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Adapt -"of the Babylonians "- Triumph In A Chaos Culture

"But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself .". (Dan. 1:8)

How do you make it as a lover of Christ in a culture like ours? Daniel and his three friends did much more than survive - they thrived! Powerful temptations at all levels. No other godly friends. A complete absence of holy support - no Bibles, churches, spiritual CDs or even bumper-stickers. Yet at the end of it all, they still ruled in the nation.

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

Babylon has always had its bands. One terrible day in their nation, the hardest test of all came to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar built an idol of himself, an astonishing creation of gold that represented him and his power over all nations in history. Assembled across a plain he put on the largest rock concert in history. Everyone had to be there and everyone who could be there was. (Dan. 3:1-7)

Nebuchadnezzar wanted more than money, knowledge and power. He wanted what rightfully only belongs to God. He wanted what all of Babylon's imitators have always wanted. He wanted the undivided worship of his whole world.

"Bow down before the one you serve
You're gonna get what you deserve"
(Trent Reznor Nine Inch Nails)

His incentive to absolute homage was not big finance, but a big furnace. Right at the base of the towering idol was a huge open oven. At the sound of the music, all of his subjects had to bow down before his statue. If you didn't bow, you burned.

Three young men faced the ultimate decision. Either Nebuchadnezzar was to be seen as supreme lord of their lives or the God they loved and worshipped. If they bowed with all the crowd, they would not be touched or harmed. No-one would care and no one would bother.

They could have taken the easy way out. They could have just said to themselves: "We know what we really believe. What difference does it make if we just go along outwardly for once with everyone else? Why risk all God has given us with our place and power in this place for one dumb external show? We can bow along with the crowd, but in our hearts we know the truth. There is only one God. But Nebuchadnezzar is after all our boss and our king. He should be humored. A man would be a fool not to play along. Let's just kneel to Babylon on the outside, but stand up on the inside."

But the boys never bought that. They knew that there comes a time when what you SAY you believe is put to the test. They had already determined they would not compromise inwardly their trust in God and that it must always show outwardly. They made the most difficult choice any teenager ever faces: "Conform or perish."

There came a time when the music died around them and they stood all alone. You can read the story yourself. When the music played, everyone fell to their knees and worshipped. Everyone, that is, except three boys who stood utterly alone across the vast plain. An outraged king demanded a decision. And they gave it to him.

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the burning fiery furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us and he will rescue us from your hand .. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image you have set up." (Dan 3:16-18)

They knew what would happen to them if they stood against the crowd and the command of the king, but they stood anyway. Bow down or burn. They made the choice that changes the world. They said to themselves: "We may burn, but we will not bow." And the God Who really rules showed Babylon that day Who really was in charge. There was a fourth Figure in the furnace and His face looked like the Son of God. (Dan. 3:25) They didn't bow and they didn't burn.

STANDING ALONE IN BABYLON:

"Every man is limited by three things: the knowledge in his mind. The strength of his character. The principles upon which he builds his life." (Ed Cole)

You can do three things when faced with a Babylonian culture:

(1) Absorption: Surrender to it. This is not recommended. Babylon is ultimately headed for destruction. Line up with it and you head where it is headed. (Rev. 18:21-19:23)

(2) Segregation: Separate yourself from it. Cut yourself off from the whole culture around you. Don't talk to it, listen to it or live in it. Become a religious recluse. Build a big wall from the world and hide behind it. Stay around the piano and play loudly when the Devil comes calling. Thousands of Christians do. But if that is your choice be prepared for three more problems:

(a) Find a place on another planet. The world is everywhere around you and it is hard to keep it out. Before World War II broke out, a futurist realized it was going to happen. He studied the world and moved to a place where his research determined he would be safe. He moved to Guadacanal. A Canadian family in the 70's became concerned with rumors of war and violence. They moved to a place where the Dads detailed study of history showed they would be safe. They arrived in the Falkland Islands just before Britain came out of retirement to declare war on Argentina. As they say: "You can run but you can't hide."

(b) Give up witnessing. No-one you know will ever meet Jesus through you because you don't know anyone anymore who is lost.

(c) Stick only to Bible verses that speak of being separate. Avoid verses that ask you to hang out with any of the kind of people Jesus hung out with. Good luck.

