June 1st

June 1st -- Daniel 5:1-30 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel%205:1-30&version=NLT)

Head on over to the link destination, or pull out your Bible, and read!

I only have two small points to make on this:
1) Yet again, Daniel could have easily taken all credit and been prideful about his God-given gifts. Instead, though, he actually tried to refuse King Belshazzar's gifts, telling him to keep them or give them to another. Daniel got the gifts anyway, in the end. It makes me think a bit of Solomon, who asked not for riches and fame, but wisdom, and because that honored God, God gave him wisdom AND riches and fame. I'm not saying if we do the God-honoring thing we'll also get all the riches and stuff. What I'm saying is, when we do the God-honoring thing He blesses us, and that may be physically, emotionally, or spiritually, but He will bless us. We just need to make sure we are always sending the glory and praise back to Him not ourselves.

2) God will punish those who know the truth but turn their back on it. Belshazzar knew, from Nebuchadnezzar, how great and powerful God is, but he was ignorant to it. He continued on worshipping pagan gods, and disrespected the items of the Temple of the Lord. This was blatantly disrespectful to a God he had heard all about, meaning he knew of His power, yet did all the thing to disrespect him anyways. It wasn't even that he was intentionally trying to disrespect God, but rather that he was not trying to respect Him. God knew Belshazzar knew of Him yet carried on in his ways, and therefore finally out an end to it. Now, we may not all know it so well or the same way as Belshazzar but it can be seen in all of creation. Evidence of God is everywhere. In a way, that probably counts as being just as ignorant to not see God by what He has made.

That's all. God bless! Shalom!