<\/p>\n
\u201cShadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, \u2018King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty\u2019s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up’\u201d (Daniel 3:16-18).<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been attempting to fit a thousand pegs into the relationship hole but not one satisfies you with the words you are looking for me to say.\u201d Those were the words I said to my wife in complete frustration.<\/p>\n Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego\u2019s faith was tested. Would they worship another God defined by their boss, the king of Babylon? If not, they would be thrown into a fiery pit.<\/p>\n There was no decision to be made. It had already been made in their mind and heart. There would be no skirting the issue. They would not reframe the issue with political babble to save their necks. No, they took the issue head on. \u201cThere is only one God, oh king. It is the God we serve!\u201d Oh, what bold faith. They knew God could save them, but even if He didn\u2019t, so be it. This was their stand.<\/p>\n There is a time to stand for absolute truth. \u201cJesus IS the only way to the Father.\u201d We live in a culture that is defined by situational ethics and a belief that there are many ways to God. \u201cAs long as I am not hurting anyone why would God care if I live with my girlfriend?\u201d \u201cSurely you don\u2019t believe homosexuality is sin!\u201d \u201cAre you one of those rigid fundamentalists?\u201d The issues of our day cry out for a life that lives from a basis of absolute truth.<\/p>\n If I get fired for that belief, so be it. If I am branded a bigot, so be it. If I am viewed as rigid and narrow by others, so be it. If I die for my faith, so be it. I live to please an audience of only One.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Living Based on Absolutes \u201cShadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, \u2018King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty\u2019s hand. But even<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[6645,2465,182,179,181],"class_list":["post-20313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-absolutes","tag-based","tag-god","tag-living","tag-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}