Welcome to the Jungle: Righteousness and Social Media

I don't have to tell you that the general trend of conversation on social media has become less civil, do I?  Not just impolite, on both sides of the aisle I have seen Christians carried away into bitter and hateful speech.   Before you ask, there are Christians who vote both Democrat and Republican, not to mention independents like myself.  

Even more recently I have heard people suggest that the answer to the problem is to simply delete our Facebook accounts or to stay out of politics all together.  I sympathize.  On my personal account I have dealt with the vitriol by not responding to other's political posts and posting less and less as the bile grew.  

Then I saw a friend who was hurting; all metaphor aside politics has been giving her a stomach ache.  The word compassion in Greek means "From the gut." She is living it out.  As we chatted,  I realized I was part of the problem.  In my silence, I had let her and others believe that they were alone.

Daniel: What God Can Do - A Book Review

There are few books better suited to Halloween then Daniel with its giant statues, near misses with furnaces and lions, strange beasts, mysterious angels and cryptic prophecies.  

All that mystery leads us to sometimes ignore the end of the book for the more comprehensible beginning.  But getting clarity and application out of mystery is what Stafford North excels at.  

6 weeks of devotionals from Daniel

6 weeks of devotionals to share with your
kids about the book of Daniel.

I hope that you have enjoyed the devotionals but even more I hope you have had the opportunity to share them with your kids. You could share them all in one week, one per night at bedtime or once a week for the next 6 weeks.  The important thing is that you help your kids stay in the word of God.

Below you'll find a list not only of all the stories but also of each character trait that is emphasized. Don't forget to check back next week for a review of a great book to help you and your children understand Daniel 7-12.

If you have a favorite devotional book, or series online (or if you wrote one!) we'd love to hear about it and feature it on our Facebook page.

Happy and Holy Parenting!

Helene



Introduction to the Daniel Devotionals

Daniel and his friends refuse the King's food: Fairness

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: Wisdom

The Fiery Furnace: Defiance

Nebuchadnezzar's fall: Humility

The Writing on the Wall: Blasphemy

Daniel and the Lion's Den: Spiritual Discipline

In age as in youth

Daniel was more than eighty years old, elderly for our modern age and ancient for the pre-industrial world. Yet the gifts that had twinkled in his youth were in full bloom in age.  

Do you remember the boy who prayed believing that the God of fallen Israel and Judah could miraculously reveal the answer to him in far off Babylon (Daniel 2)? He became the aging man who foresaw the coming of Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies and Seleucids, the rise of Antiochus Epiphanes and the coming in power of the Son of Man.  While Belshazzar was forgetting who Daniel was, Daniel was seeing the throne room of God (Daniel 7).

Who do you think you are dealing with?

Belshazzar threw a party with a thousand guests.  In a bid to impress the nobles, because he was drunk, or simply because the bouquet of the wine demanded superior vessels, he called for the temple ware. Years before when the aging Daniel was a boy, Nebuchadnezzar had looted God's temple when he sacked the city of Jerusalem.  So in a dusty storehouse somewhere the holy vessels of gold and silver sat waiting.  When these sacred artifacts were brought forth and filled with wine, Belshazzar raise his glass and praised the "gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone."

What on earth did he think he was doing?

Gifts from the Giver

He believed in American values.  He was hard-working and understood that this was the only path to wealth and power.  He told it like it is, and he never understated his achievements.  He knew how to get ahead, how to self-promote and how to be a world class administrator.  He built an empire; he was the envy of all.

Who was this mysterious powerhouse?

What god can rescue you out of my hand?

Daniel was a fast-talker.  He could effortlessly convince kings, Captians of the King's bodyguards, and chief officials to do everything from let him switch to a vegetarian diet to put off an order of execution.  Daniel was smooth.

And if we read the first two chapters in isolation, we might imagine that quick thinking and a silver tongue can get a servant of God out of any bind.  However the third chapter of Daniel quickly puts that idea to rest. 

Honor in Exile

When I realized that we'd be spending some time in Daniel, I remembered this post from the mid-term elections about a Christian response to living in under a passive hostile government.  What could be more appropriate as we face these upcoming elections than to model our public life on Daniel's! 

I voted. 

It was the first time in more than a decade.  I'm not lazy, honest.  For most of those years I was abroad, and for all of them I was deeply conflicted about the candidates, finding them all so distasteful that I couldn't bring myself to endorse any of them.

I'm trying again.

The Wisdom of School-Boys

"What were you thinking?"  Every parent has uttered these words.  My husband often follows it up with the frustrated growl, "You WEREN"T thinking!"  The hallmark of maturity is the ability to guard both our actions and our words in terms of their consequences.  But our grandparents wouldn't wouldn't have called this "maturity," they would have called it wisdom and it's this characteristic that is highlighted in the second chapter of Daniel.  

But That's Not FAIR!

My daughter had to write an essay about injustice last school year.  She is a third culture kid, a child who has spent so much time outside of her "home" culture that she no longer truly belongs to either her home or adopted culture. Writing that essay was hard for her.  Abandoned babies, starving children, bribery and persecution aren't abstract concepts but the stories of people she knows. More than most 15 year olds, she understands how useless complaining about life's injustices is. 

She has that in common with Daniel.