Standing up for the LORD

I recall the moments of Daniel’s 3 friends, Shandrach / Meshach / Abednego, they did not bow although the whole nation bowed. They were threatened to be burned to death if they will not bow down to the Idol King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. They had so much confidence that the God they are worshipping is the true God, they could even say to the King, in Daniel 3 : 16 – 18.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

What a bold thing to say, to be frank, I am not sure if I am able to utter such words in my whole entire life, not only is what they have said depict their faith in God, but it also poses a very great challenge to us as Christians, can we truly say, in regards of making a stand for God, that even if God does not save us, we will still worship Him? Before we read on, lets think about this for 5 minutes.

Well, we have always talked about making a stand for the LORD. All these years at least I have, although the many times we said we as Christians should make a stand, we make a big Hoo Ha concerning making a stand but many times the chances come and we don’t make that stand. Worse still, we pretend as if God is not calling us. I remember once during my College Orientation, when they were introducing the clubs of the College, they called out - Christian Fellowship. The facilitator then asked which of you here is Christians, I looked left and right, and I did not put up my hand. I was afraid, but afraid of what? Afraid of being - the lone one. Because of this incident, sometimes I feel very ashamed of myself and this is definitely something I would not repeat in the future.

Howsoever, today I would like to share this message of standing up for the LORD with regards to a recent incident.

Recently my grandmother passed away. As children it is good for us to pay respect to our grandparents, my parents have told us as they have returned earlier, that this funeral will be held in a Taoist manner. Seeing that the road back to Penang is long, the 3 of us KHORs drove back and we spent some quality time together listening to songs and talk. Alas at 6 pm, we arrived at Penang. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by our dad, whom brief us the dos and do not of the funeral, we changed into the mourning clothes which is white and black and we sat down while the funeral service begin. As a Taoist funeral involve holding of joss sticks, we held white roses in place of that.

What we thought was a service soon became a ritual, when the undertakers starting arranging tables and chairs in such a manner and making a bridge for the partakers to crossover. We had to walk around the coffin countless of times. There were also kneeling and bowing down to the idols they have erected. After figuring out that a ritual is undergoing, we decided not to participate. This act began to bring about questioning and frowning glances by our relatives, as they asked, why aren’t they in it? After 6 hours of rituals, it came to a hold and we retreat for the night.

The next day, the ritual continues, so we go on and on, until this part in which the coffin is being taken out, it involves us as grandchildren to kneel 3 times before it. At that point of time, the pressure was greatly there as yesterday the whole congregation was involved in kneeling, but today, individuals have to kneel one by one. When the undertakers mentioned the names of the grandchildren, I knew this time had to come in which our testimony as Christians will be tested. As I told my mum, we will not kneel because that will be deemed as idol worship. We told the undertakers, we are Christians and we should not kneel to any idols because such an act is deemed as worship. Instead, we gently took a bow, even though eyes were looking at us, some were frowning, some were neutral, some were perplexed, our family knew we were doing the right thing.

As we left, I had 3 thoughts on my mind,
1) It is such a privilege being God’s Children, we do not need to experience the hassle of securing our way in Heaven, simply because God has assured our salvation in Jesus Christ.
2) Although we looked awkward in the eyes of man, but what is man’s view when compared to the eternal God that we worship?
3) Being a good testimony does not always involve compromising and it might have looked like good testimony if our family kneeled, after all they will look at it as a sign of filial. But what about the part of being the salt and light to the world, what bout making a stand for God when the opportunity arises?

As I end this passage, I would like to share with you all a song we all sing when we were kids,

I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back,
Though none go with me, still I will follow
Though none go with me, still I will follow
Though none go with me, still I will follow, no turning back, no turning back.

- John Khor

*Note: Images used in this blog post is meant purely for illustrative purposes only. There are no relation to the actual events of the photos displayed.

Images taken from:
http://timelytidbits.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/standing-up-for-yourself/
http://triathlons.thefuntimesguide.com/index.php?page=4
http://ronnieyap.net/tag/funeral/
http://kingdavid.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/it-all-begin-with-a-vision/