Notes of Faith August 26, 2020

I have decided to forward you another article from Lamb & Lion Ministries.  It has information to consider,  links to full articles, videos that support a view of truth.  In my own extended family, and in our church extended family, there are those that support BLM.  It cannot be further from the truth that this organization supports black lives.  It has an agenda that does not care about any lives . . . unless it gets what it wants.  All human life is created in the image of God and therefore is to be respected and given equal access to all that God provides.  When a group such as BLM leaves Biblical truth for evil, violence, anarchy, and lawlessness, then they cannot be approved or supported.  We must love all people and pray for their hearts to come to Christ, to love and serve God.  We do not have to support a deceptive lie that we are all racist is some way, shape, or form.  We have racists that come in all colors and this can only be fixed by a change of heart that comes from God.  Investigate, become as knowledgeable of the truth as possible in this deceiving filled world. Love God.  Love people.  Pray for those who rebel against God, whose father is the devil, who are filled with and motivated by lies, violence and murder . . . that they might turn and receive eternal reward (salvation), blessing, and escape the judgment of eternal condemnation.

This and other articles can be viewed/read at webminister@lamblion.com

Pastor Dale

From: Lamb & Lion Ministries <webminister@lamblion.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2020 4:33 AM
To: 2ormore@msn.com <2ormore@msn.com>
Subject: Is 'Systemic Racism' Today All a Big Lie? 

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I was watching a local Dallas, Texas, television station interviewing protestors in a crowd that had descended on Dallas City Hall after the killing of George Floyd. Individuals in the crowd were asked, "Why are you protesting?" Some said, "I'm protesting against police violence." But most gave an answer that really surprised me. Over and over I heard these words: "I'm protesting against systemic racism." Young protestors in the streets using an academic phrase?

Providing a Definition

Now, that is not a phrase that would naturally roll off the tongues of street protestors, nearly all of whom were in their teens and twenties. It had to be supplied by the protest organizers. I kept hoping that the TV interviewer would ask one of the people what they meant by the phrase because I was certain none of them had the slightest idea what it meant — either because of naiveté or a lack of historical knowledge and perspective.

The word, systemic, is defined as something that is ingrained throughout a whole system — something that is intentional, methodical or implemented according to a plan. Thus, "systemic racism" in reference to a nation would mean that everything in the society is designed to discriminate against one or more races. The former policy of Apartheid in South Africa would be a classic example.

Now, with that definition in mind, just try to wrap your brain around the insanity of someone in Dallas, Texas, protesting against "systemic racism." The top governmental official in Dallas is the City Manager, who is a black man. Additionally, the Mayor is a black man, the Police Chief is a black woman, the District Attorney is a "progressive" black man, and the Sheriff is a black woman. The previous Sheriff, who resigned to run for Governor, was an Hispanic lesbian. I ask you, where is the "systemic racism"?

Personal Experience

I happen to know very well the meaning of "systemic racism." That's because I grew up in it. I was born in Texas in 1938, and I was raised in the 1940s and 50s when racism was interwoven in the fabric of our nation. Everything was segregated, and I mean everything — schools, hotels, sports arenas, restaurants, public transportation, movie theaters, churches and yes, even drinking fountains.

One of the most important ways of keeping blacks "in their place" was to deny them the right to vote. There were a variety of barriers to voting, like the poll-tax, which was essentially a voting fee. This technique was not outlawed until the passage of the 24th Amendment in 1964.

Literacy tests were another technique used to limit black voting. An illiterate white person would always miraculously pass the test, while a black who could read and understand Shakespeare, just never could seem to read well enough to qualify.

Always lurking in the background in many states was the Ku Klux Klan, which was more than willing to intimidate blacks from voting.

Blacks were mainly confined to manual labor jobs. Access to professions like law, medicine and teaching were highly limited. The military was segregated.

{What was the turning point concerning "systemic racism" in America? Read the full article to find out!}

The Need for Historical Perspective

So, where are we today with regards to racism? Systemic racism is dead. The legitimate protestors in our streets today who are denouncing systemic racism are too young to appreciate how far this nation has come since 1960. Instead of condemning our nation, they should be celebrating its freedom and its advancement for racial equality. And they need to realize that the great accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement were gained peacefully under the leadership of a Baptist preacher who believed in non-violence.

They also need to realize that if systemic racism was still a reality, millions of white Americans would not have been outraged by the killing of George Floyd, and the policeman responsible would not have been arrested and charged with a crime.

As for those protestors who have resorted to violence, most are thugs and hoodlums who could care less about racial equality. They just want to ride the issue as an excuse to loot and burn to satisfy their greedy and irresponsible hearts. And then there are the anarchists who desire to exploit the issue as a way of venting their fury against law and order and Judeo-Christian values.

Does the elimination of systemic racism in our nation mean that there is no lingering aspects of the problem? No! There are still racists in our nation among all groups. White people do not have any exclusive franchise dealership on racism. There are black racists. In fact, the two loudest racist voices in America today are both blacks. They are Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton.

{Should the police be defunded or reformed? Read the full article to find out!}

Another Aspect of the Problem

The most important factor in all this — applying to blacks and whites and citizens of all colors — is that there is a famine of the Word of God in our land today (Amos 8:11).

We have kicked God and His Word out of our public schools and the public arena. Church attendance has fallen to an all time low. Parents are distracted and are neglecting moral training. And our kids are being bombarded on television and the Internet with violence, blasphemy and immorality. The result is that we have raised a whole generation of moral pygmies who are willing to kill each other over a pair of tennis shoes.

The Answer to Racism

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Franklin Graham went to every state capital in our nation to hold a prayer rally. He was not there to endorse any party or candidate. He just wanted people to join him in praying for our nation. He began each rally with the same words: "I have no hope in the Democratic Party, and I have no hope in the Republican Party. Zero hope. Our only hope is God."

Franklin Graham was 100% correct with these insightful words. The answer to continuing racism in our nation is not politics or violence or socialism. The answer is Jesus. That's because He transforms hearts and turns haters into lovers.

{Where does the Church stand concerning "systemic racism"? Read the full article to find out!}

A Warning

When responding to racial issues, Christians need to be salt and light, speaking out in behalf of righteousness. But Christians also need to be discerning. I'm issuing this warning because Christians tend to think the best of everybody, and this naivete often gets them in a lot of trouble.

Take the Black Lives Matter organization, for example. No Christian should be affiliated with it in any way. Just check out its website and you will see that it is a radical left-wing socialist organization that opposes the biblical view of marriage and supports the Sexual Perversion Movement. Its leaders are committed to violence, and they are virulently anti-Semitic.

Now, notice, I did not say avoid identifying with the slogan, "Black Lives Matter." I'm speaking, instead, of the BLM organization. It is an abomination that is fomenting racism by playing the race card with respect to every event it possibly can.

For more about what the organization Black Lives Matter believes, watch the following videos or read the blogs from our Prophetic Perspectives series:

The Sanctity of Life

Do black lives matter? Or course they do! In fact, all lives matter, including precious babies in the wombs of their mothers.

