Thought for April 6, 2024

  •  1830: Joseph Smith and 5 others form the Church of Later-Day Saints in Fayette NY
  • 1862: Battle of Shiloh
  • 1889: George Eastman begins selling flexible rolled film
  • 1893: Mormon Temple in Salt Lake dedicated
  • 1909: Robert Peary reaches the North Pole
  • 1917: U.S. declares war on Germany
  • 1930: Hostess Twinkies invented
  • 1934: 418 Lutheran ministers arrested in Germany
  • 1936: Tornado kills 203 and injures 1800 in Gainesville GA
  • 1958: Arnold Palmer wins the first of 4 Masters
  • 1980: Post-It Notes introduced
  • 2020: A tiger in the Bronx zoo tests positive for Covid
  • 2020: British Open cancelled due to Covid
  • Born: Raphael, Donald Douglas [DC-3], James Watson [DNA], Merle Haggard, Billy Dee Williams, Paul Rudd, Janet Lynn [5-time US Figure Skating Champion]
  • Died: Richard the Lionheart, Raphael [on his 37th birthday], Thomas Green Clemson [Clemson University], Chiang Kai-shek, Isaac Asimov ["I, Robot"], Greer Garson, Tammy Wynette, Thomas Kinkade, Mickey Rooney, Merle Haggard [on his birthday], Don Rickles
Thought:
Reading Daniel 1:8 today. In the preceding verses, Daniel and his friends have been taken to a foreign land, asked to eat from the king's table, and had their names changed to take God out of the picture. Then we get to verse 8--"But Daniel made up his mind." Think about that this morning. We live in a foreign land as aliens. We speak a different language. We serve the true God. But the foreign land has been good to us--we eat good food, we drink good wine, we serve in high places. Why not just get along? 

Daniel made up his mind. This reminds me that I have choices to make hourly, daily. I have to make up my mind. Romans 12 tells us to be transformed by renewing our minds. How do I renew my mind--prayer, God's word, counsel of fellow Christians. The prodigal son was in a pig sty when he came to his right mind. Sometimes, I think we are living in that pig sty--dirty, surrounded by greedy pigs. I need to come to my right mind. How many times have I done something or said something and then said, "I just wasn't thinking right." Satan's plan is to deceive us into not thinking right [righteous]. He was trying to trick Daniel into not thinking right--but Daniel made up his mind to not defile himself. How many times today will I have to make that decision--don't defile myself, stain myself with the fleshly desires and thoughts. 

I love Daniel because he is living exactly where we live---Babylon. The richest place, all the luxuries that the world seeks are at our disposal. A foreign land, not the Promised Land. Daniel will face all the challenges I will face today. But for Daniel and his friends, they made up their minds not to be defiled---fiery furnace, no problem; lions' den, no problem. Why? Jesus was with them, His angels attended them. No different today---worried about the fire or the lions---I just need to make up my mind.

Blessings
Larry

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