About stepping up and walking in the fire

After our study tonight, I couldn't help but having all these thoughts pressing in my mind; so before I burst, I decided to share a few in this blog.

First of all...what a session, huh?  The Lord has chosen to reveal to us, through His servant, Beth Moore, some eternal truth taken right out of His Holy Word in the book of Daniel.  We saw the example of these three men, whom, because of their conscious decision to stay in Him at all cost, were able to see and experience the power, presence and reality of the Almighty in all his glory.  The delivering power of our God is evident in this passage and it is as true today as it was way back then in the time of Daniel and his three friends.  Our God is good all the time; and He has given us a manual on how to live a life that would honor Him and the ability to understand it by giving us the Holy Spirit to help us decipher it.  As I think of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego; I wonder if when the time comes for me to make a stand, I would have the courage to do it.  The picture of the three silhouettes standing in the planes of Dura is burnt in my mind.  As a sea of people bowed down to a false god, these three men stood...in plain sight, for all to witness, and without having their leader there to tell them what to do.  It was their moment to step up.  I belive our moment will come too.  Perhaps it has already come and we have taken up the challenge...maybe it is going to come again, and again, and again...every time more and more demanding and with more at stake.  The good news is that He who puts us in the situation, stands with us.  We are not to be surprised that the world hates us, for the world hated Him first; but we are to keep our eyes on the prize and stand on Him, our solid rock, even if as a result of our standing, we end up thrown in the fire.  There too, our Deliverer will stand with us.  Like we read in Isaiah 43:1-3, He walks with us in the fire...not his angels, He himself! 

Our Redeemer lives, He lives indeed; and He will deliver us, either from the fire, through the fire or, eventually, by the fire...but no matter what, we can rest assured that deliverance will come.  May our circumstances become a servant of the Gospel.  As we walk through the fire, may we praise Him.  And remember, walking through the fire of this "new Babylon" we live in, is in itself a challenge that will turn us into heavy weitht champs!