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Bill

When I was young I can only recall a few times when I was passionate about something.  I ran for student body president and later for Governor of Boys State and I also remember being pretty eager to achieve Eagle Scout rank.  Besides that, I was mainly eager to enjoy life, be liked and be accepted by my peers.

I recently talked to my 9th grade son about the idea of getting bothered about something…..bothered in a good way…like bothered about world hunger or the plight of the people of Haiti or bothered about making a C on a test or even making the football team. I want him to be passionate about something…to care.

It seems like sometimes things have to bother us in order for us to act.  I want him (and me and you) to be a person passionate about what God has placed on our hearts and in our lives.   By passion I don’t mean super-outgoing or loud or smiling all the time.  Quiet, socially shy people can be just as passionate as loud people or Type A personalities.  By passionate, I mean a deep burning desire for something more, something bigger, for the something you were called to do with greatness.

What are you eager or passionate about?

• Are you eager to patch up an old relationship that’s bothering you?
• Are you eager about an idea you have to help you community?
• Are you eager to keep up with the Jones’?
• Are you eager to teach others or mentor others?
• Are you eager to have a vacation?
• Are you eager to learn to play the piano?
• Are you eager to retire?
• Are you eager to land that big client?
• Are you eager to pray or worship God?
• Are you eager to graduate from high school or college?
• Are you eager to go on a mission trip or serve the elderly at a retirement home?
• Are you eager to spend time with your kids or someone you know and love?
• Are you eager to get that new job you really want?

I have started taking my passion, excitement and eagerness to God to ask him:

• Lord what do I do with this desire you’ve given me?
• Can you help me here?
• How do you want to be a part of my passion?
• Why have you put this eagerness in me?
• Am I being eager for the right things?

God says he is our Father and I know he is a really good Father.  He wants to share in our lives and in our excitement, in our hopes and in our dreams.

Even if our dreams and desires are not exactly what he wants, at the very least when you turn to him you are involving him in your plans.  That’s an awesome start.  Here’s the thing….later on, as you grow closer to God, you will begin to want to get involved in his plans or perhaps at some point your plans will BE his plans….whatever…..the point is simple….

You have an eagerness for something and God wants to speak to you about that…he wants to clarify our motives, he wants to refine our goals, he wants to help us achieve the great things he has for us to do….he wants what is best for us.

Go to him now and pour out your heart to Him.

Psalms 26:2-3 Test me o Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind, for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.

The Lord is my Shepherd....thy rod & thy staff they comfort me.

After spending some time in Psalms 23, I am now getting a glimpse of  why it is such a treasure to so many.

Psalms 23 was written by David and he was a shepherd.  He tended his family’s flocks.  In the economy of that day, sheep were very valuable to the family and the shepherd had a vital role in the family’s welfare and future. He was to feed the sheep and protect them from harm.  Imagine that your family is in the computer business and you are in charge of computer repair and virus protection – that’s sort of like David’s role.

Sheep are not known as very smart animals; they tend to wander off into trouble and because they don’t pay attention well, they can be picked off by the enemy pretty easily…they need a protector.  In Psalms 23 David uses his familiar environment to tell us what God is like.  In the story we are the sheep and God is the good shepherd.

From what I can understand, shepherds used rods and staffs to protect the sheep from harm or, in other cases, to get the sheep out of harms way.  The shepherd used the rod as a defensive weapon to fight off predatory animals like wolves and bears.

The Staff was used by the shepherd as a tool to get the sheep out of a difficult spot.  Sheep were known to get caught in the brushes, so the shepherd would use the crooked end of the staff to pull the sheep out of the thicket and draw the sheep out to the shepherd’s protective care.  If the sheep fell into a pit, the shepherd would hook the staff around the lamb’s neck and pull it to safety…..again…the imagery is to save the sheep from harm and to draw the sheep close to the shepherd.

