During the next season, our church is launching into the book of Daniel. It has always been one of my favorites. Such challenging acts of faith. God has taken Israel into exile because of their disobedience under the earthly rule of king Nebuchadnezzar. They will be in Babylon for 70 years. God never abandons them but in fact exhorts them to prosper which they did. In addition to God and Nebuchadnezzar, there are four key characters. Four young teenagers who were chosen to be in the king\u2019s court. One was Daniel whose name means God is my Judge<\/em>.<\/p>\n The story goes that while they were beginning to be educated and trained to serve the king, they were being asked to eat the food from the king\u2019s table and drink his wine. This is where the story gets interesting. \u201cBut Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king\u2019s food or with the wine that he drank<\/strong><\/em>\u201d (vs. 1.8). He convinces the chief of the eunuchs to allow them to eat only vegetables and water for 10 days. God honored Daniel\u2019s resolve and prospered them in the eyes of the king.<\/p>\n The story is intriguing enough, but what impressed me was Daniel\u2019s resolve<\/em>. A teenage boy in a foreign country of spiritual darkness under the authority of a pagan king and yet something gave him the boldness to stand firm and not yield to all the king\u2019s commands, but to honor his God. We see this many more times in Daniel\u2019s life over the next 70 years.<\/p>\n But where did Daniel get this resolve? Resolved<\/em> means firmness of purpose, resolution, a determination or decision, intent, conviction. It wasn\u2019t just something that he decided to do without a foundation of belief. I submit that during Daniel\u2019s formative years living in Israel under Godly parents and the Jewish faith, he was discipled and equipped for such a time as this. Did his parents know that he would be facing this when they were equipping him? I doubt it; in fact, I\u2019m sure they didn\u2019t. But God did. God, through his father and mother and extended family investing in Daniel the word of God, prepared him to be God\u2019s mighty servant during the years of exile. You will see time and again where God allowed him to be put into life-threatening or awkward situations, only to be glorified through Daniel\u2019s strong faith.<\/p>\n Which brings us to today. Here in America and around the world we are seeing godless institutions and the hand of Satan orchestrating things that we never believed could happen. But as is the case with Daniel, God is the first agent. The world, the devil, and the flesh are secondary agents. God is in control. So, the question is, dads, are you resolving to disciple and equip your children to face a world that you cannot even imagine? Are they being tutored and mentored into the word of God to be able to trust God in all circumstances?<\/p>\n Will your next generation be convicted to live victoriously in the darkness of the world they will face according to this truth? Daniel did. He believed and so should your children and grandchildren. \u201cLittle children, you are from God and have overcome them (false spirits), for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world<\/strong><\/em>\u201d (I Jn. 4.4). As the saying goes, \u2018we don\u2019t know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future<\/em>\u2019. Don\u2019t leave to chance your children\u2019s future. Dads, resolve to disciple them in the gospel of Christ so they may be a Daniel<\/em> in their generation. To God be the glory!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stand firm During the next season, our church is launching into the book of Daniel. It has always been one of my favorites. Such challenging acts of faith. God has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":7759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,25,107],"tags":[59,133,70,174,121,124,337],"post_template_type":[95],"pillar":[],"study_type":[],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7756"},{"taxonomy":"post_template_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_template_type?post=7756"},{"taxonomy":"pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pillar?post=7756"},{"taxonomy":"study_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/study_type?post=7756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Determination<\/h3>\n
Live victoriously<\/h3>\n