Weekly Encouragement
Good Thursday Everyone,
Weekly blessings from your pastor. I pray your week is going well. For all who attended this Lord’s Day for Bethel’s “Fifth Sunday Fellowship Dinner” it was a wonderful day. God is truly blessed when He sees His church in such joyful fellowship. Set your calendars for every Fifth Sunday as our next fifth Sunday is July 30, 2023.
The life of Daniel! What an encouraging life. In chapters of Daniel 1 through 3 we get a glimpse of the daily environment surrounding Daniel. Daniel associated with persons of like commitment and faith in God, all while functioning with a high calling and godly excellence in a secular working environment. This truth should motivate all of us to live likewise. God wants us to thrive in the world without being compromised by the world.
In Daniel 3, we experience the life challenge of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We all know the specific events of these men and Daniel’s colleagues within King Nebuchadnezzar’s court. Daniel is excluded from these days. Perhaps Daniel was traveling or away for an extended period, but rest assured if Daniel would have been present with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego there would have been four godly men who refused the king and were placed into the fiery furnace.
This coming Lord’s Day we will see the resolve of three men who said, “We will not” obey an ungodly and sinful command no matter the power and prestige of the one who gives it. In their days, the highest authority with absolute sovereignty was King Nebuchadnezzar. He had the power over your life, the power to bless your life, and the power to end your life. But King Nebuchadnezzar was power-less compared to the authority possessed by the living God upon His children. This truthful realization by worldly leaders ALWAYS produces conflict and resentment within them towards God. Then, because the worldly leader cannot defeat God nor overpower God, they persecute and punish God’s followers. Sinful actions by a worldly leader are ineffective attempts to defeat God. The result is angry and unreasonable rage against those who love and obey God. Persecution of God’s faithful may decrease our numbers on earth, but it will increase God’s power upon those who remain.
Bethel Baptist: Your earthly life lived for God is critically important. Your earthly life lived for those you love is essential. But your obedience to God before the eyes of the world is more important than your earthly life. We must live this way. No one wants to die for God, even though we will, but we should all be committed to live for Him. Christians who live like this will change the world. If your earthly death comes because of persecution of God and God’s Word, then read Revelation 8:1-5. God will avenge His saints. Hopefully and gratefully, none of us will have our very lives threatened because of our obedience to God. But would we withstand the threat? How should we stand up to the threat? We have faith that God would save us, but will we say as did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “Even if God does not save us” we will not, “Serve your gods or worship the golden image you have set up.”
The world places so many “golden images” in front of us. We can’t ignore them, but we can dismiss them and refuse through our daily walk with Christ. When you and your family feel like you are inside the furnace at work, at play, with others, and amidst your daily routine, remember who the world sees in the flames with you. They really do see the appearance of another person. They see someone else walking beside you through your obedience, in your godly conversations, and by your encouraging actions. The other person they see is, the Son of the living GOD – Jesus Christ. Jesus is with us in everything we do. Jesus protects us from the world’s flames, and He is who people see when we obey.
Today, people want to obey. They are just obeying the wrong person or the wrong thing. We can show them and when appropriate tell them who is right to obey. Others will see you surviving in the “fiery furnace”, and they will want to know how you do it. Tell them, and people will, “Really want what you have, they just don’t know it yet.” Pray about inviting someone this Lord’s Day.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Michael
