Tag Archives: Political Correctness

Daniel: Praying Through Obstacles

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(Note: This is the 20th in a series of posts on Daniel’s life)

Not Everything Goes As Planned

The so-called “Health, Wealth & Prosperity Gospel” would have us believe that doing the right things & praying the right way & saying the right words will ensure that everything, in life, will go right! That health will follow us! That wealth will follow us; and, prosperity too! But, the Biblical story, of the prophet Daniel, shows us quite the opposite! In fact, the Bible is replete with similar examples that show that doing the right thing does NOT always ensure that everything in life will go right! That everything will go the way we’ve planned for it to go!

Loyalty To God Over King

Despite of Daniel’s faithfulness, to God’s Word & His commandments, he still had enemies who meant to do him harm (read Daniel chapter 6).  When “…they could find no charge or corruption, for he was trustworthy…” (v.4) they conspired to use his faith against him by deceiving King Darius into signing a decree that exposed Daniel for his ultimate loyalty to God rather than the king! But, Daniel’s story teaches us to trust God to deal with our enemies! We don’t need to work so hard to defend ourselves! Let God defend us!

Life Isn’t Always Comfortable

Daniel’s story also proves that a believer can thrive in an environment that’s hostile to their faith; but, it’s not always going to be comfortable! In our “politically correct” world, we’re tempted every day to compromise our faith! To fudge a little here! To keep our mouth shut there! Like Daniel, if you don’t compromise, you’re going to run into trouble with this unbelieving world sooner or later! So, trust God with your enemies! Daniel has seen this before. He’s a very old man at this point; perhaps, more than 80 years old! He had been exiled to Babylon as a teenager; and, Darius is now the 4th king under whom he’s served. So, the “names” may have changed; but, Daniel’s challenge, to remain faithful to God in a hostile world, remains the same! 

Prayer A Regular Rhythm Of Life

So, how does he respond when he is informed of his enemy’s deception? The text says, “…he went into his house…and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (v.10).  See that? Daniel didn’t just turn to prayer when he had exhausted all human attempts to fix his predicament! Prayer was part of the regular rhythm of his life!  We can’t expect to treat God like a genie, ignoring Him until you face a problem you can’t fix by yourself; and expecting Him to eagerly make good on your request! That kind of treatment is repulsive and disrespectful to the God of the universe! Daniel had a regular pattern of consistent, daily prayer.

Planned Neglect

Like clockwork, the text of Daniel 6 informs us that Daniel prayed regularly, 3 times a day every day! A noted concert violinist was once asked about the secret of her mastery of the instrument; and, she answered with 2 words— “Planned Neglect!” she said, “Many things used to demand my time. When I went to my room after breakfast, I made my bed, straightened the room, dusted, and did whatever seemed necessary. When I finished my work, I turned to my violin practice. That system prevented me from accomplishing what I should do on the violin. So, I reversed things. I deliberately planned to neglect everything else until my practice period was complete. And that program of planned neglect is the secret of my success.” Nothing got in the way of Daniel’s prayer time! He scheduled it… to the planned neglect of everything else!

Don’t Expose My Idols!

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This Is A Hard Saying

Jesus earned quite the reputation for crazy, difficult, and hard sayings during His 3 1/2-year ministry on this planet. He said things like “…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you”; and, “…it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”; and, “…let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God”; and, perhaps the craziest, “…if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” At one point, the Apostle John says the crowd, that followed Jesus, could take it no longer and said: “…this is a hard saying; who can understand it?” At that Jesus turned to them & asked them, “Does this offend you?…there are some of you who do not believe.” (John 6:60ff)

Flushing Out The Unbelievers

In that statement, we gain some insight into the reason for Jesus’ hard sayings— He intended to flush out the unbelievers, in the crowd, so they might acknowledge their unbelieving hearts & come to genuine faith; so that, they might trust Christ for salvation. Unfortunately, I’ve read more than one commentary try and explain away what Jesus said…. trying to soften the blow of His message by making it more palatable and politically correct! But, when you try and “sanitize” His message it loses the impact of the Gospel. Jesus fully intended to be offensive to His self-righteous audience; and, to shake up the religious leaders that taught a works-based, performance-driven salvation—  “If your righteousness does not exceed that of the Pharisees,” He said, “you’ll never see heaven.” To the rich man, He said: “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” In all His “hard sayings,” Jesus was putting a spotlight on the false gods and idols in people’s lives. These were the things that people valued more than Creator God; and, Jesus exposed their idolatry!  The salvation God offers through Jesus is “free”, but it will cost you everything! God will not share the throne of your life with anyone or anything! When you accept the terms of His salvation, you give up all “rights” to your life.  “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” 1 Cor. 6:19-20

But Aren’t Idols Bad Things?

That’s what we think; so, we try to re-interpret what Jesus said because He just couldn’t be calling all those good things we love— like family, career, our standing in the public eye— as idols, could He? We want to believe that idols are bad things; but, that’s rarely the case! Tim Keller, in his excellent book Counterfeit Gods, says, “…the greater the ‘good’, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.”  Jesus came to set things in order— God’s in charge; He is King; He is Lord; and, He alone is to be worshipped! He has all authority over my life; and, He is to be valued as the ONLY treasure, above all His creation! Even good things become bad things when they take the place of the best! God is the BEST! He never created anything we love & enjoy to take His place in our lives! We need to see them as gifts; because they make very poor “gods.”

