Forsaking Fear

The other morning I found myself pondering all the posts I see on FB that are fear based.  Fear for what microwaves do to food, fear about GMO's, fear about what/how the government is taking away our freedoms, fear that they may take away our guns and fear that we may loose our comfortable and easy way of life here in the United States.  As I ponder these things and the mentality of my fellow Christians, I was reminded of the words of Christ where he tells us that we are to take up our crosses daily and die to ourselves.  And he warns us that those unwilling to do so are unworthy of the Kingdom of Heaven.  That is some pretty heavy stuff.

We all have fears.  We fear what people are thinking and saying about us.  We fear the response of our loved ones such that we try to tell them what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.  We fear the loss of comfort and we fear the loss of income and possessions.  We fear that the world may be coming to the end or that terrorists may attack us again.  I personally can remember fearing commercial aircraft for a while after watching the attack on the twin towers in New York about a hundred times on the TV.

Fear can be a good thing at times as it can helps us to be cautious when in dangerous situations and fear can stimulate the generation of adrenaline which can give us the strength and speed to get out of a potentially deadly situation.  Bur for most of us living in the modern world, away from animals with big teeth and sharp claws fear only paralyzes us and prevents us from living our daily lives.  When fear enters in and we have no outlet (nothing to run from and nothing to fight) it leaves us in agitated state that prevents us from thinking clearly and just leaves us stressed out.

In 1 John 4, the apostle  John writes in verse 28, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love."

This passage leads me to think that many of us have not reached perfection in love.  We fear loss, we fear pain and we fear separation.  These fears are part of everyday life for people but I also believe they are tools or schemes of the devil.  We are encouraged to not be unaware of the schemes of the devil.  Which means we should not be playing into his hand both rather looking for ways to resist the devil as we submit to God.

The Apostle Paul addresses this in his letter to the Romans in chapter 8 verses 15-16.  "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”  He is reminding us that the freedom that we have been granted through Christ's death and resurrection has set us free from fear.  When we start posting fearful things on FB or recounting all of our fears, we are becoming slaves to fear.  We are making our fears greater than God's love and mercy.  We are turning our fears into personal idols.  Idols are anything that we give power over us.  Our fear of sickness or our fear of others become idols in our lives.  Proverbs tells us that the fear of others is a snare.  Our fears catch us and prevent us from experiencing the freedom granted to us by Christ and the Holy Spirit of God.

In Matthew 10:28 Jesus warns us, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."  That is Jesus' way of telling us to fear God and not worry about the small stuff.  As the saying goes if Jesus is not Lord of all then He is not Lord at all.  We have to put Him first in our lives lest we become slaves again to fear.  This is a lifestyle not just something we acknowledge and then move on the next thing.  We must put God first we must fear him above all else (even though He loves us dearly and Jesus said calls us his friends).

We are no longer to be idol worshipers driven by fear and worry.  We are the Children of God, bathed in the love and mercy of All Mighty God.  We are new creations not designed to live as we once did.  We are recreated in the image of our One True God.  We are heirs of God's love and mercy and his greatness.  We are more than conquerors in his Name.

So I would ask you join me this coming year in refraining from re-posting articles that are inspired to invoke fear or shame or worry in people.  We are not people who are to live by fear.  It's okay to have concerns, but some of the things I read that have been posted by fellow Christians are nothing more than fear mongering.  We are children of the living God, the only thing that we should fear is God himself.  These articles may seem like they are encouraging discretion but to me, in my head, I can almost see people grabbing their heads and running about screaming "Oh My God, what are we going to do??!!!"

Faith transcends fear.  Faith says I trust God to work in all the circumstances of my life.  I trust his Power more than I trust humans and their plans.  Faith says I do not fret about the scheming of evil people, but rather trust in God's sovereignty to be with me.

Now what I am not saying is just wander through life without a care in the world.  Even Christ warned us "to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves".  Just don't submit to crazy schemes or walk through life without discernment. Whatever you do, do it as an act of worship unto God.  The world and the enemy work very hard to confuse and abuse us, but when we die to our selfish worries and concerns, we attune our ears and our hearts to the voice of our Master and Savior.

Fear not and be strong and courageous because our Lord has overcome the world.

