Do I really have to spell it out for you?

Have you ever been in a situation before where someone I explaining something to you, and you don't really understand it at first, and then they make a smart comment like: "Do I really have to spell it out for you?" 

I think sometimes that is what God thinks about us. He performs this amazing work in our lives day in and day out and we simply forget or we just don't understand what is happening. If that is you, don't worry, it's you, it's me, it's all of us. 

God is always at work and we get caught up in the business of our own lives. For example, this weekend. It was Fall Break, and I had a lot of things to do, I didn't have time to sit down and read or blog until tonight. I was busy with what I had to do. It's not a bad thing, it's life. 

Where does this idea come from? In Daniel chapter 5, King Belshazzar, son of King Nebuchadnezzar had made a great feast for a thousand. At this feast, the king was celebrating by drinking wine from gold and silver vessels that were his fathers. They were drinking wine and praising the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Basically, they were having a huge party for all of the wrong reasons. 

Remember what King Nebuchadnezzar had to go through? His son was there for the entire thing and you would think that he got the message. Well he didn't...

At the feast, a hand appeared on the wall and had written something on. Nobody who was there was able to interpret it. The King said that he would reward whoever would interpret the message. Again, the magicians, enchanters, and anyone else who was wise tried, but they couldn't do it. Finally, the queen remembered Daniel, and the King had Daniel interpret the writing. 

When Daniel was interpreting the dream to the king, he was telling the king everything that his father had experienced in the first four chapters of Daniel. In short, Daniel had explained how Nebuchadnezzar had humbled himself and how his son had not yet humbled his heart. 

After everything he saw his father experience he didn't learn anything from it. 

While this was all happening, the hand was sent and the writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. 

MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end

TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting 

PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians

That very night Belshazzar was killed and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

What was written down is what came true. If King Belshazzar would've learned the same lesson his father had learned, this all might have not happened. Does it really have to be spelled out for you?

What is God teaching you right now in your life, what are you learning, and how are you growing? I challenge you to not get to that point where it has to be written down for you. Write it down yourself! Journal, take notes, do whatever you have to do so you learn it the first time.

When someone says: "Does it really have to be spelled out for you?" it is not a good thing, Belshazzar had to have it written down for him and he got killed that night. That most likely won't happen to you, but you never know what God might do to get your attention.

Learn your lessons.

Sometimes you have to be humiliated

Is there anything in your life that you feel like if you let go of it right now, you would feel so much more freedom and peace? Or is there anything that you are doing that you need to stop in order to humble yourself? Is there anything that you need to admit to someone that might be humiliating, but you will feel better because of it?

With this post, I hope that you can understand the process of being restored. The king recognized that he had a dream and that there was nobody like our God. The king then basically gave up his kingdom, and was humiliated. After that time of humiliation, the king was restored and had more wisdom than he had before.

In our busy lives, we need to recognize the things that we can change and the things that we are doing wrong, suffer the consequences and humiliation, and then grow because of it.

Daniel chapter 4 started off in super cool fashion.

King Nebuchadnezzar to all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. 

How great are his signs,
how mighty his wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and his dominion endures from generation to generation. (Daniel 4:1-3)

The king recognized the signs and wonders of the Most High God. That was the very first step.

Next, the king had a dream.

In the king's dream, he saw a tree in the middle of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and it's top reached heaven, and it was visible to the ends of the earth. The tree had beautiful leaves and its fruit was abundant, and had food for all. All of the beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in the branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

That would be a pretty cool dream to have in my opinion. The king had the power to have these amazing dreams and visions, but wasn't able to interpret them, that is when Daniel comes in to play.

The king also saw this in his dream. He saw a watcher, a holy one, come down from heaven. The watcher proclaimed to him: 'Chop down the tree and lop off its beaches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from the branches. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band iron and bronze, amid a tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beats in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him and let seven period of time pass over him. The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, and in the end the the living many know that the Most High rules the kingdom and men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.'

Now if I am in the situation, I am hoping and praying that I don't have to do this. The king had built up such a great kingdom and by the looks of this dream it looks like the king would have to give up everything in order to know that and to understand that the Most High God rules the kingdom and men and gives it to whom he will.

Daniel interpreted this dream and said that the dream was for those who hate you and your enemies. When Daniel interpreted the dream, he basically said everything that the dream entailed off, he told the king that he would have to do all of those things. He would have to let his kingdom go, all of it. Everything that he has built up for years was going to have to be let go so that the king could recognize that the Most High God rules the kingdom and gives it to whom he will.

Next, all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?" While these words were still in the king's mouth a voice came down from heaven, "O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High God rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whim he will."

When the king heard this voice from haven, the word became immediately fulfilled. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws.

