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Furnace faith
'... The God we serve is able to save us from it ... But even if He does not ...' Daniel 3:17-18
The Bible has to be the 'extreme sports' of books. Every other chapter you've got some faith-adrenalin-junkie risking life and limb for their love of God.
Like Daniel and his DIY dentistry for lions. Or pint-pot David squaring up to 'ten-men' Goliath armed with a catapult. Or Noah sailing the seven seas with a boat she's sharing with grizzly bears, wolves and elephants.
But the faith biscuit-takers have to be Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They're the risk-riders who take a beach towel down to the local walk-in oven. And as the flames grew higher, God didn't provide a neat exit sign, nor a fire extinguisher, nor were they given fireproofed outfits and asbestos gloves. They're chucked into the furnace but God doesn't bring them out, He brings them through the fire.
Have you got your own furnace at the moment? All around you things are hotting up, and God doesn't seem to be answering your SOS prayers? Well, perhaps He's developing your furnace faith. Furnace faith is dead to doubt and blind to impossibility. It reaches up through the flames and holds hands with the One who specializes in the impossible. It makes the blaze bearable and the future brighter.
Furnace faith makes Jesus visible. Listen to an unbelieving king: '"... I see four men loose, walking in ... the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God"' (Daniel 3:25).
written by Bob Gass
'... The God we serve is able to save us from it ... But even if He does not ...' Daniel 3:17-18
The Bible has to be the 'extreme sports' of books. Every other chapter you've got some faith-adrenalin-junkie risking life and limb for their love of God.
Like Daniel and his DIY dentistry for lions. Or pint-pot David squaring up to 'ten-men' Goliath armed with a catapult. Or Noah sailing the seven seas with a boat she's sharing with grizzly bears, wolves and elephants.
But the faith biscuit-takers have to be Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They're the risk-riders who take a beach towel down to the local walk-in oven. And as the flames grew higher, God didn't provide a neat exit sign, nor a fire extinguisher, nor were they given fireproofed outfits and asbestos gloves. They're chucked into the furnace but God doesn't bring them out, He brings them through the fire.
Have you got your own furnace at the moment? All around you things are hotting up, and God doesn't seem to be answering your SOS prayers? Well, perhaps He's developing your furnace faith. Furnace faith is dead to doubt and blind to impossibility. It reaches up through the flames and holds hands with the One who specializes in the impossible. It makes the blaze bearable and the future brighter.
Furnace faith makes Jesus visible. Listen to an unbelieving king: '"... I see four men loose, walking in ... the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God"' (Daniel 3:25).
written by Bob Gass
