{"id":908,"date":"2019-04-09T14:34:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T14:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/?p=908"},"modified":"2019-04-10T03:30:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T03:30:01","slug":"faith-at-the-door-of-the-fiery-furnace%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/09\/faith-at-the-door-of-the-fiery-furnace%ef%bb%bf\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith at the Door of the Fiery Furnace\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Furious with rage, Nebuchadnzzar said, \u201cIf you do not worship the image I have made, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?\u201d Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, \u201cKing Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. (Daniel 3:13-16)<\/em>
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Picture three men about to be thrown into a furnace. Fire roars in their ears and waves of superheated air flow toward them. Pain!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A furious king gives an ultimatum. \u201cBow now,\u201d he shouts, \u201cOr what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He challenges them.  \u201cYou\u2019re in my power. Your faith is a foolish fantasy. God won\u2019t save you. Surrender to me or die.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The men\u2019s answer is surprising. \u201cKing, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No need for a defense! Really? If ever a defense is needed, surely it is now. No! They see things from a different perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re wrong, king!\u201d they say. \u201cOur lives are not in your power but in God\u2019s. Even this very moment, before the heat of your terrible furnace, we choose to trust in Him.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many fiery furnace events in our lives. Pain, sickness\u2014Cancer. Broken relationships. They challenge and frighten us, \u201cYour faith is useless,\u201d they say, \u201cYou are in my power. No God can help you now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are always wrong. At the door of this world\u2019s fiery furnaces, the believer says, \u201cNothing in all creation can separate me from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:39).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can be your affirmation of faith, too. You are not at the mercy of this world\u2019s pain. You can say, \u201cMy God is greater than the pain, larger than the hurt, more powerful than the Cancer. I trust in Him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Furious with rage, Nebuchadnzzar said, \u201cIf you do not worship the image I have made, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?\u201d Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, \u201cKing Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. (Daniel 3:13-16) Picture … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-prayer"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"academica-featured-posts-widget":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Guy Saffold","author_link":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/author\/guys\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Furious with rage, Nebuchadnzzar said, \u201cIf you do not worship the image I have made, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?\u201d Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, \u201cKing Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. (Daniel 3:13-16) Picture…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":944,"href":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions\/944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}