Can It All Be So Simple?

The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him. – Daniel 9:14

Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 3 John 11

Can it all be so simple? - Wu-Tang 

Today’s Reading: Daniel 8-10; 3 John

I came across both of these passages and wondered to myself, can it really be this simple?

Folks Are Real Flagrant These Days

So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking. – Daniel 5:3-6

Today’s Reading: Daniel 5-7; 2 John

It’s wild how flagrant dude was with the stuff taken from the temple of God.

Recently I watched this really great movie with Audrey Tatou called God is Great, I am Not. In it she plays a woman who is on this search for faith. She starts dating Jewish guy and romance ensues; but the interesting thing is that she’s trying to be extra Jewish while he’s just laid back about his faith.

Next Level Spiritual Gangstas

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

Today’s Reading: Daniel 3-4; 1 John 5

Shadrach, Mechach and Abednego were spiritual gangstas.

Period.

I remember hearing this story as a kid and the focus was on how they were thrown into the furnace and made it out alive because they were saved by God and their faith. But now that I’m an adult you know what the coldest part of this story is to me?

The Walk part 4: Living in Love

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:7-12

Today’s Reading: Daniel 1-2; 1 John 4

It’s all about love.

This is a point that I think gets forgotten, not only by folks who observe Christians from the outside, but also by us folk who call ourselves Christians.