No Fear (punishment, church, preach, believe)

[hunterseat]

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)

I'm the kind of person who, yes, can venture to great heights without fear, IF I DON'T LOOK DOWN. A previous job required me to travel to the top of airplane T-tails, 60 feet in the air, on bucket trucks, lifts, or climbing out there from inside, through a hatch. I always had fall protection but that didn't help if I let my eyes and mind wander. The thing was not to look down. It was an exercise in discipline for me.

Believe it or not, being in Honolulu took discipline, too. I'm not from there, had never been there and recently took a job there. I was there a year. The problem was location location location. A VERY small island in the middle of a vast amount of water far from everything else. Visions of tidal waves and total annihilation caused beads of perspiration to form - IF I THOUGHT ABOUT IT. So I didn't, and I knew not to let my mind wander in that direction. Cuz it was scary.

It's silly to allow fear to overtake you. I know what the Bible says about it.

But now, here I am in my 50's. I just did a blog entry about South Carolina which included a link to that Outlaw's song from the 70's. Youtube sucks me in with those related videos listed to the right. And this is a band I grew up with. So I listened to Hurry Sundown. (..gypsies danced around the campfire, shook their tambourines..) Then I thought about Cher because my brain does odd word associations. Cher is on tour right now, her last one. Just came to Atlanta and a friend raved about the show. It was awesome. I saw the pictures. Cher is.... upper 60's??? *gulp* Where has the time gone?

I don't want to think about it but, at my age, I'm fast approaching the end of this life here that I've been given. I thought about that just a few minutes ago. I let it steep. I waited for that predictable but somehow rational fear. Yes rational. It's natural to be afraid of falling and it's natural to fear total annihilation. But the fear of death didn't come. And as I sit here trying to put this into a post my joy-level is peaking. Paul says: To live is Christ, to die is gain.

It's not natural to NOT fear death. It's supernatural.

Can I get a witness? Anything similar going on in your heart?

[Cephas40]

Well said.
For some reason C.S. Lewis came to mind when I read your piece. In Miracles he wrote,

On the one hand Death is the triumph of Satan, the punishment of the Fall, and the last enemy. Christ shed tears at the grave of Lazarus and sweated blood in Gethsemane: the Life of Lives that was in Him detested this penal obscenity not less than we do, but more. On the other hand, only he who loses his life will save it. We are baptised into the death of Christ, and it is the remedy for the Fall. Death is, in fact, what some modern people call 'ambivalent'. It is Satan's great weapon and also God's great weapon: it is the holy and unholy; our supreme disgrace and our only hope; the thing Christ came to conquer and the means by which He conquered.

Death as both our curse and our hope sends shivers of great fear or of great pleasure up our spines depending which side it is we choose to view.

In 2004, I had quintuple bypass surgery. As I was being prepped for surgery, my wife, my mother and my daughter were all crying as if I had died. I thought, "Wait a minute, I'm the one who should be worried, scared and crying!" I learned after the surgery that the surgeon had told them this was not going to be a straightforward routine bypass surgery and he gave me less than a 50-50 chance of survival.

[hljc]

Say if your house became haunted and ghost are making noises every day ............If you have fear than you have not accepted the authority you have in Christ to rebuke these spirits in Jesus name and become the Christians which are called to be ............See Jesus expects His believer to take the demons and fallen angels out for Him by His blood ............... Then we have Christians who`s church tell them that everyone has to evangelize the city and have no fear or preach a Word or pray so every one can hears your prayers , and have No fear .............. Like the Shepards in the field when Jesus was born where the Holy Angels appeared to them and said `Do No fear ``................ Or the Holy Angel came to Mary , and told her Jesus was to be born by Holy Spirit through Her ...``Would you have fear if you where her with Angels there ?.... One of the Worship of Spirit and Truth is the Worship of fortitude which believer stay under the wing of the Lord ......

[little elmer]

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake ...

Oh, never mind.

[hunterseat]

My mom's house was/is haunted. I thought it was cool until I became a believer and came back to visit. Then I realized exactly what the ghost was and my young child was with me. I became mama lion. I was very familiar with this spirit or type of spirit. I was terrified for my son until I spoke the name of Jesus and it was gone * just like that.

There's a story of a pastor who was going to be a guest speaker at a church in TX. He was on his flight there when there was such turbulence he thought he was going to die. He was terrified. He arrived, met by the Sr. pastor of the church and confessed his terror. He didn't know if he should be allowed to preach because he had such fear at the thought of dying and he knew it was wrong to fear death. The Sr pastor said "but you weren't dying". (meaning if he was he probably wouldn't have been afraid) okay it was funny when the preacher told it.

Pastor Al, wow. You've been through it! So glad you came through for the family!! Thanks for the CS Lewis.