The End of Fear and Uncertainty ...

How much of your life is curtailed because of fear?  How many things do you avoid, or risks you refuse to take, because the fear of the loss that might come to pass, is just too great for you?  The thing we call life, the way we define our existence, is so often ravaged by our fears.  We construct a box for ourselves to live within, hoping that if we stay confined to our box, we will be safe.  But inevitably life has a way of knocking down the walls of any box, and when the reality of those challenges present, its most devastating side effect, is to deepen the fear that governs how we live at all.  Imagine for a moment if you had taken every risk you were ever presented with, but imagine that they all worked out positively.  It is as if your brain won’t let you imagine that outcome.  Surely the nature of a risk, is that not all of them work out the way we want, so imagining they do is nearly impossible.  It presents a “too good to be true” scenario.  And yet, your mind is much more comfortable imagining every risk would have worked out badly.  And that kind of imagination, governs what you have done, and what you will do.

That kind of risk avoidance, that is so easy to imagine going badly, and so difficult to imagine working out the way we want, leaves a footprint in how we live.  It confines our actions, and stunts our imaginations.  It pushes us to want a life we can define, and predict, with relative certainty will go the way we want.  You call that common sense.  An outside observer would call it moved-by-fear.  So to get you to look beyond.  To get you to examine what life may have to offer beyond the limits and history of your fear, you must ignore your fears.  This is especially true in matters of religion.  Nearly every time an Angel is commissioned to communicate with mankind, the first few words are generally, “fear not”.  There is a reason for this.  Confronted with the supernatural, with the out-of-bounds, something beyond the limits you set for yourself and your ideas about life … the first human response is one of fear.  Not joy, not rejoicing (imagine it, most of the news they have to say is usually always good, sometimes really good), not even curiosity.  The first human response is fear.

Having an Angel appear in your real world, knocks the wall down of the nice little box you construct for yourself.  Thus, the message of the good news they bring must wait, while first they re-assure our fears.  And these messages are most often reserved for believers, for people who have chosen to believe in our God, in His Word, and the history of communication between God and man it has presented.  Even behind the lives steeped in belief, remain human fear, human uncertainty.  And this condition is not meant to be permanent.  It is not even meant to be how we live today.  Consider as an example, the slightly misplaced argument that toddlers have on the playground about “my dad is bigger than your dad”.  The real notion behind it, is that the toddler is asserting his/her own security based on the idea that their dad is big enough to ward off any threat.  The toddler is comfortable looking to daddy to protect them, care for them, and generally be a fence between themselves and evil.  While slightly misplaced, the basis of this argument is sound, if we were to apply it to God instead.  Even daddies need that analogy.

Security enables us to feel better.  Certainty, a hedge against the downside of risk, allows us to live life in a completely different way.  When you are not scared about eating, about making a living, about God taking care of the things, the burdens, you usually take upon yourself; something wonderful happens.  You begin to let go of the fear, and start to really live, outside of the box, outside of the boundaries you used to place upon yourself.  Your existence begins to change because the way you think about your existence begins to change.  It is in a sense self-fulfilling, but it cannot begin or be effective, without an outside assurance that will cover the fears we face, and hedge the risks we no longer fear to take.  What our “Daddy” can do for us in this regard, is something He longs to do.  It is how we live in the eternity of heaven.  And it can begin right here and right now, if we will only let Him do it for us.

Jesus Himself gives us the roadmap for this.  Matthew continues recording His Sermon on the Mount in chapter six of his gospel.  Jesus has just concluded a snippet about true currency valuation, and what relevance money has in the light of eternal things.  But before humans can let go the fear of using our money differently, we need assurances too many of us ignore.  Yet here they are.  Picking up in verse 25 Jesus continues saying … “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”  This is radical reprioritization.  We spend our lives working to feed our families, put a roof over their heads, and clothes on their back.  From the extreme rich, to the very poor, the mechanics remain the same.  Yet here is Jesus putting an abrupt halt on everything we value, on our entire economic structure, and furthermore saying “take no thought” for it. 

This is beyond a general admonition not to have fear regarding it.  This is nothing even remotely related to having balance between responsibility and spirituality.  This is a one-sided, completely weighted statement, that passes up any boundary we are comfortable with.  “Take no thought” means past not worrying or stressing, don’t even think about it.  We can be that certain in how we live, that God Himself is looking after our lives, that we need not even think about what we eat, or wear.  The question is not whether I shop at Saks Fifth Avenue, or Walmart, for my clothing.  The proposition Jesus makes, is that my body is the important thing to God, and God will take care of clothing it.

