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Based in Hillsville, Virginia, this is the podcast of ReCreate Church. We are a community of Life and Love.
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Sunday Mar 27, 2022
Sunday Mar 27, 2022
Daniel and The Lion’s Den.
Today, Pastor Michael is continuing his study on Daniel and today is the ‘famous’ Daniel story. The one we *all* remember Daniel for. Spoiler alert: The lions didn’t eat Daniel!
What is not as well known is how Daniel wound up there in the first place!
This message deals with a preying on a person’s need to feel that we are good for something and how we unconsciously organize our world to validate that perception.
Today’s story takes place about 60 years from the first chapter of Daniel. Daniel is in Babylon and has lived quite the life and he thinks he’s finally retired but he would up being present at the very last day of the Babylonian empire and the Meads and the Persians have taken over. Cyrus is the High King and Darius is ruling Babylon, under Cyrus.
One of the three governors appointed to this role is Daniel. He’s not young anymore but he’s doing such a good job that King Darius is considering appointing him over all of Babylon. However, as is typical even today, his co-workers aren’t exactly crazy about his great work ethic. “How can we trap Daniel?”, goes their thinking and they finally have their nirvana moment, “Hey, Daniel prays to that Jerusalem God” and that caters to the Devil’s playbook.
His enemies go to King Darius and throw Daniel under the proverbial bus. They ask the King to pass a law that the people of Babylon can only pray to King Darius for 30 days. This obviously appealed to the King’s sense of divinity and was a cunning political move.
Daniel continued to pray to the true God of Jerusalem, whereas the snitches turn to the King and turn him in. The King wasn’t happy with this, as he knew at this point it was a setup but he had to do what he decreed. The King had to cast him into the den of lions and did so. But Darius is holding on the the hope that Daniel’s god will save him.
They lowered Daniel into the pit of lions but we know the outcome, don’t we?
When the sun rose, Darius went to the lion’s den and cried out to Daniel. Daniel replied back and reminded Darius that he was in the den for nothing that he had done wrong!
The story here is that God can deliver us from impossible situations!
Bible for Hope Study Notes: A Glimpse of the Miraculous (6:23) King Darius and Daniel experienced the miracle of the lions’ den from significantly different perspectives. The king mouthed faithful-sounding encouragement when Daniel was thrown into the pit (6:16), but his sleepless night (6:18) didn’t show faith in God. Daniel, on the other hand, approached his sentence with complete confidence in God’s will. As a result, Darius was only able to witness the event as a spectator, only able to appreciate it from afar. In contrast, Daniel experienced the miracle firsthand and felt the loving, protective hand of God “because he believed.” When we trust in God, we will recognize His touch on our lives.
Verses can be found today in Daniel, Chapter 6.
Sunday Mar 20, 2022
Sunday Mar 20, 2022
The Writing Is On The Wall.
Today, Pastor Michael is back on track with his series on Daniel. This is the fifth (5th) installment of this series and Daniel is really in interesting person, once you start drilling down on his legacy.
The story of the first half of the book of Daniel was about the Babylonians taking over Jerusalem, the “Babylonian Captivity”. Lots of folks, including Daniel, were re-located to Babylon during this time. Daniel not only found a way to survive, but a way to actually thrive, as one of King Nebuchadnezzar’s most trusted advisors. Now, in Chapter 5, King Nebuchadnezzar is dead. There is actually a huge gap in the timeline between Chapter 4 of Daniel and Chapter 5.
Daniel was maybe in his late twenties the last time we saw him and now in Chaper Five he is around eighty! So where’s he been? He’s been doing his job, serving the king and the Lord. He was just being faithful!
Nebuchadnezzar’s successors are out fighting and Belshazzar is appointed reagent of the Kingdom, being Nabonidus’ son. Belshazzar was a ‘grandaddies money’ kind of guy. And when the story opens, we find Belshazzar partying! Now he’s partying with religious articles from the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem. The timing of it, was equally as terrible, as a time to throw a party. Cyrus the Great is outside the walls of Babylon, getting ready to conquer them! The overall timing of everything here is just really bad on an epic scale.
A ghostly hand now appears in the room…bizarre! This hand floats over to a well lit section of the wall and starts tracing words on the wall. Belshazzar calls for his aids to interpret this writing…so all the wise men come in and they cannot ascertain the answer (third time in Daniel where wise men couldn’t help, by the way!). Belshazzar’s mom hears the disturbance and informs them that she remembered Daniel used to help Nebuchadnezzar’s dream interpretations.
Daniel gets called in and interprets the writing. And the news isn’t good. Daniel lets Belshazzar that he needs to humble himself and chides him for using the articles of the true Lord in his partying. The meaning is “God has numbered the days of your kingdom and time is up”. And up, TODAY!