Blessings, in Jesus Name

Preacher Al

Some thoughts about atheism

It is interesting that I found myself thinking about writing something about atheists and then this morning I got a link to a YouTube commentary to a Fox News video titled "Dumbest anti atheist question of the month?"  I am convinced that many believers are really not prepared to talk to atheists.  Part of this is due to pseudo-christian tendency to become defensive and hostile to people who say they don't believe.  Now I have to admit that some atheists are especially caustic and obnoxious, but hey that's their choice... or is it.

When I think of atheists, I don't think of them as enlighten people who some how have been set free of the burden of believing that they and the universe they live in were some how made on purpose.  I don't see them as enemies of God or of people of faith necessarily.  I have personally placed them in one of a few categories that I will list below.

1.  They were either the children of atheists or they were influenced by other atheists to believe that people of faith are not rational.  I find this often times in the intelligentsia.  These people are convinced that they are smarter than the average bear and like to look down upon us poor uninformed people who actually believe that there is more than just order to the universe, that there is in fact purpose and One who is responsible for both the order and the purpose we find in the universe.

These kinds of people are so convinced of their intelligence and rightness that they will not allow themselves to be drawn into an discussion about the possibility of a deity of any kind.  Personally I think that anyone who dismisses an argument out of hand is just hiding their fear of being found out as a fraud.  Arrogance is often just a cover for fear.  Such people are afraid of being proven wrong.  Better to just pray for them and trust that one day the right circumstances will put them in a place to be open to listen.

2.  Those who have been abused, hurt or disappointed by those claiming to know God.  I think these people can be reached by authentic compassionate Christians.  These people are upset with God because human beings have failed them.  They are not true atheists, but rather hurting people who blame God for the wrongs done by those who claim to be followers of Jesus.  Even Gandhi rejected Christianity because Christians in South Africa supported Apartheid. These people don't need caustic retorts from supposed believers.  Many of them know that the Bible says that Christians will be known by their love, so they are looking for it.  They have rejected Christianity, its followers and their God because they are not seeing the love Christ promised in the Bible.

3.  Some people are mad at God.  They prayed the prayer of faith and their loved one still died.  These people wanted to believe, and they took the Bible at face value which says that whatever we pray in Jesus name will be granted us.  Obviously (to me) we cannot take this Bible passage out of the context of the whole Bible.  There will be unanswered prayers.  There will be those who die of cancer and other things where it seems wrong and unfair; a child left without a parent; a child taken by unkind circumstances, a faithful loved one killed senselessly.  Any of these situations can cause a person to turn their back on God and say that there is no god.  In fact they may be very hostile to the thought of believing in God.  But again these people just need some love and compassion to see the reality of our faith.

4. Some are atheists because they look at the disunity and the wrong done in the name of Jesus.  They look at all the things wrong in the Church and say, "There cannot be a God which they serve if they act this way."  I admit after studying church history, I was left with a sick feeling in my heart.  I have an answer to that which I will address here some day soon.  But back to the main point... these are hurting, wounded or disillusioned people who just want to see some authentic love.  Just one authentic Christian who would listen to them, have compassion for them and demonstrate true Christian charity (love) could be all it takes to reach people like this.

I would like to end with this.  Atheist are not the enemy.  They are people who have rejected the notion of a God for any one of several reasons.  Our true enemy is not of this world.  He preys on people's fears and hurt feelings.  He encourages hating people for their being different. Now there are the few apologist who might be able to provide a sensible reason for faith, but it is Christian love that is the real lodestone.  If people don't see we Christians loving sinners and demonstrating the kind of love that can only come from God, then there will always be an abundance of atheists.  Atheists don't need our hate mongering and caustic remarks; that only makes us like any fool walking in the flesh.  The Christian response is love for hate and blessing for cursing.  The only way to live that way is to die to our selfish fleshly urges and submit ourselves to God.

It is interesting to note that the only people who Jesus had harsh words for were the religious people, who should have know better than to try to turn faith into nothing more than keeping a bunch of arbitrarily mandated rules.  The whole of the Law, The Prophets and the writings boil down to loving both God and our neighbors.  Anything else is just human foolishness.  I am also reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul, who said that he did not come with persuasive words, but with a demonstration of power.  What could be more powerful that the love of God pouring out through our lives.

So the next time you go to bad mouth an atheist, ask yourself, "What have I done to demonstrate the love of God to this person?"

In His Love,
Alan J. Beckett