The Hebrew word for rod refers to a walking stick you lean on or a fighting stick, like a stick you’d use to fight off animals.  The Hebrew word for “staff” (mishan) means support, a protector, sustenance, or stay (near).  The root word for mishan is shaan meaning to “lean, lie, rely, rest on, stay“.  The picture of a pair of crutches helping you when you have a leg injury comes to mind….the staff provides support and protection and it keeps me “near” the good shepherd. We are to “lean on” the staff and have it support our weight when we are in trouble.

I think David is reminding us of three things:

• You can find peace and can lean on God for support.  He wants us to lean on Him.
• When we get caught-up in a situation or stuck in the briars of life, we can trust that God, our shepherd is able to pull us out of the pit in which we find ourselves.
• When we face the wolves and bears of our life that threaten our lives, our families, our jobs, our purpose or our safety, the shepherd God is there to fight for us.

Knowing that God is a loving, kind and protective God who is actively looking out for me and for you is a very powerful idea.  To know this concept deep in your heart gives us tremendous strength to endure even very hard times.  This is why Psalms 23 was written, I think.  To remind us that we have an all-powerful shepherd who is infinitely capable of caring for, protecting and rescuing us from any sort of harm.

In the book Surprised by Suffering author R.C. Sproul says:

“Without the shepherd the sheep would be helpless in the shadowy valley.  But as long as the shepherd was present, the lamb had nothing to fear.  If the shepherd fell, all would be lost for the sheep.  But we have a shepherd who cannot fall.  We have a shepherd who cannot die.  He is no hireling who abandons his flock at the first sign of trouble.  Our shepherd is armed with omnipotent force.  He is not threatened by the valley of shadows.  He created the valley.  He redeems the valley.”

I encourage you today to lean on him, lean on his rod, find sustenance in him, let him rescue you from your pit….cry out to him and he’ll rescue you because you are his valuable lamb and he loves you.

Thou Prepareth…

Psalms 23 is one of the best known scriptures in the Bible.  In it, David speaks in great simplicity and power about about the comfort and protection of God.  For centuries, Psalms 23 has provided peace to people going through great distress, loss and pain.  If you are in such a place right now, I pray that this scripture will come alive for you today and meet your every need.

You may know verse 5 of Psalms 23 says, “thou preparest a table in the presence of my enemies”.   After reading this for years, I recently investigated a few questions I had:

• Why would God prepare a table for me, in front of my enemies?
• What is the table?
• Who are my enemies?
• How is it all prepared?
• What does this mean to us?

As I studied this section of Psalms 23, I was reminded how rich, specific and meaningful each word of the Hebrew language is compared to our English language.  After studying this section of Psalms 23 I keyed in on three words:

• Prepareth
• Table
• Enemies

Keep an eye out for the intense love God has for you in these verses, especially if you are heading into or are in deep waters.

The Hebrew word for prepareth means to “arrange, to “set in order”, to “furnish”, to “ordain”, to “lay” or to “set in a row”.  The english meaning of the word “ordain” is to establish or order by appointment, decree, or law.   God is not just “preparing” as you and I would prepare eggs for breakfast.  He is ordaining something special, he is setting things in an orderly way, he is arranging things, he is laying things out, he’s setting them in order.   For me, this implies that God’s kind of preparation is very intentional, very planned, very orderly….bottom line….everything’s under control…under the control of God…he is actively setting things up for you.   To me this says something powerful about God’s personal interaction in our lives.

Thou Prepareth a Table…

I have never quite understood this business about a table….and am still not sure I really do, but I’ll try.  The Hebrew word table (shuehan) means “spread” and implies a meal; another translation says “feast“!!  The Contemporary English Version says: “You treat me to a feast, while my enemies watch.”

God chooses to prepare (ordain, set in order) a meal or feast for us, right in front of our enemies.  Who said God was not daring….he is completely undaunted by any evil or troubles…..that, my dear friend, is probably the best news of your life.  God is not afraid of anything, period.  He actually provides for us as we are under attack by distresses and evil.

The meaning for “feast” or “meal” here, for me, is provision or sustenance.  God gives us provision in lavish form, right in the midst of our troubles.  I think the provision can be a number of things depending on what’s going on around you – it could be comfort, rest, friends, heart-felt peace, honest co-workers, a salary, food, a nice boss, family that loves you or hope — hope for another day.

