"16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Daniel 3:16-18 (NIV)
So we find ourselves timid about telling people about Jesus. We don’t want to be embarrassed. We don’t want to be seen as ‘one of those people’. We don’t want to put pressure on other people, because we don’t want people to put pressure on us. If you will notice, all of these statements are about us and how we feel. None of them are about God.
If this is true about us, then we have to come to grips with the deep, deep crevice that exists between us and these young Jewish men. Not simply a distance of time, but a distance of focus and dedication and belief. Can we say, will we stand with these young men and say, “God is able to save us, but even if He does not, we will never bow to another?” Can we say we will not bow to the culture; we will not bow to peer pressure; we will not bow to difficulty or hardship or embarrassment? And finally, can we say, we will not bow down to ourselves—to our comfort, to our pleasures, and to our sense of always trying to look good in front of others?
Bob Dylan sang it, “But you’re gonna have to serve somebody; it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
-Pastor Dino Griffin
So we find ourselves timid about telling people about Jesus. We don’t want to be embarrassed. We don’t want to be seen as ‘one of those people’. We don’t want to put pressure on other people, because we don’t want people to put pressure on us. If you will notice, all of these statements are about us and how we feel. None of them are about God.
If this is true about us, then we have to come to grips with the deep, deep crevice that exists between us and these young Jewish men. Not simply a distance of time, but a distance of focus and dedication and belief. Can we say, will we stand with these young men and say, “God is able to save us, but even if He does not, we will never bow to another?” Can we say we will not bow to the culture; we will not bow to peer pressure; we will not bow to difficulty or hardship or embarrassment? And finally, can we say, we will not bow down to ourselves—to our comfort, to our pleasures, and to our sense of always trying to look good in front of others?
Bob Dylan sang it, “But you’re gonna have to serve somebody; it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
-Pastor Dino Griffin
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