Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

I was invited along to Christian sundowner (like a night time gathering with food and plenty of mingling) today. The group is called SMA which stands for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. At first I though these were Latin words and so I googled them because I was curious to find out the meaning. Little did I know, these are actually the names of three men from the Book of Daniel in the Bible. Although Wikipedia can be very useful most of the time, I still have trust issues with it and sometimes it's overwhelming all of the information on there, so I pulled out my bible to read the original story.

To sum up the story of these three men, what happened was they were told to worship another God by the King. When they refused to bow down to any other god, they were sentenced to death in a fire. When they were thrown in however, an angel protected them from the heat and they survived. The King was in awe of how these men were saved by their faith and devotion to God that he himself became a believer and spared their lives. 

I just thought I might share that with anyone who is interested.

Both the SMA event and reading that Bible story were both my 'somthing new' for today. Even though I didn't know anyone at the sundowner today, it was still really nice to mingle and talk to people who share the same values and beliefs. The nice feeling that I'm describing isn't limited to just spiritual things, but to any time when you are with people who all share common interests. It's a lovely feeling of community. 

If you're not part of a club or group, maybe have a google search for something you can belong to. Whether it be a church group, volunteering, sporting group or a club at school/uni; if you're like me and enjoy the idea of trying new things, definitely give this a try. 

A nice illustration of the Shandrach, Meshach and Abednego story (Daniel 3: 1-30)