The end of the Babylonian empire had come. The empire fell that night and Belshazzar was killed.
A new empire took its place, a partnership of the Meads and the Persians. This is the end of Babylon but not the end of Daniel!
What can we learn from Belshazzar? He certainly didn’t learn from history, nor humble himself. He needed to get ahold of God with both hands and beg his help and favor. He is the example of what not to do!
Verses can be found today in Daniel, Chapter 5.
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Vision, Passion, Purpose.
Today, Pastor Michael is taking a slight detour off the Daniel series he’s been covering, due to a freak winter storm cancelling our in-person services. So, he’s chatting about how we started.
Vision, Passion and Purpose define that we represent at ReCreate Church and how we apply the Lord’s vision in what we do.
Michael speaks especially on “Passion”, which originally meant suffering. God’s good purposes for your life will involve some struggle. God will give us help in going through those times!
Does God have a purpose for you? Have you stopped and asked Him for His vision for you?
At ReCreate we are always asking, what does God call us to. What does God want for our lives?
Verses can be found today in Proverbs 29:18 and 55: 10-12 and 19: 21.
Sunday Mar 06, 2022
Sunday Mar 06, 2022
Daniel and the Werewolf King.
Today, Pastor Michael is continuing his series on Daniel. And King Nebuchadnezzar is having another of his dreams…this time about a big tree and a ‘watcher’ (angel). Daniel interprets the dream and the news isn’t particularly good…Daniel interprets the dream as the tree representing Babylon and its ultimate fall.
Fast forward a year and the King has seen nothing happen and he feels embolden by how very rich his kingdom is, by his own design, through no help, apparently, from God. Yet, a voice comes down from Heaven, telling the King that the kingdom will fall but the King still feels the kingdom is successful because of his own design.
Judgement however, comes quickly. Nebuchadnezzar is banished from his kingdom, has to eat grass, and his nails become like claws. The man who had everything and his pride knocked him down.
Seven years pass and Nebuchadnezzar looks up to heaven and his understanding returns. Only when he acknowledges the Lord, does he finally understand. He discovers that everything is a gift from God; from Him and for Him.
Verses can be found today in Daniel, Chapter Four (4).
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Daniel’s Friends and the Fiery Furnace.
Today, Pastor Michael is continuing his theme of Daniel and we’re getting into Chapter 3. From Chapter 2, we learned that Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, it was interpreted correctly and he knew of the empire to come, after Babylon. Yet, instead of him considering this was his real encounter, with the Living God, he went back to idolatry! He commissioned a huge statue and an orchestra to create an anthem to him, to make his subject bow down to him. And if they did *not* bow down to him, they would be thrown into a furnace!
When the anthem played, only three did not bow down. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not. The king’s advisors were so jealous of these three that they ratted them out and the king flies into a rage and commits them to the furnace! The three answered the king, “…we do not serve your god nor the gold image…”
(Bible for Hope Study Notes) When the three men were confronted and threatened, they offered a marvelous and courageous statement of faith: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (3:16-18). Their tone was respectful, confident, and uncompromising. They only assumed God’s unlimited ability, not what might happen to them. They were clearly ready to die rather than deny God.
The depth of our faith and our loyalty to God can only be measured against resistance. Threats of harm or whispers of compromise have this equal possible benefit in common: They provide an opportunity to test our faith. Sometimes, as in Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego’s lives, the test becomes a miracle!
(Disciple's Study Bible Notes) SALVATION, Belief—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are examples of the kind of faith God wants people to have in him. Faith has such trust in God’s love and power that believers hold to God no matter what happens, no matter who seeks to change their minds, or what threats they face.
Verses can be found today in Daniel, Chapter Three (3).
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
David and the Empire of Dreams.
Today, Pastor Michael is continuing his series on Daniel. Last week, we delved into Chapter One, where the Babylonians took over and took the Jewish people to Babylonia as slaves. This week, we’re in Chapter Two, finding Daniel with this three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. For Daniel remaining true to his values back in Chapter One, God has rewarded him with an ability to interpret dreams and visions. And in Chapter Two, King Nebuchadnezzar had a troubling dream. So he summoned his wise men who asked him about the dream. The king did not tell them, offering them that they had to tell him the dream and the interpretation or be killed.
Pretty much you can guess where that went…no more wise men! Daniel, however, went to the Captain of the Guards and convinced him that he could read the King’s dream and interpret it. The King agreed to let Daniel do this, so Daniel and his three friends prayed about it. The Lord gave Daniel the dream vision and the interpretation. So Daniel goes back to the King with the news. The first part of Daniels dialogue with the King is to let him know that no man can predict the future.