The root word for table, interestingly, is shalach, which means to “shoot forth, grow long, reach forth, sow, spread, stretch forth”.  That an interesting way to think of our feast – as stretching forth – I think of those long dinner tables in palaces where food (provision) stretches forth and grows long!  God’s table of provision is well stocked and piled high!  This single idea should rock your world.

Thou preparest a table before mine enemies….

Who are our enemies?  Is the enemy a murderer, Satan, the world system that is opposed to God’s system?  Again, from the Hebrew dictionary, the word enemies means “adversary, be in affliction, besiege, bind up, be in distress, enemy, oppress, pangs, to be in a straight (trouble)”.  So, the word enemy does not just mean a singular force that is against me, like Satan.  It’s much more than that, it’s simpler and more applicable to our lives.  It’s distress, pangs of trouble, oppression, affliction.  All of us have had those – got any now?

You can make up your own Psalm 23:5 based on the original Hebrew words, but for me it can almost read…..

God you arrange, you set in order, ordain and furnish (with great attention to detail) a feast of all sorts of provision that is piled high and stretches out a long way, right in the middle of all my distress, my pangs of trouble and my afflictions.

In the midst of great trouble and distress and affliction, in an orderly way, God lays-out and organizes a long table of provision and sustenance for each of us – for you and for me.  If you are going through a time of trouble and distress, cry out to God and ask him to show you the provision and hope he’s created just for you and then…..then…put your faith in the God of the universe who wants to be active in our lives.

The busyness of life, the noise of life, is a very powerful force in keeping us from the things that matter most….as well as connecting to God in a meaningful way. The noise of life is like a barrier to experiencing the presence of God.

TV Line Noise Keeps the Beauty of the HDTV Picture from Coming Through

This is a trap I fall into all the time.  I get drawn into things – not really bad things, but things that kill time and keep me from doing the most valuable things, the things I do really well.

We recently bought a Samsung 48″ LED HDTV set and the picture quality is a thing of great beauty. The images, the color, the clarity…are hard to describe, it’s simply spectacular.  After watching a movie recently, we left the DVD player on and before long the screen went to “snow” and made a loud hissing noise.  In TV language this is actually called “line noise”.  Then the screensaver popped up and said — “weak or no signal”.  The line noise from the DVR being left on blocked out the usually beautiful picture of the new TV set.

In the noise-laden picture to the right you can see how erratic, how jumbled up, how messed up all the dots are – and there’s no color….just a lot of stuff going on.  Now you can see why they call it “noise” in the line.  It’s a bunch of mess.  It means nothing. There’s just too much erratic stuff going on and the harm it does to the otherwise beautiful picture is depressing.

I really think this is like some of our scattered lives.  We change jobs all the time, we join new groups and committees, we check email every 30 seconds, we spend time gossiping, we talk on the phone too much, we Tweet at 1:30 am, we text whoever, we say yes to everything, we spend excessive time worrying, we watch unending hours of tv…whatever…there’s no theme to our life, no underlying vision or goal….just noisy life.

This is what a life looks like with none of the world's noise blocking the beauty

Remove the noise and you get the picture to the left.  Crisp, clear, clean, sharp, fresh, beautiful, harmonic sounds, colors galore, arrays of light, visual splendor, a feast for the eyes that reaches the soul.

This is a picture of life in it’s higher form, as near as we can get to God.  The picture makes sense, there is life, purpose, meaning, order, beauty.  It is a wonderful marvellous thing to watch.  If you’ve never seen a 48″ LED HDTV Blue Ray movie, it is pretty close to perfection.

I think this is a picture of our life ‘on purpose’ for God, without the noises we let in.  The clear picture tells a story of beauty and hope and clarity to the world.

I encourage you to consider the clutter, the noise, the erratic mess that can fill your days.   What noise does God want you to remove?   Most of all pray and ask God to reveal what is best and then trust him with the rest.