And that concern for life should also apply to the elderly and the increasing efforts to get states to pass laws legalizing euthanasia. I have always said that if a society will allow parents to pay doctors to kill their children, the day will come when children will be allowed to pay doctors to kill their parents.

All human beings are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). That image is sacred. Life is sacred (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Notes of Faith August 25, 2020

In the faint light of the attic, an old man, tall and stooped, bent his great frame and made his way to a stack of boxes that sat near one of the little half windows. Brushing aside a wisp of cobwebs, he tilted the top box toward the light and began to carefully lift out one old photograph album after another. Eyes once bright but now dim searched longingly for the source that had drawn him here.

It began with the fond recollection of the love of his life, long gone, and somewhere in these albums was a photo of her he hoped to rediscover. Silent as a mouse, he patiently opened the long-buried treasures and soon was lost in a sea of memories. Although his world had not stopped spinning when his wife left it, the past was more alive in his heart than his present aloneness.

Setting aside one of the dusty albums, he pulled from the box what appeared to be a journal from his grown son’s childhood. He could not recall ever having seen it before or that his son had ever kept a journal. Why did Elizabeth always save the children’s old junk? he wondered, shaking his white head.

Opening the yellowed pages, he glanced over a short entry, and his lips curved in an unconscious smile. Even his eyes brightened as he read the words that spoke clear and sweet to his soul. It was the voice of the little boy who had grown up far too fast, in this very house, and whose voice had grown fainter and fainter over the years. In the utter silence of the attic, the words of a guileless six-year-old worked their magic and carried the old man back to a time almost totally forgotten.

Entry after entry stirred a sentimental hunger in his heart like the longing a gardener feels in the winter for the fragrance of spring flowers. But it was accompanied by the painful memory that his son’s simple recollections of those days were far different from his own. But how different?

Reminded that he had kept a daily journal of his business activities over the years, he closed his son’s journal, tucked it under his arm, and turned to leave, having forgotten the cherished photo that originally triggered his search. Hunched over to keep from bumping his head on the rafters, the old man stepped to the wooden stairway and made his descent, then headed down a carpeted stairway that led to the den.

Opening a glass cabinet door, he reached in and pulled out an old business journal. Turning, he sat down at his desk and placed the two journals beside each other. His was leather-bound and engraved neatly with his name in gold, while his son’s was tattered and the name “Jimmy” had been nearly scuffed from its surface. He ran a long, skinny finger over the letters as though he could restore what had been worn away with time and use.

As he opened his journal, the old man’s eyes fell upon an inscription that stood out because it was so brief in comparison to other days. In his own neat handwriting were these words:

Wasted the whole day fishing with Jimmy. Didn’t catch a thing.

With a deep sigh and a shaking hand, he took Jimmy’s journal and found the boy’s entry for the same day, June 4. Large scrawling letters pressed deeply in the paper read:

Went fishing with my dad. Best day of my life.

From “The Dash” by Mac Anderson

This reminds me of our recent vacation…went fishing (often) and didn’t catch a thing, yet because of the people I was with and the multitude of other blessings of God, this was one of the best ever!  It is good to be back with you, making memories of our spiritual journey together in Christ.  May we continue to grow in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ and have a more wonderful perspective of life as did the boy in this story.  We walk every day with the One who loves us most! 

Pastor Dale

 

 

Notes of Faith August 24, 2020

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. — Proverbs 19:21

My husband still teases me about my huge wedding notebook from 23 years ago.

I’m a planner, you see, and during our engagement I kicked into overdrive. I organized every detail, and as my wedding notebook thickened, my husband began to search for the biggest 3-ring binder possible.

He found one at Office Depot— a notebook so large that it cost $25 and grew insanely heavy as I filled it with plans inside.

It sounds ridiculous, but truthfully, being a planner has served me well. It served all of us well in the past, especially here in America – the land of overachievers – where planning enables success. Planning lets us juggle 10,000 demands. It makes our homes and lives run smoother. It gives us a track to run on— and offers a false sense of control.

Because, as 2020 has proven, our plans can be ripped out from under us. Our plans are subject to God’s will and timing. Even the best laid tracks don’t guarantee success.

Life is far more unpredictable than we like to believe.

It is unsettling, isn’t it? We have countless decisions to make, yet we can’t even plan on a normal school year or a simple trip to the store. We can’t look beyond next week. We feel stuck, worried, and scared. Even if we acclimate to uncertainty and brace for more change, we can still have a pit in our stomach that comes from not knowing what curve ball might be next.

Will the pandemic get worse? Will my family stay healthy? Are we destined for doom and gloom as the media predicts? Will the chaos and hostility compound as the presidential election approaches?

The gravity of the unknown is overwhelming.

And thankfully we have God and the unshakeable hope of Christ.

Deuteronomy 31:8 says,

The LORD Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.

There is no plan or road map to navigate the challenges of 2020, but God is with us. He isn’t surprised or caught off-guard. He has a plan for humanity and each one of us – a plan that can’t be thwarted by even the strangest twist of events.

As a planner I am learning to make fewer plans. I add a “God willing” to the plans I do make.

I’ve been humbled into a state of surrender and trusting God to work out the details. I’m finding peace in the security of Christ.

It feels odd, yet relieving. I have more energy to enjoy the present because I’m not consumed by plans for the future. I feel lighter without the burden of assuming it all depends on me. I’ve seen God at work in me and my family and so much bonding that has come from our extra time together.

At the same time, I crave normalcy. I wish my high school senior daughter could have a traditional senior year. I want all the milestones for her, yet disappointments are likely.

There will probably be heartache and tears, yet my plan is to celebrate her no matter what the school year brings. This is her last year at home, and rather than waste it being angry and sad, I want to enjoy her and finish strong.

Thankfully, Jesus can bring peace even in chaotic times. He tells us in 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.

His peace transcends all understanding. It brings comfort when there is no plan.

My wedding day notebook symbolized my need to control. It was physically heavy, but more often, it’s the plans we build in our mind that are mentally and emotionally heavy. They snowball into expectations of what we think our lives should look like. Sometimes the healthiest choice is to set our plans aside and open our hands to God’s present grace. He gives us what we need, and as we rest and trust in that, as we give thanks for our blessings today, we find a peace that transpires circumstances and an intimacy with God that isn’t subject to change.

Written for Devotionals Daily by Kari Kampakis, author of Love Her Well.

We have to learn to let go of our plans. Especially now. God has it all in His capable hands.  Even if things don’t go as we expected or wanted, He still has a beautiful plan!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith August 23, 2020

In today’s world we are seeking hope as we reckon with a global pandemic, racial injustice, and an economic crisis that is unparalleled in our time. Many of the hardships are being wrapped into the upcoming presidential election.

Today, more than ever, prayer is an essential element in our lives. We should turn to God for direction and the choices He wishes us to make for our nation.

There is tremendous power in prayer. Since our nation’s first days, God’s greatest movements are fashioned and sustained by prayer. From the signing of our earliest documents to our triumphs over darkness, to the spiritual awakening that sustained our faith and resolve over the centuries.

Throughout Scripture and our history as a nation, persistence, prevailing, intentional, and never-ending prayer has always brought the presence of God.

