When we hear the wolves howling, we think we have to rush for cover, lest we get hurt. Jesus saw things the other way. He said to His disciples, “I send you as sheep into the midst of wolves.” We are not justified in arguing that a door is closed just because danger is threatening.
It was this that gave Watchman Nee his text when he returned to Shanghai under the communists in 1949 and found many of his friends preparing to escape. He himself was outside China at the time of Mao’s takeover and could have stayed in the free world if he had heeded the advice of his friends. But in prayer God had showed him that his responsibilities lay in China. Watchman Nee was captive in another sense as he declared his intention of going back into the lions’ den.
Daniel and his three friends were placed where God wanted them, but it was up to them to make the opportunity for God. By purposing in their hearts not to yield one iota in their God-inspired convictions, they burst open the door of opportunity in a closed land. The faithful captives brought the tyrant dictator Nebuchadnezzar to his face before them, confessing, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent His angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him.”
The price tag on this opportunity was, Don’t bow, but burn – don’t give in; get thrown in. They bought it.
The prisons and labor camps of China’s bitter northwest are mute testimony to a similar faithful witness that has refused to be silenced by Mao and his party. No door is closed where men and women are prepared to cling to their convictions and refuse to be conformed to the squeeze of the world.
Will you give in?
Arthur Matthew
Author/Bible Teacher
Changi Chapel 
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