Fear & Faith
Isaiah
{41:10} Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
FEAR NOT
Rev. {1:17}
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid
his right hand upon me, saying unto me, FEAR NOT; I am the
first and the last: {1:18} I [am] he that liveth, and was dead;
and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the
keys of hell and of death.
Acts {27:23} For there stood by me this
night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
{27:24} Saying, FEAR NOT, Paul; thou must be brought before
Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with
thee. {27:25} Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I
believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me
Luke {12:31} But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all
these things shall be added unto you. {12:32} FEAR NOT, little
flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom.
Luke {12:7} But even the very
hairs of your head are all numbered. FEAR NOT therefore: ye
are of more value than many sparrows. {12:8} Also I say
unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him
shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:
{12:9} But he that denieth me before men shall be denied
before the angels of God.
Luke {8:49} While he yet spake, there cometh one from the
ruler of the synagogue’s [house,] saying to him, Thy
daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. {8:50} But when
Jesus heard [it,] he answered him, saying, FEAR NOT: believe
only, and she shall be made whole.
Luke {5:10} And so [was] also James, and John, the sons of
Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said
unto Simon, FEAR NOT; from henceforth thou shalt catch men
Luke {2:10} And
the angel said unto them, FEAR NOT: for, behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
Luke {1:30} And the angel said unto her, FEAR NOT, Mary: for thou
hast found favour with God.
Luke {1:12} And when
Zacharias saw [him,] he was troubled, and fear fell upon
him. {1:13} But the angel said unto him, FEAR NOT,
Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth
shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
Matt. ]{28:5} And the angel answered
and said unto the women, FEAR NOT ye: for I know that ye
seek Jesus, which was crucified. {28:6} He is not here: for
he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord
lay.
Matt. {10:28} And FEAR NOT them which kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell
Mal.{3:5} And I will come near to you to
judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,
and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and
against those that oppress the hireling in [his] wages, the
widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger
[from his right,] and FEAR NOT me, saith the LORD of hosts.
{3:6} For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed
FEAR NOT
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Fear not.
For I am with thee.
Be not dismayed.
For I am thy God.
I will strengthen thee.
Yes.
I will help thee.
Yes.
I will uphold thee
with the right hand
of my righteousness.
Fear not.
We are a fearful people aren't we? Do we have reason to be? I think we do. We have a lot of reason to be fearful if we aren't with God. We have a whole lot of fear coming our way when we don't trust in God. It's one thing to say we trust Him, another thing to really mean we trust Him. As things get worse and worse it stands to reason people are fearful. We need to have faith in God, true faith that won't buckle under anything! Not a faith that says only believe when things are going our way. Not a faith that says we will not have to suffer. Not a faith that claims IF God truly were God all these bad things wouldn't happen. When Christians martyrs were being thrown to the lions and used in Roman games to be killed, when they were being torn asunder and their guts spilled, their bodies tortured they could have reason to fear don't you think? Fear not for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, I will help thee, I will uphold thee. Do you think they believed God then? If they had a real faith in God then they did. We don't like to assume they did because such thought scare us silly. We can't imagine being hunted and tortured. We fear the idea of being hunted and tortured and I'm not saying ANYONE should want these things, just that not wanting them to happen and being fearful of them are two different things.
As a Christian being thrown out into the arena at the Roman colliseum, hearing the roaring and snapping jaws of the starving lions, how could they not be scared? How? Maybe some where, but maybe they weren't.
We're a fearful society. I see it in the paper, on the computer news, headlines about people being afraid of the economy and its downfall and where it's all going.
Fear.
We live in a world where it's okay to have fears and even more okay to treat those fears with medication so we don't have to be so fearful, but calmed, chilled a bit so we aren't so uptight and such.
Fear.
I've lived with fear all my life, it's part of me and I say it's part of my make up, of who I am. I could no longer imagine having to get up and speak in front of a crowd without fear than I could imagine me bungee jumping without fear. The fear is real in me. I feel my hands going ice cold when I'm frightened and I just recently learned it's because the fear response is to run and the blood leaves my hands to go to my legs so I can run faster if necessary.
Fear.
Yes, I do want to run, to be away from the things that make me fearful.
I'm on very familiar terms with fear.
Where do fear and faith meet?
God would have us fear not, but trust in Him for all things...ALL things.
Easy to say- hard to do.
Faith my faith needs to grow- no, not in size necessary but in quality.
Having faith in God completely means trusting in Him completely and not in self at all.
Perhaps when I put away self, perhaps if I take my eyes OFF myself for a bit I would be able to see God more.
Lord I believe! Help thou my UNBELIEF!