There’s a new song out called “How He Loves Us” by Kim Walker.  In the song there is a line that says, “if grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking”.  I really like that.  If grace is an ocean, I definitely want to be on my way down, down to the deep.

I was at a retreat this weekend put on by Cloud Walk and the speaker was a man named Jack Taylor.  In my opinion he is one of the leading father figures of the modern faith.  He has experienced so much of life at 76 years old – he’s unfortunately lost two wives to cancer, he’s had 4 heart surgeries, he’s led countless people to God, has preached hundreds of sermons, has written over a dozen books, he’s seen tons of miracles and has lived a life of great faith.  He’s spent time with giants of our faith like Corrie ten Boom, Bertha Smith (the famous missionary to China) and Peter Lord.  He spoke to us on The Kingdom of God for three sessions.  My faith took a deep dive this past weekend.

After the retreat during my time with God, I felt like he was telling me to be concerned with depth….depth in my relationship with God, depth in my love and service for others, etc.  Depth as opposed to breadth.  The word that kept rattling around in my head was “fathom”.  A fathom is a unit of measure of the depth of water (about 6 feet).

I think one way to insure we go “deeper” in our faith, in our love for others and in our love for God is to stand on the shoulders of spiritual giants.  For me Jack Taylor is a giant of the modern faith.   If I stand on his shoulders and jump off into the ocean of grace, I will go deeper than if I jump into the water from the shore.  I believe the taller the person of faith I hang out with, the deeper I go.

To me the ultimate purpose of going “deep” is not to be wise, to say clever spiritual things, to be smart or to know a bunch of scripture….it’s to have a closer relationship with God and as a result better serve and love those around me.  So….

• How deep do you want to go in your relationship with God; how deep do you want to sink in the ocean of grace?
• Do you have a priest, a small group leader, a friend, a favorite writer who can be that person for you?
• Do you make quality time for them in your busy week?

If you don’t have people in your life that are taller than you, then your leaps into the ocean of grace will result in small splashes just along the surface.  Jump off the high dive, jump off a mountain side, leap to the ocean below with vigor…go deep and see what God does.

"I'm the authority in this town, Buster!"

I once had a client over a long period of time and each time I visited the customer’s office I had to pass by the lobby guard.  Because I parked in the front visitor’s parking lot the guard always saw me walking up. Even though I visited the office many times, he’d always ask me to sign in at the register. Some weeks I was at that building 2-3 times, so I was virtually a regular.  However, over time, his constant asking me to sign-in started to get on my nerves.

I thought, “who is this guy asking me to sign in…doesn’t he know me by now? He’s seen me dozens of times and he still forces me to stop from my busy day to sign this &*^%$* guest book.”   To spite him, and to put forth the least amount of effort, sometimes I’d just write down my initials and the initials of the customer – I didn’t want to adhere to his ‘unnecessary and demeaning’ request.

To top it all off, he was a sort of squirrely guy who never looked me in the eye or never spoke up.  He always spoke under his breath and he sort of had a bossy tone to his voice.  I grew to hate going through that lobby.   It’s like he had something out for me.   I didn’t even like looking at this guy and certainly not talking to him.  My dismissive attitude got worse and worse over many months.

I then read a book by Watchman Nee called Spiritual Authority.   The author tells the Bible story about how for years King Saul chased after soon-to-be-king David in the desert trying to kill him.   Saul felt threatened by David and wanted him dead.  Saul brought 3,000 soldiers to find and kill David and his small band of men.  Then, one day David was with his men in a cave hiding when Saul came into the same cave to “relieve himself”.   David’s men quietly suggested to David that God had allowed this very event to occur so that he could finally kill Saul and become king.

But….David did not kill him.  However, David did cut a piece off of Saul’s robe while he was “busy in the bathroom”.  Later David was quite remorseful for cutting off part of Saul’s robe.  He had no right to toy with even the edge of the robe of the king God had put in place – the authority over him.  In other words, even though Saul was filled with rage, anger, fury, hate and desired to kill David, God’s anointed, David was NOT to touch him….he was to respect the office and the person God had allowed to be King at the time.

