New Messages from the "Old" Word

I remember in Sunday school a few years ago someone commented that it was difficult to teach the Christmas story because it's been taught so many times and everyone knows it so well. I responded that the Holy Spirit often gives me new insight from a passage I thought I knew inside out. It's not always something I never knew, but it's often something I need right then - what is sometimes called a rhema word. It's the Holy Spirit reminding me of what God said (cf. John 14:26), bringing God's word alive in my life. I got such a word tonight at revival. Many times, tonight included, the lessons seems so obvious that I wonder how I missed them before. I think it's because the Word speaks to whatever we're facing, so our needs change as our lives change. I love how we can each get what we need from God's word, which might be something different for each of us from the same scripture, sermon, or lesson. Tonight's revelation was from Daniel 3, the passage popularly known by its setting, the fiery furnace. Pretty familiar story, right?

Once upon a time a king threw three men into a fiery furnace. When the king looked in the fire, he saw that the men weren't burning up, so he told them to come out of the fire. The three men came out and they were not hurt and they didn't even smell like smoke. The king praised the one true God that the men worshipped, promoted the men to better positions in his kingdom, and the men lived happily ever after.

Of course it's not that elementary, but sometimes we look at "the big picture" this way and miss important details. Think about how the story changes if you stop reading at verse 25, which says:

“Look!” [King Nebuchadnezzar] answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (NKJV)

What the preacher said tonight is that God delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego not from the fire, but in the fire. He didn't bring them out of their predicament, but He was in it with them. In verse 23 we learn that they were bound when they were thrown into the fire, but in verse 25 they are free. They were in a situation that had killed others and should have killed them, but they were unharmed.

God is able to deliver us out of the trials we face and sometimes He will do so, but He is also able to liberate us while we're still in the midst of trying circumstances. So whatever your fiery furnace might be, remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego and know that God is with you and that He gives you the power to live . . . unbound and unharmed, even as the fire continues to rage around you. Glory to God!

Matthew 10:30

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

What a great verse! Talk about attention to detail. It doesn't say our hairs are counted. It says they're numbered. If you see a few hairs in the brush, God knows exactly which ones they are. "There go hairs 27,950, 52,694, 84,103, and 90,293." (A quick Internet search says that most of us have around 100,000 hairs on our head.) God has numbered each hair on my head and your head. That tells us there's nothing He's not concerned about. So let your hair be a reminder of God's love for you!