TODAY'S CHURCH

*Based on Daniel 1:6-20

Daniel the Hebrew teenager found himself in a bad situation. He was basically a prisoner forced into a new way of life at the Kings palace. Easily, he could have focused on circumstances that would have distracted him from being the man God wanted him to be. Instead he clung to God’s way. Scripture was instilled in him from his childhood and the Lord’s teachings were a part of his DNA. Even though he did not attempt to force God’s way upon the other Hebrew young men, he showed them God’s way by example even when it was not convenient.

Holding tight to one’s convictions can be difficult in the world we live in today. For Daniel, it almost resulted in death on more than one occasion. Our convictions must be Bible based convictions. His Word is our sole source for Godly direction in life. Take a look at these key components of “Biblical conviction” as found on http://www.bible.org/:

There is a fallacy that obeying God is about a bunch of don’ts. (like in the video you can have a good marriage by not doing certain things) Admittedly there are some don’ts; this is as plain as the 10 commandments. But the commandments are really more about what we should do. For example, Jesus broke it down for us into two simple parts. Love the Lord your God (first 4) and love your neighbor (last 6).

So disobedience to God is called Sin. Did you know there actually 2 types of sin:

• Sins of commission . This is where we do things that we should not do. Many people go through life; even many church goers; thinking the ideal Christian life is one that is free of these kind of sins. Indeed most of us struggle with this small part of living the Christian life.
  
• The other kind of sin is a sin of omission . This is the type of sin that Jonah dealt with. He knew exactly what God wanted him to do, yet decided not to do it. As we walk closer and closer to God our faith becomes less about what not to do and more about what to do.

The cool thing is that obedience is contagious in some cases. We can see this in the book of Jonah. Once Jonah decided to act in obedience, what happened? The Ninevites also choose to obey God. In the case of the Ninevites we see again that it was not just about stopping their sin. Their obedience also involved acts of repentance.

• Jonah 3: 5 “The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.”

To me this idea is like the conservation of energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed but merely transferred. God made us to think about and do certain things. When we think about or do the wrong things, just like in thermodynamics there has to be a transformation of our thoughts and actions.

Repentance is active according to Peter. He called it “turning to God” (acts 3). Sin whether by omission or commission is going away from God. The idea here sin is equivalent to walking away from God. Peter suggests that the solution is to stop, turn around, and walk toward God (in obedience). Just as Jonah did as he went to Nineveh.

This is a simple truth. Just because you stop disobeying does not mean that you are obeying. If there is sin in your life that you are struggling to eliminate, it must be replaced by obedience. What is it that God wants you to be thinking about and doing? What does obedience need to look like for you this week?