Mark {9:24} And
straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with
tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
With tears of desperation, of hope Lord I plead with You by Your grace and mercy to help thou my unbelief!
I want to trust in Your words- 'Fear not'
Please Lord, we know that we need less of self and more of You. Help us! Save us! Know us!
In the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior we thank you, we praise you now and forever!
Amen.
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”- Romans 15:13
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3/18/10
Continuing the study on Eternal Verities (Eternal Truths) -
I'm going to copy parts of a thought paper and we're going to delve into more about what I was talking about yesterday, the Godhead and eternal truths. I'll interject it with my own thoughts and probably end up breaking it up into digestable pieces, meaning give it bit by bit so it's not overwhelming and gives us time to think about what's being presented. If you're reading this you'll have access to the internet and as such it's easy to check various facts such as the meaning of Greek and Hebrew words. Don't hesitate to take time to check things for yourself. We are accountable for what we can do and that means seeking the knowledge where we can. In our time we live in something called the 'Information Age' and it is. Information is right at our fingertips and we have to avail ourselves of it.
May God bless us as we seek to understand more fully His will, His way, the truths that we need to know and believe as this world becomes more and more deceptive.
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Exodus 3:13-14 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel , I AM hath sent me unto you.
The Hebrew word translated, "I AM" is the imperfect form of the verb, hahyah, "to be." Most of us have names which are classified as nouns. Not so the name chosen by God to designate Himself.
Further the verb is in the imperfect tense denoting unfinished action. Gesenius suggests in his Lexicon that the meaning of "I Am that I Am" is that God "will never be other than the same" and is. (p.384)
In other words, by this name God designates Himself as eternal and immutable. This word is the root for the name Jehovah. Jesus in His humanity claimed this name for Himself. (John 8:58)
A comparison of various verses in Revelation (1:10-11,17-18; 22:12-13 with 1:8) indicates that both He who liveth and was dead but is alive forevermore, has the same designation as "the Almighty." This reinforces the Hebrew Shema that the Gods of Israelis is one Jehovah. Gesenius observes in his discussion of the Hebrew word, Yehowah that "several ancient writers" relate "that the God of the Hebews was called IAW." (ibid.) ["I am Alpha and Omega"]
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given . . . and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible, following closely the Hebrew, renders the titles of the prophesied God-man, as: "Wondeful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Mighty God." The expression, "the Father of Eternity" is the best that human language can find to express the eternal pre-existence of the Logos.
Eternalness is an attribute of Deity, and thus "eternity" is synonymous with God, and not a creation of God.
It is the "time" frame of God's ever-existence which the human mind, limited as it is by time as we know it, cannot comprehend.
The same thought is given in Micah 5:2 where the Messianic prophecy, revealing the place of the birth of the Coming One, describes His "goings forth" as being "from everlasting." The word translated "everlasting" (gohlahm) is the same word used in Psalm 90:2 - "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God."
Again, the eternalness of God cannot be limited because of the limitations of human language and thought to express or comprehend what "everlasting" really is. He who has existed from all eternity comes forth in time from that incomprehensible reality.
Zechariah 6:12-13 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: Even he shall build the temple of the Lord: and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne: and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
*******
My thoughts-
Can you ever imagine a time when you were not? Of course you can't *remember* that time. To yourself you always were and it's only history that tells us otherwise. It's only pictures that bring to life a world before ours. Books bring the past to us. Our imaginations fill in a lot of gaps. Most of us can't remember our own first word, our own first step, we start to remember things on an average of about age 4-5 years old. This isn't to say there aren't some who remember earlier, and some who don't start to have self awareness memories until later in their lives. We know we aren't from forever. We have a beginning at conception, an introduction to the world at birth, and a life after birth that eventually will end up in our deaths. We watch people die, maybe not literally, but we live under the shadow of death always. Our great grandparents pass away, then our grandparents and eventually our parents in the natural progression of normal aging without the exceptions of which there are many. When someone we know dies, we begin to comprehend that our life too will end some day. We will cease to have breath in our bodies, a heart beating in our chests, our life on earth will end. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know I'm sure. What I'm emphasizing is that God is ever- God always was, God is, and God always will be, He is infinite we are finite. Jesus in His Spirit form has been with God infinitely, taking on flesh to live and die among us and He lay in the grave three days before rising from the dead. He then had yet to ascend to His Father after rising from the dead. And now Jesus lives infinitely with flesh that has been glorified by God and made new as all who will one day be with Him will have.
We are studying to comprend the truths of the Godhead and we will continue to do so. May God continue to bless us as we learn, relearn, and forever seek to learn.
By the grace and mercy of our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer now and forever. In His love always!
Amen.
3/18/11