(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes). The manner of Daniel’s speech shows his confidence, and Arioch’s quick response reveals his trust in Daniel. In the presence of the king, Daniel gives God the glory, as, together with the sages, he admits that “no wise man, medium, magician, or diviner is able to make known to the king the mystery he has asked about” (2:27). Only Daniel’s God can and does reveal mysteries (2:28–29). Daniel humbly admits that he is a mere instrument in God’s hands and that his abilities should not be viewed as native but have been given to him by God (2:30). Then he proceeds to explain the dream.
Daniel says that the King has seen a giant statue, made of precious metals. (CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) Through the dream of the colossal statue consisting of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and feet of iron mingled with clay, the Lord reveals how one empire will succeed another empire: Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome (2:36–40). The resulting instability of the image is represented by the mixing of iron and clay (2:42–43).
Then the stone it was on, grew into a huge mountain. The King at this point is impressed as this was EXACTLY what he had dreamed!
The interpretation of this dream is a revealing of the future of Empires: the empires that shall come. The King is the head of gold, Babylon. There will be another empire, the silver empire (Persia), which will be lesser than Babylon but will take over. Then a third kingdom, represented by the Bronze shall take over, which will be Greece. The last last empire will be Rome, taking over vast expanses of kingdoms. Finally, the feet, iron an clay mixed, will, at a time, be God in Heaven obliterating all kingdoms and His kingdom will surpass all kingdoms on earth.
The King is literally floored, falling on his face, before Daniel. He promoted Daniel and gave him many gifts and made him also Head Administrator of the wise men. He is a very high official now in the Government of Babylon.
The prophecies of Daniel are so precise the evidence is overwhelming!
The empires of the prophesies. Babylon, the head of gold. The height of this empire was under Nebuchadnezzar and only a generation or two after him, Babylon fell. Babylon was overtaken by the Meads and the Persians, the chest and arms of silver. The Persian empire was crushed by a tiny army from Greece, the belly and thighs of brass. Greece was dominant from 331 BC until about 63 AD. Then they were overcome by an even more powerful empire: Rome. The legs of iron, crushing everyone that opposed them. Their empire went from England to India and south to Africa. They had two divisions, eastern and western, lasting for 1,500 years.
The king’s dream accurately depicted this succession of empires. This shows clearly how accurate the Bible is, these prophesies have all come true!
What did these empires do for our faith? Babylon took the Jews out of the promised land and took them to Babylon where they got serious with God. The Persians allowed the Jews to go back to their land and funded the rebuilding of the temple. The Greeks spread their language and for the first time there was a trade language amongst a lot of people. Lastly, the Romans were good at conquering even more than all the previous empires and built roads all over their kingdom, connecting people. People can now travel and missionaries can travel, too!
Later prophesy from Daniel and Revelation show Rome coming back and Jesus will be the great stone that obliterates the empires to be replaced by His kingdom!
The rise and fall of empires, was created by God and He used it to bring good to everyone. It was so the good news could come down through the ages.
Verses can be found today in Daniel, Chapter Two (2).
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
One Hit Wonders!
Today Michael is starting a new series on Daniel. As our title today suggests, Daniel has a One Hit Wonder kind of reputation, known primarily for Daniel and The Lion’s Den fame. But Daniel had so much more in his life, including Daniel and the Diet Plan, Daniel and the Heroic Goat, Daniel and the Ghost Hand and Daniel and the Fantastic Beasts just to name four out of twelve notable chapters in his life.
Today’s message is about Daniel and the Diet Plan. This takes place about 400 years after King David and 600 years before Jesus, during the time of the Babylonian Captivity.
(Bible for Hope Study Notes) When Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in the summer of 605 B.C., Daniel was only a teenager. He and several others were taken captive by the Babylonians and placed in a three-year training program in which they were expected to learn the Babylonian view of life and religion. They were even forced to learn the Babylonian language and given Babylonian names. Daniel in Hebrew means “God is my judge”; his name was changed to Belteshazzar, which in the Babylonian language means “the god Bel is my judge.” It may have been as close as the Babylonians could come to translating the meaning of his name.
So, Daniel is doing the Babylonian thing but he does take exception on the food. Daniel realized that eating the king’s food would show him as accepting the kings loyalty. So Daniel asked for veggies and water; hence the reason for the name, “Daniel and the Diet Plan”! The official handling that was worked that the King would see him looking not-so-healthy. Daniel offered to try it on a test basis and the official agreed.
(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) The issue of food and drink is highly significant to Daniel and his friends. The Lord has clearly designated certain foods as unclean (Lv 7:22–27; 11:1–47). Moreover, the royal court is closely associated with pagan temples, as food and drink are symbolically dedicated to the gods.
After the test diet of healthy foods, Daniel and his friends were reviewed by the King and found healthier than the others, those eating the King’s diet!
