As Pastor John Fletcher stepped into his pulpit one bright Sunday morning, a very unusual thing happened. The message he had prepared was suddenly swept from his train of thoughts like leaves scampering about in the gust of autumn winds. The more he tried to recall the message, the more bewildered he became. Not even the text or some illustration from the message returned to his thoughts. All of a sudden a picture of the three brave Hebrews who were cast into Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace came to his mind (Daniel 3). And as the Holy Spirit aided him, he extemporaneously began preaching to his parishioners from that account. The congregation sat spellbound throughout the entire message. Seldom had he spoken with such fervor and with such anointing of the Spirit.
Unknown to Fletcher, a woman in the congregation was risking her life merely by coming to the service. Her husband, who was a baker by trade, had threatened that he would kill her by putting her into his large oven if she ever darkened the door of Pastor Fletcher’s church again. But in her search for Truth, she felt she must obey God rather than man. In spite of her husband’s threatenings, she came to the service to worship. Pastor Fletcher’s improvised message therefore became the instrument used by the Holy Spirit to remind her that God is able to deliver His own, even from a “burning fiery furnace.” When the courageous lady returned to her home after the service, her angry husband was standing in the doorway with his big bread knife raised. With a prayer on her lips she walked up to him with the confidence that she “could do all things through Christ, who strengthened her” (Philippians 4:13). Suddenly the enraged husband began to shake under deep conviction, and falling on his knees, sobbed and pleaded, “Pray for me. Please pray for me! I’m a terribly wicked man!” And thus this wife’s godly valor resulted in the conversion of her husband.
My friend, have you been “defying the furnace” of man’s contempt in order to stand for God and that which is right? Remember the promise of Isaiah 41:10: “Fear thou not, for I am with thee.” Go ahead … defy the furnace!
November/December 1977