Talk about being humbled. The king used to be the head over all of Babylon and now he was eating grass like the ox, and his body was wet with dew. His hair had how been as long as eagles' feathers and his nails were like birds claws. I imagine it being humiliating enough to loose your power, but the king basically had to look like a bum to be honest, he was probably used to the best clothes, best treatment and best care. Now he didn't have any of that.

Now if you remember what I talked about at the beginning of this post, 2/3 things have happened. There was one more thing left and that was the king being restored.

At the end of the days, Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes to heaven and his reason was retuned to him. Nebuchadnezzar praised and honored him who lives forever and said this,

for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, "What have you done?"

When the king had said this, his reason returned to him, along with his kingdom, majesty, and splendor. The king was able to reestablish his kingdom and he had more greatness than ever before.

The king closed with this statement:

Now, I Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. 

I encourage you to think of the things in your life that you are placing ahead of God. Recognize those things and do whatever it takes to get rid of them. You might totally have to humiliate yourself but it's worth it. We will be restored because of it. Just like King Nebuchadnezzar. Because of his humiliation and the things he had to endure, he is now a better leader than ever. We will mostly likely endure hardships and because of those hardships our relationship with Christ will strengthen more and more.

I challenge you as well to let yourself be humbled. If you are prideful, the King of heaven will be able to humble you. He has all of the power to do so and he will.

The Fiery Furnace

The story about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is one of the most amazing stories in the entire bible. If you have never heard this story before, I hope that you enjoy it.

It all started when King Nebuchadnezzar decided to make a golden statue that was sixty cubits high and breadth six cubits. When the king had made this, he set out to get everyone to come out to dedicate the image that he had set up. He gathered the satraps, the perfects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasures, the justices, the magistrates and the officials of the province. Once everyone was there, the herald proclaimed to everyone, "You are commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image the King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace."

Basically, there was a golden image and whenever the people heard any sort of music they were to bow down and worship the statue or die in the burning fiery furnace. It's twisted.

There was a time when the Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. When this happened, they discovered that there were three Jews who were appointed over the affairs of the province in Babylon, who were not there. Those three were: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those three men were accused of not paying any attention to the king and not worshipping the golden image that had been set up.

Nebuchadnezzar was furious and commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. The King asked the three why they don't bow and worship to the image and they replied with this:
"O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

The king was even more furious and ordered that the fiery furnace be heated seven more time hotter than it was usually heated. After he ordered the franc to be heated more, he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Since the furnace was so hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who threw the three Jews into the fire.

The king was astonished and rose up in haste. He said: "I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods." The king came near the the door of the furnace and declared, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here! The came out and the people noticed that the fire did not harm to them. The hair of their head was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. The king then recognized that God had sent an angel and delivered his servants, who trusted him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serving and worshiping a god except their own God."

The king ended with a decree: "Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way."

Such an amazing story right?!

My encouragement to you is this. Don't fall into traps and the temptations of the world. Don't give into putting other things before God. It's so stinking hard trust me! Try your very hardest. Daniel was faithful and God showed him favor, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were faithful and God saved their lives. When we are faithful, God isn't going to just ignore your faithfulness, I promise you that.

The three Jews were so confident that God would deliver them, they never hesitated. They never showed any sort of fear. I wonder if we were put into that situation if we would have the same boldness and confidence in God.

Another thing I want to point out is how the king changed. The king went from having people who didn't worship him being thrown into a fiery furnace to having people who said anything against God being torn limb from limb and having their houses destroyed.  The king saw how God had saved Shadrach, Meshach and Abedengo and recognized that there are no gods like our God, the Most High God. Let this story change how think today.

I want to leave you with that thought and question to yourself. Are you willing to stand up for your faith in God and be thrown into the fiery furnace or are you going to give in and worship and bow down to false gods and idols?

Hear What You Want To Hear

If you are a Bethel student, you know about the leaf blowers every morning? If you do go to Bethel and don't know what I am talking about, you get the point of this post. If you do not go to Bethel let me explain. 

For some reason, it seems like every morning maintenance is out roaming around campus with their leaf blowers. There could be no leafs on the ground and they're still out there blowing away. Heck, there could probably be a little snow and they will still be out there. I am not poking fun at them either, they are working hard and doing a great job at what they do. 

Walking to class this morning, the blowers seemed to be extra loud. I don't really know why but I knew I noticed it for a reason and that reason is what I am writing about. "You hear what you want to hear," I noticed those leaf blowers this morning and that is where my focus was. 

A couple of things came to mind when I was trying to think of why they seemed so loud. One of the things that came to mind was God's voice. We won't hear God's voice all the time but I believe when we want to we can! Even if we don't want to hear God's voice, we sometimes still hear it. Just like the leaf blowers this morning, I felt like they were shouting at me trying to get my attention and they did. I feel like sometimes we put God's voice in the back of the closet where we don't want to hear it and don't notice it. Does that make sense? 

