Good Morning All,
Daniel
3: 24-25; “Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He
declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?”
They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”
He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking
in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the
fourth is like a son of the gods.”
It
didn’t quite go as King Nebuchadnezzar had planned. He built a huge idol and all the people were
to bow down and worship. Yet three men told
him; “no.” The king did not like being
told no so he decided to teach these men a lesson. So he had these men thrown into a fiery
furnace, so hot that the men standing outside of it were killed by the
heat. So the king had these three men
thrown into the furnace but when they looked in; they saw four men walking around. The fourth looked like a son if the gods.
There are many things we can take away from this story. The one we want to look at today is that
faith doesn’t always keep us out of the fire.
Sometimes we face some huge challenges.
Some seem almost insurmountable and they are if we tackle them alone. We can face struggles in our families. Many sociological reports continually show
the steady decline in the viability of the family. In a few years, it would appear that the
traditional nuclear family will be in a very distinct minority. How do we face that challenge?
We see struggles with our jobs and financial situation. No matter how much we work or how hard; there
never seems to be enough. On those rare
days when we do feel a little ahead, all of a sudden the car needs some major
repairs and we start all over again.
Sometimes we struggle with our health and we wonder if it is ever going
to be better.
Sometimes we struggle because of our faith. We are ridiculed; we are made illegal. We are
called intolerant, arrogant, stupid and many other things; some by our own
family. “Get with the times; don’t be so
old-fashioned!” Where do we go? We go to God.
No matter what happens in our life, God is the only true hope that we
have. Only God and his grace will see us
through. Yet we might still have to face
the fire. We might still have to be tossed
about by a sinful and broken world. We
might still have to face some pain in this world but we do not have to face it
alone. God is always with us and he
gives us his church to be with us as well.
We should always rest assured that our brothers and sisters in faith
will stand with us. Our brothers and
sisters in Christ will give to us the consolation that God gives to us.
In our passage, we often see the fourth man as Jesus. Yet we could also see him as our earthly brothers
and sisters who God sends to be with us at times of trials. Either way, God is there for us with his
Spirit of hope.
Dearest
Father, when we face the fires of this life; keep us safe in your arms. Hold us tight. Be with those who are feeling the extreme
heat at this time. Keep them confident
in their faith and give to them the comfort and the consolation that they
need. In the name of Jesus our precious
risen Savior, amen
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.