Or you might take the Third Way - Invasion: Elton Trueblood said that although the words Jesus used were short (like salt, light, fire and water) they were words of penetration. Salt penetrates the meat and helps stop it spoil. Light penetrates darkness and drives it back. Fire penetrates the wood and makes it burn. Water penetrates the ground and makes it soft. God's method of dealing with the world around you is neither isolation or submission but penetration. Jesus didn't come to take sides, He came to take over. And He said "As My Father sent Me, so send I you." (John. 20:21)

BEING HOLY WITHOUT LIVING IN A HOLE

Jesus is at home in our world. It is His world. He made it. He created it. He owns it by right. What has happened to it is not His fault. Man was never made to sin. Creation was never made to struggle. Culture was never supposed to be our enemy.

But ever since the Fall of our first parents everything around us has turned to crap. Man hurt himself. He hurt his relationship with others. He hurt his relationship with God. What started with a bad choice got completely out of hand and became the runaway we see today. Nature was hurt by the sin of man. Marriage and family suffered. Society is hurt. Culture is hurt. The arts, sciences, disciplines and structures of our world are an apple with a worm in it. What was originally meant to reflect the glory of God now becomes a support mechanism for sin.

And how does Jesus deal with the world? He neither avoided it or abandoned it. He could have kissed it off, or burned it up. And that is still an option when He has done all He will do. We are not to love the world or the things that are in the world or the love of the Father is not in us. But the way Jesus deals with the world that is His by right is the way He calls us to deal with the world. We are to be insulated not isolated. We are to live in the world without being of the world.

Jesus was different from the world in the right way. He is the living embodiment of all that is right and good and great in society and humanity. If we follow Him we will love the world only the way Jesus loved it. He said to His world "I love you this much." And then He held out His arms and died.

How does God love the world when He tells us not to love the world? Jesus loved the world by identifying with it, joining it and finally dying for it. The world is lovely, but it is lost. "Don't give your highest affection to your culture" is what He says to young radicals in Babylon. "It's beautiful but ultimately empty." When you keep Christ as the center of all you say, think and do, the world is just a wounded wonderland ready for the redeeming role of a righteous radical. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness He says and all these things shall be added to you. (Matt. 6:33)




MODERNITY - GOD'S GIFT, DEVILS TEMPTATION

How does this work out in practice in our modern world? We must avoid the two things Os Guiness calls "the dangers of modernity" - privatization and pluralization.

Privatization: the temptation to put all of our Christian principles and practices in a special separate box from the rest of our lives. To treat our love for Jesus as a private preference we choose to practice by ourselves on our own time.

Pluralization: the temptation to accept so many choices and options that you cannot make any decisions. As options increase, our ability to commit ourselves decreases.

A Christian committed to truth in a modern technoculture will always face a tension between two extremes, two errors, two opposite temptations. How do you love the world as a missionary to it without being worldly? How do you renounce the world without losing touch with it? How can you be holy without living in a hole, and how can you live in the world without becoming worldly?

Becoming Holy without Living in a Hole: (Christ Over All)

Temptation: to split our lives into the private religious and the public real world
Greatest fear: To bring the private Christian world into the public arena
Embarrassment: One who brings the "secular" world into the private spiritual.

The first way Babylon can hurt you is to isolate you. Babylon doesn't mind that you love Christ. Babylon doesn't mind that you worship Jesus. As far as Babylon is concerned you can do anything you like - in the privacy of your own "Christian reservation." The only thing Babylon truly and fully resents is for you to say that what is best for you in Christ the Lord is also best for them. Babylon can tolerate anything except intolerance to wrong. You may love Jesus, but do it on your own. You can obey any command of Christ except those that involve the world He says He owns. There is no crime in the future except to be a missionary. Yet Paul said:

"On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?" (1 Cor 9:12)
"Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me." (1 Cor 9:16)

Stand: Be "all things to all men." Openly serve Jesus & people in the public arena.
"Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law." (1 Cor 9:19) To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." (I Cor 9:22) Determine Christ will rule in every area of your life.

Living In The World Without Becoming Worldly (Christ Over Against All)

Temptation: to continuously multiply our options to avoid the clear Divine choice.
Greatest fear: Commitment with absolute contrast and consecration (The hard "No".)
Embarrassment: Someone single-minded without compromise. Non-pragmatic disciplines like prayer, meditation and fasting with no obvious immediate benefit.

