Teleos Blog that we may present everyone complete in Christ

Nashville ReviewPosted by Phil on November 30th, 2008

the week before thanksgiving, God blessed the middle school staff at calvary with a trip to nashville for a youth conference.  we had families actually send us on this trip.  many of our students were on this trip, so we spent the night allowing them to share what they learned and how it blessed them.

i know for me, being with our staff was a huge blessing in itself.  but people spoke about the worship, the passion of the speakers, and picked out some of the specific things they learned.

i know for me, it was interesting to see how certain stories came to life a little bit more.  like the parable of the sower in luke 8…..i’ve always skipped over the phrase “a farmer went out to sow his seed.”  i’m not a farmer, but i don’t think they’re stupid.  why is he sowing on a path?  some probably just fell there.  but once he finds bad soil and good soil….he’s gonna spend all his time working the good soil and he won’t visit the bad soil again.  that’s just kind of eaten at me in trying to figure out what that looks like in the church or in my own life.

moving away from the intended meaning of the parable, but still valuable.  do i spend a lot of time and effort on things that are useless when i could put more energy into areas that will produce fruit.

tv?  yeah, not much fruit.
video games, sports, movies?

time with friends?  depends on what we’re doing.
joking around and having fun….eh, could be more effective.
encouraging and challenging each other…there’s a little more value there.

it really was a great weekend and i wanted to take a moment to allow people to share what God was teaching them.  next week, we’ll get back into daniel, but i think it’s important from time to time to allow people to share what they’re learning.

Daniel: People of InfluencePosted by Phil on November 18th, 2008

take a few minutes to read through just the first couple chapters of Daniel. it’s an entertaining story, but as i look at it, one major thing jumps out at me. why on earth do people listen to Daniel? this is a kid….and a foreign kid at that. at best, he’s 15 years old and he’s able to convince the kings chief of staff, the captain of the guard, and the king himself to listen to him. that’s pretty impressive.

to me….this is Daniel.

since i work with middle school boys, if any of them ever told me they wanted to tell me a dream, i’m not exactly sure how i would respond. i’d probably end up listening just for the shear entertainment value…cause it would be, but i wouldn’t count on it being life changing. but that’s the basic story of Daniel 2. i won’t take the time to tell the story, i’d encourage you to study it yourself.

what was it about Daniel that seemingly forced people to listen to him? i mean, Babylonian guards were on their way to kill him and he said….give me a minute…….and they’ve got not problems with it.

could this be a personality trait? they call this the gift of woo. in essence a very good salesman. you feel like you’ve known them for years after just a few minutes time with them. problem with some of these people is after 3 years, you can feel like you still don’t know them if they rely on that gift alone.

but when i look back at Adam and Eve, i see God’s command to have dominion over the animals. to speak life into creation, take charge of it and subdue it. i think in creation itself, we were created to be people of influence and Daniel realized that much better than i do. i don’t doubt he had a salesman’s personality, but that only brings you so far….there’s more to it. i think Daniel embraced God’s intention for mankind much more than i do.

it’s so easy for me to say i don’t have that kind of personality. God wants me to serve in the background…and he very well could, but it doesn’t mean i don’t have influence. what keeps you from being more influential where you’re at? i’ve got a whole list of reasons why i don’t have more influence…..i don’t ask for it, i’m worried what people will think of me so i let fear win, i’m lazy, and i’m comfortable with the way things are. if i shake things up, things might really change and require a whole lot more of me.

i think that first one is key…..i don’t ask for it. i don’t ask God often enough what he wants me to be doing. i don’t ask him to make me a person of influence….sometimes because of those fears, but mostly cause i don’t think about it. start there if you’re willing….ask God if he’ll help you be who you were designed to be. ask that he’ll make you a person of influence….and don’t be surprised if it actually starts to happen.

Daniel: The Food We EatPosted by Phil on November 10th, 2008

when you open the book of Daniel, there’s a few things you pick up on, a few that need to be highlighted and a few that need to be explained.  the text says that certain articles from the temple were carried off along with the best and the brightest of Israel’s young men.  now, this took place in 605 BC, but we know that Babylon did not finish it’s destruction of Jerusalem until 586 BC so this is just a first group that was carried off.

so Daniel is taken.  it says they took young men who were of royal or noble families.  so Daniel is a well to do young man, well educated, intelligent, learns new things quickly, and good looking.  he’s most likely a middle school to early high school aged boy.  some will say as old as 20 years old and there are even a few who wonder if he was carried off as an infant or toddler.

i misspoke before when i said his family was killed because really we have no idea if they were killed at this point.  but as royalty or nobles, they may have been.  but Daniel was carried off as a young teen, uncertain of his family, going to a new country, with a new language, and given a new name.

but it wasn’t all bad as they were spoiled rotten.  given the best foods, best education, incredible living quarters.  it was like being sent to a nice boarding school.  spoiled hoping they would turn away from their old life and accept themselves as Babylonians.  but they weren’t free…they were watched constantly.  i think the best picture of this is the movie Hook.  where captain hook kidnaps peter pan’s kids and tries to get them to forget home.  their in a new world they don’t understand…and in a way it’s nice, but they weren’t free…and they still miss home.

they were all given new names…which i’m sure they didn’t understand what they meant because they are really quite insulting.  this is a time, when names meant a lot…your name carried meaning and it was important to you.