The Bible says in I Samuel 24: 3-7:

3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, “This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ ” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. 5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.” 7 With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

Of course, after reading this I became instantly aware that at the heart of my bad attitude toward the lobby guard was a problem with authority, a sister sin related to pride.  I was not being respectful of an authority in my life – the lobby guard.  It dawned on me at that moment that I had not respected him and that I was acting like a spoiled kid.  I felt bad; like David, I knew I had sinned against someone God had put in authority over me.  I confessed my sin to God. Now fast forward to 2000 to the Bush administration or even more recently to the new Obama administration.

• Did God allow these men to occupy the White House?
• Are we to agree with all their ideas?
• Are we to respect them and the office God has established?

We are to have at our core a deep respect for the structure and people God allows to rule in authority over us.  Later in the Samuel verses David says to Saul (the man who was trying to KILL him) verse 10: I said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the LORD’s anointed.’ (a vile murderous man is God’s anointed?)

Since hearing the stories in my book about authority, I have come to understand that the security guard has rule and authority in the area God has given him. I am under his authority, his leadership, when I am in his area – I am to respect him, even if I don’t like him for some personal reason.

Now, think about your boss your work, think about the assistant manager who seems like a buffoon some days, think about your teacher who thinks he or she is a hot-shot, think about the parent or adult that God has allowed to be in your life in some leadership role…or if you’re an adult think of the other adults that are in your life (post office workers, managers at a retail store, sports coaches, uhm…security guards, etc)

• Do you respect these people?
• Do you allow them to be in a position of authority in your life?
• Do you respect their role over you?

Now that I understand this issue of authority better and I realize I acted like a spoiled kid (pride/ego) when I go into the office building now, I have a completely different attitude. I smile when I enter the lobby, I speak directly to him, I ask him how his day is, I say thank you and I walk over the sign in book automatically.

When he asks me to sign in (yes, he still does), I say, “sure, how’s it going today?” He has started to talk to me as well. He recently talked to me for nearly 5 minutes about nationalized healthcare and illegal aliens!  I respectfully listened to him, even though I could have justified rushing off to my meeting. 
 The side effects of this authority principle are enormous:

• I am happier and have less stress in that lobby.
• I actually look forward to seeing the guard now.  I wonder what God may want me to say to him.
• I am holding fewer silent grudges against other people.
• I can be a blessing to him.  If he looks depressed I can say a cheerful word.  If he is limping that day I can ask him how his leg is doing.
• I can give love instead of withholding it.

I am learning how to love people who don’t meet my unrealistic, rigid set of expectations.  This is humbling.  I am grateful that God is showing me this truth through a most unlikely person.

(NIV) Romans 13: 1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

P.S. I realize there are exceptions to this as when a leader asks you to disobey God (that discussion’s for another day).

One of my customers sells an email filtering service. An email filter’s purpose is to keep email threats on the Internet from harming your computer….things like viruses, fraudulent emails posing as your bank and time-wasting spam ads.

Some of the malicious emails bound for your computer can cause great harm (like viruses) while others are just a source of frustration.  When the filter company identifies a new threat, their technical team creates a software “filter rule” that effectively blocks that new threat from reaching your email inbox. It’s pretty ingenious.  A good email filter will remove upwards of 99% of bad emails.  Really good filters protect you from harm and are worth their weight in gold.

Now let’s think about filters from a spiritual perspective:

• Would you say there are harmful things in the world that threaten the joy in your heart or your true purpose?
• Do prideful, jealous, fearful or lustful thoughts sometimes just pop in your head, from seemingly nowhere?
• Do certain people or circumstances tend to draw you away from what is right or godly?
• Are you tempted to be selfish, to be bitter or to gossip when certain topics or people are around?
• Do you believe there are spiritual forces that want to negatively effect your relationship with others and God?
• Do certain thoughts or circumstances keep you in a sad or depressed frame of mind?

When these threats come your way do you have a filter to keep them from getting to you…from affecting your heart?