Prayer is a wonderful power placed by the Almighty God into the hands of His saints. When we humbly seek His face in prayer, He is moved to act on our behalf and accomplish His desire for us. When we seek God in prayer for our leaders, we impact the very direction our nation will take.

Will you join me in a 40-day prayer journey for our nation? This guide (If My People) is designed to help quicken your prayers, to encourage you to seek God’s will for our future, and ask Him to continually intercede on behalf of our nation.

Prayerfully seek His face every day, believe that your prayers make a difference, and claim all victory that is and is to come. For there is tremendous power in prayer. We should recognize that freedom is never free.

Throughout the history of our country, men and women were called to make great sacrifices and give their time and sometimes their very lives so we can enjoy freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

With every challenge we have faced, we have risen to defend the nation we cherish. We find ourselves at the crossroads of determining the direction of our country’s future and the role of Christianity in our nation. The devoted prayers of all citizens will impact the future direction of our beloved country.

My prayer is that this book will draw you closer to our Heavenly Father as you commit yourself to pray for our country.

Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote, “Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed — else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.”

God desires that this great nation will turn to Him, read His Word, pray and obey His commands for the good of our country.

Throughout history, God has faithfully led us through trials, wars, economic crises and social issues coming to boil. Every time He has seen us through and blessed our land with more than we deserve. Let us all seek the Lord in prayer for His direction and for our blessed land. The Bible encourages us to call upon the Lord in every situation in our lives and by extension in our land.

Our God who never sleeps will hear our prayers 24/7.

So, it seems right that the one duty of every Christ-following person blessed to live in this country is to pray for the nation. The One we call to has promised to listen.

When we stand together as one nation under God willing to defend the rights that have been granted to us, we will be blessed. The freedom we enjoy comes with the responsibility of each citizen to defend that freedom. God can also use His people in this land to share His love and offer encouragement to neighbors. May His Spirit be our guide as we move forward as His people and as Americans who should guard our land.

Praising God should be an everyday occurrence in this great country we call home. We are blessed with the freedom to live as we wish, vote as we choose, worship where we want, and express our opinion without fear of retribution. These are the privileges we should not take for granted. May God be our guide this November as we plan for the future and prayerfully exercise our right to vote.

Written for Devotionals Daily by Jack Countryman, author of If My People.

These are unprecedented days, aren’t they? What a great opportunity to pray for the world, for our nation, for our leaders in government, for our leaders in communities and churches, for one another, for ourselves!

Pastor Dale

 

 

Notes of Faith August 22, 2020

There Will Be Blood

Pain is a microphone. And the more it hurts, the louder you get.

Suffering isn’t an obstacle to being used by God. It is an opportunity to be used like never before.

This truth leaps off the pages of Scripture again and again and again. Joseph suffered for years as a prisoner for crimes he didn’t commit, but it only made him louder. In the end he was raised to the right hand of Pharaoh and put in a position to save the lives of his brothers, who had tried to kill him (Genesis 45:5).

Esther went through the unspeakably difficult trial of becoming an orphan when both her parents died (Esther 2:7). Yet her adoption by Mordecai set into motion the events by which she would become queen of Persia and prevent a holocaust.

David was forced to go on the run, like Harrison Ford in The Fugitive, while he was hunted by his lunatic of a father-in-law, Saul. David was homeless, living in and out of caves in the wilderness of Israel, and yet it was in those caves he poured out his heart to God in worship (1 Samuel 23–24, 1 Samuel 26). His greatest praise came from his darkest days.

When the apostle Paul was saved, a prophecy was given to Ananias, who had the unique challenge of discipling this recently converted terrorist. God told him that Paul would stand before kings, gentiles, and the nation of Israel and that he would suffer many things for Jesus’ sake (Acts 9:15–16). There are two elements there that we must not miss: (1) Paul would be used powerfully, and (2) Paul would suffer greatly. But I believe those are actually two sides of the same coin that exists within every calling. It would be while he was suffering for Jesus that he would do the great things (speaking to the Jews, speaking to the children of Israel, and speaking to kings).

Here’s where this concept comes to your front door. Just as Ananias was to tell Paul that he was a chosen vessel, so you are part of a chosen generation. No ordinary child. You are royalty, remember? A unique part of God’s forever family. But there’s a catch: just like Paul, you will suffer many things on the way to your destiny being fulfilled.

Pain is guaranteed. The Bible says that the rain falls on the evil and the good alike (Matthew 5:45). Part of living on this fallen planet cursed by sin is that trials are inherent. That’s just the way it is.

What about for the child of God? What happens when you give your life to Jesus Christ? The difficulties ramp up to a whole other level.

Jesus said that He wants us to shine brightly. He didn’t just say,

I am the light of the world. — John 8:12;

He also said,

You are the light of the world. — Matthew 5:14, emphasis added

Daniel said that those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever (Daniel 12:3). Guess what? God wants to make a star out of you. That’s wonderful — but as the great theologian Spider-Man said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

The enemy is not going to let you capture his flag without some serious flak. When you stand up as a Christian, attempt to share your faith, and live to see lost people won, you’ll invite suffering, persecution, and opposition your way. This is why Paul told Timothy,

All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. — 2 Timothy 3:12

Adversity is going to happen. In fact, it’s part of your calling. We’re told in 1 Thessalonians 3:3,

No one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. (emphasis added).

Jesus warned His followers that the world hates Him, and if you’re trying to follow Him, the world’s going to hate you too.

Crushed Like an Olive

The Bible calls us kings and priests (Revelation 1:6). An interesting thing that a king and a priest have in common is that, in Old Testament times, both had to be anointed. They went through a symbolic ritual of being smeared with oil to show that they were set apart for the platform, the microphone they were called to.

A king couldn’t take the stage, the mantle of authority of leadership, without being anointed. Priests had to regularly be anointed and consecrated into their service. That’s why it’s striking that before Jesus, who is both King and Priest forever, went to Calvary, he first went to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Gethsemane means “olive press.” Olive oil is made by pressing olives with a giant stone until the oil runs out. Because olive oil was used in the anointing process, olives had to be crushed so that someone could be anointed. There could be no anointing without a crushing.

Beyond the actual ceremonial oil, Scripture says that there in the Garden, Jesus knelt down and was in such agony, under such great pressure, that he began to sweat great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). At Gethsemane we see Jesus being crushed before going to the cross. The cross was His stage, the nails the proof of His love. He was willing to take up that dreadful microphone, to use the influence He had been called to:

For this purpose I have been sent. — Luke 4:43

But getting there meant first being pressed like an olive. There are no shortcuts; you simply cannot get to Calvary without going through Gethsemane. You and I have not been called to die for the sins of the world, but we do have a divine assignment, a mission we’ve been called to fulfill. And to fulfill it we must be crushed; we must be pressed if we are to see it accomplished. We cannot be used in a great way without experiencing pain. A. W. Tozer wrote, “It is doubtful whether God could ever bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”1

Your calling involves suffering. There’s no way around that.

Nothing Is Wasted

But be of good cheer. There is a connection between the strength of our pain and volume of our voices. Jesus said in John 12:32,

And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.

