Even If He Does Not

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

The story of the three brave youth who stood up to King Nebuchadnezzar is a pretty well known one. The king made a statue of gold and summoned his people to come and bow down before it. It wasn't a request or a suggestion; it was a command. To ignore it meant burning alive.

As a kid, learning this story in Sunday school, my fascination was always with their names and my inability to pronounce any of them.

Since then, reading this story has always brought on a sense of admiration for Shadrach, Meshach and Abedgnego. I admired their bravery in the face of certain death.

I loved the part where Jesus shows up in the fire. There, in the midst of what was meant to be their destruction, was the Son of Man. It resonates with the part inside of us all that hopes Jesus will walk with us through the fires of life.

It wasn't until this past Sunday, hearing the story again as our pastor recounted it, that something else really struck me. I had read it before. I had heard it before. And yet, for some reason, the words decided to finally seat themselves in my spirit.

"..the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods..."

Even if he does not.

Working with youth for as many years as I have, I can say that I've noticed that unfortunately many times youth conditionally serve the Lord. They feel closer to Him when things are going well and back away when things are not. It seems that as a generation, we've focused on WHAT God does and not WHO God is.

It's a sad standard, one I think that we pick up from society and bring into church with us.

Take the love of a child towards it's mother or father, for instance. We love our parents and we've loved them for as far back as we can remember. It's almost an innate love.

But then, we are asked about this love.

Ask any child, "why do you love your mother?" If they are able to answer at all, you will mostly likely get a stream of things like "because she feeds me," or "because she lets me have cookies," or "because she's nice to me" or "because she bought me the toy I wanted." Yet, this are probably none of the reasons why a child loves their mother. And a mother does those things borne out of the love for her child.

It's cause and effect: I love my mother and my mother loves me, and because of that love, she tries to make my life better. But even if she never gave me another toy or another cookie, the truth is, I would still love her.

Is that true for our relationship with God?

If you were standing in front of an oven, the heat of it on your face and the men who approached it to make it hotter dead before you, would you be able to say, "even if God doesn't deliver us, we still know who we serve. We still know who we love. We still know that our God is good and great. We will still not bow down to the gods of this world."

Today I say to the Lord, Lord, I love you and You love me. And even if I never see another "cookie" or "toy" or any other blessing, I will still love You, because I love you for who You are. I trust you. I trust your timing. I trust you know what is best for me.  I trust You will know when I can stand in the fire.

Pharisees

The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.- Matthew 16:1

Sometimes I fear that we read the Word of God as we would any other story: enjoying the action, the dialogue, cheering when we like what it says and skipping the parts that bore us or are hard to swallow.

It's easy to read the story of Adam and Eve, for instance, and shake our heads, saying things like, "It's all your fault Adam!" without taking a moment to consider our own disobediences. Without pausing to internalize the lessons.

We read about the Pharisees, as they try time and time again (read: Matthew 9, 12, 15, 16, 19, etc) to trap the Lord, to question him and to insist that he prove himself. These were the people who knew the Word of God the most! And here, in front of them, was the Son of God, the Living Word, and they were busy plotting how to trip him up.

It's easy to read about that and proclaim our judgement. Or to dismiss it entirely and move on to a more exciting story. Maybe one with a bear that eats kids or maybe some walking on water.

I pray a lot for the youth of our church. Countless times God has told us where we are going and what we are destined to be, but I admittedly struggle with the how we'll get there. I read about the early church and wonder where along the line we lost what they had. What's stopping us from the next level?

It seems to me that the modern day church might have its own battle with modern day Pharisees, people who know the Word above anyone else, people who claim to center their lives around religion. People who have Jesus, the Son of God, right in front of their faces but seem to totally miss the point.

"Show us a sign! Make church fun! Entertain us! Don't require too much of us!"

Take a moment to pause today and reflect. Am I a modern day Pharisee?

Leftovers.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them.” – Ecclesiastes 12:1

I have a problem: I am not very friendly with my food. There have been times when I flat out refused sharing food with someone, only to take a few bites and and find I was already full.  “Okay, now I’m full,” I say. “Want some of the leftovers?” Bits and pieces of food, spread haphazardly over my plate. All the things I didn’t want. All the food I would’ve eaten had I the capacity. Nice, right?

I was reminded of this (which I had written down since a couple of years ago) as I set up this website and reflected on our youth. The message God continues to send to us is clear: change your attitude. Climb up the mountain and out of the filth. Seperate the light from darkness. Commit to me, and I will help you.

Yet there seems to be a struggle to make the jump into the next level the Lord is calling our ministry to. There are many of you who have ties into the world, holding you back. You all know what is wrong and what is right but many of you have the notion that you can play between both with little to no consequences.

Basically, we are acting as a greedy eater towards God. He asks for a share in our lives, a big one, but we push Him back and say that first we’ll have our fill of pleasure and sin. First, we want to try what there is beyond the walls of church. We want to participate in trends, live the nightlife, mark our bodies, love whomever we want, talk filth, listen to filth, watch filth, and surround ourselves with people who encourage our bad behavior. We indulge ourselves, all the while playing church…

until the breaking point.

At that point, we return to God with crumbs on a plate, our life wasted to bits. “Here God,” we say, “You can have the leftovers.”

Please don’t misunderstand me. God will take them. He cleans filth and takes next to nothing and creates wonders. But we must understand that ALL sin has consequence. We reap what we sow, even if we are really, really sorry for sowing it. Solomon, in Ecclesiastes urges us, remember God in your youth! Remember when your plate is full, before the pain and the hurt that ALWAYS comes when we are apart from God. Remember him before life becomes heavy burdened.

Sometimes we think serving the Lord is too difficult, when all we have to face is our own desires and what other people will think. If you think you can indulge in sin and come running back when you’ve had your share, it won’t be so easy. You’ll have to deal with the consequences of your sin, whether they are physical, emotional.

What will be your breaking point?

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

- 1 Kings 19:11-13

Sometimes we expect the Lord to come thundering in. And believe me, He can. But we don’t understand that all along God has been whispering to us. How far does God have to go to get our attention? He will send the storms and the earthquakes, but always remember that those are destructive forces.


How much do you have left on your plate?