Death is a mirror
that gives us a glimpse of who we really are.
Death
is a rearview mirror that puts the past into perspective.
And
if anyone who ever walked this earth lived with an up close understanding of
death- it was Jesus. He entered
Jerusalem on the Palm Sunday long ago- with the mirror of death in mind. Purposeful, poised, and prepared. To put your
past into perspective through His death.
The
closer you and I come to death, the clearer and farther you can see. Nothing recalibrates priorities faster than
a cancer screening, a car accident, or a visit from a military chaplain. Important things become all important. And unimportant things are revealed for what
they are- insignificant.
Our story today
about three teenage Hebrew boys may seem, at first, out of place on a Palm
Sunday, but their all in commitment is one that I want us to examine as we
consider Jesus’ entrance into the Holy City of Jerusalem. This is a story of matching talk with
walk. Commitment and action meet at a
place called integrity.
Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego knew that if they refused to bow down to the ninety-foot tall
statue of King Nebuchadnezzar, they would be executed. But these Jewish ex-pats feared God a lot
more than they feared death. They would
rather die by the flame than dishonor God.
So they made a defining decision to stand up for what was right rather
than bow down to what was wrong.
If, these three
Jewish teenagers had compromised their integrity by listening to a
rationalization-they would have been delivered from the fiery furnace. But their deliverance would have been by the
hand of Nebuchadnezzar, NOT by God’s intervention. These God followers would have forfeited
their testimony by failing the test.
While their lives would have been saved, they would have sacrificed
their integrity.
It was their
integrity that triggered a miracle.
Their integrity that allowed God to show up and show off. Their integrity that was their fire insurance
and life insurance.
Integrity comes
from the root word integer. It refers to
a whole number versus a fraction. In
other words, integrity is all in. It
does not look for an easy way out.
Is there anything
you are bowing to? Then, it’s time to
take a stand.
See you at the ‘all
in’ place,
Pastor Michelle
No comments:
Post a Comment