Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Excellence”
Our Bible verse for today: “Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank.” Daniel 1:8 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “God’s ways are always best.”
Daniel and his three young friends were Hebrew boys who had been taken captive by the Babylonians, sent to the capital city of Babylon, and were in training to be servants in the king’s royal court. As part of their training they were required to eat a special diet which consisted of foods and drink that were specifically forbidden to them by the Levitical Law of Moses. So in order to obey the king’s command, they would have to violate God’s command.
But Daniel was having none of it. In Daniel 1:8 we read that he and his friends decided they wouldn’t eat that stuff, no matter what. We then read that he asked the official in charge of their training for permission to have a diet that was consistent with the requirements of his faith. The official agreed and what he discovered was that Daniel and his friends “looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food.”
Surprise, surprise, right? Or maybe not. Daniel and his friends made up their minds to obey God and to keep His commands, and it turned out to be exactly the right thing to do.
God’s ways are always best. Always.
That was true for Daniel and his friends and it’s true for you and me too. When it comes to living with excellence (according to God’s estimation of what is excellent) there is no substitute for knowing the Bible and living by it. The Psalmist was right when he wrote in Psalm 119:1-2 “How happy are those whose way is blameless, who live according to the Lord’s instruction! Happy are those who keep His decrees and seek Him with all their heart.”
That Apostle Paul also wrote about this to young Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Likewise in Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.”
“It is able to judge the thoughts and ideas of the heart.” That’s a key understanding right there. The thoughts and ideas of the heart are fickle and faulty and sometimes downright evil. Left to our own understanding we will go off in a thousand directions that are contrary to God’s Will. It’s the Bible that keeps us on track.
God’s ways are always best and they are explained clearly for us, in writing, in the Bible. We need to know it, and we need to live by it.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 