Jesus continues in verse 26 saying … “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”  Jesus has a point.  Birds wake up every day, and go eat.  The bird never has to worry that they will not find food.  They simply look, and there it is.  God does the worrying.  God provides for the feeding.  The bird is just living his life, he is not obsessing about whether he has a full pantry of food at home, or whether his canned goods supply are adequate to withstand the next hurricane disaster.  The bird just wakes up and eats.  Mom’s bring home food for their little birds.  There is never a worry about this kind of thing.  If you took the evil of predatory creatures out of the equation, birds would thrive.  You don’t see them going extinct because of lack of food.  Even though they still have to contend with what man does to their natural habitats, with pollution, with weather events just like we do.  Yet after a hurricane, when the storms roll away, there are the birds.  They just wake up and eat and live without a thought about it.

Jesus drives home the point in verse 27 saying … “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”  This is not just a frustration the shorter population faces.  It equally applies to health issues you have almost no control over.  Think about it, as you read this, your local hospital is filled with people in varying degrees of need.  This is true all over the city, country, and world in general.  Wealth is no barrier against being there.  Youth isn’t either.  Fitness despite all its other benefits does not shield you against cancer.  And our thoughts about what we want, and our fears about what we want to avoid, do nothing from keeping any one of us from becoming the patient in the bed right next door.  If we cannot control our bodies by sheer force of will, why do we take on the fear and stress over them as if we could.  The stress does not fix the problems, it only makes them worse.  There is a better solution.

Jesus continues in verse 28 saying … “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: [verse 29] And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [verse 30] Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”  Ok Macy’s, your entire value proposition has just been cut to the ground.  And so has yours Walmart.  Jesus asks us to simply look at the beauty He has created around us in nature.  Beauty that occurs whether we encourage it or not.  If God offers us the beauty of Roses, and Lillies, and Tulips and Trees; He takes care of things that have a short span of time here in the world, and things that last.  Flowers cannot just transplant themselves to find better foods.  Nor has a tree ever been given this kind of option.  The Sequoias have been there for quite some time, and yet still they grow, their beauty a remarkable thing.  If God so takes care of the transient things, why would He not take care of you?

Jesus summarizes His thoughts picking up in verse 31 saying … “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? [verse 32] (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. [verse 33] But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”  Your thoughts, your worries, your pursuits are either wasted in the temporary things of this world, or founded in the eternal things of God that matter.  Jesus tells us here that what we eat is not worth thinking about, food will be there.  He tells us what we wear is not our concern, God will make sure we have something, and that it lasts.  Following this advice may not offer us a wealth of new clothing every season, but it will meet our needs.  Following this advice may not have us eating at Morton’s every night, but it will have us eating to meet our needs.  And trusting God, to provide these things, is to just test what He provides.  His gifts are amazing.

What should be our focus is seeking His kingdom, the thing that lasts and matters.  The rest of the temporary needs will be met.  Jesus concludes this line of thinking with a more realistic and somber thought continuing in verse 34 saying … “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”  The problem is not our food, or clothes.  It is our priorities.  It is our faith or trust in God.  It is our inclination to focus upon ourselves and begin to indulge the evil that lays in wait all around us.  THAT is the real problem.  That is something we can have a little stress about.  Because the problem there is not half so much about what surrounds us as what lies inside of us.  Our refusal to trust.  Our refusal to change how we live, and who we rely upon to support us.  We take on burdens that do not belong to us, and in so doing continue to entertain fear, and uncertainty, that otherwise could die a permanent death.

How great could be our Christian lives and experience if we could think differently about who takes care of us, and who is there to meet the risks, and solve the challenges.  A sense of self-reliance is our biggest handicap.  Atheists must rely upon this as it is all they have.  But Christians should be able to rely upon something more, to a point where we literally … take no thought.

And the Sermon was far from over …

 

Our Testimony ...

In effect we will all have the same testimony in that Jesus Christ saved us from the evil in our lives. And yet each one of us will have a unique testimony of just what happened in our lives, under what conditions, and unique to us, like the DNA strands, and fingerprints that singularly identify us today. It is interesting that the themes of our testimony may be quite similar, a weakness for greed, or lust, or appetite, or power. How many of us suffer from the same weaknesses the devil has devised over the centuries.

