They have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him

Daniel 6:22

In the last post, I wrote about how the church responded to the pandemic with fear instead of faith. How they didn’t know the God who saves.

Daniel knew.

No kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

Daniel 6:23

How could Daniel trust God? He knew Him. He knew, even as heathen King Darius did, that God is one who “delivers and rescues.” God saves. It’s who He is. When God arrives on the earth in the flesh, His name is Jesus, which means God saves. It’s who He is.

Daniel also knew that God wasn’t punishing him for something by allowing this. He knew he was blameless before God. Do you know the same?

Again, if you don’t, you don’t know the God of the Bible. You may know about Him, but you don’t know Him. His children He washes clean of their sins and clothes them in the righteousness of Christ, a perfect righteousness. And He gives them the power to overcome temptation and sin. In fact, they becomes slaves of righteousness. They have to do the right thing.

They are blameless in God’s sight by the power and goodness and mercy and grace of God. They know it and are thankful. And they approach God’s throne with confidence and are accepted and welcomed and rewarded. They are saved!

1. It is going to rain.
2. If that’s so, we should take an umbrella.
3. But if not, it wouldn’t hurt to have one with us.

1. I’ll throw you into the fiery furnace!
2. If that’s so, God will save us.
3. But if not, we still won’t worship you.

1. If you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”
2. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
3. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:15-18)

I don’t know which translators first fiddled with those words to make them say in some translations, “Even if He does not.” (The NIV says it this way. You may find the words in your Bible in italics because those words aren’t really what it says; that’s why they are in italics.) How as a church did we start to believe that the three Hebrew men said, “But if God doesn’t save us, we won’t serve and worship your gods.” That doesn’t even make any logical sense. When they are a pile of ashes, they won’t serve his gods? What a laughable statement!

How did we get there? When did we stop believing our God saves?

Why did so many churches look like the world over the last year? They didn’t believe that God saves. Why are churches following the “wisdom of this world” which says you can’t go in the fire or you’ll get burned? They don’t believe that God saves.

The God of the Bible saves. The God of the Bible heals. The God of the Bible protects. The God of the Bible provides. Who is your God?

And that’s the worst part of it all. We don’t even know who He is. We don’t know the one we say is our God. Jesus didn’t die to “save” us. He died so that our relationship with God could be restored. We’re supposed to be in relationship with God. If you were walking and talking with God every day, how could you live in fear and be following the world?