The One True God

Ever felt alone? With seven billion people living on the planet, facing problems alone seems like an impossibility. But you and I both know that having seven of those seven billion really caring about us and being there for us in our most difficult times would be refreshing. I want to be someone more people can count on.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could count on each other. When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar ordered all the government officials (a group to which they belonged) to fall down and worship the statue he built, they were the only three who did not. They were the Hebrew Holdouts who would not bow to a pagan god. I wonder if they would have been so bold one-on-one. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of others fell to the ground as soon as the band began to play its version of "Just As I Am." Was there an urge to get prostrate before the idol? Maybe but when Meshach checked to his left and saw Shadrach looking back at him, and when he looked right and saw Abednego looking back at him, they all knew they could do what they had to do. They wouldn't bow.

The king gave them a second chance but their resolve was strong. He became more angry and had them bound and thrown into a blazing furnace. That was the end of the defiance, he must have thought.

It wasn't. In a little while the king looked into the furnace and saw four men - not three - in the fire. They weren't burning. They weren't in agony. They weren't tied up. And the three Hebrew Holdouts weren't alone. Nebuchadnezzar's description of the fourth man indicates that a deity was in the furnace. The king knew the fourth man was a god. The Hebrew Holdouts knew the fourth man was God - the one true God.

Nebuchadnezzar didn't understand that. He was willing to give credit to God but only included him among his pantheon. To him, God was just one of many gods. Yes, God could do this thing or that thing better than any other god, but he was still just a god.

But God is not a god, he is the one true God.

That means he is there for you when life heats up and the pressure becomes unbearable. He loves you and cares for you just as he did the Hebrew Holdouts so stand up for him.

And stand with one another. God stands with us and also stands through us. I hope you can look to your right and left and see Christians standing with you. And I hope when Christians look to their right or left they see you along with and representing the one true God.