Rating 3.5 Stars

The focus of Daniel's Dilemma for us is culture. The coal of changing ones identinty, the test of true worship, and the greatest sin of pride. The balance of self-reliance and being humble with humility. These are all that Daniel faced in his day and that we are in our own day.

While reacquainting myself with Daniel and reflecting the challenges that Christians face today, I thought of the phrase how is God relevant in my life? This question leads to pragmatism and consumerism mind set. The question needs to be asked how am I relevant to God. I don't think Daniel was basing his life on God's relevance but his courage came from his closeness to God. Knowing the word and praying 3 times a day is well documented in the scriptures. However, when we see God as creator, we see ourselves relevant to the will of God and we can say with confidence not my will but yours. I don't say this lightly because it is all based on how closely am I connected to the word of God. This was strongly encouraged in this text by numbering our days.

But the real reason for the this text is how we can more faithful to the will of God and still love others that will disagree.

The text comes in 3 parts

Culture's Greatest Impact: Confused Identities. I think the whole book could have been written with this and is such an important aspect of Christianity and the culture. The culture has honed in the word identity. With #blacklivesmatter, #metoo #iamsam . All these issues deal with identity and believe it or not Christianity as much to say on identity. We are created in the image of God. Daniel understood his identity in that. There was no debate.

Culture's Greatest Test: Who Will I Worship We are tested in this everyday. By how we live, how we love, what we value. Daniel was tested in this very thing and his example is straightforward and intentional. He knew whom he served. Do I?

Culture's Greatest Question: Who is in Charge of my life? . Pride is in each one of us and God has given us the example of Nebuchadnezzar. His pride led to his defeat. We see this time and time again. What is the antidote of pride. Reliance on God. Again, knowing our days our numbered and how are we using them.

Culture's Greatest Culprit: Unfocused and Busy Lives. There is so much that takes us away from being focused and focusing on what really matters. We all know this. A divided heart will never know the closeness of the Lord until it knows the Lord is all there is. Daniel did not blame his circumstances but prayed for the Glory of God and all would be know his Glory.

Culture's Greatest Need: Truth and Grace Connecting before correcting is the key to this part. Building relationships not on what we know but how we care.

All in all this was a reminder of influencing the culture and not being swept away from the culture.

A Special Thank You to Thomas Nelson and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

This compelling book by Chris Hodges outlines how Christians can live a life firmly in their faith and love others well, like the prophet Daniel, without succumbing to the pressure of lowering their standards or being an obnoxious, holier-than-thou person. Very encouraging to read.

*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

The Daniel Dilemma by Chris Hodges attempts to examine how Christians can stand firm in a world that is full of compromise. The author focuses on the life of Daniel and what was can learn from him. I love how the author uses Scripture to make his arguments and how he values love and relationship. Correction should never be done outside of relationship, and this book hits the mark on this point. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher. These opinions are entirely my own.

“Often we mean well, but we don’t love well. In every single encounter Jesus had with people, we see an unwavering attitude of love even as he calls them to leave their sin behind and follow him.”
– Chris Hodges

How does our culture affect us and how do we affect our culture? Using the life of the prophet Daniel, Pastor Chris Hodges lays out five main principles in The Daniel Dilemma about how to love well in today’s culture.

“Here’s what we need to remember: Truth without grace is mean. Grace without truth is meaningless.”

While I don’t always agree with Hodges’ exact biblical interpretations, I greatly appreciate his foundation of grace, his attitude of humility, and his reverence for Jesus. His love for God and his love for people are evident.

Hodges answers five cultural dilemmas on how to be a person of influence, standing firm and loving well. Here they are with quotes from The Daniel Dilemma.

1. Confused identities (Culture’s great impact)
Know our God-given identities (chapter 1)
Settle our core values (chapter 2)
Be ready to stand our ground in the tests of life (chapter 3)
“The more time you spend with Jesus, the less time you’re going to spend being intimidated by the opinions of others or worrying about your problems. Worshiping God has become the first thing I do whenever I’m faced with a loss, crisis, or major setback.”

2. Whom will I worship? (Culture’s greatest test)
Worship God (chapter 4)
Don’t worship other gods (chapter 5)
Give our lives fully to Jesus (chapter 6)
“Worship changes everything. Through worship, we move from viewing our problems as big and God as small to the exact opposite: because we remember how big our God is. Worship restores our perspective.”

3. Who is in charge of my life? (Culture’s greatest question)
Identify our pride (chapter 7)
Put our feelings in their proper place (chapter 8)
Give God full control of our lives (chapter 9)
“If we want to overcome pride in our lives, then we must turn from being self-sufficient back to being God-dependent. . . . God doesn’t bless us just so we can hoard a lot of money and buy stuff. He blesses us to be a blessing for others, to advance his kingdom, to reveal his love through the gift of salvation in Christ.”

