"Fear God, Love God, Serve God": "Fearless!"

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

(Daniel 3:1)

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee

in this matter ... be it known unto thee, O king, that

we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden

image which thou hast set up."

(Daniel 3:16,18)

What a magnificent event! Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were not only "well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace," but they were "FEARLESS," as well. Nebuchadnezzar ordered all to bow to the golden image, but the Fearless three refused. They would rather suffer, rather than sin, and trust God to deliver them, either from death, or in death. Either way, they would not bow. The King was furious, so he ordered the furnace to be fired up seven times hotter, and had his mighty men bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the fiery furnace.

"He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire,

and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

(Daniel 3:25)

We have to acknowledge the faith of these guys! Not only were they wise and smart, but they were loyal, steadfast, and unwavering in their trust in Almighty God. They believed God would deliver them, but even if He didn't, they refused to compromise their beliefs. It sounds like the Apostles, who died martyrs deaths for the gospel of Jesus Christ; like Peter, who was crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die like His Lord, or John the Baptist, who was beheaded, or John, who was boiled in oil and banished to the Isle of Patmos 90 miles out in the Aegean Sea. Standing for the truth, standing firm in what one believes is not a new thing ... it's all through the Bible ...

The Bible is resplendent with Heroes of the faith ... Daniel, who was thrown in the lions' den; Joseph who was sent to prison for a rape which he did not commit, David, who killed a giant with a slingshot in the Name of the Lord; Abraham, who climbed the mountain early in the morning as he was being tested to sacrifice his only son, and even as he raised the knife to plunge it into the heart of his beloved son, the angel of God stopped him; Paul, who was beaten, shipwrecked, cast into the deep, and thrown in prison to name only a few of his sufferings for Jesus Christ ... and the list goes on and on. What makes one risk life and limb for a cause? It's called integrity, character, and a belief that you know, that you know, that Almighty God is real in your life!

"Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellers, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. "

When our trek in earth is over, we shall enter the Pearly gates, cast our golden crowns before the Holy throne of God, and we will study war no more! Until then, we must be: