Upwords

Freedom flourishes best in a society where trust prevails and the principles behind freedom are intentionally handed down to the next generation. This sort of trust and influence comes only in a committed relationship with God through Jesus Christ where obedience is the priority. 

Freedom will only come when we stop blaming others and surrender to what God has done to win our freedom from sin.

As we are about to celebrate America's 250th birthday, we pause our study of Daniel for a short series I have entitled "The Rebirth of Freedom." These messages are drawn from Os Guinness's book entitled The Magna Carta of Humanity: Sinai's Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom . Guinness notes that the book of Exodus gives us seven timeless principles for gaining a...

Are you aware that Daniel 11:36-45 describes a coming vicious ruler yet future to us? Do you know how to have hope in the face of his horrors?

It is infuriating that God's people are always feeling caught in the middle of the endless battle of the wicked. Why is this? Stick it out with this challenging but ignored Bible chapter and the paydirt will be rich.

If we patiently wade through Daniel's vision, we find a critical but often forgotten method on how to overcome the spiritual forces of darkness and strongholds that keep us bound in our own day. This is war!

Gabriel gives Daniel an amazingly accurate prediction of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the coming of Christ, and the events thereafter. All of this helps us understand a bit more about the confusing yet hopeful nature of predictive prophecy.

If you are exiled and saddened by losses due to past choices you now know are the cause, Daniel's prayer gives the combination needed to unlock the way out. 

This one is challenging. Stay with it. The payoff is great. God's control of the future does not nullify the importance of our choices.

Ugly beasts will arise and attack God's people, but in Christ we have already won. God's win is final, forever, and never to be contested again.

Prophecy is strange, but yields great riches to those who do not give up on it. Don't look at the monsters; look at your King.

Faith ruins your enemy's appetite and shuts his mouth.

Darius' dilemma forshadows the tensions between God's justice and love in response to man's sin. Daniel's survival of the lion's den is a foreshadowing of Christ's conquering the grave.

If we are partying life away, God will suddenly crash our party.

Is God writing on your wall?

Sometime we must lose it all to see what is of real value.

The journey to faith in Yahweh requires His cutting down the "trees" we trust in.

Daniel's friends are fireproof, and foreshadow something far greater.

Daniel's three friends challange us to ask ourselves: Are we driven by external pressures or internal principles?

Having the strength to stand up and stand out when the world pressures you to bow and blend in.

What the stone of God crushing the statues of man means to us today.

What we learn when the king of the world's superpower 600 years before Christ is warned his throne will be crushed.  

Nebuchadnezzar's dream and Daniel's interpretation provides a needed grid for understanding why, how, and when God reveals Himself and His wisdom.

Daniel models how to seize your moment to handle a crisis.

Nebuchadnezzar's baffling dream illustrates the confusion and despair many in the world have today. Only God is the source of the true wisdom needed to answer life's deepest questions.