If the answer is yes, then, what is your filter?

• Is your filter the wisdom you’ve gained over the years?
• Is your filter your personal will-power, your good common sense or your intelligence?
• Do you try and filter out bad influences by avoiding certain places or people?

If you do have a filter, is it always ‘turned on’?

For me, it seems as though most of the filters I set-up to protect me from harm don’t work on a consistent basis.  Our intellect, our wisdom, our common sense, our iron will and our experiences are not always reliable in helping us avoid and best deal with the harm that comes our way.

I know a couple of filters that works very well — one is Holy Scripture.    Problem is, I don’t always have my “Bible” filter turned on. Another good filter is the very presence of God, his Holy Spirit.   But, sometimes, I get so “wrapped up” in my day, that I forget I have my friend the Holy Spirit as a filter and a shield.   As a result of unconfessed sin in my life the special “abiding” presence of God will leave me.  When I forget I even have the Holy Spirit in me or when I think I’m doing pretty dealing with life (pride?), all heck seems to break loose.

Like viruses on the Internet, our enemy is always devising new (or re-packaged) “viruses” to threaten our well-being and our relationship with God. When we sense a new threat to our spiritual life (our walk with God), I think we should seek out Scripture.   This way, when the threat tries to rear it’s ugly head again, I can recall the scripture “fix”, sort of like the email filter.

Hebrews 4:12 says:

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The word of God is extremely powerful.   It is a strong and reliable weapon against threats that come our way.

So what do we do?

I’m not sure we need new filters, new personal techniques, new intelligence or more will-power to thwart the harm that comes our way.  We already have two very reliable filters or shields to protect us – Scripture and the Holy Spirit.  Perhaps we just need to submit to both and soak up more of what God has for us in scripture.  It seems like the more scripture we are familiar with the more ammunition we , in essence, give the Holy Spirit to bring to our mind, as we encounter threats.

(10) “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. (11) Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. (12) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (13) Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (14) Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, (15) and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. (16) In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. (17) Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (18) And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.- Ephesians 6:10-18 (NIV)

(7) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (8) Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded..” James 4:7-8 (NIV)

Because we live in a broken world, there’s no lack of fear to go around:

• Fear of getting laid off
• Fear of the burden of debt
• Fear of sickness
• Fear of crime
• Fear of losing a spouse
• Fear of failing a class or disappointing someone
• Fear of losing your home
• Fear of changes in your way of life due to political policy changes
• Fear of terrorism
• Fear of what others think of you
• Fear of losing status

But what about God? How does he factor in these fears?

Facing tough circumstances in her life, writer, Beth Moore, took her concern (fear) to God.  Here’s how the exchange went:

God challenged her by asking her what she would do if her worst fear came to pass.

She responded that she’d probably be very distraught, depressed and mad.

Then God asked, “Ok, what would you do next”.

She responded by saying she’d have a hard time adjusting, she’d have to start over and that she’d have a hard time dealing with life for a while.

Then God asked, “Ok, what would you do next”.

This went back and forth until she concluded that in the end God would give her the strength to get through the tough situation.   For her, the worst possible outcome wasn’t all that bad…because she had hope.  If you know there’s a net under you, it’s not as bad when you fall off the high-wire.

However, some people put all their hope and dreams, their value and their self-identity, in things, in other people and in status….when those things are taken away, the results can be devastating and paralyzing.

A friend of mine wants to continue his quest to be in full-time ministry. However, he has no regular income, his wife just got laid off and she’s four months pregnant.  Seems pretty bleak.  Facing the same kind of fears as Beth Moore, my friend’s wife said to her husband, “What’s the worst that can happen…go bankrupt, sell our house, move in with friends?”

What if you lost it all?

Do you believe God can restore all things or make provision for you?

The Bible says:

• “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6
• “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” Romans 8:31
• “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”Jeremiah 29:11
• “And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” Luke 12:7

If we believe the Word of God, and his promises toward us, we should have a deep hope that is strong and powerful in the face of ugly odds.  Life can be sad and depressing at times and bad things will certainly come our way, like losing a loved one.  But even so, during times of justified fear and terror at losing our most treasured belongings and relationships, if we are bound in the love of Christ, we can experience peace and deep hope.

