September 12, 2023 - Good Morning! It's Tuesday, September 12.
It's my honor and blessing to teach the broadcast Sunday School lesson each week at First Baptist Center. This 9am Bible study goes out, as does our 10:15 worship service, to friends here in Shelby County on local FM radio and cable TV, and to friends around the world on the internet at fbccenter.org and Facebook FBC Center, Texas.
We are currently studying the life of a great Bible character, a man who is unique among the great men of the Word. We're studying a man named Daniel. Why is he unique? Think for a moment about the iconic characters of the Bible - Noah, Abraham, David, Peter, Paul. As great as they were, each of them was also flawed. Each of them had moments when they were less than God's best. But not Daniel. We know the moments of his life from adolescence to old age, and Daniel was always faithful to His God. He is a great example to us of a life well lived.
Daniel was of the noble family of King David, and so, when Babylon conquered Israel 600 years before Bethlehem, he was among the "best and brightest" taken into exile. Daniel was a teenager when his story began, but from the start, he showed a wisdom that belied his years. And for the next 70 years, throughout his long life, time and time again he showed the courage to stand up for his faith, the courage to speak truth to power.
Daniel was my second favorite Bible character as a boy. My favorite also had a name that began with the letter "D" (I'll let you guess who that was). You probably loved the stories, too - the Lion's Den, the Fiery Furnace. I encourage you to revisit those tales of Daniel's life. They will inspire you once again. And they will remind you of a person of faith who lived in a time of tremendous crisis and change, a man who wasn't defined by his circumstances, but by his convictions.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