The more we hurt, the louder we become.

This is why, though it is tempting, you must not be selfish with your pain. The things God deposits in your spirit in the midst of suffering are the same things that someday other people will desperately need.

When you’re going through a trial, it’s easy to block out other people who are hurting. You might think, I can’t worry about them. I’m sorry other people have it bad, but I’m just barely coping. I’m hanging on by a thread. I could hardly get out of bed this morning, so I just need to focus on me right now. No one will blame you. But you are wasting the anointing oil your crushing produced. If you would be willing to step out in faith and serve other people when you’re in the fire yourself, you will find a huge boost in volume, because you are plugged into a microphone called pain.

There are two reasons why your volume gets louder as life gets harder. First, when you’re going through a great time of trial, people around you tend to get quieter. Their voices hush out of respect.

Smart people walk on tiptoe around hearts that are on fire.

When you’re a Christian and you’re going through a great time of difficulty, you will notice that those around you who don’t know Jesus Christ — especially those you’ve shared your faith with before — will lean in extra close. Their ears perk up. They want to see if what you have advertised is going to prove true in the product demonstration. You told them that Jesus is the light of your world. Well, now your power has been cut, and they want to see if you can glow in the dark. You’ve told them that Jesus is the anchor for your soul; He is the solid rock you can stand on. Now everything around you is giving way, and they want to find out if you’re going to sink in the sand. If they do see your claims proven true, you’ll find a greater willingness on their part to trust Christ in their own lives.

The second reason your volume gets louder when life get harder is because in trials, you can hear God better. Why is this? Because He comes closer! That’s what we find in Psalm 34:18:

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”2 And the nearer He is, the better we can hear Him and the more we can do for Him.2

You’re actually better fit for ministry in the crucible of pain.

You have a stronger voice to project and to declare, and it’s easier to belt from the diaphragm of your soul when you’re hurting. It’s counterintuitive, but in the middle of my hardest mess, I’ve found ministry to be a great strength waiting to be tapped into. It was welling up within me — a greater desire than ever before to tell the whole world that Jesus Christ can turn off the dark — because I experienced it myself.

Right there, at ground zero, in the valley of the shadow of death. As hard as it was to claw our way through on hands and knees in those moments, Jennie and I found that when we poured our pain into ministry, whole new levels of usefulness opened up.

There’s perhaps no time you are as powerful as when you minister in the midst of pain.

A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, 1955), 137.

  1. C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (1940; repr. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), 91.

Excerpted with permission from Through the Eyes of a Lion by Levi Lusko, copyright Levi Lusko.

Pastor Dale

 

Notes of Faith August 21, 2020

So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs. — 2 Corinthians 2:11 ESV

Now that we have established the fact that you are special and destined for impact, that you are living in the present but made for eternity, it’s time to recognize that, in addition, you’ve got a calling. But know this: God’s not the only one who knows you’re special and specially called. Your enemy knows it too, and he is desperate to keep you from realizing it and reaching your potential.

Our new lenses enable us to see eternity and what’s happening in the invisible around us. But they wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t also show us what’s happening on the other side, where darkness rules.

Paul said that we should not be ignorant of Satan’s devices (2 Corinthians 2:11). That means we open our eyes to his ways and his weapons. We get wise to the invisible war being waged all around us, and we learn to spot attacks.

God’s Word tells us what our enemy is like. Jesus said that he is the father of lies and that there isn’t a shred of truth in him (John 8:44). In other words, the way you can tell that the devil is lying is if his lips are moving. Nothing he says can be trusted. Scripture also tells us that he “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He’s super dangerous too. He won’t even show up except to steal, to kill, and to destroy (John 10:10). And get this: he really hates you. A lot. He’s out to get you.

What’s his problem?

He’s going to hell.

God promised way back in the garden of Eden that the devil is going down.

He will be swiftly crushed under our feet (Romans 16:20). There’s nothing he can do about it, and he knows it. He doesn’t want to go down empty-handed, though, for misery loves company. Since he can’t stop God from throwing him into hell, he will try to hurt God by taking as many of the people God loves with him when he goes.

It’s similar to what happens at pool parties when people get thrown into the water. They hold on to things for as long as they can to try to keep from being thrown in, but then their strategy changes when they realize it’s inevitable. If I’m going in, I’m bringing you all with me is the prevailing thinking. That, coupled with a narcissistic god complex, just about sums up Satan’s MO.

We are just pawns to the devil. He knows that we matter to God, though, and since he can’t hurt God directly, he inflicts pain on Him indirectly by hurting us.

If you have put your faith in Jesus, Satan can’t pluck you out of God’s hand.

While we are no match for Satan, he is no match for God. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). Satan might be like a lion — I think he’s more of a hyena — but Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the true King of the jungle.

Satan would love for you to think he is all-powerful. He’s not.

He has to ask God for permission to mess with us. God has also established limits to temptation so that there is always a way to escape.

You can see this illustrated in the wilderness temptation of Jesus, when Satan stood behind Jesus and told Him to jump off the temple (Matthew 4:5-6). Why would the devil tell Jesus to jump? Because he couldn’t push him! I guarantee that if he could have, he would have. He could only whisper in Jesus’ ear, not make Him do it.

So it is when Satan comes your way with his bag of tricks. He doesn’t want you to know this, but he can’t make you do anything. You always have a choice. In that way, you are more dangerous to yourself than the devil is. He has to check with God before he can wreak havoc in your life, but you can do great damage to your calling without getting approval from anyone.

Our biggest mistake in this war is that we often underestimate our enemy’s creativity. We think he is only capable of surprise attacks, like a breaching great white shark. By default, when I think about Satan attacking, in my head I hear the Jaws theme song. An antagonistic coworker goes out of his way to make you look bad and lies about you for nothing other than your faith. A friend at school mocks you when she finds out you are a virgin and pressures you to get some action. Someone breaks into your house and robs you while you are on a mission trip. Outright attack is certainly an effective strategy that the devil does employ, but it is not his only trick.

Sticks and stones aren’t the only weapons in his arsenal. He often resorts to something much more dangerous, something I call panem et circenses. Wikipedia that if you want, but I’ll save you the time. It’s Latin for “bread and circuses,” and it’s part of a quote from a Roman writer named Juvenal, from around AD 100: “For the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.”

This ancient dude was describing the way the people of the Roman Empire had been tricked into giving up their freedom as citizens. They allowed the emperors to take away their power to vote, elect their own officials, and govern themselves. These priceless things had been purchased on the cheap. All it had taken was grain and games. Food and entertainment. Bread and circuses.

During the imperial age, under Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, and their successors, as many as 135 days out of the year were dedicated to games: gladiator matches, chariot races, juggling competitions, and elaborate entertainments. These emperors found that as long as people weren’t hungry or bored, their freedom could be stolen. In the process, the emperors could turn themselves from kings into gods. The free food and endless entertainment acted as an anesthetic. They kept people amused while their liberty was taken. It was poison laced with sugar, and it was incredibly effective. The people shortsightedly gave up things that mattered for things that were over in a short period of time.

