Greeting Members and Friends
It time once again for our weekly Sunday School preview so thanks for joining me and welcome back. The Winter Quarter entitled “Faith In Action” explores faith as both belief and action. The January unit is entitled “A Living Faith in God” and it explores examples of faith from the book of Daniel that provide models of sincerity, obedience, boldness, and strength. This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “A Strong Faith”.
Sometimes in life, we may be confronted with things that seem unbearable. We can be hurt or troubled by an event or situation so intensely that we can find it difficult continue beyond a certain point. This is the situation Daniel found himself in as he experienced the visions God gave him. What he saw and understood was so overwhelming, that he got physically weak to the point he felt the life leaving out of him. But each time he reached a low point, he received a touch to reassure him and served to strengthen him so that he could go on. Because of the prophetic nature of his visions, Daniel’s help came from an unnatural heavenly source.
While such help can’t be ruled out, it is most likely most of our help will come from those who know, love and care about us. And although the help may come from someone in our natural world, it is God’s method of giving and sending us what we need when we need it. Sometimes we will be on the receiving end of that help and at other times we may need to be on the giving side. Sometimes our faith will need to strengthen and sometimes we will need to help strengthen the faith of others. After seeing the visions, Daniel’s faith needed to be strengthen. After his faith was strengthen, he was able to record his visions in order to strengthen our faith through his prophetic writings.
Daniel fasted and prayed three weeks before receiving this vision. The purpose of his mourning was to establish a clear line of communication between himself and God. It may be necessary for us to minimize the distractions of life and deny ourselves in order to establish a sincere and better line of communication with God. When we are intense and sincere about receiving an answer from God, God will know and will send us an appropriate response. You can get a better understanding of this lesson by reading the daily SS readings found in your SS book which can also be accessed through our website and mobile app. Well, that’s all for this week’s preview. Be sure to join us in Sunday School this week for a fuller discussion of this lesson and the general topic of Faith In Action. So, until then
Grace and peace
Pastor Jordan
