Acts 15:1-21 (NIV) Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless Today: 1 Corinthians 6

Listen to passage & devotional: Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 1 We all believe in our hearts and

Daniel prospered because He was fed by God rather than the world. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 79 Q. Why then does Christ call the bread his body and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in his blood? (Paul uses the words, a participation in Christ’s body and blood.) A. Christ has good reason for these words. He wants to teach us that as bread and wine nourish our temporal life, so too his crucified body and poured-out blood truly nourish our souls for eternal life. But more important, he wants to assure us, by this visible sign and pledge, that we, through the Holy Spirit’s work, share in his true body and blood as surely as our mouths receive these holy signs in his remembrance, and that all of his suffering and obedience are as definitely ours as if we personally had suffered and paid for our sins. Summary The book of Daniel begins with Israel being carried off into exile in Babylon as a result of their sin. Interestingly, it's those who are taken away from Israel who are the remnant that God will preserve, while those who are left behind will slowly fade away. Nebuchadnezzar only takes the best and brightest, and then he selects the cream of that crop to serve in his sprawling government. Daniel is part of this group of talented young men who are to not only be trained, but assimilated into Babylonian language & literature; in other words, the king wants men with a worldview like his own, so they must be indoctrinated before serving in official roles. Daniel is part of a group who, while willing to serve the king, "resolved not to defile himself" with too much Babylonian culture, especially the food. This food was the best of the best, but it was quite different than what God had commanded Israelites to eat. God wanted His covenant people to look different from the world around them, and one of the key ways of doing this was by regulating their diet. After securing permission to maintain their Kosher diet, Daniel and his friends eat only vegetables and water. But God blesses this protein light menu anyways in such a way that they "looked healthier (literally: fatter) and better nourished than the other young men who ate the royal food." Dig Deeper You probably don't think of yourself this way, but like Daniel, you are an exile. You likely haven't been physically forced from your homeland, but you are living away from your true home in the Kingdom of God. Christians are not fully at home in this world but are temporary residents, awaiting their true eternal home in the presence of God. This opening chapter in Daniel is not making the point that one style of diet is better than another, rather it reminds us that full nourishment requires more than just physical food. As creatures that are both physical and spiritual, our souls must be nourished for eternal life just as we feed our bodies three times a day (or more). If you neglect regular church attendance, you must understand that you will quickly become spiritually malnourished. You need to be fed regularly with the Word & sacraments to fully experience God's blessings as Daniel and his friends did. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who preserves and nourishes us even while we remain in exile; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for feeding you spiritually, and pray for a growing desire to consume the means of grace God provides through your local church; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 16

Genesis 15:1-6 (NIV) After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be He would show him, and that once Abram got there God would make him into a great nation (Genesis 12:1-

The climax of the Bible are the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because they teach us about Jesus

Matthew 1:18-25 (NIV) 18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged encounter with the archangel in which he informed her that she who was 'highly favored' by God (Luke 1: 28) would be having a child out of wedlock in 8-1/2 months. both needed to be told the same exact thing by their angelic messenger: "Do not be afraid (v20, Luke 1:

Galatians 4:1-7 (NIV) ...As long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:3-5).

Live momento mori - remembering that you'll die - but also view death as victory. 1 Corinthians 15:50 Listen to passage & devotional: Belgic Confession of Faith, Article   37: The Last Judgment (Part 1) For all those who died before that time will be raised from the earth, their spirits being joined and will have died prior to that loud command coming down from heaven, as Paul described it yesterday in 1

Revelation 21:1–5 (ESV) 20:14  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. John's utilization of adjectives increases, however, to describe what he sees next. The scene, John writes, is like a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband . Any groom or father of the bride can appreciate the words John conveys this vision to us with! But John really doesn't tell us anything about what life will be like.

You'd do well to pay attention to it. 2 Peter 1:16-21 16  For we did not follow cleverly devised stories Canons of Dordt Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election Point 2 - Limited Atonement Point 3 - Total Depravity