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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 THREE
We have learnt about the Christians who won’t serve God unless He acts like superman, swooping down to save them each time they are in trouble, and the Christians who are willing to die for God yet don’t believe that He could actually save them. Today, we will study a bit about the third kind of Christian, the kind who will boldly defy Nebuchadnezzar and face death, not because they are ignorant of God’s miracle working power, but simply because they love the praises of men.
 If we will be honest with ourselves, most of us have been this kind of Christian at some point in our lives. These Christians want people want suffer and hope others will notice and say, “wow, look at brother so-and-so, see how much he has suffered for God. He was so steadfast that he even defied the orders of the great king Nebuchadnezzar and was killed. What a great servant of God.”
This kind of Christian is willing to die for his “faith” in God, not because he really has faith, but to get comments, attention, sympathy and praise of people. So this Christian enjoys needless suffering. This is the kind of Christian who posts every challenge, every trouble and every effort on facebook, instagram, whatsapp and other social media sites. I’m not saying it’s wrong to write about challenges we face on facebook, but where we constantly let others know our personal issues, what we are doing in the house of God, how the devil is attacking us for our faith, and then wait anxiously for likes and comments, we have to ask ourselves what really our motives are, to get attention and praise or to encourage others.
This is the kind of Christian who will accept every challenge, and sign up for every duty and assignment even when he can’t do it all. Again, I’m not hitting on those who love to work in God’s house or those who find it hard to say not when asked to do something. I’m talking about the kind of person who prays a little louder when others are near, who “casually” mentions how much he donated, or how it’s not easy to do the Lord’s work, and proceeds to “boast: of his sufferings and sacrifices and efforts for God. This is wrong.
We have to go through persecutions for the sake of our faith only when it is necessary to do so. Jesus was born to die for us, yet He was not in a hurry to die. The Jews tried to kill Him several times, yet He escaped till it was the right time to die. There were times He hid Himself from them. He did not take unnecessary risks or go looking for trouble.
Apostle Paul faced death several times (2 Corinthians 11:23-27), but even he did not go looking for death. He had to escape death several times- once being lowered from the city wall in a basket- not because he wasn’t ready to die God’s sake, but because He needed to live to finish all that he had to do to help the church and to glorify. He was imprisoned and final beheaded for his faith, but that happened when his time was due, not when he was rushing to die so that people could say, “Paul really loves God. He has even died for his love of God”.
You can be certain that Shadrach and his friends would not ordinarily have gone to Nebuchadnezzar to stir up his anger. They would die if need be, but would not rush to insult Nebuchadnezzar without a cause. God wants us to take risks only when it’s necessary to advance the work of His kingdom.


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