| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Living by faith” Our Bible verse for today: “If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.” Daniel 3:17-18 (CSB) Our thought for today: “Living by faith makes us confident, bold, and courageous” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were young Hebrew men living in captivity in Babylon. They were administrative assistants to the king. But King Nebuchadnezzar was something of a maniacal narcissist with a god complex, and at one time he ordered a ninety-foot-tall gold statue to be erected, evidently of himself, and before which everyone was required to bow down and worship. However, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to do it. They were observant Jews who took the first and second commandments seriously (have no other gods, bow down before no idols). When the king found out about their refusal to worship as he commanded, he was furious and threatened to have them burned alive in a blazing furnace. You can read their reply to him in Daniel 3:17-18 above. Where did they get the courage to defy the king in such a bold and confident way? Simple, they were living by faith. Their faith in God was so strong that it gave them the confidence, boldness, and courage they needed to stand on their convictions, come what may. We’ve seen other examples of that, both in the Bible and outside of it. Joseph resisted the enticements of Potiphar’s wife; Daniel continued to pray despite the king’s edict; Jesus resisted the temptation of Satan in the wilderness; the apostles defied the pharisees; Christians in Rome were burned at the stake and fed to lions; believers in China and North Korea waste away in prisons rather than deny their faith. And on and on the examples go. The point is that when a true believer has learned to live by faith the examples of extraordinary courage and boldness are many. Throughout this month we’ve learned many lessons about what it means to live by faith, and we have learned how to do it. Today we find that a result of learning to live by faith is that we become increasingly confident, bold, and courageous. Those are attributes Christians need in increasing measure as we live in these difficult days. Living by faith helps us to be confident, bold, and courageous. God bless, Pastor Jim |
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