourselves to Him as Daniel and other Old Testament prophets did?

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to give myself to You for whatever purposes You want to achieve through my mind, emotions, spirit, and body. Amen.  

MORE: Abandon

"Never consider whether you are of use; but ever consider that you are not your own but His" - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, March 4 reading.