The second way Babylon can hurt you is to immerse you. It gives you so many possibilities, options, alternatives! Os Guiness calls it "The Smorgasbord Factor". In a smorgasbord you pay one price and eat all and anything you like. Faced with multiple alternatives, people in a smorgasbord do one of three things:

(a) Go straight to what you always get and just eat that. Fine, safe, O.K. - but boring.
(b) Load up a plate with everything in sight and just keep going until you run out of plates. This is the bulimic option. Do it all. Try everything. Go for the gusto. Party on down. It is also the formula for constipation: Absorb all and eliminate nothing.
(c) Endlessly circulate around the salad bar unable to decide on anything until you starve to death. The anorexic option. So many choices you can't actually commit yourself to one thing. So much on the menu you are unable to order anything.

So with our world. Face so many choices, so many options and what do you do? You may play it safe and stick with the known. You might opt out of choices altogether (irresponsibility). Or you may instead decide to hang loose and do nothing (apathy).

A rabbit trapped in the glare of headlights at night isn't either daring or dumb - just dazed. Far too many scary inputs flood into its bunny brain for it to know what to do at all. Something like that happens when our multi-cultural, pluralistic, have-it-your-way society demands your attention. Some adults think you're careless or stupid. The fact is most times you're neither. You have too many options. The more the choices the less ability to choose anything. As options increase, commitment decreases.

So what do you do? Simple really. Decrease your options. You don't need everything. Many things are worthless to you. Some things are dangerous. Only a few things are crucial. Cut down your options. Take a load off. Reduce the stress. Get a life.

MARGIN

Margin is the space between what you actually can do and what everyone wants you to do. For some it is dangerously thin. To get margin back into your life do these:

(1) Simplify. What are you really called to do right now in life? What will it take? What will it need? Write a list of absolute bottom-liners - if I don't learn or do this, it can't or won't be done. Check your list out again. Cut out anything that isn't truly basic. "All run in a race" said Paul "but only one wins the prize. So run to win."

(2) Eliminate. Cut out from your life anything you can live without right now. (Not forever. Some things you will find useful later. Maybe something cool you can try when you have time set aside for it. But right now you have something special to do.) What you need right now is not all the things you might do, but like Paul "this one thing I do". Think of your goal as a mountain climb. Don't leave anything behind you really need, but don't carry any dead weight either. "Lay aside the weight"

(3) Reduce. Possessions are to be used, not loved. Cut back on things to buy more time for the key stuff like relationships. Eat less. Buy less. Make do with what you have or need, not what you just like. Use equipment less to make it last longer. Share, loan or borrow. Forget the latest fashion. Fast - food, fun or fellowship, to make time for the critical. Use less. Care for longer. "Use it up. Wear it out. Do without." Turn off the ads and tune out the lies. Make a list of all you think you need and then start crossing things off. It may first freak you out, but then may be fun.

(4) As to reducing your options Jesus makes it simple. "Straight is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life and few there be that find it." "If God be God serve Him." "He that is not for Me is against Me." "No other Name under heaven given amongst men by which we can be saved."

Christ over all. Christ over against all that does not bow to His Lordship.
Paul said: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation. (Rom 1:3) John said: "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Determine like Daniel not to defile yourself with the king's fare. You don't need to expose yourself to all of Babylon in order to understand it' you just need to seek God to make your heart tender to understand what it is already saying and doing to your word.

Stand: No compromise. Be more sensitive to the things you are already exposed to.

Historically the church often polarizes into either/or camps. We move towards giving ourselves wholly to the precious things of faith, but lose our ability to speak to the world. Or we give ourselves for ministry to the world around us and lose our ability to be different to it. The Pietists have a history of pulling out from the world for love of God. The Reformers are known for the exact opposite. If ever one should meet the other on a dark night with drawn Bibles, there will be Heaven to pay between them.

A Bible analogy: In Scripture two key offerings beside the sin offering reminded God's people of their debt to Him. One was the burnt offering. It was an offering of utter abandonment and devotion. It all went up in smoke to God. You kept nothing of it. The other was the meat or meal offering. It took care and preparation. It was offered each day. When you gave the Meal offering to the Lord, you got to eat part of it too. Like a table grace, it was to bring the sense of God's presence in the ordinary.

Pietistic - The Burnt Offering - Everything burns, everything goes up to God.
Reform - The Meal Offering - Daily hospitality in sharing ordinary life with God.

