Devos 365

Proverbs 29:25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in The Lord is kept safe. Psalm 27:1, 13-14 1 The Lord is my lights and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid? 13 I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of The Lord in the land of the living.  14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for The Lord. These retreats are always rather an organic experience when shared with a group of church working professionals who love God and seek to serve Him with their lives. I'm always humbled and honored to be in their presence. The way we design these retreats is that 4 volunteers offer up a Bible study over the course of our 40 or so hours together. We worship with song and prayer then dive into the study. Generally, each study lasts for about 2 hours. What emerges during those studies is generally fascinating and almost always ties together thematically even though we do a

We're going to take a brief break from Daniel just for the rest of the week. I am on a professional / personal / spiritual retreat. This is an annual event that takes me out of normal everyday life and gives an opportunity for an attitude adjustment and perspective renewal. But, I don't want you to think I've forgotten about you. Instead of writing about Daniel, I'm going to share whatever is happening on a spiritual level here at the retreat. With that in mind, I want to share Psalm 13. 1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?  2  How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?  3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,  4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”  lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.  5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your sa

Daniel 7:5-6 (and 2:39) 39 Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 5 And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ 6 After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. The dream of Daniel continues, on track with the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. The four kingdoms that Daniel sees in this dream are:                                        Nebuchadnezzar’s Statue               Daniel’s Dream   The Babylonians --                  Head                                           Lion   The Medo-Persians --         Chest & Arms                              Bear - lopsided   The Greeks --                       Leopar

Daniel 7:1-4 (and 2:31-38) 2:31 “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. 32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 36 “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. 37 You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom,

Daniel 7:1-3 1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. 2 Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. 3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The book of Daniel falls into two categories. First, we have the historical stories, set in the time of the Babylonian captivity. In the first six chapters we have seen men surviving a fiery furnace and hungry lions; a king lose his mind and behave like an animal; young men choose God’s way rather than the pagan way; a disembodied hand write warnings on the wall. It’s been pretty exciting! Now we enter into the second type of writing by Daniel, which is e qual ly exciting . Now come the visions and end times prophecies that can be difficult and challenge our imaginations. Time to s

Daniel 6:11-28 http://www.esvbible.org/search/Daniel+6%3A11-28/ The book of Daniel is known for many thing, but the two most famous are the three (four!) men in the fiery furnace and our reading for today; Daniel in the den of lions. Because of the jealousy of a few Babylonian leaders and for his faithful homage to the living God, Daniel is thrown into a den of lions, kept specifically for the purpose of punishing those who do wrong before the king. Just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego go bravely in to the furnace, believing God will take care of them, Daniel goes bravely into the lion’s den, know that God will care for him either in the den or in death. Either way, he does not waver from his faith. While we pay attention to Daniel in this story, the reading is actually about King Darius. He’s the one who makes the transition from pagan to knowing about the True God. We watch in fascination as Darius is manipulated by his “governors” so that he will instate