4. Unfocused and busy lives (Culture’s greatest culprit)
Understand the brevity of life (chapter 10)
Focus on our priorities (chapter 11)
Heed the warning signs of weariness (chapter 12)
“It is better to have less of what doesn’t matter and more of what does. . . . Focus on things that will last. . . .God’s plan to bring light to a dark culture is us.”

5. Truth and grace (Culture’s greatest need)
Learn how to connect before we correct (chapter 13)
Let God change us into his likeness (chapter 14)
“My purpose as a follower of Jesus is to give people hope. People are ready for God, but they want hope, not a debate. . . . Evangelism is not telling others what they should do; it’s telling them what happened in you. It’s never ‘Turn or burn!’ It’s ‘Hey, guess what happened to me.’”

Ultimately, this is a book of hope. Christianity is a religion of hope. It points us to the reliable One we put our hope in. And it shows us a way to pass along that hope to others. Hodges does not say it is easy, but he shows it is possible.

My thanks to NetGalley for the review copy of this book.

LOVE this book. So much good stuff in here. Chris gets to the core of things and gives simple, yet effective ways to stand strong in a world of compromise.

How do we stand for our Christian beliefs yet love others? I’m not an expert but I know I have somehow manged to do it in my classroom. One of my students who is very open about his lifestyle tells me my class is his happy, safe place. I didn’t create that by preaching at him I created that by being kind and listening to him. He knows what I believe yet he sees that I care about him. I will never condone his lifestyle but I will love him.

Chris gives practical advice how we all can do that.

I have highlighted so much from this book I can’t share it all but here are a views quotes:

“Truth without grace is mean. Grace without truth is meaningless. Truth and grace together are good medicine.”

“Worship is not about responsive readings or singing hymns. Worship is surrendering yourself to the power, majesty, and goodness of your Creator, letting God be God — even when you don’t understand what he’s doing or when you disagree.”

Love this one: “We should really consider whether we’re willing to give praise to a team of athletes who don’t even know us but stay silent before the God who created us. It all comes down to worship.”

There’s so much more but I just suggest you pick up the book and give it a read for yourself. I really enjoyed this.


A copy of this book was given to me through Netgalley.com. All opinions are my own.

I received an advance ebook copy from NetGalley for review.

This is a book I will read again and again, and recommend to my small group. The author articulates ideas I've been trying to get a handle on for some time. By using illustrations from the book of Daniel as well as the earthly ministry of Jesus, he shows the reader that being loving is a mandatory prerequisite to being doctrinally correct, when it comes to persuading the lost that they need to follow Jesus.

Just a few quotes that I highlighted:

He was correct but he wasn't helpful.

Truth without grace is mean. Grace without truth is meaningless.

God gets to be God and we don't.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; humility is thinking of yourself less.

Connect before we correct.

People, not projects.

Having grown up in an environment where the opposite of these principles was practiced, this book really resonated with me. The author also points out that as Jesus went about among the people of Israel, his modus operandi was to heal whatever ailed a person (i.e. connect), and only then would he tell them to stop sinning (correct). By contrast, in far too too many situations today, alas, those who purport to represent God require that the seeker "check off the boxes" on a long list of requirements before they'll offer grace.

This is an easy-read, practical book on Christian Living by an American pastor of a large church. I mention that he is American because the American culture pervades this loosely narrative style commentary on the Bible book of Daniel. It is not without its charm, plenty of sage advice on how to adopt a humble attitude to ministry and the Christian Life generally. The book is peppered liberally, if a little too liberally with anecdotes and examples from the author's own experience. These examples are often helpful however, giving flesh to the biblical principles he is explaining. At several points I paused and prayed the truths of Scripture with him, so I've no doubt that many will find this a useful little volume.

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to talk about how to be effective in this broken world we live in today. Wow. Daniel and his friends have so much to teach us about how to stand in the gap even when we feel alone. I love this book. I am thankful for Chris and what he is teaching our world today through his gifts and wisdom. If you are a pastor, you need to read this, form some understanding around what God is teaching us through Daniel, and give some insight to your churches. This book is one of my favorites this year. So thankful.

Chris Hodges tackles the subject of living in a different culture to the heavenly one we may all long for, using the book on Daniel majoring on the first six chapters. This is a scripture based book that use the scripture as it's base rather than backing his words from scripture. In other words some people use scripture and make it fit their points as a tool to say told you so, this approach can misrepresent the word (but not always) Others Like Chris take the scripture and unpack what it means so scripture is the subject not a tool. I hope that made sense as it is a lesson I have learnt from well meaning people but can lead you (and me) in error, in other words I see CHRIST in this teaching and hope you will as well. When scripture is expanded or explained truly into modern terms it leads to changed lives if you choose to for the good and that is how I feel about this book.
I have been given a free copy from NetGalley of this book in return for a honest review.