Thinking Right About God!

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-The Most Important Thing About You?

What comes to your mind if I ask you:  “What is the #1 most important thing about you?” Ponder that a moment! What is the #1 most important thing about you? Here it is:  “What comes into your mind when you think about God is the #1 most important thing about you.” The heaviest question, in front of us, is always about God Himself! And, our current pluralistic, relativistic, narcissistic, politically correct “culture” shows little to no regard for the accuracy & truth of the God impressions we have floating around in our little self-absorbed minds! “You’re OK & I’m OK” as long as you don’t tell me that Jesus is the ONLY WAY to God! “Whatever you believe about God is OK as long as you VALIDATE what I believe about Him.”  “You have your truth & I have mine.” Those are ultimately idolatrous statements, aren’t they? Any belief about God that is twisted or inaccurate is “idolatry”—they’ve made up their own god in their own image!

-God Has Left The Building!

I love what A.W. Tozer said many years ago before the world was even close to being as religiously inclusivist as it is today:  “The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.”  And, listen church, the trickle-down from the cultural idolatry & false thinking, about God, is so pervasive in our civilization that it’s made inroads into the church! In most of our mainline denominations, God has “left the building”; because, “the essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” A.W. Tozer said that too! That’s the post-modern world that we live in, isn’t it? There are no “absolutes” in the world of 2021; and, it’s sad the depths, of foolishness, an unregenerate & hopelessly lost world will go to silence that inner voice of God’s Holy Spirit.

-God Is Not Silent!

Listen, God is not silent! He has not created this place; and, then went off to some corner of the universe to hide out & see what happens! God is alive & well; and, the rumors of His death have been greatly exaggerated! God’s Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to pen these words, in his letter to the Church of Rome. He says the unbelieving world will suppress the truth, “Because what may be known of God is manifest in them (It’s INNATE), for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God…” Romans 1:19-21.  Scripture insists that everyone knows there’s a God! There is an “internal witness” or evidence! It’s innate! Everyone, in their heart, knows there is a God! They simply suppress the truth! And, there’s also the “external witness”; or, the evidence of creation, Paul says, in this passage from Romans.

–Truth Suppressers!

The unbeliever, who refuses to humble himself & admit he can’t know everything there is to know about an eternal God, rejects Him & suppresses the truth about Him! He comes up with all sorts of theories that masquerade as science; but, they’re all lies. So, the answer to the #1 most important thing about you? It’s what comes into your mind when you think about God! And, the consequences, about your thoughts of God, will impact both the quality of your life here & for eternity! Your life will prove to be successful as you pursue the wisdom of God; and, reject the seductive distractions of the world. That requires a leap of faith—not a BLIND leap of faith; because, God has buried evidence of Himself, inside you! The “internal” evidence! And, He’s also left His fingerprints all over the created world & universe! The “external” evidence! So, how do we think rightly about God? Where do we start? We’ll get into that next post!

Should A Believer Practice Political Correctness?

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“PC” Defined:

“Political Correctness” or “PC” has been defined as “A term that describes language, ideas, policies and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, religious believe, disability and age-related contexts.” Taken at face value it almost seems like something we should support as followers of Jesus!

“Political Correctness” Is A Moving Target

In the “Politically Correct” world no individual or group is ever to be offended; but, it’s that word “offense” that becomes problematic because an “offense” can be very subjective. It’s based on the opinion of each individual; so, it becomes a moving target! What’s “offensive” to one person is not to another. So, the “offended” party makes all the rules in a Politically Correct world.

In the “PC World” everyone’s beliefs must be tolerated. Everyone’s faith or religion is to be equally validated. So, there can be no “absolute truth” in a Politically Correct World. Truth becomes “subjective”! But, Jesus said: “I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH & THE LIFE. No one comes to the Father except through ME” (John 14:6) That means Jesus is “exclusive”—He claims to be the ONLY way to God; the ONLY truth! That’s repulsive in the Politically Correct World because it “offends” every other system of faith!

Prepare Yourself

My purpose in writing this article is to prepare you for the inevitable! Taken to it’s extreme, Political Correctness will effectively censor the Church’s attempts to make disciples because that’s an “offensive” activity to some. When that happens, followers of Christ will be left with a choice—who will we offend? If our country continues the course we’re on, persecution will be the fall out; and, we need to brace ourselves! Choose you this day whom you will offend! I’ve already made my decision—when faced with the choice to offend God or man, I will choose to offend man every time!

The Anti-Political Correctness Movement

However, let me add some caution-don’t join the Anti-Political Correctness movement! I’ve noticed there’s been an “over reaction” to the philosophy of Political Correctness that is rude, crass, demeaning & not at all like Jesus! Paul wrote the believers in Ephesus to, “Speak the TRUTH in LOVE.” Don’t YOU, personally, be the “offense”! Jesus was the “friend of sinners” because He was full of “Grace AND Truth”! A casual reading of Scripture says to “guard your tongue”, “set a guard on my mouth”, “slander no one”, “avoid fighting” (Prov 15:1; 15:4; 21:23; Psalm 141:3; Titus 3:2; Colossians 4:6)

Don’t Forget Who You Are

We need to remember our “identity”—who we are! I am 1st a “citizen” of heaven; and, 2nd a “resident” of America! Our higher calling is our identity in Christ!