FIVE KINDS OF CHRISTIANS- Lessons From Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

Daniel 3:16- 18 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said to the king, to Nebuchadnezzar, “it’s not necessary for us to respond in this matter. Your majesty, if it be His will, our God whom we serve can deliver us from the blazing fire furnace, and He will deliver us from you. But if not, rest assured, your majesty, that we won’t serve your gods, and we won’t worship the golden statue that you have set up. “(ISV)

PART TWO

The second kind of Christians are those who would boldly face the fire because they love God but have not come to understand that God is able to deliver them. Some people know that God is still working miracles and delivering people but do not believe that He will or can deliver them in their present circumstances. They are like Martha who knew that Jesus could resurrect people but could not comprehend or believe that He could or would resurrect her dead brother there and then. (John 11:21-25)

Some people don’t even know God still delivers people. They haven’t come to know Him as a very present help in times of distress. (Psalm 46:1). They see Him as a big, presence up in the skies who can’t really feel or quite understand their struggles and infirmities.

Even more sadly, some people believe that the time for miracles is past. God may have done fantastic miracles in the Bible days “but He don’t do them no more”. So they suffer needlessly and limit God even when He wants to help them, because they don’t believe He will deliver them in these present times.

Peter was imprisoned for his faith in God, yet He was delivered from prison when prayer was made by the church for him. (Acts 12:5-11). Paul and Silas were in prison but when they sang to God, the prison shook and their chains fell off. These is not fiction. God really did it, and God is still doing it. God is still healing people of diseases like cancer and HIV/AIDS. He is still healing the depressed, the mentally ill, and the troubled. He is saving people from deadly situations. He is opening opportunities for people, providing jobs, money, education and other needs. The God of the Bible times is still God today and He still delivers from the fire.

Persecutions, trials and tests may come our way but we don’t need to suffer everything else we would be dead before we finish the assignment God gave us to do. That is why God wants us to be like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego- to be willing to die for our faith in God and yet believe Him to work miracles in our lives.