• Daniel…God is my Judge….to Belteshazzar….O Lady (wife of god bel), protect the king
• Hananiah….Yahweh is gracious….to Shadrach…I am very fearful
• Mishael…who is what God is?…..to Meshach….I am of little account
• Azariah…Yahweh is a helper….to Abednego…servant of the shining one (nebo)

but there’s this story of the boys and their food.  now, this story is a huge deal….think about it.  how many middle school or high school boys do you know of would ask for a salad when a buffet of all the best foods are set in front of them?  i can’t name one….this is incredible.  some believe there were concerns about how the food was prepared, but they wouldn’t have to avoid the wine if that was the case.  some say they stayed away because the food was offered to idols, but even the vegetables would have been offered as sacrifices.  more recently a few say they knew the benefits of vegetarian diets, but that’s a very new concept and not really valid at this time in history.  most likely, these boys had the willpower to resist the kings food because they knew it would cause them to slip into the trap the Babylonians were setting.  they knew they depended completely on God for their survival and this was one thing that could daily remind them of that.

i think we all have areas like that…but fail to show the discipline Daniel showed.  areas i think i have control over and when i look back, i see it’s controlling me.  they could see a trap being set and they avoided it.  when so often i fail to see the trap in the first place.  so often i depend on myself more than i depend on God and then i wonder when i feel like i’m losing control.  they had their priorities straight.  is there something you could willingly give up that would remind you that you need to depend on God daily for life?

trying to answer some questions last week about how Israel’s history fits in with world history, we also spent some time trying to tie the 2 together.  i’m wordy enough as it is so if you’re interested in looking at it, here is an ok time line that can help you piece things together on your own.

Daniel: One Story in the Big PicturePosted by Phil on November 3rd, 2008

before starting a series on daniel, its important to know about the events leading up to this story.  so often we forget that the entire Bible is one story made up of many stories.  it’s a mosaic if you will.  where you have one image made up of many other pictures.  so often we study characters or books in the Bible and we forget where it fits into the big picture.  so this is all about remembering where daniel fits into the overall story.  a lot of this idea comes from the first chapter of rob bell’s new book Jesus Wants to Save Christians.   i felt it was important to look at this before looking at daniel.

so back to the beginning then…back to adam and eve.  seems a bit extreme, but really, that’s where this starts…with God’s plan for man.  he created the earth, plants, and animals, but he took his time with man.  formed adam out of the dust of the ground and breathed life into him.  gave adam a task and said you are to have dominion over these animals.  human’s were special…much more important than the rest of creation.  adam and eve were designed and created in the image of God.  they were created to have a living and active relationship with God that was different and unique from the rest of creation.

and then they sinned….and everything changed.  their relationship with God was distorted and they began to forget who they were created to be.  seems a bit extreme, but look just one chapter ahead, just one generation later and we move from a “simple disobedience” to murder.  they’re now killing that which was made in God’s image.  and God saw it coming and tried to stop it.

“if you do what is right, will you not be accepted?  but if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door: it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (Gen. 4:7)

God tells cain…”don’t do anything stupid….you’re better than this.  don’t let this beat you.”  and cain throws in the towel.  he could have made himself a better person, but takes what he finds to be the easier road and gets rid of his competition.  God desires for us to master sin…that we can be better.  and 2 chapters after this, all of mankind is wiped out except for 1 family. we continue to see these struggles through the rest of genesis.  and family troubles everywhere until joseph is sold into slavery and sent to egypt.  it turned out ok for him in the end and he brought his family to be w/ him.

which brings us to exodus and the book begins with a new king coming to reign who failed to remember joseph.  he saw a million people who were different from the egyptians and said….”hey, free labor.”  fearing their revolt he made them slaves and punished them.  which is when israel cries out to God.  it took them a while…but God heard their cries and send moses to the rescue.

israel is brought into the desert where we see God speak to his people as a group really for the first time since early in genesis.  in exodus 19:5-6, God tells his people that they are his treasured possessions and a kingdom of priests.  isn’t the role of a priest to be a representative for God?  they offered sacrifices on the people’s behalf, they prayed for them, and told them what God needed them to know.  God tells israel that they represent him.  and he gives them the 10 commandments to remind them how to do that…to help them remember the purpose they were created for….to show them how to represent God best.

God even takes the time to look ahead in his talks with moses.  look at deuteronomy 17:14-17 sometime.  God tells moses that when they want a king…because they will….to look out for certain evils.  look out for the temptation of money, power (horses), and people that will distract you from God (many wives).  and then…..think ahead to solomon (1 Kings 10).  money?….yup….25 tons of gold a year.  power?….yup, importing horses from egypt of all places, even needed a full city for his chariots.  distractions?….you better believe it, 700 wives and 300 concubines will tend to distract you.

but the killer with solomon to me comes from 1 Kings 9:15 where it gives an account of the forced labor solomon used to build the temple.  i used to think it was great that solomon built the temple, but i skip over that phrase….forced labor….or slaves.  israel became the new egypt.  how well were they representing God here?  is it possible that God blessed israel so much because he watned them to use those blessings to be his holy nation and kingdom of priests.  these blessings were to be used to bless others and represent God to the people around them.  instead of hearing the cries of people in need around them, they took them under their power and made them work for them.

which brings us to daniel.  i often forget why israel was taken into captivity by babylon.  i thought babylon was just jerks and captured every people they could….but really, israel brought this on themselves by forgetting who they were….by failing to represent God well…by failing to live like they were created in the image of God.  they refused to listen to the prophets and warnings God sent.  they went full circle and evidently needed this for God to remind them who they were supposed to be.

and we’re left with a boy whose family was killed and he was taken off to a new country, with a new language, new foods, new religion….a whole new life.  how do you think you’d respond?  probably not as well as he did.