February 15, 2011

Read Daniel 3:4-7. Revelation 7

In Laos this year the authorities arrested 11 Christians at gunpoint and threw 3 house church leaders into jail for holding ‘illegal’ church meetings. Rather than compromise their faith and love for our Lord, they preferred to go to jail.  All they have to do is worship according to government regulations. All they have to do is obey the government and they’d be free. What would you do? How would you react?

The situation in Babylon was no different.  Nebuchadnezzar ordered all people to bow down and worship his image, regardless of one’s race, creed or religious affiliation. All the true believers had to do was to bow down and pretend to worship the statue. They could just go through the motions of bowing down. That would assure them life and prosperity. What would you do? How would you react?  We may find ourselves in similar situations, even in our world. There’s the temptation to over spend and enjoy the fruits of our labours ourselves, rather than support the work of the gospel through your local church.  Our friends may pressure us into drinking too much, smoking or having sex before we are married. Our bosses may pressure us to lie, to fudge figures or to cut corners for the sake of profit.  While not life threatening, they still demand that our allegiance to Christ and our love of Him be negated in some way. It is every bit as idolatrous as bowing down to a gold statue.

Our brothers and sisters in Laos, together with the friends in Babylon (who would eventually be thrown into the burning furnace) knew a vital truth. If you and I are to stand out for Jesus in our world then we need to know and internalise this truth. What is this truth? Only God, the one true living God, deserves to be worshipped. No other god or person is deserving of our worship. We need to be committed to this truth. We need to let nothing or no one tempt us or pressure us to bow down to it in homage and worship.  As we make this stand, as many of you already have, we will never again bow down to the mighty dollar. We will never again put our own image before Christ Jesus. We will never give in to the ungodly peer pressure of friends who want us to sin or to deny Christ. We will not falter  even if a gun is held to our head and we are driven out of our village or even if the king threatens to throw us into a blazing furnace.  To help you stand firm, continually bear in mind that when Jesus returns to gather the elect from the four corners of the globe, believers from every nation, tribe and tongue will bow down before the Lord and worship him for eternity. You will be among that throng of people if you love the Lord wholeheartedly.

Prayer:

þ Pray that every single believer in your church will be able to stand firm in Jesus and to put all things (health, money, assets, education, work etc etc) under the Lordship of Christ Jesus.

þ Pray that our brothers and sisters in Iraq would remain strong in the Lord, bearing the armour of Christ daily as they face persecution for their faith.