What is faith? How do we apply faith? Faith is one of those things that is hard to talk about. It sometimes seems fleeting and faint, hard to grasp. Perhaps pictures will help us. Look at the faith of the poor woman giving two coins to the temple. When the world is difficult to understand, perhaps we should continue to look at images of great faith like hers.
God’s people have been scattered all over the world. Babylon has come in and taken them over and separated them as far as the east is from the west. When will the good king come and bring us back together? I often feel just as scattered, having to run from this house or party to another this time of year. Even my family is scattered all over the country. I, too, am waiting for someone to bring us all together.
Just as Christ is “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end,” at the close of every liturgical year, we look forward with renewed hope to Christ’s coming again in glory to reign as Lord forever. In the same way we look forward to our own resurrection and the time of a new earth — an earth that is no longer broken by sin and groaning. Christ will come again in glory just as surely as He came the first time — when He was born. So we have these three weeks of “transition” at the end of the “long green season” into the Advent Season: the new beginning of the liturgical year.
God has always been like a father for his people. And just like a good father, He gives His children what they want and need. So He tells us to ask Him for everything we need. He encourages us to ask Him for what we need and want, even when we have not been our best selves or when we have been wasteful of what He has given us. He is the Good Father and wants to give us good gifts.
God says that the pure of heart will see Him as He is (Matthew 5:8) and that the pure of heart will know Him and understand Him. God says that the pure of heart will diligently seek Him, and as they seek Him, they will find Him (Proverbs 8:17). So it seems that stewardship is, first and foremost, not about money, time, or talent, but rather stewardship is a matter of where our hearts are before Almighty God, our Father.
Have you ever wondered why you are where you are? Do you wonder why God didn’t choose you to have the things you long for, or why He would allow you to struggle with the things that sometimes drag you down? None of it comes by chance. God doesn’t leave our lives to a set of random circumstances. Certainly God doesn’t control our lives, as if you we were puppets, but He has a purpose and plan for each one of us. We just need to stop trying to run the show and allow Him to reveal His plan to us. God has a plan for your life, and Christian stewardship is really all about discovering God’s purpose for our lives.
Daniel is an old man, and he has been waiting for his whole life for the Lord to return his people back to the homeland. According to the prophet Jeremiah, it was only to last 70 years, and there are just 3 years left. However, an angel of the Lord comes to Daniel and tells him, “No, it’s 7 times 70.”
We go back in time; Daniel is back in Babylon under that last terrible king. Daniel wakes up sweating; he had a terrible dream, just like the kings before. He sees four beasts coming from the sea, each more powerful than the last. The fourth is the biggest and worst beast; however, we see the son of man gives us hope for the future.
Babylon is over; the Persians are no longer in charge. King Darius loves Daniel because he has an amazing spirit of the Lord and is able to help the king do his job well. But the other leaders don’t like Daniel and create a rule to bring him down. How will Daniel react; will it be with panic and anger, or will he trust in the Lord no matter what may come?
The king wakes up in a cold sweat, another bad dream. A huge tree that touches the sky is cut down and is prevented from growing out of the ground again. What does it mean, and will the king listen? Or will the king keep up his behavior of glorying his own image and become no different than a beast in the field?
Daniel and his 3 friends are the best of the best. They are all royal Hebrews: handsome and filled with wisdom. But when they are taken captive by Babylon, they are put in a place meant to demean them. They are given new names glorifying false gods and are given food sacrificed to those gods. How would you handle this situation? It’s interesting to see what Daniel does.
Paul has been passed from local official to local official. No one knows what to do with him; they think he is innocent, but he wants to stand before Caesar. This sends Paul into the chaos of the sea, riding a ship from the outskirts of the empire to the center of Rome. But along the way there are problems. Huge storms and a shipwreck show us God’s love and guiding grace among difficult times.
Paul wants to go to Jerusalem to visit the church there; however, on his way, folks keep talking about Paul in chains down in Jerusalem. When he arrives, a riot immediately ensues, forcing the rioters and the government to act in the only powers they know. Paul is showing them and us a different way, where we don't have to worry about what the opposition will do to us. Paul is showing us the way of the kingdom.
Paul walks into Ephesus, and he sees multiple displays of power. First he sees the Spirit of God when some are baptized and they begin speaking in tongues. Then he sees the Spirit when some begin to use the power for their own gain and are quickly humbled. Finally, there’s power of the crowd when they feel Paul’s message of Jesus threatens their city and their God.
Paul goes into a new city; first he goes to the Jews then he ends up with the Greeks. However, when he goes up to Athens, he does not go to the Jewish center but instead to the center of Greekness, Mars Hill, where the learned came and discussed the wisdom of the world. But sometimes gaps show up in the manufactured idols, and statues get made to unknown gods. Paul gives this unknown god a name and tells his story.
