Thursday 14 April 2011

Gen 15:1 - I am your shield (part 2)

After a 6 month break I am moving forward again on my thrilling expedition through the pages of God's word. Just one or two things to say about fear, faith and God being our shield before pressing on. I am reading again a great book by David Carr called "Staying Sane in a crazy world": 

"Fear came to occupy the place in Adam's mind where God had been shut out. That is why we can take comfort in the promise of the bible that the perfect love of Jesus casts out all fear. Fear and God cannot inhabit the same place. Fear is the absence of God's presence and sin reflects the thoughts of a man whose mind is void of life and does not hear the voice of God." David Carr. Staying Sane in a crazy world. p47.

There is a good fear which is a fear of God. It's a healthy, helpful fear, a bit like being concerned about falling when you are high up or a wary of  drowning when you are near deep water. The bible says it's the basis for wisdom (Prov 9:10), and meaning (Eccl 12:13) but what about "perfect love casts out fear"  (1 John 4:18)? Is there a contradiction here? No, I think there are two kinds of fear. A good godly fear and a counterfeit fear.

Once fear of God is gone and with it his protecting presence, then a host of counterfeit fears take its place. While fear of God leads to love, freedom and life, counterfeit fears lead to loneliness, slavery and death. If I fear what people think of me more than what God thinks of me then he is no longer directing my path and since he loves me more than anyone, I loose out. Fear has worked in the opposite way in which it is designed to, ie to protect me from danger and keep me in God's love. That is always the way the counterfeits work. They promise more and deliver less.

Take getting drunk for example. It's a counterfeit of enjoying the presence of God (Eph 5:18). Getting drunk promises boldness and freedom from fear, better relationships, joy, peace etc but usually leaves you worse off in every respect.    

Here is David Carr again:

"Why do people seek after such sensations (escapism and highs from drugs) when we all know that they are temporal in effect and in long term are highly damaging to our health? I believe is it man's attempt to recapture the rush of the Holy Spirit flowing through his being. Escapism through substance abuse is a feeble attempt at counterfeiting the vivid realties of life in the awesome power of the Spirit...people are trying to simulate what only the Holy Spirit can give, which is the pure peace of God, the pure purpose of God, the pure presence of God. When the Holy Spirit comes upon a person it causes a massive rush of adrenaline and well-being, and the world desperately wants to experience that." David Carr. Staying Sane in a Crazy World. p47.

"Why is it that man tries to invent things that will replace the Holy Spirit? It is simply man's attempt to create a substitute for the presence of God. It is the world's way of trying to sooth the brain outside of the Holy Spirit - an impossible task". David Carr. Staying Sane in a Crazy World. p53

After these insightful remarks the very next chapter in his book is called "Don't worry!" and coincidently the first verse is the one I have just memorised this morning. Matthew 6:25. Let me see if I can remember it:

"Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. You life is more than food and the body more than clothes". Matthew 6:25

Ah, forgot the begging bit "Therefore I tell you". That's a really important bit. And Jesus posed the second half of the verse as more of a question "Is not life more than food?"

Just thought though, is "worry" different to "fear"? Let's go check the Greek (I am still learning it but progress is even slower than my blogging through the bible!). Worries/anxious has more of the sense of "distracted" (like Martha in Luke 10:41). Fear has more of a sense of wanting to avoid something that looks to be dangerous. I guess the two are related. We might fear looking silly in front of people so we worry about what we put on in the morning. We worry about money because we fear not having enough. I wonder if they are always related somehow? Not sure... Ah Piper has something helpful to say here:  

"Anxiety seems to be an intense desire for something, accompanied by a fear of the consequences of not receiving it. We do not say we are anxious when we desire a tool box for Christmas because we don't fear the consequences of not getting one. But we do say we are anxious about our wife not arriving home on time because our desire for her to come home is accompanied by the fear of a car accident and a telephone call from the police....anxiety implies that we think there may well be some sorrow and anguish around the corner."

Anyway, this subject is massive and I'm going to get swept away again if I'm not careful so let me pull it back to Abram again. God is giving himself as a shield to Abram to protect him from the counterfeit fears that are pressing in. As Abram takes hold of God, and his shielding presence, the fear of people, death, failure, and rejection can be batted away. Having God as a shield, strapped to your arm, held closely to your body, moving forward into battle with you is so much better than everything just begin fixed at a distance. God doesn't want to stay at arm's length, he wants to be held on our arm as a shield.          




PS. Check out my main blog in a few days as I will be continuing some of these trains of thought. Just think that for now through I need to press onto the next verse to avoid getting bogged down again! 



Tuesday 12 April 2011

Gen 15:1 - I am your shield (part 1)

When I read Genesis 15:1 it was like taking a step into a river and getting swept away. There was too much in it and along with other demands on my time I never got round to blogging it. However, after 6 months I am going to have another go. I have had three or four coincidences that have encouraged me to do so and now with an hour or so free on my day off I'm going to try to finish it (not the whole bible just this next blog! - One coincidence one was reading Terry Virgo's blog on the shield of faith. http://blog.terryvirgo.org/the-shield-of-faith/, another was a memory verse I was pointed towards - see forth coming series "Project Samurai Sword" in my general blog.) I may only skim the surface of this verse but there is a lot more of the bible to read and I am sure the themes and truths will reappear further along the path. Anyway here goes:

Abram has just won a great victory and rescued his nephew Lot. He had recognised and given glory to God for these things in his encounter with the priest king Melchizedek while another King lurks menacingly in the background. Perhaps it is reading too much into the King of Sodom's terse comments, but I wonder if they planted a seed of fear in Abraham as in this next verse we find him in need of encouragement and reassurance. At any rate, for some reason God suddenly comforts Abram with the command that crops up time and time again in the Bible "fear not."

Fear is an ever present temptation for God's people. Either fear of what will happen if they obey God or fear of what will happen having obeyed God. Gideon and Moses needed a lot of reassurance to get going and Elijah needed a lot of aftercare when he triumphed over the profits of Baal.  

Here is just a sample of the "fear not" passages:

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

Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (ESV) Mat 10:31  

for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (ESV) 2 Tim 1:7  

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. (ESV) 1 John 4:18  

in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
    What can man do to me? Psalm 56:11 

(There are loads more great verses and encouragements on fear in Max Lucado's little "fear not promise book".) God does not simply say "fear not". He usually gives good reasons why we should not be afraid. The reason at the root of every encouragement is who God is and where God is. When Jesus came, fully revealing who God was, time and time again he used the phrase "I am…". He was: The way, the truth, the life, the good Shepherd, the vine, the bread of life, the gate. The aspect of God's nature that he reveals to Abraham at this time is that he is to him a shield. He is not just a shield, or everyone's shield, but "your shield". 

It's interesting that he does not say everything is going to be okay ie "no one will attack you or try and hurt you". Rather he says I am your shield. We live in a time of conflict, and we do not need false assurances of peace, rather weapons and armor to engage in the battle.

It occurred to me that with a shield, and even with a fortress, as God later reveals himself to be, to take advantage of these things requires action on our part. You hold a shield and lift it up. You run into a fortress and lock the door. A shield is no good as it lies on the ground and a fortress is no good if you stand outside. As arrows fall on you the shield needs to be used. The benefits of who God is are appropriated in our life as we take hold of them through faith. It's interesting that in Ephesians 6 Paul encourages those in the church to:

"take up the whole armour of God... Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God".

See how active all this is. It's interesting to see how intimately faith is linked to God's shielding and protection of us. I'll let Max Lucado end this long overdue blog entry:

       Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. There was no one there. MaxLucado

In the next blog I will look briefly at real fear and it's counterfeit.