It was suggested that I post this to a new group and being new to the family, this is probably the group I have wished for.  So here it goes to Christianity and Real Estate group

 I really attempt to pay close attention when our Pastor teaches us a lesson God has given him.  This morning and yesterday's men's breakfast were times that God had decided to make sure my ears were open but that my heart would be even more open.  I eve took some notes:

We are studying the book of Daniel and were looking at how the 3 teenagers who were friends and prisoners with Daniel in Babylon, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednigo (sp?) as they were forced to make choices about who they would worship. 

Daniel 2:46-47 and Daniel 3:1-6 are the basis of this study.

There are 3 points of information for this one:

1.  God honoring decisions will set you apart from the crowd.

          God simply asks us tthat when making a choice, that we will ALWAYS choose to honor God above all else.

2.  When making our choice, God is still God, whether the outcome is Triumph or Tragedy.

          A.  Am I living to get through my present trial?

          B.  Am I living to honor god above all else?

          C.  When our focal point is deliverance from the trial, the only thing that can bring us joy is deliverence. 

James 1:2 tells us "Whenever trouble comes our way, let it be an opportunity for JOY.  Joy literally means "Jump up and click your heels together and/or Leap with excitement."

3.  God doesn't promise to keep us from life's trials, but to keep us through the trials.

There are 3 kinds of trials in our lives:

Trials we bring on ourselves, trials our sinful world brings on us, and trials from living a Godly life in an ungodly world.

When we choose to live our life with God in the prime position then: "We will live on a level that will go against popular beliefs.  We will live on a level that will invite opposition.  We will live on a level that will tempt us to compromise.  Living on this level will produce uncommon results.

Daniels 3 friends were directed (as were all the people) to bow down to a gold statue on command of the king or they would be thrown into a firey furnace.  They made the choice to live on a level with God and said they would not bow down to anything but the one and only God.  The king got so mad when he found this out that it says that his face was distorted with rage.  He ordered the furnace to be made 7 times hotter than it had ever been before (to the point that men who were putting fuel on the fire died from the heat outside the furnace).  The 3 boys were then taken to the fuirnace where their hands were bound with ropes and they were thrown in.  Immediately a 4th being was seen by the king and his men in the furnace.  The boys finally came out where their clothes were not even scorched, nor did they even have the odor of fire about them.  When they came out, there was one major thing that had happened to them:  the ropes binding their hands were completely gone with leaving maeks on their arms or hands.

Living a life for GOD puts on a level creating a place with Him as Master and also removes the things that bind us to this sinful world.

I write this more as a reminder for me but to say to all of us in the service industry we are in, that if we follow the nature of this sinful world, the results will be sinful.  If we choose to live on that level shown above, our results in this world will be uncommon.  More people WILL want us to serve them and to assist them in their need because we will display integrity, and moral values that most will not see in this sinful world.