Dressed for the Occasion

It is back to school time, and I love how students shop, plan, and lay out their first day of school outfits. Do you remember doing this? Did you have a favorite pair of sneakers or jacket that you might have worn? I can’t remember details, but I do remember showing it off on the first day. Just recently I was studying the book of Daniel. If you remember the story, King Nebuchadnezzar had built a 90-foot golden image to his gods and required everyone to kneel and bow to it when the music played. The following verse about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego made me laugh out loud. 

“Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace.”-Daniel 3:21

And they were wearing cloaks, tunics, hats, and then “their other garments?” Other translations use the words “hosen, trousers, capes, coats, mantles, turbans, etc.” But the kicker is that they had too many other garments, that they just stopped listing them. This is kind of funny. Why so much style, pomp, and fashion?  It could have been that they decided in advance that they were not going to bow to this golden idol, so they laid out their outfits to stand their ground in. I am not sure they knew they would be thrown into the fiery brick oven (aka furnace) and they might get their fancy clothes singed a bit, but they did it anyway.    

This week our college students are going back to classes at Montco, Del Val

University, Chestnut Hill College, and Gwynedd Mercy University. No doubt they are going to be dressed up and eventually, they will be facing tests in the classrooms. What they might not be ready for is the “tests” they will be challenged with outside of the classroom. Tests like the three Israelites faced in the Babylon culture and being misled by false idols. These three then told king Nebuchadnezzar in verse 16-17, "... we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of your hand, O king. 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 are saying that our God is able to deliver us, but if He doesn’t, we still will not bow. Dressed up or dressed down, this is so bold and so full of faith. 

Jesus prays for believers in John 17, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you. That they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” -John 17:20–21

As supporters and prayer warriors for our Greater Philadelphia college campus missions, you are helping to unify and train the next generation to stand firm on the college campus. Jesus was praying for the disciples and then us, knowing that we would be “in” the world, and He wanted us to not be “of” the world.

Together we are training up the Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos of our lifetime, and who knows what they will wear as they stand up for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

By the way, at the end of the story, Jesus as the pre-incarnate Christ, stood with them in the fire that day and when King Nebuchadnezzar told them to come out, they weren’t burned and their fresh clothes didn’t even smell like smoke. Pretty amazing God, right!?  

Please pray for these first few weeks as we connect with new students and share the Gospel with them. Please support this college campus mission/ ministry: your donations make a difference in the lives of college students.