Forced Worship

And whoso falleth not down and worship shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Daniel 3:6

Maybe this modern life sometimes makes us forget the basic nature of human beings.

Two basic things we should notice in Chapter 3 of the book of Daniel this morning.

First is the need for absolute control. A pagan king decided that he wants to upgrade his worship of his gods and chose to create a massive image in the plains for everyone to see as his pride of spiritual attainment and upgrade. What we these days call scaling; he scaled up his worship level. Now, there is nothing wrong in itself if he wants to gain deeper spiritual force or presence in what he believes. The problem here is his desire to control what others believe or worship. 

His decree that anyone who didn’t join him to worship his scaled up god would be thrown into a burning fiery furnace is as unreasonable as his demand for them to go into his dream land to excavate the dream even he could not remember. What religious beliefs demand is persuasion: you persuade people to join you in what you believe or persuade them to remain in the belief you once shared with them. If they choose not to anymore, you can only continue to persuade. When you threaten their lives due to their beliefs, you become a murderer if you actually carry out that threat. That is the unsavoury truth.

The second is the need for self preservation. Now, when a decree was made to threaten your life if you do not do something, the first human instinct is to do that thing just to preserve their own lives. You may never know how many people would have opted out if given the choice. This is why when you continue to hold people in bondage with the threat to their lives if they choose a different path than you, know that they are not in a belief but merely going through the rites. There are many people that would have moved on if they do not have a dagger hanging over their heads. Many might not even be in a faith if they were not born into it. 

This is why everyday we encourage you here to make that choice. You might even be born into the faith of your parents. But you need to choose your own path when you come of age to make your own decisions. 

So, today again, I call upon you to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour.

As you would have noticed and also testified by the pagan king in today’s chapter reading, He was the Fourth Man in the fiery furnace. When the same fire that killed the bouncers that threw them into the fiery furnace could not touch the three Hebrew men that chose to trust in God despite the threat to their lives, He was there walking in the midst of the flames with them.That is how faithful He is. 

The Christian journey is a glorious one. It is not always easy: challenges must come. But one thing that is sure is the victory at the end if you choose to walk with the faithful God by accepting His free offer of salvation. Ultimately, YOU choose. That is the difference.

I pray that this new week will bring you into a greater knowledge of He who alone can save in Jesus name. 

Happy New Week.

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