Today Pastor David Miller preached a sermon with the theme that “God is able.” God is an able fortress for us in times of trial. One of Pastor David’s references was to Daniel 3:16-18 which follows the narrative in which King Nebuchadnezzar orders three young men from Judah to be thrown into the fiery furnace for not bowing down to an idol. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (NIV). Pastor David said that their faith is called “even if” faith. Even if their God does not deliver them for whatever reason they still will worship only him. This represents the strongest form of faith in view of the frailest form of evidence. It is faith based not on inclinations of wishful thinking but on firm intellectual conviction. This faith is characterized by the lack of defensiveness. It welcomes all opposition, all adversaries. For Christians this means that while the love of Jesus need not boast, neither need it be afraid. All shades, degrees, and manifestations of hate can have their say, but Christians know that the love of God is a solid rock. Nothing will deter, nothing will sway them from this conviction—from this course set as an inexorable destiny. If they are successfully charred in the furnace, this proves nothing at all, nothing at all. All victories of hate are short-term, hollow victories. Such is “even if” faith in the destiny of God in Christ.
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