Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.
Job 24:23 (emphasis added)

God is a great gift-giver. He is generous (2 Corinthians 9:9). He loves to bless us with things that don’t hurt us in any way (Proverbs 10:22). He loves to look out for us (Psalm 37:25). We can see it and understand it as a concept, but our minds will bring up something. We look around us at everything that happens and is happening in the world and we inevitably say: but what about the wicked? What about the evil doers? Why do THEY prosper? Why do THEY get rich? If operating in fear is so bad, why is it that fearful people seem to be doing just fine? The medical industry caters to them. Government programs cater to them. Everything seems to cater to them. In fact, say something that doesn’t agree with them and they’ll call you a bigot or worse. The ‘worse’ is guaranteed when you speak the truth. The world HATES truth.

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me” (John 15:18-21). “You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Don’t be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you” (1 John 3:13). The world does not like the things of the Lord. One reason is that light illuminates what happens in the darkness. No one likes to be wrong. No one likes to hear that what they ‘feel’ might in some way be wrong. That they could CHOOSE to do something different. Truth is though, that EVERYTHING we do is a choice. From breathing to activities to words to thoughts to actions to lifestyles to preferences to the clothes we wear. It is ALL a choice. If someone’s choices rub up against what God says we should choose, there is often a serious problem. Unrighteousness cannot stand righteousness. It feels guilty. It feels bad. It feels anything but good, so it pushes back.

Another reason is that humanity wants to stand on its own two feet. Almost from the beginning, humanity decided that they were good enough to be good enough. “The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t really die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate. Then she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too” (Genesis 3:4-6). How would you like to be like God Himself? That was the question. You won’t have to DO anything. Maybe you won’t even have to work anymore. You will KNOW EVERYTHING. When has that not sounded like a good deal to people? We even put it in our entertainments. There are whole franchises built around the idea that sooner or later we’ll get/earn the prize of knowing it all. Many books have been written about humanity’s quest to play God and all the issues that happen along the way. This is an idea that is deep within our psyche – because that’s how we lost everything in the first place. It’s a scar that isn’t going to go away until we are all recreated as new creatures (Philippians 3:21).

Life is temporary. It only lasts for so long and then people die. Our bodies can only handle so much wear and tear before they wear out. That’s the reality of a fallen world. That is the carnal reality of this creation. It isn’t the reality for the born again, but today’s verse doesn’t focus on the born again. It focuses on the wicked. After we die, we enter the rest of time: eternity. For us, time has two stages. The first is carnal, the second is spiritual. Carnal is temporary. The spiritual is eternal. No matter how long you live in this carnal creation, it will be a drop of a drop of a drop of a drop of a bucket in the ocean. There is no way to truly comprehend it. That’s how vast the difference is. The question isn’t what is happening NOW. The question is what will be happening for the REST OF EXISTENCE. This is why the enemy has spent so much time convincing some great thinkers that there is nothing after death. If he can convince us that there is nothing after death, then we don’t have to worry about the rest of forever. If we aren’t worried about what will come, there is no reason to care about things of the Lord. But the TRUTH is that an end to the carnal comes, and the rest of forever begins. That’s why we know that any suffering we experience is only for a moment (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). What about the wicked?

“The unfaithful will be repaid for his own ways; likewise a good man will be rewarded for his ways” (Proverbs 14:11). “Because they don’t respect the works of Yahweh, nor the operation of his hands, he will break them down and not build them up” (Psalm 28:5). “Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me” (Hosea 7:13). “For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things” (Philippians 3:18-19). Do you see the trend? You’ll find it throughout the Word. The whole bible agrees. There will be an accounting for EVERYONE. The wicked end up judged. They will NOT get away. As merciful as the Lord God Almighty is, there is a limit. “Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God” (Ecclesiastes 8:12-13). Jesus agreed and warned us (Matthew 7:23). Paul warns us of the same thing (Romans 11:22). The final word will be the Lord’s. “For we know him who said, “Vengeance belongs to me. I will repay,” says the Lord. Again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:30-31).

If we walk in fear, we are heading for a bad end. We are heading for the end that was created and is reserved for those SPIRITUAL beings who saw the Lord God Almighty face to face and rebelled against Him (Matthew 25:41). We were NEVER meant to go there. It was NOT made for us. It WASN’T. But because of OUR rebellion, that is where we are heading. Adam was created and rebelled, which changed his physical and spiritual self. He died spiritually the minute he ate (Genesis 2:16-17). He physically began to deteriorate toward physical death as well. When he and Eve procreated, their offspring were just like them. Carbon copies. Not of humanity as we were meant to be, but humanity as we now were. Every human being after Adam and Eve were fallen just like their parents – it is hereditary. Because of that, without a payment for the sin – the punishment to fit the crime – we will end up where betrayers of the Lord are destined to go. You see, God never wanted to judge us. He wanted us to choose Him with full freewill out of love. His solution was in place from before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20).

“For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only born Son of God. This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God” (John 3:17-21). The Father wants NO ONE to be lost and EVERYONE to be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4). But the choice is ours. We MUST choose. Not choosing is choosing wrong. Choosing wrong is choosing wrong. Choosing Jesus as Lord and the substitutionary sacrifice for your sin is the ONLY way to choose right (John 14:6).

It doesn’t matter what culture you are from. It doesn’t matter what religion man created that you prefer. It doesn’t matter how many nations exist and have existed. Jesus is the ONE and ONLY way into heaven. The ONE and ONLY way to be saved. The Lord God is merciful. The Lord wants everyone to be saved. Not everyone will be. Not everyone will choose the Lord Jesus as Saviour and Redeemer and Lord. Those that do not may seem to prosper and profit now, but when the rest of forever starts they will be judged and will reap the harvest that they sowed seed by seed. “He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away. But when the blade sprang up and produced grain, then the darnel weeds appeared also. The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did these darnel weeds come from?’ “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’ “But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn”’” (Matthew 13:24-30).

You don’t want the fire. You WANT to be in the barn. Do not let the temporary blind you to the eternal. Do not live slaved to fear. Walk in faith and live in God’s love.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: 2 Timothy 2:14

People like to talk. Some more than others, but we’re all pretty good at slinging syllables around. Most of them aren’t worth the spit we use to lubricate them out our faces. We seem to talk just to talk. Argue just to argue. And build towers the size of Babel getting our ‘point’ across. The Lord again and again warns us about our words. He loves us too much to leave us ignorant (Proverbs 10:21). He loves us enough to GIVE us the wisdom we lack (James 1:5). He commands us to test EVERYTHING and hold fast to what is good – what is TRUE (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The trouble is that we tend not to test it BEFORE it comes out of our mouths. This is really important to grasp, because every word is a seed (Luke 8:11-18, Genesis 8:22). If we talk without careful consideration, we are going to end up filling our days with words that hold no profit or benefit. Or worse, that cause people to go astray (Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42). Take the admonition of Paul to heart. Take the admonition of the Lord to heart. Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles (Proverbs 21:23). Listen to the Lord who loves you and ask for His wisdom to help you hand onto all that is good and true. Spread life, not death. Spread love, not hate. Rely on the Lord, not yourself.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.