There are worse things than not having had a personal experience with Christ bringing victory to your life. One would be the idea that you need no victory; that your life is “fine” just the way it is. The devil works hard to make people believe the meager existence they experience is all that life has to offer. He denies them the desires of their hearts long enough to convince them that no hope exists. Once people begin to compromise their goals, the rest is easy. People settle for the mediocrity the devil provides, without ever tasting the freedom and exhilaration that is possible ONLY through the liberation Christ can bring. Ironically the devil presents the Kingdom of God, as a prison of restrictions, or rules and regulations that must be kept on pain of death. Yet the “rules” or principles of God’s Kingdom define what freedom and fulfillment are all about. They do not constrain us from that which would make us happy, but rather are there to provide a buffer against that which would seek to destroy us and leave us completely empty.

This is tried technique of the author of all evil; Satan acts with malevolent intent and fierce actions and then blames God for “allowing” him to do so. It is why God is so often blamed in the face of tragedy; when in fact, the tragedies themselves come directly from the one who would see everyone suffer with him. Satan seeks only to spread pain however he can. Whether it be a denial of what is truly possible, or an infliction of horror itself, Satan wishes no human escape his wrath. This is his last avenue to hurt our Creator and so he works incessantly to achieve that singular goal.

Another fate worse than a lack of a personal experience with Christ, is a lie about a relationship that truly does not exist. There are those who claim more than just personal victories over sin worked in their lives due to the power of Jesus; they claim divine inspiration, revelation, or authority to speak on God’s behalf. So how do we sort out testimony of truth, from lies told by wolves in sheep’s clothing? For if truth can be found in any vessel of God’s choosing, how do we know He has not made a choice we simply do not understand ourselves. It is easy to get caught up in pre-judging the avenues God is allowed to reach us within. We close ourselves off to obvious sinners (those whose sin is known publicly), and generally do not want to associate with them, or listen to what they say. We stay away from places we deem inappropriate and believe truth is only given in church. We prejudge Christian music we do not enjoy as being evil, and therefore incapable of relaying the Holy Spirit of truth to us. And by all this prejudging, God is effectively excluded almost every avenue from reaching us with His intentions and word.

To treat those who claim direct divine revelation like they are all nut-balls is to err on the side of caution. But to treat all those who claim direct revelation of authors of truth, is to invite apostasy and deception into the mind and heart. So how do we tell the difference and sort the truth from the error? First, we must examine their language and actions in an attempt to know them by their fruits. Those who claim direct interaction with God SHOULD be the most loving of all Christians you have yet to encounter. It is an automatic side effect of being in close proximity to the source of all love. If they come across as critical, condemnatory, judgmental, obsessed with sin and not the savior, they are probably misstating their interactions with the divine. But just because someone is full of love, does not automatically make them full of truth.

Next, we must examine what they say against what we know of scripture to date. To directly counteract scripture is a very dangerous proposition. It may be truth, but requires very close scrutiny before adopting a position we believe to be 180 degrees different than what we know today. To directly counteract a fundamental of scripture is to simply be a mouthpiece for the evil one. Claims like there is no God, the Bible is untrue, Christ is not the messiah, or God does not care what we do. All of these kinds of nullifications of what God wants for us (a permanent escape from evil and the pain that comes with it), are plainly not true. They are lies meant to weaken or destroy faith. They do not make logical sense, if the claims of these people encourage evil they should be avoided.

We too should be conscience of the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Just because we are blessed with a supernatural comforter who is capable of working great works in our minds and hearts, does not free us the influences of other much more malevolent supernatural beings with evil intent. God does not mind being challenged. To ask a supernatural presence “in the name of Jesus Christ” to identify itself is a quick effective method of determining right and wrong in a world beyond our eyes. Satan is not allowed to lie when asked this question in this form. Most of the time evil angels succeed by avoiding being asked this question at all. They present themselves as beings of light that would be insulted to be asked such a meaningless question at all. They may even exhibit anger at the idea you would “show so little faith” in them. But God is not insulted. He understands our need to avoid danger and receive only truth, and He will be faithful to accommodate us.

So what will be your testimony? When walking down golden streets that never dim, will you testify that our Lord saved you from the pain of evil’s counterfeits regarding sexual expression? Or will it be that the Lord freed you from the consuming fire that is greed and avarice? Was it your lust for power and control that drove you to the brink, only to be pulled back by the mercy of Christ? Or was it simply that your eyes were opened by Jesus to the apathy of your own existence, and now you know what it is like to live in freedom with Christ. What can God say only through you? What will be your testimony?

