Articles

Saturday, July 18, 2009; 9:00 am

What Is There to Fear?

Lately, God has speaking to me about fear. I don’t think of myself as a fearful person, yet the Lord has pointed out that I do have fears. In fact, we all do: we fear what other people may think of us; we fear not looking in control or not looking smart; we fear loss, sickness and death. But, Jesus said:

John 16:33
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." In other words, “do not fear! I have got you covered.” Even death is something we need not fear. Job said:

Job 13:15
Job said: "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him…" yet will I trust in him…yet will I believe. These are all synonyms. Hope, trust, believe. God is so good, that I know that even if He kills me, it will be for the greater good…my greater good, too.

What is there to fear?
Let us face dangers for Jesus’ sake. Let us have no fear of poverty, or disease or hardship or even death itself. If you bear it nobly it will be as great a reward to you as if you gave it all to the poor as long as you freely lose it because you know you have a great reward in heaven.

Having people revile you and persecute you? Rejoice and be glad, Jesus said, when people speak evil against you falsely, for great is your reward in heaven. …
Our one focus: how we may do what is best with the resources we have been given.

Think about your baptism. How does it reflect a death and a resurrection?
Chrysostom wrote that sin “ages” you…both body and soul. Does this metaphor describe sin’s effect on your life? How can we become suddenly young (born again)?
It’s not really in the big dangers that we find fear, but in the little distractions that turn into drifting away from God and the church, His body. Little vices, as Chrysostom says.
The Prodigal son became willing to submit to the Father, Chrysostom says he became suddenly young by his decision. Sometimes we find ourselves far from our Father’s house. We need to decide to return to my Father…the Father is pleased and blessed in receiving back his children.
To “go back” we need to avoid vice, turn away from wickedness…and the Father will receive us.

Saturday, June 13, 2009 9:00am breakfast 

Opening Windows to God

    I have been studying from a book called "Devotional Classics" by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith. It is a great book of essays and excerps from spiritual giants through the ages, from the early church, the middle ages and modern times. Today I want to talk about Frank Laubach and his "moment by moment" surrender and sensitivity to Jesus.

    I find it difficult to pray. I know that might make me sound like a spiritual loser, but I have to be honest here. It is not easy from me. I struggle to stay focused on the task...which quickly feels like a chore rather than the best and highest thing I can do in my day. I can worship Him again and again...it is through worship that I experience the strongest times of connection to God, and then I end up praying, but prayer by itself is work for me.

    I have found that journaling is effective for me because it is exciting to see God answer ...although He sometimes answers me with silence, or maybe one word. It is easier while journaling, but it still feels like work, so I let it drop from my schedule and then I have to deliberately pick it up again.

    Laubauch's desire to be filled with the presence of God is realy akin to my own desire. I worship Him because I thirst for His presence. After reading about ahow Laubauch pushed himself to think about god every minute of every day...how he had to submit himself to God and to live all "waking moments in conscious listening to the inner voice, asking without ceasing, 'What, Father, do you desire said? What, Father, do you desire done this minute?'...Ifind myself deeply attracted to this man and then baffled by how he can do it.  It really sounds like soemthing I could do..a technique I could use to abide in Him and have Him abide in me.

    I really enjoyed the progressive nature of reading his toughts in diary form because I could then see how the effort became easier for Him as time went on. "There has been a succession of marvelous experiences of the friendship of God." By March 15, 1930 he writes about how much richer his experience has become than reading devotional books. Even the bible "cannot be a substitute for meeting God soul to soul and face to face." Because he did it, I have hope that I can do it, too. Afterall, he was just a man like me, and it is God himself who desires to meet with us.

    In "Renovation of the Heart" Dallas Willard points us from the thinking of God continually to deep worship.
"To bring the mind to dwell intelligently upon God as he is presented in his Word will have the effect of causing us to love God passionately, and this love will in turn bring us to think of God steadily.  Thus, he will always be before our minds. In this way we enter a life of worship. To think of God as he is, one cannot but lapse into worship; and worship is the single most powerful force in completing and sustaining restoration in the whole person. It puts into abeyance every evil tendency in every dimension of the self. It naturally arises from thinking rightly of God on the basis of revealed truth confirmed in experience. Worship is at once the overall character of the renovated thought life and the only safe place for a human being to stand"

    I want to conclude with a direct quote from Mr. Laubauch:
"I want to learn how to live so that to see someone is to pray for them."