“All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, as He is pure.” Perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. Fear is slavery, whether it's the fear of physical death or, far more importantly, the fear of spiritual death. Fear has nothing to do with the One who Knows, the …
Continue reading The Good Shepherd Never Punishes the Lost Sheep
In a previous post, I related the story of the Fall in the Garden of Eden and shared what meaning I see in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In this post, I am going to discuss the fear that seems to precede the taking of the forbidden fruit, and that now …
Continue reading The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Part Two – Fear)
I've never been able to understand the way in which many people in America think about persecution and martyrdom. I might literally shiver with fear, but the way of thinking about persecution I knew was that of the Apostles when they “went forth from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been counted …
Continue reading Stop Wondering What It’s Like to Be Persecuted or if You Would Deny Jesus
“We who are free to worship and serve the Lord must never forget those who are not.” At first glance these words seem, at least to me, to be saying that Christians should remember, pray for, and preach the Gospel to those who do not know that God sent His Son to be the sacrifice …
There is a lot of talk about assurance of salvation, whether it is possible, how it is to be had, whether it is necessary, on and on and on. I really do not think it is the point. The point is simply this, “It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” It's not about whether or not you or I can lose eternal life... It's about the fact that Jesus Christ is eternal life. It is all about Him. How many times did He say, “I am He?” Let us cease to look at ourselves and instead look to Him. “You have been buried with Him through baptism into death.” Salvation – everything – is about Christ. “He who descended is also He who ascended that He might fill all things.” Salvation means that we die and are raised in Christ. This is the way to conquer fear. Fear of what will happen to me? God loves me and is in control of all things. He is sovereign and He loves me as no other can love. This is eternal comfort, but it is not even about eternal comfort; it is about the fact that He is good, that His love is real, that He is YHWH. (How I wish I could say this without using words like I!) Even though I should not know His love, not know His goodness, even though I should forget all that I have ever known of Him (unless He continually gives me the knowledge of Himself I must forget it, for it is knowledge of eternity, eternal knowledge; it is not the kind of thing a creature can keep; it must be continually received by grace through faith,) even though I should turn my back on Him... still, He is good. He remains unchanged. He is Love. He is YHWH – I AM WHO I AM – I am He.
This is a form of idolatry. The verse from Isaiah says it perfectly: “Who are you that you fear?” In other words, what are you that you dare to fear? What are you that you dare to fix your gaze on anyone but your Savior? There is another passage in Isaiah (I think, there might also be some in Jeremiah) where YHWH, the I AM WHO AM, challenges the false gods, the illusions of the people, or is it that He calls on the people to challenge them, saying, “Do good or evil, that we may fear you!” In order to fear, we must first take our eyes off God, our Almighty One, our Savior and strong Deliverer, the Rock of our Salvation.
For most things, clarification and disentangling of different meanings present in a word is helpful. I believe that by ISIS we generally mean two things at the same time which together form one thing; namely a group of people who do certain types of despicable things. Firstly, we mean the actions of ISIS... For the most part we are not stupid enough to think that God can not accomplish His will, but we are not concerned with God's will; we are concerned about our will. Fortunately, for the most part we are not stupid enough to expect God to accomplish our will, but if we are we not only get angry when things don't go our way, we get angry with God and feel He has let us down... We have our will, and we want to be a little god to defend our will and punish those who threaten or destroy it... What if we concerned ourselves with things that will last, with the things of God? What if we set our hearts on eternal things, things which can not be taken from us? What if what was important to us was not our life and how we live it, or those of our loved ones, but the eternal life we have in Christ Jesus, and living our lives to the glory of His name?... Even if we don't cling to Him, He will keep us. He is Almighty God; ISIS can neither take us from Him nor Him from us. Even if they kill those we love before our eyes, even if they slowly torture us to death, they can neither take us away from Him, nor Him away from us... Neither our sins nor those of the people who form ISIS can separate us from God's love, or thwart a single one of God's plans.
Enthralled By Love 