This devotion is a weekly ministry of the Pee Dee Baptist Association, comprised of 32 Southern Baptist churches in Dillon and Marlboro Counties. For more information call 774-8062.
Featured this week is Dr. Dick Alderman, the pastor of Little Rock Baptist Church, Little Rock.
DO NOT GIVE IN!
Bowing to pressure, going with the flow, following the crowd, joining the “ME” generation (it’s all about me), adjusting to the times are all catch-words for our generation that wants to do as it pleases. People desire to live without moral laws, rules of behavior, and pay no consequences for what they do. But God’s Word is eternal and unchangeable; it is never outdated. God said, “My Word shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish that for which I send it.”
Our generation had better pay heed to the Word of god for they shall hear it again in judgment. Daniel’s three friends were faced with living in a strange land as captives and being commanded to do things against their faith. Could they fake it to satisfy their captors? Would they compromise to save themselves? What would they do?
The first king to rule over the entire earth, Nebuchadnezzar, had built an image to himself and demanded that every person bow to it. Anyone refusing would be cast alive into a fiery furnace. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah had a real problem as believers in the True and Living God. What would they do? They chose not to bow to the image and disobey their God. When asked about it they said their God would either deliver them out of the fire or deliver them by taking them to Heaven in the fire. “He will deliver us out of your hand,” they told the king.
Nebuchadnezzar became so angry he shouted for the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than normal. He commanded mighty men to throw the three into it. The king’s soldiers were killed by the intense heat. The three Godly friends fell into the fire “bound in ropes.” Suddenly the king jumped off his throne in stunned disbelief and shouted, “Did we not cast in three men? I see a fourth man with them like the son of God, and they are all loose and walking freely.” He called for the three to leave the fire and decreed that they should be honored and protected.
What about you? Where do you stand when the crowd goes wrong? What do you say when society honors homosexuality which the Bible condemns as an abominable sin in God’s sight, or abortion that murders thousands of children every year? How do you respond when the crowd puts pressure on you to conform to their actions? What do you say when people say it is all right to live together without marriage when God’s Word says it is adultery? What is your response when people say it is ok to drink when God’s Word speaks 85 times about it being a sin, and even says it is sin “to give drink (socially) to one’s neighbor?” Do you think it is ok to allow these things just because most people say it is all right? Do you believe God’s Word is absolute or that we can change it in every generation to do as we please?
Daniel’s friends were committed to the Lord and to His Word without compromise. They would not bow. They would not bend. They would not burn.
What about you?
