Following Him

From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. John 6:66

Bill: Crazy, I tell you, just crazy. ‘Bread of Life’ and a Quickened Spirit. What’s He even talking about. I don’t get it. It’s simply too confusing. Whatever.

Sarah: It’s been a good run and I have enjoyed His teaching up to this point. But things are getting a little strange around here—am I being brainwashed? I’ve got to step back a little and re-assess the whole situation.

Joe: Man, I wish I could keep following Him as it would be great to know what He says next. He’s always coming up with these really deep thoughts. But I honestly have to get back to my job and my responsibilities. I mean, who is going to raise my children? Who’s going to take care of the farm and the livestock?

Karen: Look at the faces of these people in the crowd around me. They must be out of their minds. Did they hear something that I didn’t? Turns out He’s just a man like any other. I’m going home.

Rhoda: Things were going so good up until this point. People were being touched and healed. The crowd was growing each week. Lives were being changed and souls were being saved! Why did He have to go and say that? Now look at the people leaving. I better go now, too, while I still can. (sigh) It’s a shame.

Bob: He saved my soul, but He should have done more. He could have healed my body while He was at it. I’m not sure it’s worth it anymore. I was expecting so much more from Him. I’m feeling let down over the whole thing.

John: I was ready to follow Him anywhere He wanted me to. But look at the people who are leaving right now. Maybe they're right. What will they think of me if I stick around here any longer? They may just turn on me, too. I can’t pay that kind of price. It costs too much to follow Him, and I have invested far too much time and effort as it stands anyway.

Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? John 6:67

Pete: Everybody is leaving and it makes sense for me to do so as well. It’s the wise thing to do. It is the smart thing, hey, even the mature thing to do.  I always try to be logical in these kinds of instances. It is why I’ve made it as far in life as I have. I've got a wife who needs me even if He already healed her. Who’s to say she won’t get sick again? I’ll go back to fishing and living my life as a model citizen by the sea. I’ll work in the cool morning breezes and spend my evenings with my children telling stories about the times I spent with Him. I'll go back to just living a normal life, like everyone else.

He will understand. Hasn’t He said as much, throwing in that ‘also’ as if He even expects it from me? I can only do so much for Him, and He knows how hard I tried to do His work. He should respect that.

I’ll go to church and warm a pew each week, and I’ll listen to the preacher, and…

I’ll be a good person and treat everyone with dignity and respect and…

I’ll be well thought of by everybody. They will know me as fair and honest and…

Where will I go? Where will I find the actual truth? Who else can give me the words of eternal life that I so desperately need to hear?

No. Sadly, this is it. This is all I will ever need. It may not be the easiest course to take, and it may make no sense at all to others, or even to me. But I know this. I know it in my heart even if I cannot explain it. There are no other available options. This decision, this putting Him first and following Him is an eternal arrangement. There is no other way.

“Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” John 6:68-69

Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? John 6:70

Pete: There He goes again. Another riddle for us that we can’t understand. Even though we tell Him we are going to stick around, He says one of us will betray Him. Like that is going to happen? Every time I think I give the right answer, and it’s a well-thought out answer on my part, He always comes up with something else. Gotta love the guy.

No… I really do love the guy. And I will simply follow Him.

Is He Able?

And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? Daniel 6:20


It was a rhetorical question; the type you use when you are teaching a class to emphasize a point that might otherwise slip unnoticed through the hearts and minds of your students.

“Can G_d still deliver during times of need today?”

But this morning I actually chose the question for another reason. Reading the verse quoted above out loud for the first time, despite the time and effort spent in a comprehensive study of the chapter, brought sudden memories boiling into my consciousness from a time long ago where that same question could have been leveled squarely in my direction. The moment the ancient words from King Darius left my lips overwhelmed me, and I needed time to compose myself while I fought to hold back tears.

I pretended I had something in my eye even as the question was met with a resounding ‘Amen!’ from the majority of the class, accompanied by smiles and generally good feelings all around. After all, He certainly can deliver when needed.

These are fearless answers from a safe distance—a Talladega faith travelling on a narrow, forty-mile-an hour county road. But there is another light for asking this question and it is one we do not like to talk about. Ask about deliverance to one who stands before an open casket regretfully saying goodbye to a loved one. Ask them if He can deliver a broken, disheartened soul in those moments. The boss calls a meeting in his office and begins the conversation with “I regret to inform you” and it goes downhill from there. Standing in the unemployment line with thoughts of mortgage payments and insurance skating across your consciousness, you find yourself asking the question, “Is He able to deliver me?” What is the answer when put forth in a courtroom, as a marriage is dissolved and the lawyers haggle over details for child support and visitation rights? The doctor frowns and states, “I don’t like what I’m seeing in your x-rays, we need to schedule some further tests.” A spouse is confronted with the unthinkable: “We’ve drifted apart and I no longer love you.” Can He still deliver from the lions in these situations?

The question may burn, but it burns to be answered.

