Mark Shutts Ministries

"Preaching and shewing the glad tidings
of the kingdom of God" Luke 8:1.

One day in ancient Babylon King Belshazzar was throwing a party for one thousand of the most prominent people in Babylon. There were musicians, the concubines were dancing and entertaining the men, they were all getting drunk on wine which they were drinking from the gold and silver goblets that king Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem (the same cups that caught the blood from the neck of the lambs that were sacrificed for the sins of the people). They were raising their goblets toasting and praising their gods of gold and silver and bronze, their gods of iron and wood and stone when all of a sudden complete silence fell on the kings wild party - a hand without an arm appeared out of nowhere and began writing on the wall. As the king watched, the Bible says he became so frightened his face turned pale, his knees knocked together and his legs gave out. But he can not make any sense of the writing and he says “it’s just foolishness.” He sends for his astrologers and diviners to tell him what the writing means but it was as much of a mystery to them as it was to the king. Then the queen walks into the great banquet hall and says to the king “Call for Daniel. He will tell you what it means.” The kings men find Daniel and take him to meet the mightiest man in the world. A man who Daniel had loyally served for sixteen years but had never spoken to. Daniel tells the king what the writing on the wall means. He says to the king, “First, it says that God has numbered the days of your reign as king - Secondly, it says that you have been weighed in the balances and have been found wanting - and third, it says that your kingdom is going to be divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.” But Belshazzar shakes off his initial fright and refuses to believe the writing. It’s his last opportunity to repent but his heart remains as hard as it ever was. As the king foolishly says “I refuse to believe this writing and I refuse to repent” at that same moment the Medes and the Persians are digging under the wall of the city, and within a matter of just a few hours - the king is dead. The Medes and the Persians take over the city, and the kings corpse lays in the great banquet hall amidst the gold and silver temple goblets, still filled with wine.
Belshazzar died the same way that he lived - without God - and without hope.

Each of us need to take note of those words written on the wall, “You have been weighed in the balances, and have been found wanting.” When your days reach their end and your life is weighed in the balances will the evidence show that you thought more of money than you did God? Will it show
that you thought more of your home, or your alcohol, or your drugs, or your job. Are you allowing any of these things, or some other thing, to become your God in life? No matter what it may be, If you place anything at all ahead of or above God - if anything at all on your list of important things in life is
listed above God then that thing has become your God, and it is separating you from the one true God.

One day there was a young man dressed in very rich apparel who went running up to Jesus, he fell down on his knees and said, “Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do to be sure that I will go to Heaven?” Now everyone else saw this young man as very rich and powerful
but Jesus looked deep into the young man’s soul and saw what the rest of the world could not see. He saw a young man with a great hunger in his heart. A young mad who literally had it all and yet he was not satisfied. He longed for peace and joy and hope and yet nothing among all of his
possessions nor even his great power had ever given him what his heart truly longed for. And you know our world today is filled with people just like this young man. People running everywhere looking for new thrills that they hope will satisfy their desperation and their emptiness but nothing satisfies them. No matter what they try, deep down on the inside there is still that overwhelming sense of emptiness.