During the first siege of Jerusalem in the year 607 B.C., Daniel and his companions were captured and were taken to Babylon.

It was a fulfillment of prophecy made by prophet Isaiah in the year 712 B.C., when King Hezekiah was sick. (Isaiah 39:6-7)

As per the orders of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Daniel and his companions were among those chosen from the Israelites Royal family. These four young men were now in a new place among people of different culture, language, custom and religion, away from the comforts of their home. They were now captive and they could have to face terrible consequences if they didn’t follow the orders of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. King had ordered to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians and to give them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. By doing this, the King wanted to mould these young men into Babylonian culture. Even their names were changed and were given new names resembling Babylonian deities. (Daniel 1:1-8)

But, Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. Daniel was taught the Law of Moses from his childhood and he was very well aware that in Leviticus 11 Israelite’s were given regulation regarding clean and unclean food and they will get defiled if they don’t followed these regulations.  Also there was a custom to place the meat and wine in front of the idols before using them for preparing any food and it was forbidden for Israelite’s to consume the things offered to idols (Rev 2:14, 2:20).  Since he was suspicious about the kind of meat and wine to be given to them daily from the king’s table, he refused to eat and drink from it.  Daniel was under adverse circumstances away from the comforts of his homeland, but his life was still regulated by the Word of God!!

Who is regulating you?

Are you regulated by life’s circumstances or are you allowing God’s Word to regulate your life’s circumstances?

When in dilemmatic situation, are you consulting God’s Word?

While facing difficult trials and tribulations, are you standing tall for Christ or going with the flow?

May God help us to be resolute like Daniel in adversity.

My greetings to all of you, in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

If you look at the great personalities of this generation, you will find that they each had loyal mentors. And their mentorship took them to great heights.

For example, Mark Zuckerberg who is co-founder of Facebook, his mentor was Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs. Bill Gates who is co-founder of Microsoft, his mentor was the world’s greatest investor Warren Buffet. And Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airlines, was mentored by Sir Freddy Laker, the founder of Laker Airways.

Similarly, in the Bible we can see Barnabas as a mentor to Paul and Mark. Barnabas was very distinguished among the apostles, because of his nature. The apostles named him Barnabas, meaning “son of encouragement”.

About three years after the conversion, Paul went to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples. But everyone was afraid of him because of his past history of persecuting the church. At that time Barnabas was the one who spoke to the apostles and verified the story of Paul’s conversion. And finally, Paul was accepted within the church. After this Paul stayed with them in Jerusalem and preached about Jesus Christ. When the Jews tried to kill him, the believers sent him to Tarsus, his homeland. (Acts 9:26-30)

Nearly nine years had passed since these events and Paul still lived in his homeland Tarsus. Who knows what was going through his mind at that time? Was he waiting for God’s time? Was he dropping out of the picture of the New Testament? Was he going to settle in his motherland and become a professor? We do not know what his plans were. The only thing we know is that Barnabas went looking for Paul in Tarsus and found Paul. He brought him to Antioch and encouraged him in active Christian ministry which changed his life and the rest of history. Barnabas did not write even a single word of the New Testament. But Barnabas played a faithful mentor in Paul’s life. He encouraged Paul. Later we can see that this Paul wrote about fifty percent of the New Testament books. Barnabas was the driving force through which Paul reached the heights of the life of faith.

When Paul offered Barnabas a second missionary trip, differences arose about Mark. Paul refused to take him as Mark departed in the middle of the first missionary journey and returned to his mother’s home in Jerusalem. In Paul’s view, Mark was a cowardly and unreliable person. But Barnabas, who encouraged others, insisted on taking Mark with him. This incident separated Paul and Barnabas. (Acts 15:36-41)

Barnabas took Mark with him and encouraged him in Christian service. This young man later became a worthy servant of Christ, and even later Paul accepted this. In 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul says, “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” Later, Mark also wrote a New Testament book. Mark also achieved the heights of the life of faith.

Barnabas had no ambition to make himself big. He cared more for the fame and success of others than himself. The disciples in Jerusalem saw Paul’s terrible history. Paul saw a previous failure in Mark. But Barnabas saw a bright future in both.

May God help us in the coming days to become trusted mentors of many youth of our generation and encourage them in Christian service. God bless you all.