The Daniel Dilemma: How to Stand Firm and Love Well in a Culture of Compromise

by Chris Hodges

Truth without grace is mean. Grace without truth is meaningless. Truth and grace together are good medicine. And

Here’s how it happened: After the reigns of King David and his son Solomon, Israel splintered along geographical and tribal lines. Within a few generations, the ten northern tribes of Israel abandoned their faith in the living God and started worshipping idols. Obviously, God wasn’t pleased and sent warning after warning to the northern kingdom, only to have them ignored. Finally, their disobedience left him no choice; he allowed the Assyrians to conquer all ten tribes in the northern kingdom (see 2 Kings 17). Judah, including the smaller tribe of Benjamin, comprised the southern kingdom, where Daniel lived. Despite watching what happened to their northern kinsmen, the remaining people of Israel also drifted away from God. Again, God issued the same kind of warnings through his prophets—Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. But the nation of Judah refused to hear the messages of these men. This time judgment arrived in the form of the Babylonians under the leadership of their emperor Nebuchadnezzar. Having already conquered Assyria and Egypt, they descended on Judah and decimated the city of Jerusalem. They not only looted the temple but also enslaved the Jewish people. Judah crumbled, and the people of Israel became prisoners of war in an alien culture, exiled from their homeland. Daniel was one of these exiles. He was probably around sixteen years old when he was transported along with thousands of other Jews to be slaves in Babylon. His situation was as bleak as it gets. T...

It ain’t what they call you; it’s what you answer to. —W. C. FIELDS

What we believe about ourselves influences every decision we make and every action we take. And

In those days, when victors integrated enslaved captives into their own culture, it was customary to change the captives’ names as a sign of ownership. The Israelites belonged to their captors now; no longer would they be known by their old names from their homeland. But these Babylonian names weren’t simply different names; these new names were meant to obliterate the Israelites’ identities. They were a mockery to their Jewish heritage. They turned truth inside out. They were idolatrous names. By comparing the original and Babylonian names of these four Hebrew young men, we get a clear picture of our Enemy’s strategy, the same one he uses on us today: he labels us with a new name so he can lie to us about a false identity. Let’s take a closer look at how this happened with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. From Daniel: “God is my judge” to Belteshazzar: “Lady, protect the king” The first thing the Babylonians did was change the gender of Daniel’s name—an inherent part of each person’s identity. They also shifted the focus from God to human. With this new name, Daniel’s identity, at least on paper, changed from a man held accountable by an all-powerful God to that of a woman who must protect her sovereign. In their culture, this was a terrible insult. The meaning of Daniel’s new name was the antithesis of his former Hebrew name. From Hananiah: “Yahweh has been gracious” to Shadrach: “I am fearful of God” The Babylonians inverted the focus from God being good to God b...

Our identities shift when we value those looking at the art more than the Artist.

Purpose is your identity in action.

Not only did the king’s rich food and drink violate the dietary laws of Israel, but most of it had been offered up to idols prior to being served.

It’s always easier to resist the winds of change if your roots run deep in God’s truth.

When you know what’s in your core, you don’t struggle to decide.

Consider this: In the same Barna study I mentioned earlier, 62 percent of Americans polled said they considered themselves “deeply spiritual.” These same people were then asked how this “deep spirituality” affected their decision making. Almost a third, 31 percent, said, “I make my moral choices based on what feels right and comfortable.” We need to get our worldviews from a correct Wordview. Another 18 percent of this group said, “I make moral choices based on whatever is best for me.” There’s another 14 percent of Americans who said, “I make moral choices based on whatever causes the least conflict with others.” Only 16 percent reported, “I make my moral choices based on what the Bible says, what God’s Word says.”

Convictions are all about the choices we make before we’re challenged. Faith is our ability to act on our convictions when tested.

Whenever our faith is tested, we must choose whom we will serve.

God will always use the tests in our lives to make our faith stronger and to reveal his glory to those around us.

Everything great is learned and earned through pain.

God tests us to refine us—not to punish us.

It’s no surprise that courage often fuels our ability to endure tests and overcome obstacles. Courage is the condition of your heart that allows you to believe you’ll succeed without knowing how you’ll succeed. But where does courage come from? The origins of the word itself reveal the way courage is forged in the depths of our souls. The English word courage evolved from cour, the Middle English word meaning “the heart,” the seat of one’s deepest feelings. This usage evolved from Old French, corage, and originally from the Latin word for “heart,” cor. Notice the way core and courage both come from this word for the heart. This makes sense because our hearts are the battleground between our trials and our convictions. They square off in a showdown to determine what remains and stays true in our hearts. When culture challenges our convictions, we must exercise courage—a deep-seated strength of heart—and resist the temptation to conform or compromise. Courage fuels our ability to carry out our convictions.

The Enemy doesn’t come dressed in a red jumpsuit, wearing little horns. He comes dressed in everything we think we want.

If you don’t like who you’re becoming, then take an inventory of what you store in your heart. If you don’t like what you find, then simply ask God to forgive you and restore his place on the throne of your heart.

What makes humility so desirable is the marvelous thing it does to us; it creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God. —MONICA BALDWIN

Pastor Chris, what do you think about the latest Supreme Court ruling?” “Pastor, what’s your opinion on how to treat the LGBT community?” “Chris, what’s your view on this terrible tragedy that just happened?” Every day it seems various people—from members of our church and fellow Christians to reporters and bloggers—ask me what I think about that day’s headlines. Whether it’s about the definition of marriage, a new state law, or the latest shooting, my answer is the same. “What makes you think my opinion matters?” I say. “What difference does it make what you or I think about this? The only opinion that matters is God’s.”

If God has already spoken, then we don’t need to form an opinion. We just need to keep pursuing the way, the truth, and the life that can be found only in Jesus.

Recent research comparing teens who lack a solid, biblical belief system with their peers who have one reveals that teens who lack a solid, biblical belief system are: • 225% more likely to be angry with life • 216% more likely to be resentful • 210% more likely to lack purpose in life • 200% more likely to be disappointed in life • 200% more likely to steal • 200% more likely to physically hurt someone • 300% more likely to use illegal drugs • 600% more likely to attempt suicide1

You can always tell if you’ve gone back to your old way of life by your level of frustration when you don’t get what you want.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., expressed so eloquently, “The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”1

Prayer is not informing God about our realities. It’s aligning our hearts with his realities.

If we lived with the truth that we have a finite amount of time, a limited number of days, then we would make better decisions. Anytime you think you have more of something than you need, you tend to waste it. It’s just the logic of human nature. If you have plenty of food in your pantry, cupboard, and fridge, it’s hard to imagine being hungry. If there’s lots of money in your bank account, then you feel like you’ll always have enough. But when you’re down to your last box of crackers or last dollar, suddenly these things become precious. You no longer take them for granted. When we recognize our limitations, we tend to make the most of our lives.

Honest evaluation on a regular basis is the key to a life of balance. Faith Social Marriage Attitude Family Finances Work/Job Creativity Computer Physical Ministry Travel

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.

stressed spelled backward is desserts.

I’m convinced that the only way to really make it in today’s culture is to be intentional.

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. —J. S. KNOX