The Monday Memo from John Stanko

924: Excellence in Babylon

Greetings from Kenya, although later today I depart for England to be with my friend, Yvonne Brooks, at the Women of Purpose Conference in Birmingham. Before I head out, I want to finish the next installment in our Success in Babylon series that outlines how to thrive in a spiritually hostile environment. Our role model is Daniel and we are looking at the dynamics involved that allowed Daniel to be so successful in his foreign assignment.

This week, we look at Daniel's reinstatement to power and authority, this time under a new king who had deposed the former Babylonian regime. The new king recognized talent and was quick to promote Babylon to his cabinet and one of the three highest positions in the land. Let's look at what other characteristics made Daniel so promotable on so many occasions under so many leaders.

NOT GOOD, BUT GREAT

We read this account of Daniel's reinstatement to a high position in Daniel 6:

It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, with three administrators  over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God" (Daniel 6:1-5).

Daniel was promoted not because he was in the right place at the right time, or because he hung around long enough to climb the ladder of success. Daniel was promoted because he was not only good at what he did, Daniel was great at what he did. I have often said that God does not promote potential, but those who develop that potential. The potential is what God gives but the development is what we do. The more skilled and capable we are, the higher the place God can send us.

When I was involved in prison ministry conducting The Lions' Den Seminar, I taught the inmates not to expect any promotion unless they had paid the price to produce excellence, regardless of the task. I had them look at Colossians 3:22-24:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

That meant they had to humble themselves and do even menial tasks with great enthusiasm that produced excellent results--not according to their standard but to that of others.

Yet there is one more important characteristic that was present in Daniel's life and it is described in 6:4: "They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent" (emphasis added). How can we label that trait that went along with Daniel's competence? Let's go there next.

INTEGRITY

Quite simply, Daniel had integrity, which one site defines as "the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness." Daniel wads trustworthy and Jesus outlined His interpretation of integrity and trustworthiness in Luke 16:10-12:

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?"

Trusted with a little; trusted with money; trusted with someone else's stuff--all those things are expressions of integrity, and Daniel obviously had them all. I regularly reminded the inmates that God was watching how they handled their time, the property under their care, and the little money they had. It was common for them to think, "This isn't a big deal, so I will wait until something important comes along before I really invest myself in doing a good job." That attitude would never allow them to be promoted or trusted and the same is true for you. For some, but I hope not for you, that was a difficult lesson to learn.

If you want to be promoted, it is not enough that you know the Lord. You cannot expect God's favor to open doors for you if you stumble over the threshold because you are ill-equipped for success. You have to have the skill and then match it with honesty and faithfulness if you want to reach the highest levels of God's service no matter what sphere of human existence you are called to serve. I have always laughed at some who talked about God wanting the church to disciple the nations while those same people could not return a phone call or en email in a timely manner. They talked about excellence; they just didn't know how to produce.

It was no accident that Daniel rose to the top like cream no matter the circumstances, and your promotion won't be an accident either. It will happen when God knows you are ready, and that involved being "neither negligent nor corrupt." Consider what I say and then commit to a lifestyle that does not look for shortcuts to godly success but pays the price to see it achieved and maintained. Thank you and have a blessed week!

923: Pride and Humility in Babylon

I have walked with the Lord for more than 46 years and I have learned one important lesson. If you want to get God's attention, do one of two things--either be proud or be humble. Let's look at some biblical justification for making such a claim:

• For though the Lord is exalted, Yet He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar (Psalm 138:6).
• "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate" (Proverbs 8:13).
• There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood (Proverbs 6:16-17).
• He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed (Proverbs 3:34) (this verse is often quoted in the New Testament).
• For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased (Isaiah 2:12).
• "He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart" (Luke 1:51, spoken by Mary, the mother of Jesus).

What does this have to do with our current study titled Success in Babylon? It is important because we see this truth play out in the lives of both Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar.

THE KING

Nebuchadnezzar was a proud, hot-tempered, and ruthless fellow. When Daniel delivered the interpretation to his first dream in which the king was the head of gold, he decided to build a statue of gold, making himself the only and most important character from that dream. When Daniel's friends refused to bow down to his image, the king tried to execute them. God continued to reach out to the king, warning him through Daniel:

“This is the interpretation, Your Majesty, and this is the decree the Most High has issued against my lord the king: You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes. The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules. Therefore, Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue" (Daniel 4:24-27).

The king had to humble himself or be humiliated and he chose the latter. For seven years, he acted like a beast (which is the end result of all human pride), until he acknowledged the truth of what Daniel had told him: "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble" (Daniel 4:37).

