Thursday night, I was privileged to gather with my sisters in Christ at the East Hill building and discuss an inspiring concept: sanctification and the book of Daniel. We spent an hour gleaning lessons from each other and the text, examining exactly what it means to be sanctified, and how our 21st century stories absolutely relate to the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego.

One such lesson that stuck out to me from our time together was the concept of bowing down versus standing up. As we know, the reason that Daniel’s companions were thrown into the blazing hot fiery furnace was because they had refused to bow down and worship an idol, thus “disrespecting” the king (while honoring the true King). Undoubtedly, it was a difficult moment in their lives. A proud one to be sure, but a difficult one nonetheless. Standing up in a crowd where numerous other Israelites are bowing down, ashamed of their heritage and their God, would have been frightening and discouraging. Still, it was absolutely necessary, and they are praised (and saved!) for their stance.

We live in a society that is bowing down to Satan and his will. And, as sad as it is to say, there are numerous Christians who are doing the same thing. Perhaps they aren’t bowing down to Satan and giving in to his will–perhaps they are simply bowing down in hopes of not standing out and being persecuted. Whatever the case, it seems that from the example given from the book of Daniel, if you aren’t standing up for God, you’re bowing down to Satan.

So what are we doing? What am I doing? What are you doing? Our world is growing increasingly more intolerant of God’s Word and His guidelines for living. Instead, they are pushing political correctness instead of Biblical correctness–which we all know leads nowhere but south. Really, really far south. And, while it hasn’t gotten to the point that Christians are being driven into the prisons by the masses, I do believe it may come to that in my lifetime. Why? Because people don’t like to be told they’re wrong (God’s words).

Emily, are you saying that in order to truly be a disciple of Christ, you have to speak out about all of these hot button issues? That when it comes to the government restricting what we can and cannot say, we have to speak out and go to prison over it?

I’m not going to say anything, because I feel that Jesus has already made it clear what true discipleship means:

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

We aren’t to hide our lights under bushels, instead we are to place those lights on the mountaintops. We are to shine as brightly as possible to the world around us. If you can shine brightly while masking your Christianity, do that. But just remember, if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego had done that, the story would read quite differently.

We are called to be a peculiar people (1 Pet. 2:9); to shine as lights in the world (Phil. 2:15). If you can do that by blending in with the world around you, that’s up to you. But I truly believe the Word of God teaches that in order to be different, people have to see the difference—and we have to stand up just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego did. Otherwise? We’re bowing down.