envelop spinner search close plus arrow-right arrow-left facebook twitter

World Changing Words Devotional-Day 58

by David Joynt on September 28, 2020


DANIEL 3:4 | 4 the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are
commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages,

 Nebuchadnezzar serves God’s purposes, and defies Him! When  a governmental authority commands religious observance, as he did in Daniel’s presentation, he is claiming a divine mandate and violating the right of individual conscience to choose the objects of its worship.

 To command worship is to misunderstand it! Any worship or devotion offered to God must be given freely to be genuine. Coerced worship is simply not worship, it is just authoritarian control in a religious guise.

 But kings out to have absolute sway are right to sense religious devotion is a powerful challenge to their authority. The sovereignty of God, by definition, exceeds that of any mortal, temporary ruler.

  Why is religious freedom important to you?

 

Tags: freedom, religious

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

More from Pastor Joynts Devotionals

return to Pastor Joynts Devotionals