Are you Sure That’s What you Want?

July 9, 2020 Daily thought and prayer

⁶So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: “May King Darius live forever! ⁷The royal administrators have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den.⁹So King Darius put the decree in writing.

¹⁰Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God. ¹¹Then these men found Daniel praying and asking God for help. ¹²So they went to the king: “Did you not publish a decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being except to you, would be thrown into the lions’ den?”

The king answered, “The decree stands—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”

¹³Then they said to the king, “Daniel pays no attention to you, Your Majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day.” ¹⁴When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.

¹⁵Then the men went to King Darius and said to him, “Remember, Your Majesty, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed.”

¹⁶So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!”

OK since you asked nicely, another true(ish) denture story.

A vacancy committee had heard great things about an Assistant Minister a few miles away so a delegation was dispatched to hear him one Sunday morning. The minister started by very quickly saying ‘Hello, Welcome’, then his prayers and everything else were almost inaudible as he mumbled, thankfully given his delivery his sermon was only two minutes long. At a total loss the Clerk rang him up to see what was wrong. He told her that he knowing the Vacancy Committee were to be there had been very nervous, so nervous in fact it was only when he stepped out of the Vestry did he realize he had not put his false teeth in. His delivery was entirely due his trying to cover up his embarrassment.

The two chatted and decided he should have another chance, and the committee would visit again next week

What a transformation! He spoke eloquently at the start of the service taking fully ten minutes to introduce the first hymn, the children’s address lasted half an hour, and the sermon went on for a full hour and a half. At the end the Vacancy Committee were glad someone else took the prayers. As they took a much needed coffee before going home, the prospective minister came up to the Clerk and took her to one side. He was full of apologies assuring her that normally the service would have been finished in the usual hour, the reason for the length this week was in his rush to get to Church in plenty time he had mistakenly put in his wife’s teeth and once he started speaking there was no stopping them!

I know that (very old) story is now very non PC and I apologise for it.

Saying things that are perhaps not appropriate is perhaps a very old tradition, and the Bible is littered with them. Sarah laughing when told she would have a son, Abraham saying she was his sister when they went into Egypt, Isaiah claiming he was of unclean lips, just about anything Jeremiah said to the King and his officials, Martha complaining about her sister Mary not working, just for a few instances.

Yet in each and every case God was able to work his purpose out. We might, and probably do, say the wrong thing at the wrong time, but God can still use that mistake. In God’s Kingdom nothing is ever wasted.