The devil is all over bread and circuses. It’s his favorite. He wants you to give up what Christ died for you to have, and he knows that if he can distract you, he can destroy you.

This destruction by distraction is difficult to detect when it’s happening, because it doesn’t involve bad things but good things that take the place of the most important things.

You do not have to fall for Satan’s tricks. Open your eyes! Use your lenses! Life is more than who’s fighting whom in UFC, what so-and-so tweeted, which celebrities just broke up, and what the latest and greatest food truck is serving up. You were meant to live on a higher level.

When your life is focused on the superficial, you can be kept from your calling and deprived of your destiny.

The enemy’s end game is to play the fiddle while the life you were meant to live goes up in smoke.

Don’t mistake what I’m saying. There’s nothing wrong with food or fun. Football, wine, cycling, travel, Twitter, and fashion. These are all good things God wants us to enjoy while we are on earth. I’m convinced that He takes pleasure as we enjoy our lives. He smiles as we eat and laugh, run and play. But these things, in and of themselves, aren’t enough. We were never supposed to live our lives purely on the physical playing field. We were meant for so much more.

Prayer

Father, give me strength for the wilderness and wisdom in the face of temptation. Keep me from distraction so I can keep my eyes on what truly matters — the best thing. Amen.

BREATHE, THINK, AND LIVE

Does the fact that you have an enemy targeting you freak you out or light a fire under you? Why? How so?

  • What causes us to be ignorant of Satan’s devices?

  • Have you seen the enemy act in your life? How so? How did you know?

  • How does keeping our lenses on, looking toward eternity and heaven, place us in relation to our enemy?

  • Have you ever heard the excuse “the devil made me do it” (literally or in essence)? How does the fact that the devil can’t make you, as a child of God, do anything actually free you to deal with the real problems?

  • Look, we’ve all fallen for the “bread and circuses” trap. How do you most commonly fall for it in your daily life? What are you handing over when you choose an anesthetic over what is real and eternal?

  • How can we keep good things from becoming distractions? What does it mean to live on a higher level?

Excerpted from Take Back Your Life by Levi Lusko, copyright Levi Lusko.

Friends, let’s not be distracted by bread and circuses, food and entertainment! Let’s keep focused on eternity and the path Jesus has set us on. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith August 20, 2020

The sun cast crystal rays off the water on a late summer day in Birch Bay, just below the Canadian border and about one hundred miles north of Seattle, Washington. The water that day was calm and gently lapped at the sides of my kayak. A small baby couldn’t have been more comfortable at her mother’s breast than I was as I paddled in my kayak on that bay.

Steve, a college friend who was now a pastor, pulled his kayak close to mine. We stopped paddling and let ourselves be rocked by the small, graceful waves. Then we talked of how life had changed for us over the past dozen years.

We talked about what God was doing in our lives —how we felt challenged and how we felt encouraged. We talked about mutual friends, laughed, thanked God, and just appreciated each other’s company and the world that God had given us to enjoy.

As we paddled back toward the shore, I marveled at what I had missed growing up. My boyhood home was farther south of the bay, under the shadow of Mount Rainier. The Pacific Northwest’s evergreen forests are one of the strongest memories of my childhood.

I was in the forests a lot, but most of the time I was running. My heart hadn’t grown to the point where I could enter a forest and think of it as God’s cathedral, a sacred place of prayer. In our modern age, where we’re born in the antiseptic environment of a hospital, taken home to a nursery that consists of Sheetrock coated with paint, and driven through the countryside in a metal contraption called a car, our ability to appreciate and meet God in creation is stunted, to say the least.

We need to be spiritually reawakened to fully appreciate the outdoors.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning understood this when she wrote these now famous words, “Earth’s crammed with Heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees, takes off his shoes, the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”1

How can we be reawakened to this? I have some ideas since I’ve traveled from being a Cub Scout who used to romp through the woods with nary a prayer on his lips to a more mature Christian who has seen those bushes afire with God. I’ve learned that we must first create a space of time, quiet, and isolation before we can truly see God. Three elements are necessary for this. We need to first believe, then learn to perceive, and finally receive.

Believe

To avoid a sentimental or idolatrous view of nature we need to first be fully converted to life in Christ. Martin Luther tells us, “Now if I believe in God’s Son and bear in mind that He became man, all creatures will appear a hundred times more beautiful to me than before. Then I will properly appreciate the sun, the moon, the stars, trees, apples, pears, as I reflect that He is Lord over and the center of all things.”2 If we don’t appreciate the outdoors, then maybe we don’t appreciate the Creator.

Luther tells us that it is only with the “eye of faith” that we can see miracles all through nature, miracles that he believed were even greater than the miracles of the sacraments. If we truly understood the growth of a grain of wheat, he says, we would die of wonder.3

So the first way to become awakened is to seek the Creator behind the creation. Luther called creation the “mask of God.” a mask partially conceals, but it also tells us that something is behind the mask.

Perceive

The second step to becoming awakened to God is to resurrect deadened elements of perception. Saint Bonaventure, an early Franciscan friar, suggested a grid through which we may “school” ourselves to seek God outdoors.

First, consider the greatness of creation — mountains, sky, and oceans — which clearly portrays the immensity of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the triune God.

  • Next, look at the multitude of creation — a forest has more plant and animal life than you could examine in a lifetime and shows us how God is capable of doing many things at once. Those who wonder how God can hear so many prayers uttered simultaneously have been out of the forest too long.

  • Finally, examine the beauty of creation — see the beauty of rocks and their shapes, the beauty of colors and shades, the beauty of individual elements (such as trees), and the beauty of overall composition (such as forests). God’s beauty cannot be revealed through one form but is so vast and infinite it can fill an entire world with wonder.4

The outdoors also speaks of God’s abundance. We’ve talked much about the forest, but stand barefoot in a desert or on a beach and try to guess how many grains of sand are under your feet or within your sight or on all the beaches and deserts of the world. We serve a God of plenty, whose mercy and love are inexhaustible.

When our son, Graham, was two years old, we’d trek through the Manassas, Virginia, battlefield in silence. I’d occasionally point out a tree or a plant, and Graham would nod and move on. These were delightful walks for me since we were able to be together and still be reverent. When he became a preadolescent, it was virtually impossible for Graham and his friends to resist gathering pine cones and sticks to set up an “ambush” for the rest of the family as we walked by. He wasn’t in the woods to perceive; he was in there to play — and there’s a place for that.

For the true Christian naturalist, creation is nothing less than a sanctuary, a holy place that invites you to prayer. See how you can awaken your soul with creation. As you commute to work or the grocery store, consider driving a few extra blocks or even miles if it means you can pass through a country road. Take an extra moment to look around you and appreciate what God has made. Decide that traveling will be more important to you than reaching the next place. Make it an event.

Receive

Psychologists tell us that a child’s fear of animals is frequently the result of transferring his or her own aggressions onto the beast. When we enter the woods, we can do the same; we transfer our own anxieties onto the scenery. Walks that are truly helpful are walks in which I lay down my agenda at the first sign of grass and let God lead my mind wherever He chooses.