It's interesting how what we chose to hear affects us in different ways. It goes back to our perspectives and how we perceive things. 

An example I can think of is basketball games. When we play our games, there are usually a lot of things that are going on at once. Fans cheering, parents yelling and screaming, hundreds of people sitting it the stands watching the game and having conversations, a lot goes on. I hear my coaches yelling and shouting along with my teammates, I hear the opposing coaches yelling and shouting. There are a lot of a lot of voices every night. Out of all the people talking, somehow my coaches' voice is the only one that I hear and I make it that way because that is the only voice I need to hear in a game, along with my teammates of course. 

Again, same thing with God's voice. If you want to hear what God has to say to you, listen and choose to hear it. 

I continued on to Daniel chapter 2 this morning and what I want to share from this relates to the whole idea of leaf blowers and God's voice...it'a amazing how the Holy Spirit works like that sometimes. 

In Daniel chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. He had a lot of dreams. His spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. The king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. These people were brought to the king and the king told them that if they did not interpret his dreams that they would be torn limb from limb, but if they did interpret the dream they would be given a great reward. The magicians, enchanters and Chaldeans could not interpret the dream, and the king was starting to get angry. He felt like they were lying and trying to kill time. The Chaldeans told the king that there is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. 

The word got out that these men needed to be killed and David and his men were the ones who were going to do that. Daniel asked why the decree seemed to be so urgent and Arioch explained to him the matter. Daniel then went to the king and asked to be appointed to interpret the dream at that time. 

Now, when I think about this I get a little confused to what the king was thinking. The king new that Daniel had wisdom and understanding that was greater than the magicians and the enchanters. Yet he asked for the magicians and the enchanters first. I believe that we do that sometimes as well. We know what is the right answer and the right thing to do but we go about it in the wrong way. We also know who the right people are who we should talk about certain things with, yet we don't do that. 

I like to think of it this way, sometimes we try to figure out the right way our way...we can't forget what we have learned...we are sneaky and we are sly. We rely too much on doing things our way and not the way we know deep down in our hearts is the right way. 

Why not do it the way in which we know is right. When we go through tough times, why not ask the person we know who has the right advice? Why try to do it our way? Why? 

We choose what we hear and who we listen too. Just like annoying leaf blowers every morning, God's way, God's voice, and the people God put in your life are always there. You just have to hear them out. 

Hear what you want to hear...

Faithfulness, Magicians, & Enchanters

The story I want to share with you comes from Daniel chapter 1 and it's a story about Daniel's faithfulness. Daniel was put in a situation where each person he was with had to follow specific orders and he remained faithful. I guarantee you can think of a time when you were with a group of people and you had the choice to either do what they were doing or remain faithful and obedient to what God would want you to do. Being faithful and obedient isn't always the most attractive thing either. Attractive in God's eyes yes, but in the eyes of others, no.

The main point of this post is that Daniel was faithful and God showed him favor because of it.

In the beginning of Daniel 1, the King commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed in knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literate and language. The king assigned these people a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank. They were educated for thee years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king.

Before all of that, Daniel made a decision that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. He decided that it would be best if he asked the chief to allow him not to defile himself. Because of this decision, God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. The chief said this to Daniel: "I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king." In response, Daniel had this to say: "Tests your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see." The chief listened to Daniel and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. The steward then took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.

As for the four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time, the king commanded that they should be brought in and when they were brought in the king spoke with them. The king spoke to them and observed them. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.

This entire story was a result of faithfulness. Daniel's faithfulness and God's. Daniel stuck to his guns and was going to be different and be faithful to God. He was rewarded and so were the other three. Because of their faithfulness, their wisdom and understanding was tens times better than everyone else who had wisdom and understanding like the magicians and enchanters.

There is so much power in faithfulness. I hope you are motivated by this story and by Daniel's faithfulness. It's okay to be different, it's okay to not do what everyone else is doing, it's okay to be a little weird, it's cool to keep God the number one priority in your life. With the comes obedience and trust in God. Trust His plan for you. The path He wants you to take might not always be the sexy, attractive and easy path. The path He will have you on is difficult, narrow and not attractive sometimes and that is okay!

Be faithful!

Name Change: Deliberate Enrichment

For quite some time, I have been wanting to change the name of my blog. I had kept the original name for just over a year. Up until I had changed it, I had been trying to come up with names in my head for a couple of weeks. I was really struggling with it as well. Coming up with a new name is a difficult task.

'31 Reasons,' to me ended up being kind of silly name to me. The name made sense but it sounded so much like the '13 Reasons Why' TV series on Netflix.

When trying to come up with a new name, I wanted the name to not have anything to do with myself. This blog isn't about me, it's about the encouragement of other people.

