Musings

As I sit here writing some thoughts for this week's message on Daniel, chapter 3. I think of the three young men in the story. I think of how they faced death....by their own admission they were not sure if God would deliver them.

And, I think of how could they stand up the most powerful man in the world, who was obviously easily enraged? A man who had uncontested power to take their lives by just a word from him. And, I think, what was their secret? How did they do that?

Think about it, obedience was more important than their life. Hmmm...

Daniel 2

Today, I am continuing a sermon series on the Book of Daniel at the Santa Rosa Adventist church. Today, we will be looking at chapter two. Chapter two is a miniature, a microcosm, of the whole book. It contains both Hebrew and Aramaic. It has both narrative and prophecy. On the narrative side, it’s a study is about a man confronted with the reality that he’s not God, AND about a dream illustrates this. On the prophecy side, it is the foundation to the book of Daniel…AND of what is to come…the time of end. This is what makes this such a fascinating book!

New sermon series

This Saturday, I am starting a brand new sermon series on the Book of Daniel. The Book of Daniel is an apocalyptic book.. You’ve heard of the industrial age, the information age, and the age of technology? I believe we are now living in an apocalyptic age. To most people, apocalyptic means a catastrophic end of the world (lots of movies on that topic these days)…When we think of apocalyptic or catastrophic, we think of “The End,” …total or near total destruction caused by global warming, or the cooling of the sun until everything freezes, or a meteor hitting the earth.” The book of Daniel speaks directly to this. Throughout it, it repeatedly claims to have to do with the “time of the end”. It is a study of end things, last things…this is called eschatology. Eschatology, the study of last things is the study of hope for a hopeless world. It delves into the purpose and meaning of life, of our existence.

The Bible has often been referred to as “A tale of two cities,” Jerusalem and Babylon. We find these two cities mentioned all over the Bible. They are mentioned in Genesis and in Revelation and they represent a conflict between two different kingdoms, two different ideologies…The first verse of the book of Daniel mentions both cities as a clue to this conflict between true and false religion that will unfold in this book, the great controversy between Christ Jesus (the Messiah) and Satan (the devil). The theme? Worship. The last battle on earth will be over worship. Who will we serve? I hope you will come, or check it out online on our church web site (http://www.santarosasda.org/).