FBC Daily Devotional – Dec. 3, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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this, and you're looking back. It's now dark again, and looking back over your day and reflecting on what was accomplished, what the

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Lord enabled you to do today. Well, I hope it's been a productive day, if that's your case. Well, the other day

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I was reading in Daniel chapter 3, and you know there's this very famous story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, and that is a fascinating story, and it's an exciting story.

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Kids love it. They love it because of the drama involved in it, for sure, but it's more important than simply being a dramatic story.

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It challenges us. It challenges us to stop and think about ourselves and about, you know, where we are in life and so forth, and I think about, in this regard,

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I'm thinking about our own world in which we're living, the increasing hostility that we're seeing toward church, toward Christianity in particular.

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In fact, I was reading the other day about some of the crackdown in taking place in China, and so they've just enacted a law in China, for example, that any foreigner, no foreigner can come into the country and in any way, shape, or form propagate the gospel.

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So what happens with a lot of missionaries right now is they can't, I mean, they're not missionaries in China per se, but a lot will hold a meeting somewhere outside of China and encourage pastors to come in, come from China, house church pastors or whatever, and do some training with them.

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Boy, if those pastors get caught going to such a thing, then they're going to be in real trouble, but what some others would do is they would come into the country and sort of in a clandestine way do some teaching and instruction.

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Well, that's now prohibited, and if you're just going as a tourist and you pass out a tract to somebody, that's against the law.

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If you speak to somebody about Christ, about the gospel, that's against the law. Well, that's in China.

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Our own country, you know, we're seeing some interesting things develop and attitudes more than anything so far, but the recent pandemic has certainly helped to bring out some of the hostility toward Christianity, toward the church, toward religion, but all that got me to thinking about what these three young men faced when they were told you need to bow down to the

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King's statue or you're going to go into the fiery furnace, and they refused to do it.

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And I wondered, you know, if things got to that point where I was told to violate a clear command of Scripture or risk my life, be executed, would

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I go to the firing squad? Would I would I face the noose or the electric chair or whatever the form of execution would be?

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It's not likely that that would be the case in our country. It would be more likely something like imprisonment, but would

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I risk that, losing my livelihood, putting my family at risk with that loss of livelihood?

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Would I be willing to do that? Well, I would be willing to do that if I understand and believe what

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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego believed. You remember their famous statement to the king?

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Here's what they said to Nebuchadnezzar. They said, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, as he exhorted them to bow down, and if they will, then he'll let them go.

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They said, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, you're gonna throw us into that fiery furnace?

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Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace.

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He's able to do it. And, they said, he will deliver us out of your hand,

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O king. He will deliver us. But then they go on to say, but if not, if we end up burning up in that furnace, be it known to you,

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O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

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So, they had this underlying confidence in both God's ability to deliver them and the reality that he would deliver them out of the king's hand, one way or the other.

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Even if it was by death, they would still, nonetheless, be delivered out of the king's hand.

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And so, that conviction of heart, that confidence in the

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God they serve, was able to give them the fortitude and the determination to keep on keeping on, to do the right thing, to refuse to bow down, to obey

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God's Word. Now, I read that, and then I read in juxtaposition to that, 1

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Peter 4, verses 12 to 18, written to New Testament believers who are going through a particularly challenging time in their lives.

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And Peter says this, he says, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share

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Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

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If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

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Now, that's a good perspective to have. We are increasingly being marginalized, those of us who claim

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Christ as our Savior and our Lord and our Master, increasingly being marginalized and insulted for the name of Christ.

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Well, let's rejoice in that. We're blessed in that. And when that fiery trial comes, whatever form it might happen to take, to test us, to reveal what we're really like, what we're really made of, well, this isn't something strange.

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This is how Christ was treated. This is how the saints of old were treated. Why should we be any different?

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Oh, may God give us grace to stand in those fiery trials.

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May he give us grace to trust him and to really believe that he is able and that he will deliver.

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So our Father and our God, we don't know what this world holds for us. We don't know.

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We don't know what is coming down the road and what kind of challenges we're going to face, what kind of fiery trials.

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But, oh, Father, I pray that we would be faithful. We would be convinced in our heart and our mind that you are able to deliver and that you will deliver.

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Give us grace, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well,

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I hope you have a good rest of your Thursday, and may God bless you richly in it. Have a good day.