Welcome to Heart of the Canyons
Welcome to my first attempt at blogging. What in the world is a blogger? I wasn't sure so I looked it up online and found some interesting definitions. According to Dave Winer of the Harvard Law School, blogging is 'a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser." Reading that really made me feel better. I was still not sure so I found a better definition. According to Matisse Enzer, "A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web." The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." So here is what I understand with my simple mind: when someone journals online they are writing a blog. The person writing the blog is a blogger, and when the journal is updated they are blogging.

Question? Isn't a journal something that is private and personal? I remember my sisters getting really angry when I read their journals and exposed their personal thoughts and feeling, "because they were personal." So maybe it really isn't a journal, it is like a personal newspaper in which you tell people what is really on your mind. It is an attempt to reveal thoughts that are important to you that you think might be of benefit to others.

With that said, I can't think of many juicy stories that you need to hear about my life, but I do believe that there are incredible truths found in the Bible that can really make life interesting and better. So, this blogger will write his blogs with the goal of sharing insights from the Bible that have changed his life, with the hopes that it will be a tool God uses to change the lives of others. Again, welcome and I look forward to blogging with you.
   
 

A FIRM RESOLVE by Jeff Steele

 September 21st, 2009

“But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank.” Daniel 1:8a

Daniel found himself taken captive to Babylon as a teenager and put into a program where his name was changed and he was taught Babylonian language, culture and religion. The goal was to brainwash Daniel and his three friends. Daniel and his friends were concerned that the food either violated God’s laws by serving something that was forbidden, or that the food and wine had been offered to the Babylonian gods before being served to them.

That Daniel made up his mind, or literally that he set it upon his heart, that he wouldn’t defile himself with the king’s food is significant. He resolved in his heart to do what was right in God’s eyes and would pay whatever price that obedience cost, even his execution if he refused to cooperate. That’s a hard decision for anyone, much less a 17 year old.

Let me ask you today, where have you set your heart to obey God and see it thru until the end, no matter what it might cost you? If you’re a single adult or you’re a young person, have you set your heart upon staying sexually pure until your wedding night? Only a firm conviction of your heart to do right will give you the strength to stay faithful. Men, are you willing to do whatever it takes, including becoming accountable and getting rid of the internet if necessary, to stay pure and avoid pornography? Only a firm conviction of your heart to do right will keep you faithful.

How strong is your commitment to be honest and not cut corners at work or on your taxes? Only the firm conviction of your heart to be completely honesty will keep you from giving in to the pressure from people around you or your own fallen nature, to lie or cheat for the sake of money. Sadly, too many Christians are faithful right up to the point where it touches their wallet or starts costing them money.

Like Daniel and his friends, we need to set our hearts to do right and make it our firm conviction to what God has asked us to do, no matter what the cost.

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