By Dr. Terry Kirby
Senior Pastor, Alpha Baptist Church, Morristown

Focal Passage: Daniel 5:17-28

As October fades into November so ends another season of Halloween.  Halloween is big business.  Hollywood has made countless movies designed to scare even the bravest of the brave.  The movies that are the most effective in trying to frighten their audiences are the ones that seem real. Also, farmers turn their fields into haunted mazes.  Stores fill their shelves with candy, costumes, and decorations that can turn the average home into a haunted house. Halloween also turns many people into fanatics about the celebration of all things evil. Sadly many Christians join in these festivities honoring and celebrating rituals that border on satanic worship.  Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should never mingle the sacred and the satanic.  This action dishonors the temple of God. Believer, you are the temple of God.  [Read more…]

By Dr. Terry Kirby
Senior Pastor, Alpha Baptist Church, Morristown

Focal Passage: Daniel 4:28-35

Americans are nostalgic concerning their movies. Celebrations occur as the movies of the past are remembered on special anniversaries. One recent celebration was for the late 1980s trilogy “Back to the Future.” These movies are about a time-traveling teenager and his scientist mentor. As they travel into the past or the future they try not to change the future by their actions while visiting the past. The main reason for all the hype was that the second movie was set in October 2015. It was fun to see how the predictions of the movie concerning life in 2015 matched or conflicted with present day reality.
As the events of Daniel chapter four unfold we encounter a powerful story concerning a prediction about the future. This story contains a mysterious dream, an all-powerful king, and a guarantee from a man of God that everything treasured by the king would be taken away from him in the future if he does not honor God. This is no fictional tale. Hollywood’s best attempt at storytelling cannot compare to this real story in the Word of God. [Read more…]

By Dr. Terry Kirby
Senior Pastor, Alpha Baptist Church, Morristown

Focal Passage: Daniel 3:13-18, 26-28

Most of us know one. Most of us have had one in our family. Most of us are in awe of their courage and all of us are indebted to them. The members of the United States military, both past and present, are these exceptional Americans who have given up their own lives to protect our freedom. What makes them heroes is their willingness to take a life or death stand for the noble cause of freedom. Today’s military risk everything not knowing if they will live one more moment to enjoy their own freedom earned by a previous generation of heroes.

The Bible is filled with stories of how followers of God have had to take similar stands for a cause. This cause is larger than freedom. This cause is Truth, which is the Word of God. Christians, unknown to most of the world, give up their lives every day as they bravely stand on the truth.

The events in Daniel chapter three occur 23 years after Daniel interpreted the dream for King Nebuchadnezzar. The attention shifts away from Daniel to his three friends: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The “Three”, as they will be called, vividly show us how to stand on the truth. [Read more…]

By Dr. Terry Kirby
Senior Pastor, Alpha Baptist Church, Morristown

Focal Passage: Daniel 2:13-21, 26-28a

I don’t know if you are like me when it comes to shopping but I can only endure it under certain conditions. I only like to shop when I have a predetermined list and a set number of minutes. These trips can take a turn for the worse when I hear the cries of a child echoing through isles the result of a parent saying, “No!” Depending upon the severity of the cries, the response can be called a temper tantrum. Adults are tragically guilty of these same temper tantrums.

The events recorded in Daniel chapter 2 shows the temper tantrum of King Nebuchadnezzar and the mature actions of Daniel, a teenager in exile from Judah. The king had had a nightmare that deeply troubled him. He wanted his wise men to tell him the dream and its interpretation. To put it in different terms, the king was asking them to draw a picture that he was thinking of and also tell him what it meant. The wise men declared that it would be impossible for anyone to fulfill his demands. Nebuchadnezzar apparently had grown tired of the wise men’s lack of help when he really needed it. They seemed to cost him more than they were worth. In response, the king ordered that all the wise men were to be killed. This order would include the lives of Daniel and his three friends: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar’s temper tantrum would cost many lives. What would Daniel do? [Read more…]

By Terry Kirby
Senior Pastor, Alpha Baptist Church, Morristown

Focal Passage: Daniel 1:3-5, 8-13, 17-19

Think about it! Will anyone remember that you lived in 1,000 years? Will anybody remember that you lived in 100 years? Sad for some, only a fraction of one percent of the people who have ever lived will survive in the memories of future generations. In our world, halls of fame have been established to help remember the best of the best. How do people make it into the hall of fame? They make it because they are the best in their field.

The greatest and most long lasting “hall of fame” is the Word of God. Why? The Word of God is the living and eternal record of the lives of the best of the best of those who obeyed God’s Word and lived with an unshakable conviction of the same. Daniel, along with his three friends, are members of God’s Hall of Fame. [Read more…]