Simon Says

I began reading the book of Daniel today. Kate and I talked some about Daniel's visions as we were getting some background info on revelations(which we are currently going through!!), so I decided I'd look deeper into the book of Daniel. You all know what the game of Simon says is, the person leading the game(who is often referred to as Simon) says to do something and if Simon says it you do it. King Nebuchadnezzar must have loved to play this game. We will call him Mr. Neb. He would say do this, and people would do it fearing the rath of the king. For example, in Daniel 2 Mr. Neb had a strange dream and he wanted one of his enchanters, magician, or diviners to interpret it for him, and if they didn't he threatened to kill them. Well, no human being could do this, so of coarse they couldn't fulfill his request, so they were killed. Rough game of Simon says huh? I was reading on and something caught my attention. You must understand I have heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego plenty of times. I was one of those faithful sunday school kids. Well, as I read it these verses stuck out to me, "IF we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand. But even if he DOES NOT, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18) It's like they are saying, "You know what Mr. Neb, we don't need to prove anything to you. We are tired of this Simon says junk! We know that our God can save anyone from any situation, so you don't need to try to scare us by saying you'll throw us in your big bonfire. And even if God chooses not to spare our lives we want to make one thing clear to you before we die....We will NOT serve or worship your gods, we only serve the ONE and ONLY true God." Standing up to a king like that must have taken some real guts!!! They seriously just put their lives on the line. I'm so tired of Christians these days just going with the flow, and playing Simon says. When will we stand up for what we believe in and live an active life of worship? When will we become the Shadrach, Meshach and Abednegos of today???