From My Window…
Fear. It doesn’t just gnaw at the hearts of 21st century men and women living in times of too fast change and too slow joys. No. Fear has stalked us since that day in the Garden when our hands were sticky with apple and we heard God calling us. The Bible uses the word fear over 400 times and describes us as fearful, fearful hearted, fearing, full of fearfulness and just plain afraid. The heart of fear never changes even if the causes come wrapped in different clothes. The big ones: death, illness, pain, abandonment. Bad enough to be afraid for ourselves. Agony to be afraid for our children and those we love. The one difference is that we have lost the illusion of times of relative safety unless we turn off CNN and Fox News and our computers which constantly remind that somewhere near us, someone just suffered a tragedy. Who wouldn’t be afraid?
This September 13th and thereafter you are invited to a ‘Fearless Fall” at Shiloh Church. We will begin a time when both in sermon and during our Tuesday evening DVD study time we challenge each other to be more fearless, less fearful. We’ll will read together Max Lucado’s new book “Fearless” and look at the different fears that leave us paralyzed, unable to enjoy and share the grace of God, robbing ourselves of the richness of life Jesus came to give each one of us. Our sermon series beginning that Sunday will be part of this church wide time in which we open ourselves to the radical message of power and hope of our faith. Mac Lucado writes this in his introduction to Fearless:
Imagine your life, wholly untouched by angst. What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet over your heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, and doubt, what would remain? Envision a day, just one day, when you could trust more and fear less.
Can you imagine your life without fear?
You won’t want to miss our worship on the 13th as we begin our Fearless Fall…you won’t want to miss inviting friends and family in special need of these weeks of empowerment.