Daniel 1

Daniel 1

Ironside - Daniel and his three friends, and Paul the apostle, are striking examples of men who would not risk the ruin of their testimony by self-indulgence or pandering to “fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11-note). Christians cannot afford to be careless as to these matters. The body is the Lord’s. It is the temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. To defile it by any form of unclean living is to dishonor God and to render one powerless in the hour of stress. In the world we hear much today of efficiency experts. Men realize that if a workman, a clerk, a professional man, or an executive, is to be at his best, he must avoid many things that others indulge in who think only of momentary pleasure and sensual gratification. The man to be trusted is the man who rules himself and holds all his appetites in subjection. In spiritual things the same rule applies. He who purposes in his heart that he will not “defile himself,” but yields to the control of the Holy Spirit, is the one who will be most used of God on earth, and some day will stand before the King to be rewarded in the day of revelation. There is a purity of heart, A cleanness of desire, Wrought by the Holy Comforter With sanctifying fire. There is a glory that awaits Each blood-washed soul on high, When Christ returns to take His Bride With Him beyond the sky. Compromising Convictions (Daniel 1:8; 3:16–18) " Vindicate me, O Lord, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the LORD; I shall not slip."(Psalm 26:1) When Daniel refused to defile himself by eating the king’s food, he held fast to a conviction he deemed worthy enough for death. Convictions always challenge our level of commitment. Daniel viewed continuing his relationship with God far more important than satisfying the king’s whims. Once he took his stand, God provided a solution to the situation, and Daniel was allowed to eat what was in keeping with God’s commandments. Pleasing God, not men, was the most important issue to Daniel. Loving the Lord and keeping His commandments were his utmost desires. It wasn’t a matter of preference but a matter of godly conviction. Preferences are based on feelings. They change erratically and are often abandoned for the sake of immediate gratification. However, a conviction is based on God’s principles and deals with life from an eternal perspective. Satan’s ultimate goal is to move you from a point of conviction to a point of preference. Once he has done that, he changes your view from God’s best to what satisfies the flesh. Be wary of compromising your convictions, for you belong to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Dear Lord, help me to stand firm in my convictions despite the temptation to compromise. (Charles Stanley - Seeking His Face) "I HAVE SET MY FACE" by Vance Havner - For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed" (Isa. 50:7). So wrote Isaiah concerning God's suffering servant, and when that suffering servant came to earth "He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). Our Lord did not have a hard face for it was full of love and compassion, but He did have a set face. He had made up His mind. He knew where He was going. He had fixed His course and He allowed no one to deflect Him. The devil offered Him the kingdoms of this world but our Saviour took no short cut; He chose the way of Calvary. John the Baptist in prison, questioned whether Jesus was "he that should come" (Luke 7:19), but our Lord answered, in effect, "I'm running on schedule and doing what I came to do." His brothers urged Him to go up to Jerusalem and perform before the world. That was not His program. Peter confessed Christ but denied the cross and remonstrated at the thought of Calvary. Our Lord declared him to be speaking not for God but for the devil. When He heard of Herod's threats, He called the king a fox and made it clear that He would go ahead with His plans as scheduled. He had set His face like a flint, and neither friend nor foe, man nor devil, could divert Him from His goal. Throughout the Word of God, the heroes of faith were men who set their faces like a flint. Caleb "... wholly followed the Lord God" (Joshua 14:14). Joshua said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Elijah asked, "How long halt ye between two opinions?" (1 Kings 18:21). Daniel "purposed in his heart" (Daniel 1:8) to be true to God. Paul said: "... this one thing I do" (Philippians 3:13). He also set his face to go to Jerusalem and said, "... none of these things move me" (Acts 21:24). (Ed: To this list of godly men I would add the godly woman Mary of Bethany - Luke 10:42, context Lk 10:38-42) One of our biggest problems today is that most of our church people have never really made up their minds to follow Jesus Christ. They are like Mr. Looking-both-ways in The Pilgrims Progress, or like Lot's wife looking back toward Sodom. They are like the man in the Civil War who wore a blue coat and gray trousers, and was shot at from both sides. They are like a donkey between two bales of hay—undecided as to which to eat. They are like the son in our Lord's parable who said, "I go, Sir" (Matthew 22:30), and went not. They receive the word with joy, but have no root nor depth and soon fall away. They never really make up their minds, and are like the man who was asked, "Do you have trouble making decisions?" He replied, "Yes and no." In the ninth chapter of Luke we read that our Lord stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. In the same chapter, we read in contrast of three who were exactly opposite; they were not really going anywhere. They sounded as though they were serious but, one had not counted the cost, one wanted to bury his father, and another to bid his family goodbye before following Jesus. Whether it be the uncounted cost, the unburied corpse or the unforsaken circle, their attitude was, "I will follow Thee BUT...." Our Lord made it very clear to each of them, that He meant business, that He was going somewhere, and that His kingdom was no place for a man with his face pointed in one direction and his feet in the other. I have been a pastor and have tried everything to induce church members to go on with God. I have scolded, praised, coaxed, and persuaded, but I am convinced that they go where they want to go, and where their hearts are, their heels will follow. We are dealing largely with a mixed multitude of uncommitted, disinterested, undisciplined people, who have never set their faces to say, "This one thing I do." Theirs is the sin of dissipated devotion. As someone has put it, their lives are not like swords with one point, but like brooms ending in a thousand straws. Dr. J. B. Gambrell was a great dog lover as a boy. He got hold of a book that told him what he could be in life if he applied himself. He decided, "I cannot be what I ought and keep up with all these dogs," so he gave up dogs. He once wrote quite a piece about the neighborhood dog that wears no collar, is unattached, doesn't belong to anybody, feels no responsibility to keep stray dogs and cats off any place, goes around smiling and wagging his tail, and will bark as much at one house as another. The neighborhood dog, Gambrell wrote, is broad-minded, makes up with everybody, gets in no fights, for to him nothing is worth fighting for. "Judicious barking", we read further, "is a fine trait, but miscellaneous barking is worth nothing, and is confusing to dogs that are really hunting something." Then Dr. Gambrell made his application. "The neighborhood dog has a lot of kin who are too broad-minded to join any church. They run to all churches, particularly if there is a special service for they like crowds. The man who says one church is as good as another doesn't love any church enough to be of any use to it. There are hoboes in the dog world and deadbeats in the religious world. A thousand of them would never support a church or send a missionary." These are the opposite of the saints of the set face! When Cortez landed on these shores, he burned his ships so that he and his company could not leave. He made no arrangements for a retreat. He had come to stay. God grant us a crop of saints who have stedfastly set their faces to go to Jerusalem; who will allow neither man nor the devil, friend nor foe, to deflect them from their holy resolve, "This one thing I do!" A Will to Choose - F. B. Meyer was a dynamic preacher and author of more than seventy books. Charles