Saturday, July 31, 2010

Daniel 3: Through the Fire

From Garden to City reading:  Daniel 3

Another familiar story, at least to the Sunday School crowd.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow before an idol.
They would rather die in a blazing furnace.

They declare, "God has the power to save us, and he might save us.  But he might now.  Either way, we won't bow down to anyone but God."

If you're part of the Sunday School crowd, you know the ending.  An angel--or God--shows up in the fire with them.  They walk out of the fire without burns, and they don't even smell like smoke.  Happy ending.

Sure.  But these three men don't know about the happy ending when the soldiers throw them into the fire.  For all they know, they're going to die.  What's that like?

When everything's going well, we attribute the success to our hard work and wisdom, but desperate times reveal God's awesome power and glory.

Desperate times.
Willing servants of the most high God.

How badly do we want to be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

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