Lent: The Writing’s On The Wall | Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier

"It’s the cliché that means everybody else knows but you, you’ve been blind to the bleeding obvious. The phrase originates from an episode in the Old Testament, Book of Daniel, where the Babylonian King Belshazzar was entertaining his courtiers on the eve of battle, getting drunk from cups stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem, instead of being with his troops."

"The hand of G-d appeared and proceeded to write on the wall, words of judgement about not measuring up to expectations. Belshazzar was dead by dawn. He never saw it coming. 

None of us see it coming..." (Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier).

What are the certainties that weigh us down? What are the illusions and assumptions that immobilise and paralyse us until too late?

Marcel Proust said: "The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes."  

   (Click pic to play song...)

Living in the Empire | Lessons from Daniel’s life

Babylon was the centre of learning, commerce, wealth, and religion. Devoted to materialism, extravagance, luxury, and the pursuit of pleasure, it was a privileged society. 

But, there was also injustice, poverty, and cruel oppression. It was the great and ancient capital city, the the centre of the universe. 

And there, young Daniel and his friends found themselves. Shell-shocked exiles, reeling from the defeat of Yahweh’s people by the ruthless dictator, Nebuchadnezzar. How would they learn to live ‘another way’ so far from the land of their faith, in a powerful, seductive pagan world? 

And here we find ourselves in Western society. Consumer capitalism, a never-ending cycle of working and buying, a sea of choices produced with little regard to life or resources, societal violence, marginalised and excluded people, a world headed toward climactic calamity. 

How do we live ‘another way’ in the midst of an all-pervasive empire? We’re going to look over Daniels’ shoulders and learn what the bible teaches us about living with integrity God’s way far from the safety of of a Christendom world that has long vanished? 

Come join us Sundays either 9:30am or 6:00pm Sunday evenings at Diamond Valley Baptist Church. There is usually a free meal Sunday 5:30pm before we gather - you're welcome to join us at table!