What is the balance of these two kinds of service to God? There is no "balance". They are two poles that pull you in two different directions. You can no more find a middle ground in both than you can find a middle pole in a magnet. We need both. Without the burnt offering we can become so comfortable with the world that we become just like it and no longer affect it. Without the meal offering we become so unlike the world we can no longer talk to it. God wants us IN the world, but not OF the world so we can CHANGE the world.
We could put it like this: First God gets us out of the world. Second He gets the world out of us. Third, He sends us back into the world.

Understand: Jesus wants you IN THE WORLD. He is coming back. When He does there will be no time to choose to serve Him. There will only be the plain record of when and if we served Him with all of our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength.

BABYLON'S' PILLARS OF POWER - GODS & GOLD

Babylon has two pillars of power, one seen and one unseen. In the spiritual world it relies on its gods; the spirit world, its psychic hot-lines of mediums, astrologers and magicians. (Dan. 2:2; Gen. 41:8; In the material world it turns to its gold; greed, or the love of money is the root of all evil. (I Tim. 6:9,10;

A nations' government is its view of God applied to its goods. Every government takes religious ideas about right and wrong, good and evil and enacts and legislates those ideas. God begins with an individual and brings about change ground up. Change a heart, change a home; change a home, change a city; change a city, change a nation. The great idol set in contrast to devotion and service to God in the Bible is Mammon, the god of money. (Mat. 6:24) Economics is our stewardship of what God has given to us. Jesus parables deal much with economics. If you plan to rule the world under Christ, you must break with Babylon's powerful but poisonous pattern of finances.

FINANCIAL POWER

"Men and nations are not great by virtue of their wealth but by the wealth of their virtues." (Ed Cole)

The world's goal of financial independence is really a desire for freedom from concerns about paying for living expenses. The quickest way to your own freedom is to REDUCE OR ELIMINATE THE SPENDING you are concerned about.

The problem is that we want certain things in our life. We call this lifestyle. Many find a war going on within. Our desire for freedom from financial concern fights against a desire for a "better" lifestyle. Until we settle this war of the soul in our own hearts, we will never know peace in the daily handling of money. (James 4:1, 1 Peter 2:11 NASB)

Most U.S. coin and currency is inscribed with these words: "In God We Trust". Christians can make this a declaration of a scriptural peace agreement with God concerning money. WE trust GOD. HE takes care of our financial needs. (Mat 6:31-33) A man or woman who truly learns to trust God over income, spending, and sharing is full of power. No decision in life should ever be made solely on the basis of money. Here are some keys to Biblical financial freedom:

INCOME

Career: Don't work just for money. In every situation, pray and look for a job or project you can love and really get in to. You'll find that if you do a JOB YOU ENJOY, you will get good at it. You will be more apt to learn, be productive and efficient, and make more income. (1 Pet. 4:10; Eccl. 5:18 NASB)

Wages: Try to keep from being locked into a fixed salary. While a regular paycheck is nice, it makes it hard for God to bless you financially. (Mal 3:10-11, 2 Cor. 9:6)

Tithe: Acknowledge God's divine help. Scripture says it is God who gives you the power to get wealth. You should HONOR HIM by giving Him a TENTH of your income. Find a church that is doing the will of God and entrust God's portion to them. (Deut. 8:18 , Prov. 3:9 , Mal 3:7-11)

SPENDING

Needs & Desires: Paul told people he always tried to take care of his own needs. (Acts 20:34-35) He told his friends that it was right, cool and classy to "command the respect of the outside world, being dependent on nobody (self-supporting) and having need of nothing." (1 Thess 4:12 Ampl).

Plan to SPEND LESS THAN YOUR INCOME. When you spend more than your spendable income, you become a financial mission-field and not a missionary. You're a dependent and not a PROVIDER, a taker not a GIVER, needy rather than self-supporting. To stay in need of nothing but the Lord's help, you should treat your spending seriously. Consider two main types of spending over three different time frames:

Essential Needs: needs to sustain bodily life (Food, covering, transport)
Worker's Needs: needs to produce products or services useful to others

Current: now and the next twelve months
Past: previous promises to spend
Future: beyond twelve months, then beyond productive years

Essential NEEDS are common to all of us. (Mat 6:25; 1 Tim 6:8)

God provides for needs when He calls a person into a career. Your work should be a CALLING from God based on the talents, skills and mind He gave you. That's the career you'll enjoy. For every career, He knows what financial needs are unique to that work. You have a right to petition God for the things of the world needed for the work; things useful for serving others as one of His worker (1 John 5:14-15, John 16:23-24). (Anything from money for medical school training to an airplane for an airline.)

