Sunday, April 30, 2023

Dare To Be A Daniel

 Friday, April 25, 2014

 Dear readers, I chose this because Daniel was a favorite of Gramps and has been the focus of my teaching & study  for several  months. Next month is the last class. I have been blessed by intense study and class interaction.   

 


“But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so, he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.  Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials.”  (Dan. 1:8-9).

 Hey gang:  Notice the last line of this passage of Scripture: “Now God granted Daniel favor”.   Wow, you mean, if we are obedient, God will give us favor?”   In the past two months our lives have been lives of contrast.  We spent five weeks in Bartlesville, Oklahoma as volunteers working in the mail room of Voice of Martyrs and presently we are volunteering at the African Missionary Retirement Home in Clermont, Florida. 

 Our main purpose for being at VOM was pure sweat and toil as we prepared hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail to go across this world telling all who are interested in learning more about the persecuted church.  Now get the picture: I am eighty years of age and my bride is seventy six.  Manuel labor is not unusual for us, but not always 8 hours a day. But how many know that God will supply for all our needs, if we put our faith and trust in Him and are obedient to His call.

 My prayer, prior to arriving at VOM was, ‘Lord you have called me to this ministry to help, I pray now you will fill my body with the energy and stamina to stay the course and complete the race.’  That has been my prayer in each of the past six years as we prepared to leave for Bartlesville, from our comfy home in Michigan.  And He has honored that prayer magnificently.  We always return with more strength and stamina than we had when we left home.

As I mentioned above, our lives have been one of contrast.  Have you noticed that the weather has been horrendous across the nation for the past several years? Do you think God may be giving His children a wakeup call?

 So, we did as Daniel did and “Made up our mind” that we would retreat to the sunny south for a time of rest and recuperation from Bartlesville, a place that was not all white but still very frigid. 

 We returned to an oasis from our past, the Christian Retreat Center at Bradenton, Florida, a place that was filled with many wonderful memories of the past.  It is a place we crawled into when we were exhausted during our years at Eagle Village.   Our Board president recognized the need for us to have an opportunity to just rest and be spiritually fed!  It was my privilege on one of those trips to baptize my Board President, his wife, Marjorie and David. One of the very high points of my life.

 It was here sitting under the teachings of many wonderful and powerful teachers of God that I gained an understanding of Daniel’s commitment to not defile himself with the things of the world.   If I could challenge to every daddy who reads this message, it would be to set aside a week when they would take their family out of the business of the world and spend a week renewing their commitment to Christ as a family.  (Grace Adventures and other Christian Camps offer such an opportunity).

 Soooo my friends, when was the last time you got alone with God for more than two or three minutes between appointments?  I mean really get alone with Him.  A lesson that was very hard for me to learn, and I am still struggling with is prayer - a two-way conversation! Unless we give God an opportunity to speak to our hearts, we will never come to know the Lord in a personal way.  Once again, I would challenge you to get up fifteen minutes early and spend that time alone with the Lord.  Your day will go much better, I promise.

 Blessings,

 Gramps 

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