Daniel’s faith was rewarded by the Lord in him receiving the ability to discern dreams and other gifts.
The moral of the story is, Daniel and his friends took a stand. You can stand against the world, with God at your side!
Todays verses are found in Daniel Chapter One.
We will be going over a chapter in Daniel each week for the next 12 weeks.
Sunday Feb 06, 2022
Sunday Feb 06, 2022
Sanctity of Life Sunday.
Our service starts off today with Luci Boudreaux giving a moving testimony to the unborn and her experience as a young lady living that. It is a wonderful second version of our most popular podcast ever but here is only an introduction to Michael’s study on the sanctity of life. In the days of the Roman Empire the Romans had a word, “Expositus” meaning exposure, where it was culturally acceptable for children to be left outside to die. Even though this was 2,000 years ago, children are still sold into slavery and human trafficking in 2022.
We have to realize, we are created in the image of God and every human life is the handiwork of God. It would be better to destroy human artwork than disrespect human life….which is God’s artwork!
There is a debate on when life begins. From a biblical perspective, God counts us as people BEFORE conception! You were conceived by God because God knew us before we were ever conceived.
Life is precious; it should be honored and protected and we know that we are loved by a God that created us in his image.
Today’s verses can be found at Genesis 1: 26-27, Psalms 139: 13-16 and Jeremiah 1: 4-7.
Saturday Jan 29, 2022
Saturday Jan 29, 2022
Snow Ice Cream
Today Pastor Michael is house bound, due to snow, so he is expanding on the Biblical references to snow.
Pete Enns, The Biblical Teaching of Snow: It may interest you to know that the word “snow” (Hebrew sheleg, Greek chion) appears 23x in the Bible. And in every single instance, snow has either a neutral or positive meaning. Nowhere was I able to find a condemning word about snow. This is important, for biblical teaching on any matter must be consistent.
Today’s verses can be found at Proverbs 15: 13, Isaiah 55: 10-11, Proverbs 26: 1, and Isaiah 1: 18.
Saturday Jan 22, 2022
Saturday Jan 22, 2022
Stress, Anxiety and Fear.
Crazy title but today Pastor Michael is talking how in this crazy pandemic world we live in, our stress, anxiety and fear are amped up worse than ever. But this is about a foundation that can endure the worst this world can deal out. There is a foundation that can do that: Jesus Christ.
Not every kind of fear is a bad thing. The right kind of fear can actually protect us. The fear of God, for example, is such an overwhelming reverence for Him that we dare not do anything that would disrespect Him. The right kind of fear keeps us from destroying what is good in our lives.
Now, there is fear that is bad. Anxiety drives more than we realize and control issues and perfectionism: they are often fear in disguise. Addiction issues can also be found to have fear and anxiety at their core, too!
Now we can talk of a spiritual fear, a fear of refusing to accept God. If you take human stress, anxiety and fear, they are built on lies (usually the devil’s!).
This fear robs us our peace and blessings. Marry human fear with spiritual fear and it truly is the devil working on his plan, that of causing all of this fear!
There is always enough money to obey and trust God. There is always enough energy to trust and obey God. God does His best work when the odds seem to be against us. Fear would have us believe the worse. Yet Jesus paints a different picture: He tells us not to fear. He gives us a reason, in Luke 12:32. We are children of God. That relationship changes everything.
You Heavenly Father wants to bless you. No matter what, you have lots of blessings, even if you’re struggling. Ask yourself, what exactly do you want? Trouble-free lives aren’t on this side of heaven!
Stress, Anxiety and Fear: tells us we don’t have enough. Faith says we always have enough!
Let’s look at what the Bible for Hope notes on worry:
(Bible for Hope Study Notes) …we all worry about our finances, our loved ones, our jobs, our health, and a host of other life issues. It may be hard to relate to Jesus’ words concerning worry. After all, Jesus had no children, no boss, no rent to pay. Jesus never had to grocery shop for a family and make dollars stretch, or car pool kids to sports, try to make the PTA meeting, and put dinner on the table. Jesus never had to take care of his elderly parents and help his teenagers plan for college at the same time. How can we apply His teaching about not worrying to twenty-first-century life?
Actually, these passages are more for us today than ever. In a materialistic, consumption- minded, technological world, Jesus is telling us to order our priorities: “Seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you” (Luke 12:31). For most of us, however, there is a large gap between managing our day-to-day lives and seeking God’s kingdom. In order to achieve the peace of God, to not be overwhelmed by the pressures of life, we have to change. We read that we cannot add a single hour to our life by worrying and fretting, but because worrying is what we know best, it’s what we do first, especially in stressful situations. To seek first the kingdom means to pray first, releasing our fears and worries to the Lord.
Today’s verse can be found at Luke 12: 32.