It's Getting Hot in Here!!!!

                                                                                                  (image courtesy of theendtimecall.com)
Hot! Hot! Hot! Can you feel it?
Hot! Hot! Hot!

I woke up this morning burning up.

And opened up my bible to Daniel.

I haven't been able to get him, the two shacks and nego out of my head for the last few days.

So I figured I better revisit the man from the Lion's Den.

Ridiculously awesome bible story to follow:

(INSERT: "I'M NOT A BIBLE SCHOLAR" DISCLAIMER HERE)

I never attended seminary and am not a certified bible teacher.

Though I gotta tell you, I would really love to do this fiery furnace craft I found on the web earlier....too fun!

Exactly how do you get a gig working in Bibleland anyway?

I'm sure they have gatekeepers.

Anyway, back to the story...

So, King Nebuchadnezzar, who we will refer to from here on out as...The Nebster, ordered his soldiers to go to Judah, a place they just pummeled, and gather up the strongest, smartest, most handsome men and bring them back to Babylon for training.

Many of those men were from royal, well off families, and included in that gathered group was Daniel and three of his friends who would later be named, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

There's a ton more to the story, but they ended up becoming great men that excelled at everything and The Nebster put them in charge of many things.

But, reigning over kingdoms had its ups and downs I guess and King Nebster had a terribly disturbing dream.

It's pretty hilarious because, he first called in his sort of Psychic Friend Network guys, and asked them to interpret the dream.

They said, "Well, tell us your dream first and then we'll tell you what it meant."

This really ticked the King off 'cause he thought they were trying to scam him...and they probably were.

I lol'd reading it this morning.

They're response was so similar to one I had when I called Dell Computers several years back.

Me: "I'm locked out of my computer. I lost my password. Can you please tell me my password?"

Guy from India in his sweetest Indian voice, but a little sarcastic: "How can I possibly know what you would choose for a password? I am not in your head, and I cannot be in your head, therefore, I would not know what you would  choose for a password. So, no...I cannot."

I hope to go to India soon. And I really, really hope to run into him so I can give him a big hug, "Psst. The password was password."

So basically they told the king, "We can't possibly know the meaning if we don't know what you dreamt?"

Super annoyed, as we can be when we don't get our way, he ordered all the smart guys to be killed, including, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

But Daniel was always thinking fast on his feet and said, "What happened to make him so mad?"

So, one of Nebster's right hand guys who favored Daniel, told him what had happened.

Favor is good. Thank you God for favor!

Daniel said, "Let me tell him what his dream meant."

Then, in preparation for seeing the king, he prayed with the guys and asked God to reveal both what the dream was and what it meant.

God did.

So Daniel did.

And blew King Nebster's mind.

Initially, he was super grateful about it.

But then he let his equally super ego and pride get in the way and he thought he could just build a
bigger, stronger more awesome 90' statue of gold.

If there was ever an occasion to have Solid Gold Dancers on stand by, this was it!

Then he ordered everyone to immediately bow down to the statue when they heard the music ...but Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, would not.

They could have given many legit excuses and done it anyway, but they trusted God and believed He would have their backs.

Basically they told Nebster, "Our God is able and will save us. But...even if he doesn't...."

Even if he doesn't???

"We will not bow down to another God or your idol."

That's faith in action!

Even if he doesn't?

Being a Christian does not guarantee that the relationships, the healing, the finances or the breakthrough will ever come.

If faith always worked, the footnotes say, Christianity would just be good insurance for everyone.

No faith would be required if it were a guarantee.

"Faith is being sure of what we hope for, even when not evidenced by what we see." Hebrews 11.

Those guys had some seriously solid gold faith!

And that gets me so totally fired up!

And King Nebby too...
He got really, really, mad and ordered the fiery furnace to be stoked up seven times hotter than usual so the three rebels would plummet into the flames and die.

 They got fired up alright.

But then they walked out not even smelling like smoke!

Let's get fired up! Clap, clap...clap, clap, clap!!!!

 

Can we make the craft now?