I was headed down a wooded trail once, trying to solve a job-related problem. My mind was preoccupied, but as I made my way farther down the trail, I sensed God correcting me. In a matter of yards, my mind was clear and my heart was listening to God, loving Him, being with Him.

The trail bent and began descending slightly. It was the beginning of spring, and a creek bed off Bull run, which I had run across all winter, was now blocked by a freely flowing stream. I was stunned. That same small path of earth I had easily crossed for several months was now under water. I had seen it like this before, but the suddenness of the change overwhelmed me, and God’s voice broke in to remind me that opportunities change. If I don’t cross when I can, I may not be able to cross at a later date.

Thoughts, analogies, and ideas then flooded through my mind as I hiked around the creek bed to the small wooden footbridge that crossed it. There God planted new directions in my heart, and I lingered at that bridge, enjoying a rich time of worship. I reveled in the sight of the water running underneath me, the tree limbs catching leaves and small sticks, the sound of the water trickling, the smell of the clean air. I didn’t want to leave. Yet I had almost missed this blessing because my mind was so full when I entered the woods. God in His mercy broke in, and I left the woods deeply in love with a God who shares His heart and purposes with me.

We cannot receive unless we set aside time for God to speak — and then let Him set the agenda for our discussion. I’ve found that my agenda is frequently different from God’s. He must be the initiator in my spiritual walk. He knows what I need to hear. When I’m consumed with my temporal problems, I miss the blessing of being outdoors.

When you come to the woods, come to receive. Leave your worries at home.

1..Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “aurora Leigh” (book seven), in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, ed. James Dalton Morrison (Grand rapids: Baker, 1977), 16.

2. Quoted in H. Paul Santmire, The Travail of Nature (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), 131.
3.. Ibid., 130.

4.See Santmire, Travail of Nature, 99.

Excerpted with permission from Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas, copyright Gary L. Thomas.

Are you a nature lover? Do you spend weekends and vacations climbing mountains, or enjoying lakes, the ocean, or woods? Is nature a place of worship for you? Let it be! Next time you venture out into the peace and quiet of the wilderness, listen, believe, perceive, and receive!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith August 19, 2o2o

It was a large, strange fire. Those who rushed to put it out found that it not only roared, but seemed to bark as it spread. The smoldering fields and orchards. The flaming foxes running this way and that. The damage. The confusion. The chaos. I read the scene again and wondered if it didn’t fitly describe the landscape of some of our online interaction today.

Do you remember the story? Samson made a substantial wager in Judges 14:14 that the Philistines could not answer his riddle,

Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.

Three days go by, and they had no answer. The Philistines grew anxious, then irritated, then enraged. This Israelite was about to impoverish them (Judges 14:15). So, they blackmailed Samson’s wife, threatening to burn her and her father alive if she did not discover the answer for them.

Extorted, she wept to her husband for days, “You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is” (Judges 14:16). On the last day of the celebration, he caved. She told her kinsmen, and Samson loses the bet. Things then turn violent. Embittered by the betrayal, Samson kills thirty Philistines and pays his debt with their belongings.

“In a world of devilish discourse, this is what should surprise us: gracious speech.”

A few days after he returns, he discovers that his wife was given in marriage to his best man. Incensed, Samson captures 300 foxes, ties their tails together, secures a torch between the pair of tails, lights the torches, and lets them loose in the Philistines’ fields and orchards. Imagine the scene. Imagine the alarmed barks of the frantic foxes. The roar of the flames. The smolder of the Philistine economy, as the fields become smoke and chaos.

Small Yet Devastating

As in Samson’s day, foxes now run in our social media circles with fire on their tails. Our incendiary online culture has been well documented. Some of us (myself included) have scrolled just to find the latest fire, the freshest controversy, the newest uproar. We may have more arsonist in us than we assume.

Connecting those fiery foxes to our increasingly hostile discourse, I believe, is to downplay — not overexaggerate — the seriousness of the flames we see today.

The tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. (James 3:5–6)

The power of the tongue (whether spoken or typed) is disproportionate to its size. Little movements, little keystrokes, like little fires at foxes’ tails, bring forests to their knees. The tongue is, James clearly tells us, a devastation. A world of unrighteousness. A stain to the whole body. A candle that sets lives on fire. A flame kindled by hell. He continues,

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. (James 3:7–9)

Untamable. Full of deadly poison. A restless evil. A curser of those created in God’s likeness. The tongue. The tweet. The retweet.

Burns We Bear

We can add to Scripture’s unsettling testimony our own. Are not many of your deepest scars caused by “the lash of the tongue” (Job 5:21)? And are not some of your deepest regrets words you said — or did not say?

And yet, despite these testimonies, might there now be less caution in public speech than ever before? Technology gives anyone access to a platform — and few refuse them. Firefox breeds even more fire among the foxes. The field is larger than ever before, and the foxes and flames fiercer and more numerous. Yet unchanged remains the fact that God will judge “every careless word” (Matthew 12:36).

“Little keystrokes, like little fires at foxes’ tails, bring forests to their knees. The tongue is a devastation.”

Should this Spartan cyberverse surprise us? No. Since before the flood, the intentions of the thoughts of a man’s heart have been only evil continually (Genesis 6:58:21), and “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). Evil hearts speak evil words. Sons of hell start verbal fires. Jesus assumes this: “How can you speak good, when you are evil?” Eventually, “the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil” (Matthew 12:35).

In a world of devilish discourse, this is what should surprise us: gracious speech.

Tongues from Above

While the unforgiven have their tongues dipped as quills into the flames of hell, Paul called the forgiven to be marked by gracious speech.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:5–6)

He called us to gentle speech, salted speech, the kind of speech that begets the fruit of knowledge of how to answer others. This is patient speech. Sober speech. Thoughtful speech. Compelling speech. Wise speech. Compassionate speech. Careful speech. Slow-to-speak speech. Fitting-the-occasion speech. Assuming-the-best-in-others speech. Speech mindful of Christ.

These words taste savory to the soul and give health to the body (Proverbs 16:24). This “gentle tongue is a tree of life” (Proverbs 15:4). This discourse is patient with the idle, the fainthearted, and the weak (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Tongues from above, like wisdom from above, are “pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17). Gracious speech doesn’t speak evil of anyone, avoids quarreling, is gentle, and shows “perfect courtesy toward all people” (Titus 3:2).

Is this what we often hear, and read? Is this how we often talk, and type?

Tweeting as New Men

In every generation, this kind of speech will be seen as different. Tongues that do not grumble and quarrel will stand out as lights amidst the night sky of a twisted and crooked generation (Philippians 2:14–16).

And this speech is for those reborn of God. In solidarity with Jesus, Paul relates this new speech to the new man. Christians may have once tweeted as the world, slandered like the world, bickered and gossiped like the world — “but now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth . . . seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:8–10).

This new man — basking in his election, his divine adoption, and his holiness in Christ — puts on a compassionate heart, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, forgiveness, and “love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:12–14). He loves much — within the church, online, and in personal conversations — because he has been forgiven much.

As Flames Spread

While the flames rise higher and higher, the Christian church has the opportunity to shine with a heavenly flavor of discourse. We can bear the divine seal of graciousness upon our tongues and keyboards.

