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Though the MBI campus is quiet during these summer months, with most of the students away on vacation, we continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers, asking God to give these young people a restful time with their family and friends and much quality time with Him.
TODAY IN THE WORDStella Ho lived in Venezuela for thirty years, running a shop with her unsaved husband. In January 2004, Stella was abducted by three thieves. God used her compassionate spirit and godly influence to change the hearts of her captors. In just eight days, Stella was freed, her captors' hearts were changed, and her husband accepted Christ after witnessing the outpouring of prayer and love from her fellow believers. Stella said, “Our time is short. We never know what may happen to us. We must strive to serve the Lord and discern what we can do for God.”
If Daniel had been allowed to plot the course of his own life, he probably wouldn't have picked “abducted by Babylonians” as his first choice. He didn't get to choose his circumstances, but he served the Lord by accepting the position in which God had placed him. We usually remember Daniel for his courageous stands against compromise, but the first test of his allegiance to God was one of humble submission.
Some scholars conclude that Daniel was in his early teens at the time of his abduction, and the word for “young men” in verse 4 supports that theory. For Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, submitting to Babylonian rule could not have been easy. They had been the cream of Judah's crop, members of the nobility, and among the most promising young men in their nation. But their new captors erased their Jewish names and assigned them names that would identify them with pagan gods.
Daniel and his friends could have rebelled. Along with adopting pagan names, they were to eat from the king's menu, learn the Babylonian language, study their literature, and enter the service of the king. But of all those foreign practices, these four young men would refuse to obey only the dietary guidelines. Overall, Daniel and his friends showed maturity beyond their years. Daniel's right attitude toward divinely appointed leadership gives us our first glimpse of his extraordinary character.
TODAY ALONG THE WAYIf you find yourself working for an unsavory boss or living in a town you wish you could flee, take heart. Although you may feel desperate to escape your circumstances, ask God to use you to brighten your surroundings with His glory. That can be done by standing up to people who urge you to do wrong, but it's just as likely God will ask you to perform menial or undesirable tasks as a display of obedience and humility. Making yourself subject to others is a powerful act of faith in God's sovereignty.
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