Heaven

Peer Pressure (Daniel 3)

Posted on by Bob Mathews

The probability is that in all of our lives at some point we have been pressured into deciding to do something. This is a common occurrence that can happen at any point in life. The question is what choice did you make? Now not all peer pressure is bad, at times it can simply be neutral or even good. Sometimes it can help us to grow as a person. The example I am thinking of is when your friends talk you into eating something you have never tried or going to a type of restaurant that you have never been to. No matter the decision you make on these kinds of peer pressures you are still in good standing. There is no tarnished reputation or worry about someone knowing what you have done.

However, it is true that when we think of peer pressure we generally think of it in a negative light. And in most cases, this is an unfortunate fact. So when these times of peer pressure arise do you make a decision based on what is easier for you now or what is better for you later?

Interestingly enough this is something dealt with throughout history and the Bible mentions such occasions and can help us reach a good decision. In the book of Daniel, Daniel has three specific men mentioned as being taken with him into Babylonian captivity Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. These men in their work in Babylon came to a time of extreme pressure. They had the choice to bow down and worship something other than God or be killed. These men chose what was better than what was easy at the time because they knew God was with them no matter the outcome. When you are a child of God you have the knowledge that God will always be on our side no matter what as long as we make our decisions based on what God would want us to do. If we chose what is better for later, rather than what is easy now we can be assured that God will stand by our side.                                                                                                                                          Jacob Saarloos

Where is your name?

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Did you ever carve your name or initials on a tree or write your name on a building or on a bridge? I have seen names on trains as they travel across the country, in bathrooms, just about any place where a person can write a name. Names are important and we like to see our names and hear our names. We don’t like, “hey you”. That is why I always look for a person’s badge to see if their name is there, so I can call them by their name and then later try to recall it. In the Old Testament, the temple was not really the dwelling place of Jehovah but the place where His name was.

When Jesus sent out the apostles he told them they could do a lot of different signs to confirm the word and when they returned they were rejoicing that they had been able to do those very things. It is interesting that Jesus told them, “don’t rejoice over these things, but rejoice because your name is written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Paul spoke of certain people whose names were written in heaven (Phil. 4:1-4).

The most important thing that you can experience is having your name written by God in the book of life. But the only way that can happen is if we are following His word, being faithful in obeying His word. He said that He will tell some people in the judgment, “I have never known you” and that is after claim they knew him (Matthew 7:21-23). Paul was very confident about the fact that the Lord knows those that are His (2 Tim 2: 19).

Where is your name written, on a tree, on a building “in lights” or in the book of life in heaven? The only way you are going to enter into heaven is if your name is there in the book of life (Rev. 21:11-15). My prayer is that “when the roll is called up yonder, we will be there.”