Daniel's Favor

I was reading in Daniel this morning when all of the sudden four words stood out to me. These words were as follows:
1.Resolved
2.Defile
3.Favor
4.Compassion
These four words are very important words in this portion of scripture. Daniel and his companions, as well as many others, were to stand before King Nebuchadnezzar after their three years of training in knowledge and strength. Then scripture tells us that...

Daniel 1:8-9... "Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the kings food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave him favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs."

Daniel committed himself to what he knew would be right in the sight of the Lord and God gave him favor and compassion with the leaders. Daniel was completely able to try to gain favor himself by doing everything that he thought would win points with the eunuchs, but made the choice to do what was right in the Lords sight. What do we choose today? We don't live by a set of rules or a to do list, but we all have to seek the to do what the will of God would be. Living to foolishly try to gain favor in our own strength leads to failure. The only way we gain true favor with others is through doing the will of God and He will work in their hearts. God always honors those who do His will without seeking the approval of others, always. That is not to say life will be peaches and cream, but with our resolve to not defile, He will always show himself true...it's who He is...it is His nature. What a great God we serve.
Be blessed today!

Golf and Life

I love to play golf. It is one of my favorite things to do with my free time. I have played all around the Pacific Northwest and there are so many great places to play. A few of the favorites I have played are Pumpkin Ridge in North Plains OR., Trophy Lake near Tacoma WA., Persimmon G.C. in Gresham OR., and Tokatee G.C. in Blue River OR. There are many more I would love to play, but haven't been able to yet. Maybe someday. The thing about golf courses is that a person can tell right away how well they have been taken care of. It only takes a moment to look at the course and be able to see whether it is green and lush or whether it is brown, dry and hard. I have seen both kinds.
There are many times we can look at a persons life and see either green lush or see it brown, dry and hard. It doesn't take long for us to be able to see what is really in a persons heart. Just a few short minutes of sitting and talking with a person reveals much about where their lives are at. In Colossians Paul talks about being "rooted, and built in Jesus Christ, established in the faith". Being rooted means letting the roots of your life run deep down into Jesus and allowing His character to shine through in our lives so that we can be green and lush. Our goal isn't to just imitate Jesus, but to allow His character to be shown through us. This is why we must let our life roots run down into Him because we can't be green and lush without drinking from His water, the kind that never leaves us thirsty.
Be blessed today!