DANIEL

On the other hand, Daniel was the epitome of humility, a superstar of epic proportions in the history of God's people. He accepted his relocation, his role in Babylon, and his service to a proud king with dignity and grace. He was an example of a truth that Jesus spoke 600 years after Daniel when He said, "For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Matthew 23:12).

When working with inmates, I found a lot of pride in their lives and the lives of the officials around them. I taught them that God was humbling them, perhaps had even humiliated them, but regardless of which it was, if they would cooperate with God's discipline, he would exalt them like he had Daniel or restore them like he did Nebuchadnezzar. I also emphasized that promotion is not a matter of humility only, for the Bible teaches that "No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt themselves. It is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another" (Psalm 75:6-7). God will promote who He wants and it is best to humble oneself and accept HIs choices, for to resist is a form of pride.

If you are going to thrive in a spiritually-hostile environment, you must learn to walk in humility not as an event but as a lifestyle. Determine to accept God's promise that He will respond to both humility and pride and choose the former as a means to activate God's favor and help. Not every story ends with the proud being dealt with as this story relates, but the story shows what is important to God, and that means it is our priority as well. Live by the words of Peter and you will prosper no matter where God places you: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time" (1 Peter 5:6). Have a blessed week!

922: Demoted in Babylon

If you are like most people, your first thought when you need a job is that you need an organization--a company, a ministry, a social service organization--to hire you. Then you pretty much expect to work there for a long time and if you are released or phased out, it can create waves of fear and depression, and then you start the process over again.

There is nothing wrong with this but God may use a company to take care of you, but He doesn't need one. He can take care of you all by yourself. What's more, God is your job counselor and can open and close doors in order to position you where He wants you to be. Daniel found all this to be true in Babylon as we will see in this week's lesson in our Success in Babylon series.

THE WRITING'S ON THE WALL

Eventually, Daniel and Judah's nemesis, Nebuchadnezzar, succumbed to death, as all kings and leaders do: "Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing" (Psalm 146:4-5). He was replaced on the throne by his son, Belshazzar, who was as arrogant and proud as his father had been:

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking (Daniel 5:1-6).

There is a saying that "the writing's on the wall," and it means that things are not going well and is about to end--and the saying came from this story.

This scenario has always fascinated me. What did the fingers look like? What was the skin color? What did they write with? What were the reactions of the guests? Did they run? We know the reaction of the king, for he was terrified. Obviously God knew how to get His message across in a manner and in the language that got everyone's attention.

Yet my question to you is this: Where was Daniel when all this was happening?

THE LORD TAKETH AWAY

The answer is that Daniel was nowhere to be found. After all his service to the king and Babylon, he had been fired and demoted by the new king, who had every right to choose his own team of wise men and counselors. In choosing his team, however, he overlooked the best man in the kingdom, and what's more, in his time of trouble, he did not even remember Daniel existed:

The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!” she said. “Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale! There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners" (Daniel 5:10-11).

The queen had to remind Belshazzar that Daniel was around and capable of helping interpret the writing. That is how far removed Daniel was from his once prominent role in the kingdom. We used to remind all the inmates in prison ministry that God was in control of their sentence and the jobs they had while incarcerated, and that would be the same when they got out. They did not own their positions and what they had was by God's choice, not man's. We reminded them and I remind you of the oft-quoted verse from Job: "And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21 KJV).

The king hastily summoned for Daniel, who was immediately ushered into the party room to see if he could interpret the handwriting. Let's see how Daniel responded.

DANIEL TO THE RESCUE

When the king asked Daniel for help, he could have said, "Why you little brat! I was serving your father when you were in diapers running around his throne. I didn't deserve to be demoted. You have treated me terribly. Read your own handwriting. I quit! And if you kill me, who cares. I am older now and lived a fuller life than I ever thought possible in Babylon." That is not what Daniel did or said, for once again, he was magnanimous in service, knowing he was there as God's representative and not as an independent contractor: "Then Daniel answered the king, 'You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means'" (Daniel 5:17).

Of course, the message on the wall was not good for the king, for God was about to taketh away his throne and life: “Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians" (Daniel 5:26-28). And that is exactly what happened, for the king was assassinated that very night. Daniel was the only one who could interpret the strange writing because he was the only one in touch with the living God, and the same may be true for you in your life situation.

Are you in Babylon? Have you been unfairly treated? Are you angry? Have you decided to withhold the best of who you are and what you can do? Do you think God needs a king or the world system to care for you or to make a place for you? The verse from Job is as pertinent and relevant for you as it was for Daniel, for God in His infinite wisdom opens and closes doors, promotes and demotes, uses and retires, as He sees fit.

Even though you are in Babylon with all its enterprise and wealth, you are still God's child and He is the best Father in the universe, even though at times He works with us in ways we cannot see or understand. Have a blessed week!

