Today we attended a graduation reception for my niece Kirstyn Porter (my sister’s youngest daughter). She graduated from Johnson and Whales, a well known College focused on instruction in culinary arts and the food service and hospitality industry.<\/p>\n
We experienced the most eventful trip to Denver we have had in the past two years. It took us over two hours to get from Fort Collins to my mom’s house in Englewood. A few weeks ago when I took my mom back home after a visit, we made the trip in right at an hour. We ran into heavy traffic, accidents and pouring rain and hit every stop light in our attempt to “out smart”<\/em> the traffic jams.<\/p>\n I drove down to Denver, so I let Debbie drive home and I tried to rest. But outside of that, we actually saw sun for the first time in a few weeks. That was nice and encouraging in the midst of our long run of overcast skies.<\/p>\n BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…<\/strong>\u201cHe will rule forever,<\/span> and his kingdom will last for all time.<\/span><\/span> He looks on the people of the earth as nothing;<\/span> angels in heaven and people on earth<\/span><\/span> are under his control.<\/span><\/span> No one can oppose his will<\/span><\/em> or question what he does…[I] <\/span><\/span><\/em>praise, honor, and glorify the King of Heaven. Everything he does is right and just, and he can humble anyone who acts proudly.\u201d<\/em> Daniel 4:34.37 These verses above that give praise and honor given to the Lord could have been written by one of the psalmists; perhaps a prophet or priest or other man of God. Yet we find that these are the words of a pagan King.<\/p>\n Nebuchadnezzar was the supreme ruler of the Babylonian kingdom. His power and authority were complete and unquestioned and he was known to be ruthless and capricious. He did what he wanted to, when he wanted, to whom he wanted to without the need to explain.<\/p>\n But we find him humbled by the hand of God in\u00a0 a severe way. The King was shown a dream. One that was startling and unsettling. (see Daniel 4:3-30) Daniel interprets the meaning of the dream and gives this advice, “Stop sinning, do what is right, and be merciful to the poor. Then you will continue to be prosperous.\u201d<\/span> <\/em>(Daniel 4:27)<\/p>\n It became apparent that the King neglected to follow Daniel’s advice. A year later as he was gloating over his kingdom and its glory, God’s judgment fell on him he was disposed from his throne for seven years and became insane, acting like an animal, until he came to his “right mind”<\/em> and acknowledged the sovereignty of the Lord God.<\/p>\n Three consecutive accounts in the Book of Daniel reveal God’s revelation of himself to arrogant rulers. Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s son succeeds his father and on one occasion takes goblets taken from the Temple in Jerusalem to be used in\u00a0 a feast for his nobles. His actions are judged when a hand mysteriously appears and writes a message on the wall. He knew what had happened to his father, but ignored it. As a result, he was “weighed in the balance and found wanting”<\/em> and lost his kingdom. (Daniel 5)<\/p>\n Darius the Mede overthrows the Babylonian kingdom. During his reign, officials jealous of Daniel have the King sign a law the no one can pray to any other power than himself. Daniel maintains his faithfulness to the Lord and as a result, is thrown into a pit of lions; only to be rescued by the hand of the Lord.<\/p>\n This gets Dairus’ attention and this is his response of praise,<\/p>\n \u201cHe is a living God,<\/span> and he will rule forever.<\/span><\/span> His kingdom will never be destroyed,<\/span> and his power will never come to an end.<\/span><\/span> He saves and rescues;<\/span> he performs wonders and miracles<\/span><\/span> in heaven and on earth…”<\/span><\/span><\/em> (Daniel 6:26,27)<\/p>\n Ponder these two anthems of praise from these human, pagan rulers. They reveal great truths about the Lord that they learned firsthand by seeing God’s power. As people of faith, how much more important it is for us to stop, reflect and take heart in who God is and His faithfulness to His people.<\/p>\n Our God is the true sovereign of the world for all time. Many have sought that status only for their power to come to an end. It is the Lord who establishes and tears down. It is the Lord who “saves and rescues and performs wonders and miracles….” <\/em><\/p>\n Those realities open the eyes of those who don’t believe and bring comfort and reassurance to those who do believe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today we attended a graduation reception for my niece Kirstyn Porter (my sister’s youngest daughter). She graduated from Johnson and Whales, a well known College focused on instruction in culinary arts and the food service and hospitality industry. We experienced the most eventful trip to Denver we have had in the past two years. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1951,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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