“Look!” he 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.” Daniel 3:25
RECOMMENDED SCRIPTURE READING ISAIAH 43:1-7 – “But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.3 For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.4 Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life.5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west;6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up! ‘And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back! ‘Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth—7 Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”
COMMENTS: The story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den is one of the most loved and known stories of the bible but also the story of Daniel’s 3 friends and the fiery furnace is another too. They chose not to worship and do homage to a 90 ft statue of King Nebuchadnezzar. His subjects were ordered to gather at the foot of that statue and kneel and worship it. When these 3 men refused, they stood out as the only 3 of that huge gathering still standing. They knew and had seen the results of the king’s temper and were fully aware they were in great danger. What they told the king is worthy of pondering. Daniel 3:16-18 “16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 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.[c] 18 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.””
They did not know if God would spare them or if they would suffer and die (burned alive) in the flames. They knew God was able to spared them, but weren’t sure He would come to rescue them before or after they died in flames. I’m sure they hadn’t thought of His shield and protection in the flames, but I’m sure they felt His presence and were strengthened by His presence before entering the flames. But I can also imagine and believe they felt alone when standing there alone and when the king pronounced judgment on them. They may have felt alone as they were being bound and throne into those flames. But God came just in time. There was not a hair burnt nor even the smell of smoke. Jesus, Himself, long before His birth came personally. He was not only seen by them but by the king and those there.
Many have been martyred for their faith in both old testament and new testament times and in the centuries since. They were not spared death by lions or by fire or by countless other sinister means, but Jesus was still there for each and every one on the other side to greet them. Some He may have escorted them directly while others by an angelic escort but none alone.
When we feel alone or weak, it is satan trying to weaken and discourage us. Our feelings / emotions often betray us. But God’s promises never betray or fail us. So why does God often allow us to feel alone and distant from Him while enduring temptation and danger? Only He knows the answer, but I believe the answer likely has many facets. A common result and one of the likely reasons are the necessity to choose the path of obedience and trust in Him while feeling alone in order to make our will and faith come together as one. God will and always provides sufficient help and strength and encouragement and abiding presence to reach the destination and endure the journey there. But that first step of faith may require us taking it alone first before seeing God there ready to catch us.
Stop and think about what it took for Peter to get out the boat and walk on water toward Christ. He alone got out of the boat and had to walk on his own the few steps until Christ could catch him. But when he lost concentration and wind and waves began overtaking him, then Christ grabbed hold of him and saved him just in time.
Always just in time, never too late or too early. I have to admit that I prefer early because risk is less and much less faith and risk is required. But God has different goals. Ours is to conserve faith and His is to build strength and stamina in our faith. He wants to exercise and strength our faith muscles so our endurance and strength will be up to future tasks of faith He wants to prepare us for.
Was it worth it for Daniel when he emerged from that lion’s den or for Daniel’s 3 friends when they emerged from that fiery furnace? You had better believe it! God then gave them greater responsibility and influence after that. Influence that still impacts and influences every time we read it in scripture and open our hearts to God’s insights and editorial in our souls.
I can imagine a long waiting line waiting to have a conversation with Daniel and his friends. I am planning on being among them too, how about you.
But be glad none of us will have to wait our turn to be greeted by and be in fellowship with Christ. HE IS GOD AND ABLE AND WILLING AND AVAILABLE TO HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH EACH OF US ALL AT THE SAME TIME BOTH NOW AND WHEN WE GET TO HEAVEN’S GATE!
AMEN? AMEN!!
This reminds us of Paul’s words: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:9-10).
There is a Fourth Man who will come and be with us through any fiery test we face. He can, has, does, and will deliver us!
“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace all sufficient, shall be thy supply.”
George Keith, “How Firm a Foundation”
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 543 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present.
You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials.
My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.
Published by donsdevotions
Don McDaniel - Who am I?
Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever.
Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me.
I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private.
However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool.
Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry.
He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 .
I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine.
I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward.
Don & Arlene McDaniel
In His Service,
Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ )
You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials. View all posts by donsdevotions
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