No matter how secure we think we are in this life, the truth is we are merely a heartbeat away from our own proverbial lion’s den. Life is hard. Life is tough. We live in a fallen world among other sinful descendents of Adam and Eve. It’s bound to get messy or even… worse.

The surety of Darius that Daniels’ G_d could deliver in verse 16 was not so certain later that night when the proof was in the pudding. Likewise a ‘sunny day answer’ pales during our own dark, sleepless nights when our faith is tested by troubles and trials that will still be there—only bigger—when morning’s light finally (mercifully?) arrives. And we long for the answer in the same manner, with our own familiar and lamentable cry: “Is my G_d able to deliver me?”

As I write this from my living room, a comforting flame emanates from the fireplace and the dogs lay curled listlessly under my chair. Outside the temperature has dropped and I’m alone tonight; but there is nothing to fear here. I am safe and warm. Divine deliverance, though much appreciated, is not searched for nor needed in this comfortable hour even though, right now, I am certain it is and always will be there.

I find myself writing in a mindset not unlike Darius before he regretfully gave the command to execute Daniel’s sentence and cast him into the lion’s den. “Thy G_d whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.” This is a statement of fact as sure as water is wet and ice is cold—the G_d we serve can and will deliver us.

The winds of change have begun to blow across our nation, and the breeze is beginning to build into the ides of something possibly much more sinister looming just over the horizon. We face an uncertain future, all of us. Now is the time to be thinking, to be making sure in our own hearts, because Darius’ question will be asked soon enough to all of us and we’ll need to trust in our very own answer:

Is He able to deliver us?

The Decree Of The Watchers

Young Adult Sunday School Lesson – March 3, 2013

This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. Daniel 4:17

Things are different in the angelic world than they are down here on the human side of creation. From what is stated in Psalms 8 you could contemplate that jealousy might have played a part in this verse, a form of not-so-sibling rivalry being the culprit—possibly. But just maybe the angels close proximity to the Creator merely allows them to see things a little more clearly, you know, the way things truly are.

By the decree of the Watchers. You can’t blame me on this one. The statement is not from my thoughts or rising from an intemperate place in my heart. I only quoted what is recorded here within the truth of G_d’s Word.

Question: How far do you have to drift, how arrogantly evil do you have to be, until it reaches the point when the Watchers and Holy ones in Heaven decree that something needs to be done?

Nebuchadnezzar has had several miraculous revelations of G_d’s will and His power. From the extra sensory perception dream interpretation by Daniel in chapter 2, to the fading embers of a by-now-quenched fiery furnace we read about in class last week; he has been shown beyond a shadow of a doubt the revelation of who really runs things. And this not only applies to his Babylonian kingdom, but throughout the Spiritual realm around him as well. By now all of his doubts should have been removed. He should have understood by firsthand experience the scripture: Remember the former things of old: for I am G_d, and there is none else; I am G_d, and there is none like me.

But once again, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. Again it is a nightmare. Again, he calls for the magicians and soothsayers to interpret the dream for him. Again, it is only Daniel who can interpret the dream and its warnings for an all-to-human King who is still shackled by his belief in far too many gods. Does he trust in Daniel’s G_d? Certainly. Yet to him, Jehovah is merely one deity among many who can suit his religious purposes, but only on an as needed basis.

(Before I cast stones here, am I much different? Am I prone to worship the G_d of Heaven on Sunday yet revert to the god of self-reliance and objectivity by Monday morning? Is my so-called worship on Sunday something I do simply to feel better about myself or to rationalize any fears that I face for my own future?)

The Watchers had seen enough. The decree went out in a dream and Daniel interpreted it, and even as he spoke, the proverbial clock began ticking for Nebuchadnezzar. For a full year (12 months) Nebuchadnezzar neither repented nor changed his ways, and finally judgment fell. By the decree of the Watchers, and the demand of the Holy ones, it was Daniel’s G_d who took away Nebuchadnezzar’s mental abilities and left him eating grass while pawing listlessly in the dirt.

G_d is Holy, Divine, and Omnipotent. He did not need the Watchers or the Holy ones to tell Him what to do or how to react. What is amazing here (and scary at the same time) is that the angels noticed the evil for themselves. They observe in each moment and understand the most important thing, which is their part of the Spiritual pecking order that we as humans are sometimes prone to forget: “the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.”

Thankfully (Wonderfully!) in this passage of scripture, we also get a glimpse of G_d’s Amazing Grace. After seven long years, Nebuchadnezzar’s understanding and mental facilities return, and He glorifies Jehovah as the Supreme G_d. Finally, finally, he learns. At long last, he gets it.

An interesting thought here is I believe those same Watchers and Holy ones who earlier condemned his actions were applauding Nebuchadnezzar as he repented. Jesus explains, “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of G_d over one sinner that repenteth.”

I’ll take that favored applause of Heaven over heavenly judgment any day of the week. I’ll bet if he were here, Nebuchadnezzar would tell you the same thing.