PRAYERFUL PLANNING SHOULD CONTROL YOUR SPENDING.
Put a postcard on your mirror. Write on it these words: YOU CAN ONLY SPEND IT ONCE. There are always more things to buy than there is money to buy them. Once money comes in, it can only be spent once. Make sure you know what God wants done with the money He sends. God wants us to live within our income. If we spend too much on one thing we may short-change His intentions in His provision.

Think about the cost per use of what you think you need. Count the REAL cost. (Luke 14:8) If you buy a CD for $20 and you only like one song on it, you paid full price for just one song. If you only listen to it once, your cost per use is $20. If you listen to it a hundred times, your cost per use is 20 cents. Since you can only spend money once, plan to FULFILL YOUR NEEDS WITH LOW COST PER USE ITEMS. The money He provides goes a lot further that way.

Desires: The world will always entice you to spend on pleasurable things of little or no essential, useful need. If you never discipline your money use, you will never have excess funds to share with others in need. Beyond real needs, you need to exercise FINANCIAL SELF-CONTROL. God has definite plans for any excess money that flows through your hands. Be careful you don't use it all on yourself. (Jas. 4:3) Trust God to give you power to say "No" to the "I wants" of the rest of the world. (2 Tim 3:1-5, Titus 2:11-12 NIV; 1 John 2:15-17 NASB)

Saving: (Current & future needs): DON'T SPEND ALL of your income. You can reasonably anticipate many future needs; car replacements, sports gear, and repairs. One day you might even live to be old and less able to work productively! You will still have needs. Open a savings account and put some portion of every years' income in it; it is God's provision for future needs. (Prov 6:6-8 NIV, Prov 21:20; Prov 13:11)

Debt: (Past needs) Christians have no option but to pay what they have promised. You must KEEP YOUR WORD. (Matt. 5:37) To spend more than your income you have to draw either from savings or borrow. You PRESUME when you spend more than you earn, or that tomorrow you will earn more than you spend. Bad move. You don't know what will happen tomorrow. Only God knows that. (Jas. 4:13-16) You can't spend more than you earn without evil unless you or someone else has previously saved. If you are in debt, purpose to pay it all back in installments as you can.

If you borrow to buy, it always COSTS YOU MORE than if you pay cash. The additional cost is interest. Borrowing also BINDS you. When you borrow, the lender is either your partner or your master. (Prov. 22:7) A lender generally is a silent partner in your financial life until you fall behind in your promise to pay. Then he becomes your demanding master. You go into a world of hurt. You can't sleep or eat. You become afraid of the phone; it may be your "master" wanting his money! You may catch yourself doing the credit-card shuffle; compounding the growth of your debt with high (18-21%) interest. The person who is in debt tends to get deeper in debt.

If each time you pull out a credit card you realize you are saying "I promise to pay, I promise to pay!" you might rethink the purchase! If you don't have cash now to buy, what makes you think you are going to have cash then to pay the bill? It is also silly to buy stuff that will be used and gone before the credit card bill even shows up. Department stores that accept credit cards are not dumb. They know the average person using plastic instead of cash will purchase as much as a third more out of impulse. Your rule of thumb: if you carry plastic for convenience, DON'T BUY ON IMPULSE. You want to spend less than your income, not go deeper in debt.

SHARING

Openhanded: The person who truly trusts God will not be overly concerned about his or her future financial needs. When you see a friend who has financial needs, do what you can to help them. Never be finished with helping others financially. Always think big when it comes to creating income in excess of your needs that can be given away. (1 Cor. 7:29-32 NIV, 2 Cor 8:12-15 NASB)

The Rich: It is very easy for someone with wealth to move their trust over to their money instead of leaving it in God. But money can be stolen or taken by government or seem to evaporate in the inflating prices of groceries. Don't trust in it.

If the Lord blesses you with much money, much more will be required of you. Be generous, ready always to share. Your commission is to subdue the earth and build Christian nations through discipling and evangelizing; this also takes money. Part of the purpose of Christian business is to finance this activity. This doesn't mean to throw your common sense out the window. Check out the cause; if is worthwhile, give to it. (1 Tim 6:17-19)

(Source: Steven Swords, CPA & Financial Management Investment Advisor Abel Financial PO Box 867 Lindale TX 75771.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose" (Jim Eliot)