The new name I came up with is 'Deliberate Enrichment.' How did I come up with those two words? I looked up as many synonyms to the words 'consistent and encouragement' as I possibly could. I wanted a title that sounded intense and caught the eye.

What does each word mean?

Deliberate: done consciously and intentionally

Enrichment: the action of improving or enhancing the quality or value of something

I believe with all of my heart that God wants me to deliberately put in the time and effort to write a blog as consistently as I can. Whether that's 7 days a week or 5 days a week, I know that it is what God wants me to do. I get an unexplainable amount of fulfillment from each post that I write because I get to have alone time with God doing what I feel He wants me to do. I hope and pray that what I write can enrich somebody's life. Not by what I say, but of what the Holy Spirit gives me to say. I hope that the words given to me and the stories I can share can give value to areas in other peoples lives. Not for my glory but for God's glory.

All of that being said, 'Deliberate Enrichment,' seems like the best possible name for my blog and I hope that after I shared this, you now understand what the title means. I believe the title makes perfect sense to the content that is in each blog.

 As I was writing this post, I was sitting here thinking about each post I write and sometimes I look back and wonder if I really wrote it...Deliberate Enrichment.

I want to close with this verse:

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 
(1 Thessalonians 5:11)

You Can't Drink Milk Your Whole Life

Every year I have ever played basketball, we begin each season with the basics. Even in college, you have to start somewhere, and we start with simple skills and drills. We don't walk into the first practice and expect to be playing 5 on 5 full court. That would be terrible. We would pick up awful habits right away. It takes a week or so to get to that point. We have to put in hours of the basics before getting to the real deal. Without the basics our team would never be a finished product. There always has to be a strong foundation. Stronger the foundation wider the pyramid right?

Another example of this would be the first week of classes every year. The first classes are always so boring and you're like why the heck do I have to go. You go to class the first week so you understand how the professor teaches the course and so you can learn how the class will work. Have you ever had that professor who likes to give a quiz over the syllabus? So dumb right? Not really. This happens all the time, a professor gives a quiz over the syllabus and someone fails the quiz because they were either not there or they didn't pay attention.

One last example. Think of relationships. When you start getting the feels for someone you will do absolutely whatever it takes for them to know that you dig them! You're extra in everything you do because you don't want to lose that person. You want to impress that person in the best way that you can. Fellas, you better always be doing that to your lady. We all know we don't deserve the women we have in our lives. As relationships progress, it's easy to forget the basics. It's easy to get comfortable. You think you have her in the bag and then crap, she's not digging you anymore because you forgot the basics. We so easily stop doing the things we should be doing because we get comfortable.

Friends, we are dull of hearing. What we have learned in our faith walk is so quickly forgotten. We learn a lot of the basics at a young age and as we grow older, we become more distracted and we forget the most basic things! It happens to us all. I'll come across something in the bible and be like...I seriously forgot about this story! How? When we learn the best by learning the basics. I believe that sometimes we get so comfortable that we just say screw the basics. When you stray away from the basics you forgot so many things that you have learned your whole life. You don't have that strong foundation you need to be a good basketball team. You fail your quiz and have no idea how the professor teaches the class. You get comfortable in a relationship and it could fall apart. You forget the basics and you have no where to go.

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.  (Hebrews 5:11-14) 

...since we have become dull of hearing we need someone to teach us the basic principles of the oracles of God. We were supposed to be teachers by now. All of us. Can you imagine that? We should have the basics down so well that we could teach it to everyone. Remember we aren't perfect. We were not made to have all of the answers right now. That is why God is God. We are meant to grow, grow, grow, and grow some more. We are seeds, not fully flowered trees. That is how God wanted it so that we recognize that we NEED Him.

We need milk because we really don't know what we are talking about. Milk is for those who are unskilled in the word of righteousness. Milk is for children and that is where a lot of us are. We need that milk to make our bones nice and strong. We need the basics to make our relationship with Christ strong. We cannot get to the top and know everything without starting at the very beginning. That isn't how life works. Eventually, we get to the solid food. Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. I would hope that we all have a goal of solid food. Milk isn't bad, but you can't drink only milk your whole life. We will always need to know the basics and put a huge emphasis on them. We can't just be focused on that. We need solid food, we need growth, we need to be able to distinguish good from evil on a consistent basis.

We are dull of hearing. Bottom line. We forget what is simple because we think we know it all. When life hits us in the mouth, we feel like we failed. That's Satan making you feel like you don't know enough. Satan hates the basics. When we can get the basics down, things in our lives will begin to make much more sense. Everything will become more clear one step at a time.

I hope you were encouraged by this post. If I came across as harsh I am sorry, I wrote this with a little bit of fire because I am a firm believer that we as Christians have forgotten the basics and the simplicity of it all. My hope is that you were reminded of how important the basics are.