921: Forgiveness in Babylon

Last week, we looked at Daniel's position in Babylon, which was one of influence and not control. While he had access to the king from his high position, Daniel could not control anything or anyone. He could only influence them and their decisions through his godly presence, wisdom, and cooperation. He did influence the king to the point that the king was confronted with the reality of Daniel's God being "the Most High God," but the king maintained loyalty to his Babylonian gods as well. 

Daniel was a remarkable young man, on par with Joseph, for they both served pagan kings in heathen cultures and did so with distinction and grace. That is what it will take for us to serve in our Babylon, which is an accurate description for the modern world. That is the reason we are studying Daniel, so we can extract the lessons there to assist us so we can not just survive our stint in Babylon but thrive there.

This week, let's look at an essential attitude Daniel had to have if he was going to prosper and be God's agent in Babylon and that attitude (or behavior) was forgiveness.

LEST WE FORGET    

It is important that we not romanticize Daniei's relocation to or role in Babylon. Daniel was there against his will. He was a prisoner or detainee of war, carried off to Babylon in a massive relocation program that was designed to obliterate his nation and people by having them assimilate into the dominant Babylonian culture. He had seen his home city of Jerusalem ransacked and destroyed. Perhaps his family was carried off with him or more probably killed. His future was radically altered from what he imagined it to be and he was forced to learn a new language and culture, while chosen (without his consent) to serve in the king's court. Yes, this was the same king who designed and led everything that Daniel had been through, which included ordering the unsuccessful execution of Daniel along with his three friends as described in Daniel 1 through 3.

We cannot forget what Daniel went through as we approach Daniel 4 and read how the king called on Daniel to interpret yet another dream. We would understand if Daniel was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome after all he had been through. We could identify with his decision if he had chosen to have no part in assisting or comforting the enemy of his people. Yet Daniel performed nobly and well in Babylon and he could do so because he had learned to forgive his enemies and make peace with God's plan for his life.

"FOR YOUR ADVERSARIES"

How do we know that Daniel forgave the king and his captors? Let's read one verse that describes Daniel's disposition toward those among whom he was forced to live and work:

Then Daniel (also called Belteshazzar) was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him. So the king said, “Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its meaning alarm you.” Belteshazzar answered, “My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries!" (Daniel 4:19).

There are two options to explain Daniel's response when he heard the king's dream. He was either being polite and deceptive, hiding his true feelings because he was in the presence of the king who could have his head, or Daniel had made peace with his purpose and had forgiven the king and his people. I choose to believe it was the latter. Daniel had forgiven those who had done him wrong and thus was in a position to inject his spiritual gift and divine wisdom to benefit or at least advise the king. That is remarkable. 

I had a supervisor once who was nothing short of a rascal. He lied to me on numerous occasions, did not follow through on promised raises, paid me half-time instead of time-and-a-half for overtime, and stole from me and others. Then one day, my own finances were drying up (I was paid by commission at the time) and when I sought the Lord, He revealed my leanness was due to my unforgiveness toward that man. I cried out, "Why are you picking on me? I'm not the one with the moral problem; he is!" God would not relent and I learned an important lesson that God expected me to do right and be a servant to others regardless of their worthiness.

That is a lesson we tried to impart to the inmates when I was involved in prison ministry. They had to forgive those who had betrayed, disappointed, abandoned, or despitefully used them--and often there were many they had to forgive. They included police, attorneys, guards, lovers, family, children, themselves, and even God. Their forgiveness was not to be given according to the response of those being forgiven, but in response to God's will:

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 4:32-5:2).

We taught them that they could not truly serve another unless they had dealt with anything they held against them. We also helped them understand that forgiveness is often progressive, which meant they would forgive at a certain level and move on, only to confront deeper levels of bitterness and anger. They then had to repeat the process.

Do you really want to succeed and not just exist in your Babylon? Have you made peace with those who wrongfully used you? Have you forgiven them to the extent that you can do them good, just like Daniel did in Babylon? Your purpose and creativity are not your own; God gave them to you and wants to direct how they are used. If you have not forgiven, however, it is like a knot in a garden hose. The water may be on but it can't get past the knot and your purpose is the same. It cannot get past the knot of unforgiveness. When I forgave my boss, my finances were restored and I later realized he was part of my seminary training for the ministry, for he taught me lessons no classroom could impart. I pray that you will make the most of your lessons too so you can take your place on a Babylonian stage as a main actor in a purpose play that was written, directed, and produced just for you. Have a blessed week!

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2020 TRIPS: I am heading with a group to Kenya in February and Israel/Jordan in April next year. Write for information if you would like to be among those going.