“Are not some of your deepest regrets things you said — or did not say?”

Now, this does not mean we never speak hard words or unsettle some with our tone. This does not mean we will not confront error, contend for the truth, or take every thought captive to obey Christ. It does not mean we will not debate, rebuke, or say unpopular things. It does not mean we will be treated better than Jesus, who was praised for his gracious words one minute (Luke 4:22) and nearly thrown from a cliff by the same people the next (Luke 4:29).

It does mean that we are not rightly known as quarrelsome, harsh, severe. It means we are known for having patience, being compassionate, giving the benefit of the doubt. It means we can give our testimony that, at times, “we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7).

And this entails learning from Christ. Learning from him how to be “gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). It entails asking for an educated tongue (like his) so that we too “may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary” (Isaiah 50:4). And instead of setting flame to everything it comes in contact with, it hopes, “May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb” (Deuteronomy 32:2).

Greg Morse is a staff writer for desiringGod.org and graduate of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He and his wife, Abigail, live in St. Paul with their daughter.

Many Scriptures to challenge us to consider how hard it is to control our tongue.  May we endeavor to speak as Jesus spoke, always speaking truth in love from a gracious and kind heart.

Pastor Dale

 

 

Notes of Faith August 18, 2020

FEAR

If we knew how dangerous the fear of man really is, we might fear men less and fear our fears more. Other sins have beset me in my walk with Christ over the years, but few have so consistently eluded my radar like this one.

The fear of man often goes undiagnosed and unaddressed because of its subtlety. This fear knows how to wrap itself in the robes of love, pretending to count others more significant than itself, while secretly counting on others to fan the flame of its own conceit. The fear of man proudly proof-texts its weakness for people-pleasing: “I try to please everyone in everything I do” (1 Corinthians 10:33). But it quietly refuses to finish the sentence: “. . . not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved” (1 Corinthians 10:33). We often fail to confront, or even recognize, the fear of man, because it so often looks like love, and too many of us love to look loving.

But blow away the rose-colored smoke and break through all our favorite mirrors, and we find the fear of man is not the nice friend we thought it was. For all its subtlety, the fear of man is desperate, vicious, even cruel. Pretending to be love, it blinds us to love, even to Love himself.

Blinding Glory

Perhaps no text exposes the danger of the fear of man like Jesus’s warning to the religious rulers of his day:

I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. . . . How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:41–4244)

He was warning a crowd of Jews who were furious because he had healed a man, even though the man had been disabled for nearly forty years. The crowd was so furious, in fact, that they wanted to kill him (John 5:18). While he healed the sick, the possessed, and the blind in droves, his own people could not see just how blind they really were.

Why did some fail to recognize and treasure the Son of God? Why did they consistently miss what it means to love our neighbors? What motivated them to eventually murder the Author of life? Jesus says, at the root, they received glory from one another and despised the glory that comes from God. Because they feared man, they could not believe Jesus. They listened to Love, and heard hatred. They looked at Safety, and saw danger. They stood before Joy, and felt misery. They were offered Life, and preferred death.

“We must find our refuge, not in the praise and approval of one another, but in the arms and heart of heaven.”

The scariest part about these man-fearers, though, is just how immersed they were in Scripture. Jesus laments, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39–40). They searched the Old Testament Scriptures, likely far more than many of us do, and yet the fire of revelation did not burn off the fear of man. They were searching for glory, but not the glory of God. They prove that we can be at home in the Bible and yet still in bed with sin. And few mistresses corrupt and manipulate like the fear of man.

Subtle and Deadly

The fear of man is a repeated theme and warning throughout Scripture, but the phrase itself is used only once, in Proverbs 29:25: “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” While this is not the only verse about the fear of man, these few words are packed with help for discerning and fighting it.

The fear of man lays a snare, which teaches us two important lessons: the sin relies on disguise, and it intends to harm. When King Saul wanted to destroy David, he gave him his daughter Michal as a wife if David would kill a hundred Philistines. Saul said to himself, “Let me give her to him, that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him” (1 Samuel 18:21). Saul meant to kill David (1 Samuel 18:25). So, the fearful, self-absorbed king laid a snare (his own daughter!) under a thin veil of love and kindness, not knowing he had already fallen headlong into the greater, more deadly snare: the fear of man.

What happens next illustrates the awful harm the fear of man can do to a man. David kills not one hundred, but two hundred Philistines, and claims his bride. “When Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him, Saul was even more afraid of David. So Saul was David’s enemy continually” (1 Samuel 18:28–29). He was even more afraid. As with any other sin, if we feed the fear of man, it will not leave our table. It will eat away at everything — relationships, budgets, schedules, ministries, convictions, and sleep — until we perish or put it to death.

And how do we perish? How does the fear of man ruin a man? Notice, “Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David” (1 Samuel 18:28), and yet he still could not surrender or submit. Instead, he opposed and threatened David continually (1 Samuel 18:29). Because Saul feared man more than God, he set himself against God, and nothing could be more deranged or dangerous than making war with God.

Big Enough to Fear

That war against God brings us back to our proverb: “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” We know that the fear of man is subtle and seeks to harm, but Proverbs 29:25 tells us more than that. It also tells us how to be healed. The only remedy for this tyranny is a deep, abiding, and growing trust in God. We must find our refuge, not in the praise and approval of one another, but in the arms and heart of heaven. And we must fear him more than we fear them.

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
     that one may turn away from the snares of death. (Proverbs 14:27)

The fears are many and varied that lead to death, but one fear is a deep and overflowing fountain of security, stability, and joy. The fear of the Lord is the only fear that breeds peace, and not just any peace, but a peace that surpasses all of our meager ideas of peace (Philippians 4:7).

“Woe to us if we tremble before criticism and yawn before the cross.”

If God is small, peripheral, and relatively harmless, the shadows in the eyes of others will haunt us. Their expectations will corner us. Their disappointment will crush us. Their anger will undo us. To be free from the enslaving fear of others, God has to be big — bigger than their expectations, bigger than their disappointments, bigger than their anger, big enough to fear.

Let Him Be Your Dread

How could fear ever make us feel safe? How does the fear of the Lord conquer our fear of man? The prophet Isaiah begins to explain how:

Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary. (Isaiah 8:12–14)

Only when God becomes our greatest fear can he become our safest place. Let him be your fear, let him be your dread, honor him alone as holy, and he will become a sanctuary — a refuge from danger, a haven from wrath, a shelter in any storm.

The apostle Peter later picks up these verses when he writes to persecuted Christians, “Even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy” (1 Peter 3:14–15). To cure the fear of man, we must see the Christ who died for us as fearfully and wonderfully holy. To stop fearing wrongly, we must start fearing rightly. Again, Peter says,

Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Peter 1:17–19)

Have no fear of men, but instead, live among men with a holy, trusting, even joyful fear of God. Don’t fall into the same snare that the Jews of Jesus’s day fell into, mistaking the Lamb’s wounds for weakness. Nothing we might fear is as powerful as this blood. No power of hell, nor praise of man, can compare with the staggering, even frightening, splendor of his majesty. Jesus is the dreadful King and Judge who has become a sanctuary — for all who believe and fear. Woe to us if we tremble before criticism and yawn before the cross.