Freedom to Choose ...

To end the pain, and see truth, one must make a choice to do so. Life does not require it. It is deeply personal and it cannot be forced by circumstances, peer pressure, or even supernatural forces. It is the singular choice we make in our lifetimes. Every other choice we make stems from this one, whether for our benefit, or our ultimate destruction. We are in fact, free to choose only whom we will serve. In our addicted and pathetic state of slavery to evil, it requires God’s grace to even have the freedom to make this rudimentary choice. But this is the choice we are offered freely. And we are free to choose our end as a result.

The outcomes are sure, but the selection is up to us. To choose our Creator God and His plan for our Salvation from evil, is to destine our lives towards success. To not make this selection, to delay or quibble, to remain in a state of contemplation on the topic and avoid commitment – is to prolong the condition we are in today, and keep pain as an active part of our daily lives. Our own nature of self interest will someday cause us to implode. The core of how we function is based on a premise to cause us immeasurable pain throughout our lives. It is the recognition of our condition that leads us to the need of a Savior. When you do not see the pain you cause yourself, refuse to recognize it, or blame it on others or even God – you remain bound to its power over you, and a slave doomed to feel its effects again and again.

Love is a choice. Love cannot be forced. This is why God offers us His plan and never commands us or forces us to choose it. It is logical to choose love. It is smart to choose relief over pain. It seems ultimately what the best choice is, but it remains a choice many walk away from. Satan is about control. He is the opposite of God in every respect. Where God offers you love, Satan would impose his will over even your basic decision to choose. This is the nature of the evil kingdom, where slavery, addiction, and power over the weak are things of praise. Obviously none of these facts would do well in a marketing brochure, so in order to deceive the masses, evil presents the alternative choice to God, as merely self-control, self-domination.

Evil would have us believe that should we choose to avoid a choice for God, we are free to run our own lives, free to do anything we want without guilt or condemnation. Evil would have us believe that we cannot be free while serving God or others, we can only be free when serving ourselves. And this alternative choice has been very popular for a long time. It fits well with our nature. It appeals to our ego and natural self interest. It is what we WANT to hear, and what we WANT to believe, whether it is true or not. But facts on the ground reveal its fallacy. The pain we continue to inflict on ourselves and others while we remain under the illusion of control is a real-world testament to the fallacy of freedom absent God. To deal with this fact, Satan simply blames God for it. Rather than let you take any responsibility for your own actions, decision, and behaviors which have caused you inordinate pain, Satan blames God for allowing you to do all these things. And very often we buy into his arguments hook, line, and sinker.

The truth and the facts, when examined without the rose colored glasses of self interest on, show that indeed we are our own worst enemy. Acting selfishly is the primary cause of pain in our lives, and our condition of addiction requires something outside of ourselves if we are ever to break this cycle. In short we need a Savior to save us from ourselves, from our natures, from our thinking, from our behaviors. This is what each of us desperately needs, and as each of us is different, a unique individual, so the work of saving us must be personalized to fit our unique needs. This is exactly what God has offered us in His gift of love.

But some Christians have taken God’s gentle offer of love, and tried to turn it into a mandate of enforcement over “the guilty”. While Christ Himself did not condemn our guilty world while here on earth, some of His purported followers spend their entire existence doing just that. They reason that sin must be called by its proper name. They reason that attention must be drawn to the law of God so that evil doers can see the error of their ways. Yet they do not look in the mirror. They do not see the evil that lies within them, nor that they are doing the very work Satan does – accuser of the brethren. It is not a question as to whether the world is guilty of sin and evil, it is. Neither is it a question as to whether we are guilty of it, we are. Guilt has never been the question. Our pain alone should tell us that. What to do when you are guilty is the question, how to save the guilty is the question, ending the pain of the guilty is the question. Redemption itself is the goal for all who feel the sting of self inflicted pain.

For a choice to be true it must be free. This is the peril of our existence, that we are truly free to walk away from the offer of our Salvation. God actually does allow us to reject Him. He does not recommend it, His love fights hard to lure us back, He does everything He can to try to show us why choosing Him is our best decision. But at the end of the day, God unlike Satan, does not compel anyone to do anything, or make any choice. His followers would do well to learn this lesson and stop imitating Satan and calling it the work of divinity. We are indeed free to choose. Life or death, it is our choice, and therefore someday our responsibility and no one else’s.