Daniel 8:13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?

Are you a person who writes and keeps journals? I have a long list of daily writings that I do not maintain. I occasionally go back to read those entries and find myself surprised at what I wrote. It is glimpse at that babe in Christ and what his impressions were. Some of it I can honestly say, who wrote that, surely not me. I’ve changed over the years and I would hope for the better. I would say that much of the innocence or ignorance of those early years is gone but I hope the passion has not.

I selected this passage from Daniel today for only one reason. While it does not deal directly with journals, it does indicate an attitude which I am aware of and need to be cautious about. As a writer of devotionals it is within my ability to relate journal entries as an example of how God has worked in my life. Those examples of the past might help others. It is my ancient history and not current.

The danger for me to avoid is in becoming a journalist. A journalist inserts himself into the story with personal perspectives and deep emotions. Journalist intend to move people, to stir emotions, to help make history as much as report it as it happens. As a servant of God the story cannot be about me.

The passage from Daniel is an example of one person voicing their concerns and by implication of concern is say; “What are we going to do about it?”

Revelation 22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

I am merely a leaf, I am not the tree.

 

I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and I have all faith

I did not list 1 Corinthians 13 as a reference for this quote because it is in part, incomplete. The reason I quoted it incomplete is because of what it truly says and means in context. If you do not have what is missing in the quote, so what!!!

I have sat under some really good teachers, gifted in delivering the word. I could not get next to them, I could not connect with them.

I have been trained up in the spiritual gifts. I’ve operated in those gifts, but they happened by the will of God and I had no personal connection with the objects of God’s blessings.

I’ve given prophecy to men I do not know and impacted their decisions without understanding what they were going through.

I have seen things I cannot explain and have no one to share those things with.

Chapter thirteen of first Corinthians is the love chapter. It teaches about the quality and characteristics of love, what it does and what it does not. Reading through that chapter this morning I noticed something was missing, something that you might expect to see but it is not there.

Grace.

2 Corinthians 8:7 Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.

Love is and needs not an object to exist. While love desires to be shared it is none the less for what it is without being received. Grace on the other hand has to be received, it requires an object to rest upon, to focus on, to shower.

Grace was missing in my spiritual gifts. May grace abound in the relationships I am building in Christ.