Dinner Time

As I was reading through the first chapter of Daniel, I was struck by how mundane this first "test" of faith is; it revolves around dinner time.  I can just imagine the kinds of food these young men were being offered.  After all, this was food coming from the King's table; top quality cuisine.  However, despite how tasty it must have looked, the majority of it must have been considered "unclean," as outlined in Leviticus 11, for Daniel to have been worried about being "defiled" by it.  Regardless of what everybody else was doing, and in spite of the fact that they were now in a foreign country that had no knowledge of God, and the guidelines associated with being a Jew, Daniel and his three friends were committed to staying true to their faith.

It makes me think of how kids act when their parents are around, versus when they're not.  Daniel and his three friends are truly men of integrity, and men who are genuine in their faith, even with the small stuff.  How does Daniel's dinner time decision speak to us today? 

Persecution

As I'm preparing this week's message, I can't help but think of how disconnected we, as Americans, are from any kind of persecution.  We hear about persecution in other parts of the world, but I don't think we have any idea of what true persecution is.  I wonder if, and how, this has affected us as a Church?