I am sure that most of you heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego in Sunday School when you were young. I thought of this story recently when my wife and I went to see the movie Fireproof. There is the obvious connection with the title. But, there is a more subtle connection as well. In the Bible story, these men were instructed to bow to an idol created by the king. The men would not bow. As a result, they were threatened with the fiery furnace. Their reaction showed the depth of their faith. "If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” The key line in their answer is, "But if not...we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship..." Their answer was not contingent on God's reaction. They were not going to ...
Saw a movie a few weeks back, called Remember Sunday, that told the story of a man who had lost his ability to retain short term memory. When he awoke in the morning, he had no memory of the day before. Nor, any day for that matter since suffering a brain aneurysm. His sister had created a folder that was just above his alarm clock that was labeled, "Read Me Every Morning!" It contained the story of what had happened to him and helped him reorient himself to who he was and what he should be doing. It was absolutely necessary to reintroduce those things into his memory to frame the rest of the day. This morning, I realized I needed to do the same thing. I have short term memory loss when it comes to remembering who I am in God, what I need to focus on and what kind of man I should be. It will serve to frame my day.
Many of you know that we use a number of books written by John Eldredge in the JMC Men's Ministry. Some of you may not know what John Eldredge looks or sounds like. Here is a video of John summarizing his book called The Way of the Wild Heart .
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