I John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…”.  How does God’s love cast out fear?  The Greek word for “casts” is ballo. Ballo basically means a “deliberate violent, intense thrusting or throwing”.  It doesn’t say God’s love “gently nudges fear aside” or “moves fear slightly to the left” or “covers it up some”….it says “casts out“.  That should make your heart skip.  There is no fear in the loving arms of Jesus.

I must admit that fear rules me at times.  Sometimes things can seem so depressing, so difficult to overcome and so unending that I lose heart and go into fear mode.  We all worry and have fear, especially with terror threats and the current economic environment.

Some of us fear losing money, fear losing our spouse, fear losing our reputation, fear embarrassment, fear getting passed over for promotion, fear foreclosure, fear not landing a new customer, fear others discovering who we really are…the list goes on.

Mainly I fear things I cannot control.  I fear things in the future.  Sometimes, I fear not being able to provide financially for my family.  I fear not knowing how something will turn out.  Like many men, I sometimes fear failure.  I fear most things because I cannot see a way out or cannot see the end result.  Many of my fears are based on real threats but many are based on “what ifs”.

For many people their fears are real in the sense that we “feel” afraid and that the thing we fear is true.  Losing your job and being concerned about the financial impact to your family is certainly understandable.  Dictionary.com defines fear as “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc, whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling of being afraid; concern or anxiety.”

I wonder, however, if we tend to let fear overtake us.  For many of us, it can have a tight grip, it can steal our joy and remove any sense of peace in life. It seems our quality of living and our well-being evaporates when we face uncertain times.  Many of us (me included) allow unchecked fear to overwhelm us, to rip the peace out of our lives and, worse, to negatively affect those around us. Constant fear can even blind us from seeing our true purpose or real opportunities that are right in front of us.

Imagine that you manufacture seat belts for a living.  You’ve tested them hundreds of times with 100% success and you have thousands of testimonials of people whose lives have been saved by your seatbelts.   Now switch gears and imagine you’re from some remote country and you’ve never seen a car much less a seat belt.  You now find yourself dangling over a raging river and only have the seat belt around your waist to hold you back.  You’d be pretty fearful.  But if you were the inventor of the seat belt or if you had been saved by a seat belt in the past, you could hang over the river and watch the fish, you could wait for help or you could calmly plot how to get back to land.

So, why do we let fear overtake us….is it because we forget who made the seat belt….or do we not realize how much we can trust the seat belt maker and his track record of saving lives?

You may remember from the Bible that God led his people to “the promised land” after years of wandering in a wilderness.  Before entering their new homeland they sent spies in to look at the land and see what it was like. The report most of the men gave was filled with fear.

Listen to what they said:

Deuteronomy 1:31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

The people the spies encountered were truly enormous and scary (just like some of our problems). They had every right to fear.  But what do we do with our fear?  Do we let it control us?  Do we dwell on our fear or do we run to God.  God will not necessarily remove the problem, but he can remove the fear.

Psalm 34:4 says “I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears“.  A few verses later in verses , the psalmist says “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear (meaning ‘revere’) him, and he delivers them.  Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.”

What if you and I had first-hand knowledge and experience with the safety a seat belt provided?  Would we really be that scared dangling out over that river?  I think that if we can come to a deep sense and realization of the love of God for us and give him reverence as the psalmist says, we’d have more confidence, we could think more clearly when things hit the fan, peace would remain.  If it’s true that he loves us and wants what’s best for us, he will provide the peace, provision, wisdom and direction we need.

Want some good news amidst a fearful situation…..here’s how the rest of the story went for the people of Israel.

Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” – Deuteronomy 1:29

My friends, this is the God we serve…a fighter….a father who cares for his kids…who “is” going before us, who helps us when we’re terrified.  Now I declare to you…go!!!…go about your day in the confidence of what God says, not what the world says.