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Ministry Encouragement Podcast – Episode #045
“Not Too Hot for God – The Fiery Furnace” by Rev. Jim W. Hollis
Hello and welcome to another Episode of the Ministry Encouragement Podcast, made possible through the consistent support of Proactive Ministries. (www.proactive-ministries.org) I’m Jim Hollis and it is my honor and joy to serve as the Executive Director of Proactive Ministries, founded in 1993. We are celebrating our twentieth year this year.
It is such a tremendous encouragement to me that you are taking time out of your busy day to share in listening to this podcast. In doing so, you have become a vital part of the Christian community we are seeing grow around this. Over the last several months, we have been able to share this with several countries around the world as well as many locations in North America. One of our greatest joys is the growing number of listeners who are in China. While we have the most subscribers in the Atlanta, GA, area – home for our ministry – both Texas and Arizona are close in the most subscribers currently – after several cities in California. It is my prayer that through your sharing this with others our community will continue to grow across the globe!
In this Episode, the we will be looking at another Old Testament account of:
The Book of Daniel, Chapter 3
In this account we find the evil and power-hungry king Nebuchadnezzer demanding that everyone bow down to a golden image he created for worship. It was made of pure gold and was 90 feet high by 9 feet wide. Three of the key leaders in the the king’s authority figures refused to worship the idol. Some very special, accusatory Chaldeans went straight to king Nebuchadnezzer and told him that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not falling down before the idol. This caused an enormous stir which resulted in their being sentenced to death by fire. The outcome was not what the king expected.
So often in our lives we are faced with challenges to our faith in God. It may be at work, in the community, among acquaintances, in school or other groups that we are invited or heavily pressured to take actions that would trash our loyalty to God. We feel the pressure to conform but it wrecks our spirit because we realize if we do – we may be temporarily spared condemnation or other penalties – yet we will have to live with ourselves. Regardless of what we face in life – God is with us and for us! This account in scripture vividly reminds us that we are not alone.
Through our sharing together this event in the Book of Daniel, we will discover and secure new insights for living in a faithful and consistent relationship with God. We will see in the lives of these three men of God how they handled both the pressure, condemnation and the heat, literally.
While you may recall this incident from early years, it is an account which proves valuable to review and apply to our lives in this time and culture. We live in a time when the powerful media in North America scorns Christ-followers and portrays Christians in both fiction and non-fiction as clueless idiots. We are daily invited to participate in porn, violence and divisions which lead to destruction of families, relationships and Christian community. How are we to stand under this pressure and these constant, intentional attacks on our faith? This story gives us practical handles to use in our own walk with God through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives today.
I hope to hear from you after you have shared in this. Please be encouraged to email me, call me, contact me on Facebook, or leave a voicemail on this blog. Contact information is below:
Jim’s Email: jim@ministryencouragementpodcast.com
Jim’s Phone number at Proactive Ministries: (770) 803-9988
Facebook: Jim W. Hollis
Voicemail on this blog: button is on the right side, use your mic and mouse to activate.
Your sharing this with your friends, family and fellow Christ followers can be a tremendous encouragement and blessing to them. Why not do that now? Simply email the address with a little note from you: www.ministryencouragementpodcast.com
Some of you have emailed and called recently and asked, “Jim, how are you and the ministry Staff doing in these months? Could you please give us an update of recent happenings?” OK, a quick summary. And thank you for asking how you can pray more specifically for us.
- We are currently working in long term Ministry Covenants with 17 congregations across North America
- God has connected us with invitations to work in several new congregations in the past six months, who are in moderate to severe conflict internally. While these are always a tremendous challenge, we have more than 1000 of our supporters praying for God to use us in Peacemaking and Spiritual Reconciliation with these churches. It’s happening. Relationships are being transformed and reconciled.
- We are blessed to have developed new relationships with a district of churches in western Pennsylvania. We have found pastors and laity who are passionate about wanting to grow closer to Christ and learn how to serve more effectively in reaching those both in and beyond the walls of the local churches.
- We are praying to add additional Staff to our ministry in the coming summer as our opportunities continue to increase.
- We are in full development of training churches through the Internet, using the tools of GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar in this work, allowing even small congregations to receive excellent and effective ministry training.
- We are in the process of developing Spiritual Growth Retreats for men in several regions of the United States. Target date for launching some of these is Fall of 2013. We are prayerfully assembling Ministry Development Teams in several states across the USA related to this work.
As always, please keep me and our ministry in your personal prayers. It is such a blessing to have you email or contact me just to say you are praying for the community we are building together through this podcast. You may wish to use these Episodes to share with your small groups, Sunday School class, Bible study groups, or other friends who you meet with for spiritual growth and sharing.
Should you wish to have me learn about your church or ministry, please feel free to contact me. We are doing many GoToMeeting Conference calls with Pastors and Church Leaders as a way to get to know each other. These are free and can be done easily by computer and an internet connection. You may want to share this opportunity with your own Pastor.
Our Ministry Website is: www.proactive-ministries.org
Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you from being harmed or doing any harm. I love you all.
Jim
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