A Pastor's Thoughts

I’ve been working a lot on the book of Daniel lately.  It began by compiling an extensive Bible study that my good friend and mentor had done and putting it online.  While I was doing this I began to think about what my next sermon series should be about and I came to the conclusion that Daniel would be a good book to study. 

So after compiling the entire Bible study for the website I decided to turn around and study the book again to preach from it.  And then to promote the website I’ve been writing a series of short articles about each chapter on another blog.  If you’re interested you can follow the blog at http://hubpages.com/hub/Studying-the-book-of-Daniel. 

So I have Daniel on the mind a lot right now.  The Bible study site has an in depth commentary on the book with each chapter being discussed for about ten pages.  My sermons are about half of that length or less.  And my blog posts are around 500 words each.  I’ve really run the gamut on the topic.

No matter how many words that I’ve used to speak on the book of Daniel, I still come to the conclusion that it is an amazing book.  There is perhaps no greater book in all of the Bible in terms of the range of subjects.  There are children’s stories such as Daniel and the lion’s den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace.  And on the other end of the spectrum are incredible prophecies such as Daniel’s seventy sevens.  Throw in some miracles and the amazing conversion of Nebuchadnezzar and the book has it all in just 12 chapters.

Every chapter displays the power of God in a new and magnificient way.  This is something that has really come out in my sermons.  This makes Daniel an important book to study because the church needs a reminder of God’s power. 

All in all I just can’t get enough of the the book of Daniel right now and I’d highly recommend the study of it to anyone who was looking for a book or series to study.

I posted an article at http://hubpages.com/hub/Its-not-the-end-of-the-world so I won’t repost the whole thing here.  However I’m still bothered by Christian perspectives on disasters and other bad things.  Within five minutes of posting the article I got a response on facebook that basically said that the truth is the truth whether I wanted to accept it or not, the signs prove that Jesus is returning soon. 

Of course the entire point of the article is that we simply don’t know because all of the things that are being pointed to as signs have been around since Jesus left us.  Things might be worse now or they might just get more television coverage.  There is no way that we can know for certain.  Every generation has seen disasters in their lifetime and has had reason to believe that they were signs of Jesus’ return.

Of course I reread Matthew 24 over the weekend.  There are a few things that are absolutely clear.  One part has been fulfilled – the destruction of the temple in AD 70.  Another part is still definitely future – the abomination that causes desolation.  This leaves us looking for signs to mark the time of Jesus’ return.  The more I read, the more I believed that Jesus was purposely vague.  This wasn’t vague like Nostradamus or other so called prophets that can be twisted in a number of ways until they are proven right.  Instead it is vague as a warning.

Matthew 24 closes with Jesus saying that no one knows the time of His return, not even He.  This means that anyone who claims to have figured out the date is a liar because they claim to know more than Jesus.  The chapter closes with a warning to be watching for His return.  I believe that is the point. 

Every generation has seen signs of Jesus’ return because God wants us to be watching and waiting.  We should live our lives as though Jesus could return at any moment, because He can.  The things that are going on in the world today could be signs of Jesus’ imminent return, or they could be more of what we’ve always had.  We simply don’t know for certain.  Things could get much, much worse.

I have always believed that Jesus could return at any moment and have tried to live my life in light of this fact.  He could return today.  Or He could be another thousand years off.  We simply don’t know.  What some Christians are offering as proof is not a guarantee if for no other reason than God’s measure of time is not the same as ours.  The birth pains that act as a sign could be a hundred years long.  It is not our job to interpret the signs.  Instead, we need to live our life like He could return at any moment.

I rarely post on political issues because frankly I don’t like religion and politics to mix.  They intersect in a number of ways but often people are just as if not more dogmatic about their politics as their religion.  That being said, I’m rather bothered by what is going on in the Middle East.  Obviously I’m disturbed by people being jailed, beaten, and even killed for peacefully protesting the government.  But I’m equally disturbed by the American and internation response to all that is going on.

Middle Eastern politics are very dangerous waters to wade into, I understand that.  It would be bad to bet on the wrong horse so to speak only to have the wrong party end up or stay in power.  It’s certainly not a stretch to imagine a vindictive leader saying that they will no longer supply oil to the US.  With all of that in mind, it should still be a no brainer that killing one’s own people in order to stay in power is wrong.  Why hasn’t these actions been forcefully decried?  It took about a week from the start of unrest in Libya for the president to even issue much of a statement condemning it. 

We aren’t dealing with a leader who is new and unknown.  This is the same headcase that has been in power since 1969.  His response shouldn’t be a surprise.  At the moment of unrest a travel alert should have been issued and all non essential US personnel should have been removed from Libya because we know what this man is capable of.

Shortly after entering office President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.  This was obviously given on the basis of the hope that he brought rather than anything that he had actually achieved.  He marked a clear change from the Bush administration and the international community was greatly in favor of this.  But now it’s time to earn that prize.  So far the response has been peace at all costs.  And by peace, I mean that the US won’t get its hands dirty.  Let’s do nothing while Libya’s cities are bombed from the air by its own leader. 

I’m not suggesting that the US invade Libya or any other Middle Eastern countries.  We can’t afford another war financially or with the price of lives.  But right now peace only means that the US isn’t fighting.  The leaders of our country and the world should condemn what is going on in the strongest way possible and make it abundantly clear that any leader who attacks his own people must go.  Sometimes peace has to be fought for as thousands of demonstators are doing in several countries.  Unfortunately the US response appears to be that peace means not causing a stir.  There is a difference, just ask those who are dying.