Dear friends,

Dare to  be a Daniel – dare to stand alone

We have been looking at the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament in our morning sermons (and in more detail in our Book by Book bible studies on Thursdays) for the last two months because, I believe, the courageous faithfulness of Daniel and his three young friends has so much to teach us in the times you and I are living through today. Daniel and his friends found themselves in a society where they were being pressured to abandon their faith and take on, wholesale, the values and lifestyle of the powerful idolatrous nation in which they lived. Don't those last few words sum up the 'new' Britain that recent political leaders have been advocating we become? There has been a deliberate side-lining of historic Christianity and the promotion of every other faith – as well as atheistic humanism – to supersede the traditional Christian culture and laws upon which our society has been built for the last 1100 years since Alfred the Great. The sad result is that our young people, particularly, find themselves adrift in a sea of anti-Christian ideologies. The resolution and courage of Daniel and his three young friends are what we – of all ages – so much need today. We also need the experience and vision that they had of seeing the Son of Man with them and his everlasting Kingdom as the reality and goal to live by in the midst of such confusion and opposition.

Daniel and his friends had no choice but to live under the pagan laws that surrounded them but they could choose their friends and their lifestyle – and we can, too. They deliberately chose a simpler lifestyle in food and drink that preserved them from the excesses of Nebuchadnezzar's court. Choosing not to have the latest or most expensive in fashion accessories/gadgets, etc, while still keeping abreast of advancing technology keeps us in touch with our world but not enslaved to it. Could I be distinctively simpler and content with what the Lord provides for me and my family in this consumer-crazy world? Their resolve to keep a regular life of faith through prayer and fellowship also meant that God could direct and bless their work even in key positions of responsibility. Just as God raised their positions through conspicuous sincere faithfulness so we may find our faithfulness is recognised (sometimes in annoyance!) by those around us. But their secret lay in putting their commitment to fellowship with God, his word and his people as their top priority – even above their very lives.  This was very costly for them but it did bring amazing long term blessings. Will it not do the same for us in our very similar day? Will we be willing, too, to endure the cross of shame for Jesus to enjoy His presence and gracious help?

After the political shenanigans of the last two General Synods of the Church of England with their rush to Women Bishops it is easy and natural to react very negatively to the liberals in General Synod who want to oust (and they really do!) the traditional Anglo-Catholics and the conservative evangelicals (people like us here in Chadwell St. Mary) from the church of their birth. However, in his day Daniel was given to understand (in Daniel 11) that there was an unseen battle raging in the heavenly realm around those who seek to 'corrupt with flattery those who have violated the covenant'.(v.32) Those who callously break their solemn promise to allow traditional views to be perpetually held in the church are surely ones 'who have violated the covenant'. Nevertheless, in that same verse Daniel is encouraged by 'but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.' This doesn’t mean that we should use their underhand tactics but it does mean that we need to stand firm in our faith, ‘instruct many, though for a time (we) will fall...’ (verses 32,33). We may fall but this is so that we ‘may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come..!’ (verse 35). One like the Son of Man is on the throne, ruling over all - putting down one and raising another. And He walks amongst us who stand firm like Daniel and his young friends - and we will see that there are quite a number of churches who we will be standing together with. Lord, make us like Daniel - unafraid to stand - even if we seem alone for we know we are never really alone - Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, is with us.

Surrounded by Jesus’ loving Presence,