Fear More, Fear Less

As subtle as the fight against the fear of man may feel, so much hangs in the balance — our ability to see and savor Jesus, our boldness as his witnesses to a hostile world, our willingness to lovingly correct and exhort one another, our freedom to obey the will of heaven, whatever it might cost us on earth. And the fight will be won not mainly by analyzing the thoughts, intentions, and words of others, but by relentlessly exposing ourselves to the fearful wonder of our Father.

“Only when God becomes our greatest fear can he become our safest place.”

“All experiences of the fear of man,” Ed Welch writes, “share at least one common feature: people are big. They have grown to idolatrous proportions in our lives. They control us. Since there is no room in our hearts to worship both God and people, whenever people are big, God is not. Therefore, the first task in escaping the snare of the fear of man is to know that God is awesome and glorious, not other people” (When People Are Big and God Is Small, 95).

The first task is not to diminish other people — their desires, opinions, and expectations. Rather, the first task is to elevate God — his power and wisdom, his love and wrath. Let the bigness of God expose and quiet your fear of man, and then free you to love, really love, the people you are prone to fear.

Marshall Segal (@marshallsegal) is a writer and managing editor at desiringGod.org. He’s the author of Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness & Dating. He graduated from Bethlehem College & Seminary. He and his wife, Faye, have a son and live in Minneapolis.

Fear is good when applied righteously.  It saves our lives in more ways than one.  Let us lift high the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.  Only the beginning. . . Growing in Christ brings an understanding of the love of God and love conquers all fear. Love God, love others, trust and wait on the Lord for His perfect changes.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith August 17, 2020

Several years after my initial descent into deafness, my charts showed an inexplicable suspension in its progression. I couldn’t hear any better, but neither did my hearing get much worse.

My team of doctors couldn’t understand it. Mystified, they ordered test after test, trying to determine why my hearing loss seemed to be slowing down. They had no idea.

But I knew.

A short time after I’d yielded my demand that He heal me, I’d begun to wonder if I dared to ask Him for what any mother would want, what I longed for the most — more time to hear my children.

I knew better than to assume an attitude of entitlement all over again; to risk what I was gaining was out of the question.

Hearing God had become my passion, a reason to get up in the morning — the focus of my joy.

But every time I missed the stumbling sentences of my toddler or the whispers of my daughter or the boy-secrets too soon gone, my heart clenched in grief. A new baby now graced our family, the first to be born after my life-changing diagnosis. These precious lives were mine to know and mold and delight in — He had entrusted these gifts to me.

The importance of my role as a mother weighed heavily on my heart. How could I guide them deeper into relationship with Jesus if I couldn’t hear their hopes and fears, their questions and concerns? If talking to me was too hard, wouldn’t they give up and dismiss me as dispensable? How I longed to listen and hear them so I could know the nuances of who they were and who they would become. I was afraid that the rate at which my hearing was declining would preclude the possibility of shared confidences.

One evening as I walked along the shore of Seacliff beach, less than a mile from our home, with the sun hanging low to the west and my children romping and squealing and chasing waves, I asked.

Father, You know I’m Yours, all Yours. I really, honestly only want Your will, Your best, even if it’s my worst. You know that, don’t You? That I’m all in now, no conditions or expectations, no stipulations that You do for me what I’m asking…

But these children You’ve given me!

I look at John Mark and all his strength of will. I get this boy — how he’s not going to stop asking questions and probing for answers until he gets at the heart of the truth. I want to be the one to hear him. I want to be that person who knows what he means by the inflection of his voice, the mother who understands no matter what.

And Bekah, my joy-filled sparkle of hope. She needs me, Father, I really believe she does. She can’t decide if she’s a people-craving extrovert or a thought-filled introvert. How I want to ease her through all the confusion ahead, to guard her when people try to exploit her beauty and her open-hearted friendship. Please, Lord!

What about little Beth, my quiet and content middle daughter? How will she learn to express those things I see hidden behind her eyes? She’s my shadow, keeping herself close to me all day every day. How can I be her friend if I can’t understand what she has to say?

And now this new one, Matthew. He needs me to talk to him, to hear his little boy silliness, to listen to his cries. How will he ever learn to talk to me if I cannot hear? Father please!

Will You slow it down, this loss? Give me a chance to raise these little ones, let me hear until they’re old enough to walk with You. It’s going so fast — can’t You just hold off the inevitable for a little while?

On and on I walked, a strong sense of God at my elbow. I could almost feel Him thinking, as if He was considering my questions, weighing what He had in mind against what I was asking.

I heard nothing, but I felt His presence as we walked by the sea He had crafted with His own hands.

I could still smell the smoke from the fires of my own head-strong rebellion, and the stench left me wondering if the God I was getting to know would be merciful enough to grant the pleas of my mother’s heart.

And so I asked in careful tones, not really waiting for an answer, just hoping. Wishing that the loss would slow down. Watching to see if this time He’d say yes.

Would God help me find a way to stay connected to Him, to each of my children — to hear their hearts if not their voices?

During the early years of my faith journey, I learned a new word. It was a word I’d never heard in my previous life, a word not exactly bandied about on the evening news.

Blessing.

People often use this word as a sort of endearment, their voices going soft and sweet and full of hope. The word appealed to my good-life-seeking sense of safety and dovetailed nicely with the wonderful life I’d signed up for.

A blessing, I believed, was all sugar and spice and everything nice — the day-by-day evidence that the formula worked: If I tried hard to live as a good girl should, then I would be blessed by God.

My parents had taught us to notice all the blessings in our lives. To make a gratitude list when life seemed hard and the road got bumpy.

Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.1

And so I’d learned to count my blessings. To give God credit for the good, nice, loving goings-on in my life.

My definition of blessing looked like a perfect life where everyone is happy and healthy and has plenty of everything. I thought it meant a reward for a life well lived — sort of a carrot-and-stick philosophy. The carrot included all the protective blessings I thought God promised. The stick was His discipline if I chose to go against Him, the consequences I knew came with disobedience.

My definitions fit very well with my neat and tidy life. The problem was, my definition did not fit so nicely with real life. Or the Scriptures.

The word translated as blessing in the New Testament is derived from the Greek word, makarismos, which means “to be indwelt by God through the Holy Spirit and, therefore, because of His indwelling to be fully satisfied in spite of the afflictions of life.”2

To be blessed actually means to be fully satisfied.

To thrive on the inside even if life is falling apart on the outside.

To be so filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit within that we are able to endure and taste the sweetness of His love even in the midst of bitter reality. Even when it hurts, even when we do not understand.

1.     Oatman, Johnson Jr. “Count Your Blessings,” Songs for Young People (Chicago, IL: Edwin O. Excell, 1897).

2.     Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament.

Excerpted from He Speaks in the Silence by Diane Comer, copyright Diane Comer.

Are you in the middle of affliction? Struggling to understand? Wondering if Jesus will answer your prayers? He is right with you. Hearing you. Taste the sweetness of His love today.

Pastor Dale