2010 – September 22 – Dirt or Derision?

Study from God’s Word… Daniel, Chapter 6 … Passage for Reflection: Daniel 6: 5 … NIV Finally these men [the court leaders during the reign of Darius, the Mede] said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”

My Journal for Today: You may have heard the leading question asked about your faith, “If someone indicted you for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Well, there certainly was enough to convict Daniel of his faith as the trap was laid for him which led to his stint in the lion’s den. And the point is made by the questions of my devotional shepherd, Dr. Smith, today, “What would I find more troublesome about my life, … the dirt someone could turn up (from my past) or having a faith commitment so weak that no enemy would think to exploit it?”

Well, I’ve got a lot of dirt in my past, all of which I would hope has been brought out into the light of truth by my own honest revelation; but perhaps someone could dredge up some incident from my shady past which could/would embarrass me. But overshadowing all of my past dirty laundry, I would hope that my obsessive, and even compulsive, pursuit of Christlikeness would prevail as people see the Bill Berry of today, becoming the Bill Berry of tomorrow.

You know it’s quite possible, even in my lifetime, that we may see a day when some of the stands that I now strongly take against civil unions, inappropriately called "marriage" by homosexuals, would be codified into anti-hate-speech law, making my beliefs and public stands illegal. It has already happened in Sweden and Canada where Ministers of the Gospel have been jailed because of preaching the truth of the Bible about homosexual behavior. And more and more we’re seeing forces in our American culture who want to make it illegal “hate-speech” to declare that homosexual behavior is sinful.

And one day, if such a law is codified, I hope that I would have the courage of a Daniel, even under the penalty of a lion’s den, to stand for what is true and God-ordained for our world. What about you? Will you be in the lion’s den with me on such a day?

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I pray I am convicted of my being Yours forever! Amen