Now this is a story all about how….
My life got flipped-turn upside down…
And I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there…
…$10 says you know the next line and your head started to bob by the 3rd line! lol
One of favorite shows of all-time is ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.’ I love this show because Will (the main character) is always true to who he is…
Take a second and think about this: Imagine you were uprooted from what you know (i.e. what’s familiar, people you know, places you go, etc.) and taken to a place that was the exact opposite…an unfamiliar place with people you didn’t REALLY know. How would you feel? How you would react? Will didn’t have to imagine…it’s exactly what happened to him.
I brought up that example because I want to introduce you to these 3 dudes I read about in Daniel 3 that have a similar theme song…
It’s a long story but for those of you that are not familiar with it…this is how it goes down…
There are 3 guys (Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego). I know those names are hard to pronouce but stick with me….
The 3 guys are foreigners.
There’s also a King…we’re going to call him “King Neb” for right now…
One day King Neb decides to have a party and he invites all the important people of the city and the 3 foreign guys to come…
Sounds cool, right?
Well there’s a slight problem…
King Neb is…a bit arrogant! He’s so arrogant that he has a gold statue made of himself and wheeled into the party. At some point during the party, he makes everyone bow down and worship the statue.
WHAT!? COME AGAIN! Bow down to a gold statue of King Neb!?
Imagine being invited to a party. You’re standing in the middle of 200 people when the host announces that EVERYONE is going to bow down and worship a statue of them or be thrown into a fire and killed, what would you do? Remember, you’re in the middle of the room so if you don’t bow down, everyone is going to see you.
You want to hear something wild?
This is exactly what happens to the 3 foreign dudes. And do you know what ALL 3 of them did? They just stood there. Everyone bowed and they didn’t!
When the King asked why they didn’t bow down, they replied “King Neb, we don’t need to defend ourselves. If we’re thrown into that fire, the God we serve will save us. But even if He doesn’t, we ain’t gonna worship the image of gold that you’ve set up!” (I’m paraphrasing obviously.)
BOLD, right? Not only did the men have faith in a big God, but they stood there TOGETHER and drew strength off of each other. I believe they were able to stand strong because they had the support of each other. We often try to do things by ourselves and then wonder why things are still a hot mess.
King Neb sticks to his word and throws them in the furnace fire but they don’t die. In fact, after King Neb throws them in the furnace, he looks in and notices 4 people in there! FOUR!?
Yeah….Meshach, Shadrach, Abednego…and God!
God not only spared them from death in the fire but went through the experience! He was in the fire with them!!
You may not have been in a physical fire but we’ve all been in bad situations. All of us have had to “go with it” or stand up and be “weird”. The bad situation that just popped in your head….yeah that’s the one I’m talking about…what did you do?
When you are faced with a situation in which holding to your beliefs may result in unpleasant consequences, how do you respond? Do you go along with the crowd? Or do you stand up for what you believe?
Do you have a good friend that looks out for you and says “FREEZE! That’s not be a good choice.”? If you don’t, I challenge you to make it a goal.
p.s. If they do actually use the word “freeze”…try to find another friend. lol just kidding
