Daniel 1:8: “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”
In the article “unChristian,” David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, discusses some disheartening research concerning the failure of Christians in our day to remain distinct: “In virtually every study we conduct, representing thousands of interviews every year, born again Christians (talking about people who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that they say is important and that they believe they will go to heaven at death because they have confessed their sin and accepted Christ as Savior, much more than people who just claim to be Christians) fail to display much attitudinal or behavior evidence of transformed lives.
For instance, based on a recent study, we found that most of the lifestyle activities of born-again Christians were statistically equivalent to those of non-born-again people. When asked to identify their activities over the last 30 days, born again believers were just as likely to visit a pornographic website, to take something that did not belong to them, to consult a medium or psychic, to physically fight or abuse someone, to have consumed enough alcohol to be considered legally drunk, to have used an illegal nonprescription drug, to have said something to someone that was not true, to have gotten back at someone for something he or she did, and to have said mean things behind another person’s back.”
It’s no wonder our churches are almost dead. Most Christians’ testimonies for Christ are dead. The Bible says that before we met Christ we were dead in trespasses and sins. Dead people can’t be brought to life by dead Christians. Daniel would not even think of defiling himself or doing anything that his God might not approve of. He later on in the book of Daniel went to the lion’s den because he defied the Babylonians and prayed to his God. Daniel would not compromise his faith.
To Daniel, his faith was his life. To Daniel, God was his life. The Bible tells us that Jesus is our life. The Old Testament teaches us that God is our life. Today Christians instead of wanting to know how to walk with God more closely, want to know how much sin they can get by with. Daniel feared anything that might even hint at evil. What we need today are more Christians like Daniel. Christians who fear sin, who cringe at sin, who avoid sin at all costs. Of course Daniel was not perfect and we cannot be perfect but we can certainly pursue it.
Even though we won’t be perfect, we can have victory over sin and be perfectly content in our devotion to our Lord. We need Christians today that love supremely and are supremely devoted to our God, the creator of the universe and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you dare to be a Daniel?
Listen to Pastor Jack’s sermons every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. on 98.9 WSIP FM. He is also on most all other podcast and video platforms. Check out the Tomahawk Missionary Baptist Church Facebook page and our website: tomahawkmbc.com.