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Category Archives: Daniel

The Lion’s Den

This morning I was listening to some older Guardian during my Bowflex workout. Guardian is a Christian rock band who was very popular in Christian music circles in the 90’s. During the workout I came across the classic “Lion’s Den”. The story of Daniel and the lion’s den is a little more engaging now, because we are studying Daniel in our Wednesday night Bible study.

The song by Guardian was written by Steve Taylor who is a masterful lyricist. The music is excellent, released in 1995, even now, it’s a pleasure to listen to. Especially while working triceps.

Here are the lyrics:

Once upon a time, in churches of old
The Velcro age had yet to unfold
Flannel was king and Sunday School knew
How to make those Bible heroes, stick like glue
How to make ’em stick with you

Flannel graph lions, mounted and mean
The Prophet Daniel in between
Head toward heaven, sturdy and true
A man of God who did not fear the gods of men
He didn’t fear the lion’s den

Every age at every stage
Lions rage
Pray, stand your ground
They’ll lie down

Dumb struck, I was shaken and stirred
He wouldn’t kowtow, he kept God’s word
Teacher said, “Son, this could be you
If you put your trust in God and not the praise of men
You won’t fear the lion’s den”

And if we play by lion’s rules
We start lionizing fools
God wrote the book, He’ll fortify
And like the eagles we will fly
We’re gonna fly

Late one night in a fever dream
The Prophet Daniel came to me
“Sir,” I said, “I’ve lost my nerve
I lip serve God and put my faith in Godless men
I fear the lion’s den”

Then he said, “Who says I’m not a feline-phobe?
Who says I wasn’t ready to wet my robe?
Faith is tough, boy, but God gives grace
So take deep breath, head up, set your face like flint
And stop being a wimp”

Songwriters
LIDDLE, PETER DUNCAN/TAYLOR, MATTHEW/MILLER, SCOTT/WARREN, JONATHAN/HARVEY, WILLIAM

Published by
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group

Here is the a video with the music:

Are We Headed For the Lions Den?

27 Jun

I believe it is a sad day for this country I love and live in. Unless you live underground and have had no connection with the outside world until now, you know that Friday June 26th, 2015, yesterday, our nation’s highest court legalized homosexual marriages in all of the 50 United States. Yes the social media and the blogs are all a buzz from this news. So, since I haven’t written anything from this blog in quite some time, I will do so now, and plug in my brief thoughts.

I have a passion for the subject of Christians living in the secular world and how I believe we are called to do so. I will pose this question: As a follower of Christ are we to interact at all with the government, laws of the land, and the state?

I am currently involved in a bible study of the book of Daniel, and this book speaks to this very thing of the righteous interacting with the secular. Daniel and his friends would not participate in the kings delicacies because it would defile themselves before God. They were men of integrity, and thus worked within the government, they were to submit to, in order to change the law so they would not be ordered by the law to dishonor God and participate in the king’s delicacies.

The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. (Daniel 1:5-9)

I believe I am also called as a child of God, created in the image of God, and thus responsible to the commands of God. We are created by a God of order (1 Cor. 14:33); therefore we also seek order through governmental structures. So we work in the secular, as did the apostle Paul, and as did Daniel and his people, to influence the darkness as much as we are able.

One last point:
The favoring justices of the Supreme Court admitted that it was their belief that the agenda of the gay community was not to further an agenda to force churches to recognize, or perform, gay marriages. But I do not believe it this to be true. I believe, along this “slippery slope”, we will see just that in less than a decade.

Like the heading asks, like Daniel, “Are we headed for the lions den”?

Soli Deo Gloria!