June 3rd, 2013
Fear is the absence of Faith. Fear does not mean you are not a believer. But let’s face it, it does mean you don’t believe God in this particular circumstance. You may even think He has left you on your own at this particular time! Again, this is the tendency of the natural man/woman.
How many times, from the front of the Bible to the back of the Book, has God said “Fear not….!” FEAR NOT or some variation thereof. There is no more all encompassing promise from Father than what God said in Joshua 1:9 – “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Even Christians would say something like “well sure, Joshua is God’s General and leader of the Israelites!” That is true. But time and again, we are told and know instinctively (if you’re a child of God”) that the Bible was given for our instruction. We either believe it is “God-breathed” or it is a book of fairy tales! The choice is yours. But remember that if you and I make the wrong choice, the blessings are short-circuited!
If a nominal Christian would not accept the Old Testament word to Joshua above, how about the Word of Jesus in the New Testament? The most literal English Translations of the Bible are the New American Standard (NAS) and the English Standard Version (ESV).
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Tags: American, blue, corruption, do not afraid, ESV, faith, fear, fear not, final judgment, matthe 10:28, matthew 10:31, new american standard bible Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on FEAR OR FAITH – YOU MAKE THE CALL
May 30th, 2013
Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed; Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause….Psalm 25:3
One message has been impressed upon me since the Good Friday service I preached it early this year, and that is the theme of “Faith vs Fear”. It happened again on Memorial Day weekend, when I was a guest preacher at a beautiful country church in Auburn, Illinois. What started off as a prepared word about the great Memorial Stones of Joshua 4:1-7, led back to the same theme – “Faith vs Fear”.Sure enough yesterday, I was having the same conversation now, three days in a row with different people from three different churches! The reason why this keeps coming back is so many good people are not just genuinely afraid by what they are experiencing in daily life, but they see and hear no hope coming from any of the places you would expect it from – churches, small groups, community organizations etc. No one I know really look up to political, academic or celebrity leaders and nobody should either.
As we see traditional institution after traditional institution fall – whether it is the late great Boy Scouts of America; or perverted movies, books or music…or whether it is one mega-church pastor falling after another or so-called responsible adults indoctrinating our public school children with graphic sex ‘education’ instead of math and science – the wheels have come off the bus. One would be tempted to say “who can blame even Christians for being fearful about the present and the future”.
Just this past month the Barna Survey confirmed what we have been observing. The amount of “Nones” – those who have no faith in any belief system, has increased five fold in the past 50 years. Because of the type of churches we run, we have run off our youth when they “escape” at age 18 as they see pastors more concerned with maintaining their fiefdom and holding on to tithers, than addressing the true needs of the congregation. The scary high numbers of those who say they will never return to church…and who have in fact, walked away from Jesus Christ, will be blamed in part on these church leaders – locally and nationally.
The gist of this brief post is not to bust on those who are falling short to teach the Sufficiency of Scripture to the flock, but to embark on, no matter how small, a drive to show us that we can be concerned without being fearful. The first thing we need to do is realize WHOSE we are. First of all – are we even saved, redeemed and rejuvenated by the Holy Spirit…that is, are we born again? I can’t even remember hearing a preacher use the word “rejuvenation” in the recent past…but this is what MUST happen.
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Tags: ashamed, boy scouts of america, fear versus faith, fearful, matthew 28:20, perverted lifestyles, psalm 25:3, sex education curriculum, traditional Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on WHY ARE WE SO AFRAID?
