Tea with the Kings . . . Part One

Each summer, I open the doors of my glass fronted cabinets and gently bring out my teacups from storage.  Each cup and saucer gets a good hand-washing before its bundled up and taken with the others over to my church.

There, for one summer month each year, the ladies and I will have a special tea and Bible study.  When the ladies come into the Fellowship Hall, they love to choose the seat that has the cup they really want to use for the evening.  Each year we try new teas and recipes while we study God's Word. 

At the end of each study, the ladies bring their teacups into the church kitchen.  Usually one or two attendees will stay behind and perform twenty minute dish duty to handwash them all again.  Every once in a while, one of the ladies will say to me, "I'm so afraid that I'm going to drop my cup."

I try to assure the speaker that they are much more important to me than the teacup which can be easily replaced.  Over the five or six years that we've had these teas, not one cup has been chipped or broken.  I have so many memories of the different ladies, some who are no longer with us, who have used these teacups that I think we've gotten more than our fair share out of any one of them.

This year, we're studying the book of Daniel.  Daniel served some interesting Kings during his captivity in Babylon -- hence the name of the study "Tea with the Kings."   While I cannot share all that I'm teaching in the classes, I will pass on the handouts to you which lend themselves to personal devotions.

Daniel 1-4 Handout

Daniel was a very young man when taken out of his home environment to serve Nebuchadnezzar.  He was tested right away to break Jewish dietary law.  Daniel 1:8 says, "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat."

Daniel made a decision that he would obey God's law for the Jews of his day even though probably no one would have faulted him for obeying Nebuchadnezzar while in captivity.  He took a stand for something most of us would have considered trivial . . . not worth the risk. 

The rest of his life, he based on the spiritual foundation given to him by his family.  As far as we know, Daniel had no Scriptures with him while in Babylon.  Anything he knew of God's Word was something he had been taught as a child, yet we know from the whole book of Daniel that he continually chose to follow God through any trials he faced.  What a true spiritual heritage his parents had passed to him!

Have you recently been tested?

Most of us have.  Chances are, if you haven't already purposed in your heart to follow God's Word, you probably didn't respond well.  Let's learn from Daniel the importance of having already decided to follow God before the testing comes . . . .

Wishing you could join us for tea.

Amy