FEAR!

This is a repeat from Jan 2004. I thought with what is happening in Israel at the the moment it might help to remember this.
It’s 6:30 at night and Linnet is on a plane somewhere between LA and Melbourne. I have just watched the nightly news and now I am at the computer putting together a new spiel for the newsletter. The one I had written earlier this week was good, but it wasn’t what I believe that God would have me start the New Year off on. As I watched the news on the grounding of all British airways flights to and from America, I was filled with one thought. That thought was fear. I have to admit my thoughts went to the aircraft that my wife is on and would I see her tomorrow or would somebody do something that would make my wife another statistic for the news I was watching? I then went to another thought. At what point would I say, “Sorry Linnet the risk is to great for you to go home and see your family?” Thirty percent, 50% perhaps 80% chance of attack, I just couldn’t tell. Which brings me to the point of this whole spiel. At what point do we stop trusting God and at what point do we say, “No the risk of dying or getting hurt outweighs the risk of being alive”? Now I ask another question that has been going around in my head. “When are we, the church, going to put our fear on hold long enough to actually see the Lord as a warrior for us and in action close up?” Fear that if we don’t make our services so benign and non-offensive seekers might not come? Fear that if we commit to our pastors and give them the right to lead that they may actually do something that we don’t like? Fear that if we press into God, He just might ask us to something heroic that might involve us losing our nice little world that we have created? As Linnet would say, “Here’s the scoop folks.” Our nice little safe world, where terrorists would be asked to take their shoes off before treading on the new carpet, doesn’t exist. It never has. We have tried so hard as a society to safeguard against anything that would shorten our lives that we have forgotten that the larger the wall to keep them out, the larger the tank required to roll right through it. All we are doing is putting off the inevitable instead of meeting the threat the way God intended. He didn’t set us free for us to hide behind a piece of super-six and a security door. No he set us free so we might shine to the world, as an example of how great this God is that we serve. That involves risk, but hey, the risk is the same as it was before you were God’s child as it is today. Only difference is that you have the Lion of Judah with you now, not as an enemy, but as your warrior King. God’s way is that you make him the priority in your life with every ounce of your being. To do what is right no matter what the price might be, trusting that He will take care of you. That’s easy for you to say, Simon. Well, no. I am taking the first big risk this year by laying down the gauntlet to all who read this, knowing that it may cost us the support of some. Here is my challenge to you. When was the last time you took God seriously enough to do what He asked of you even when you knew it was going to cost you? When was the last time you supported a local outreach program? When was the last time you shared the gospel? When was the last time you supported a different denomination’s effort to reach the hurting in our community, even it meant that your own might not grow? When was the last time you bought something, not based on selfishness, but on sowing generosity into our community (when was the last time you tipped the pizza delivery guy)? When was the last time you risked it all for the sake of Christ? If I have to answer honestly, and I do, it has been a while since I’ve done some of these things. I have made my own little wall. Fear drives us to hold onto our lives and our possessions so tightly that we become the white washed tombs that Jesus has so much disdain for. This year I challenge you to choose. If God is God, then follow him with everything that you have, knowing that at times the risks look great indeed. If, in your mind, God isn’t who He claims to be then make sure before you walk away, but don’t sit on a wall you might have constructed thinking that you are doing well. The tank that is coming, sooner rather than later, is a doosie.