{"id":7684,"date":"2024-07-25T05:30:36","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T09:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/?p=7684"},"modified":"2024-07-25T05:30:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T09:30:36","slug":"fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/25\/fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

7-29-24

\nMany of you know the Gospel songs \u201cThe Sweetest Gift, A Mother\u2019s Smile\u201d and \u201cWhere Could I Go But To the Lord\u201d and \u201cWinging My Way Back Home.\u201d I know them as precious songs in some hymnals, also as Gospel, folk, and country classics that recording artists have sung for a generation or two. They have touched millions, as have hundreds of other compositions by their composer J B Coats.

In turn, I know J B Coats\u2019s grandson as a friend, an Ole Miss graduate who loves the Lord and loves comics (two of my loves, too!). I am not going to link to J B Coats song this week, but some week I will focus on his music ministry. In the meantime: Daryl Coats the grandson recently shared something that could sound like a mere Internet meme\u2026 but got me to thinking deeper. He wrote \u2013

W<\/em>hen you hear someone say, <\/em>\u201ct<\/em>he last thing I wanna do is hurt you\u201d \u2013 it suggests there’s a list, and that hurting you is on that list.<\/em>

Right? That is not the same as saying, \u201cI never want to hurt you,\u201d or \u201cI can\u2019t imagine ever hurting you.\u201d Is it a subtle difference\u2026 or big difference? The \u201clast thing\u201d? The person seems to be saying, \u201cI do want to hurt you, but it\u2019s not my main priority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is what it reminded me of: Paul wrote in II Timothy 1:7 \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same way as Daryl parsed the words, I think St Paul meant: There IS a spirit of fear\u2026 but, remember, it does come from God. <\/em>That is the similarity I see. Some Christians, \u201ceternal optimists,\u201d are tempted to claim that fear is something that does not exist, or have to exist. (Like the intention to hurt someone, or not). Christian-Lite celebrities like Norman Vincent Peale and Joel Osteen preach that fear is a false emotion, casually to be wished away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, fear is real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safety comes from recognizing and respecting fear. Not yielding, but dealing. Note that the Bible does not say \u201cThere is no such thing as fear.\u201d It says rather clearly, that there is<\/em> a spirit of fear; sure enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 we see truth, and take heart, and overcome fear by realizing that there is<\/em> a spirit of fear in this world, this life; but that God is not its author. We can fear certain things in life \u2013 let us start a list, as suggested by Daryl\u2019s aphorism. As a nation we can fear pandemics; foreign wars; economic disruption; political corruption; assassinations; crime; personal tragedies\u2026 We can fear such things. Or we can anticipate them. Or we can work against them. Or we can plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can see similarities, as I suggested above, or we can see great differences indeed when we confront<\/em> \u201cfear\u201d \u2013 by any of its manifestations and nuances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we can \u201ctranslate\u201d Paul \u2013 it is called exegesis, or apologetics \u2013 and make our list:
\n1. There is such a thing as Fear
\n2. There is a Spirit of Fear that can affect people
\n3. God is not the author of that Spirit of Fear
\n4. The author, then, is the devil, or people who hate us, or we ourselves
\n5. We do not have to yield to that Spirit of Fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another Spirit, and that is the Spirit of God. The Holy Ghost was sent to encourage us, comfort us, and strengthen us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And speaking of power, and love, and a sound mind (weren\u2019t we?), do you realize that Jesus Christ said \u201cFear Not\u201d almost as often as He said \u201cHello\u201d? In fact, the Bible counts 365 times the phrase \u201cfear not\u201d appears. If you want to see it this way \u2013 once for every day of the year!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do you keep your lists? On the fridge? On your computer screen\u2019s frame? On Post-It notes? Keep this list in your hearts and minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

+ + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click: No Depression in Heaven<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7-29-24 Many of you know the Gospel songs \u201cThe Sweetest Gift, A Mother\u2019s Smile\u201d and \u201cWhere Could I Go But To the Lord\u201d and \u201cWinging My Way Back Home.\u201d I know them as precious songs in some hymnals, also as Gospel, folk, and country classics that recording artists have sung for a generation or two. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[53,63,3182],"tags":[3471,3472,826,2384,712,3970],"class_list":["post-7684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-hope-2","category-trust","tag-daryl-coats","tag-j-b-coats","tag-joel-osteen","tag-norman-vincent-peale","tag-the-carter-family","tag-the-chuck-wagon-gang"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s1bRYz-fear","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7684"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7688,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684\/revisions\/7688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}