Fear No Fear

“Enter at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who are going through it, because small is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruit. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit. But a corrupt tree bears evil fruit. A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a corrupt tree bear good fruit” (Matthew 7:13-18, MEV). Jesus loves us enough to contrast good and bad for us. Again and again throughout scripture we find contrasts. What good living brings us and what bad living brings us. How righteousness helps us and how unrighteousness hurts us. The blessing of godly thinking and the curse of ungodly thinking. God doesn’t just tell us what we should do. God shows us what rebelling against the truth brings you. We were designed to live a certain way. By rebelling against that, we opened the door to a different kind of living. One that deteriorates us. One that is full of sickness. One that leads to death. We dress it up. We manage it. We twist it so that good seems bad and bland, and bad seems vibrant and exciting. We do everything we can to convince ourselves that what we find all around us (fallen creation) is normal, natural, and constantly improving itself. We ignore the evidence of science because we can’t understand the starting point. We twist everything that our senses bring us because we don’t want to admit the finishing point. But God shows us both sides. He shows us by parables, by proverbs, by teaching, and by examples. He shows the triumphs of trusting in Him and He shows us the sorrows of going our own way. He doesn’t shy from it. God wants us to have the TRUTH, not an opinion. He wants us to see what IS, not what we want to see. He doesn’t sugar coat it. God tells us the TRUTH. He does it not to hurt us. Not to shame us. Not to make us feel guilty. He does it so that we understand the truth. He loves us enough to let us see the truth. He loves us enough to instruct us in the truth. Even when it hurts. God is TRUTH and He wants us to see how things should be. How they are. And how they are going to be. God is a revealer, a teacher, an instructor, and a corrector. God shows truth and nothing else. He is a GOOD God. The question is what we are going to do with the knowledge of the truth that He shows us.