Standing in the face of fear

Standing in the face of fear

 

1 Kings 18 happens to be one of my favorite stories in the Bible.  God enlisted Elijah to face down many odds in his day.  The apex of this quest was challenging the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. 

 

Can you imagine what must have been going through his mind?  I believe that he was scared, but that the fear didn’t over take him.  He was called by God into a tumultuous situation that required Elijah to completely hand everything over to God.  I’m finding more and more in my own life I need to be willing to go into those scary places and allow God to be Himself.  After all, I do believe that God is sovereign and that He is the sustainer of all things. 

 

The problem is that I don’t like to be afraid; I like to feel safe and settled.  We are all called to stand against the evils of our world, which is our quest.  We must meet the challenges of this quest recognizing that it’s scary and hard but also that God is in control and stands with us.

 

Are we encouraging question asking?

Ever have one of those experiences where either you or someone you've chatted with has some deep questions of faith? You know the kind that sends shivers down your spine where not matter what you say God needs to reveal himself in order for truth to come through?

Well i had one of those today and it reminded me of all the questions I've dealt with in my life. I ask myself "what would it have been like if i verbalized my question everyone what threatened by it?"

I wonder what causes us to discourage people, ourselves included, from asking those incredibly tough questions? Is it that God isn't big enough to handle them? or are we too insecure to allow for them?

When is that last time you asked yourself, "How do I know there is a God?", "Why is Christ the only way?", or "How is God relevant in my life?". These among others are questions many youth and young adults are asking. How are we providing environments to ask and guiding them through these questions?

"A.J. Jacobs is the senior editor at Esquire magazine. Over a year ago he decided to follow the rules of the Bible to the letter. For example, the Bible says a man should refrain from trimming the edges of his beard.

So Jacobs didn't shave. His beard got caught in zippers, got food stuck in it, and he got a lot of attention from airport security. Apparently, it also made two little girls cry. But the beard is just the beginning.

Jacobs says there are more than 700 rules in the Bible. He followed as many as possible, as literally as possible.

He even stoned an adulterer. No, we're not kidding!

Jacobs wrote about it all in a book called 'The Year of Living Biblically."

I heard about this episode last night and got curious about it as you can well understand. The interview was quite humorous and at times very insightful in terms of what "religion" offers secular society. However, he did comment on what we would call "cafeteria faith". Cafeteria faith being that one picks and chooses what they like and don't like about a particular faith system and lives out only that which they appreciate.

Funny thing is that I know we disagree with this concept in word, but in the day to day i wonder how much of this kind of thinking permeates our experience. I've often asked myself what I don't like about Scripture and faith, I wonder how much my preferences dictate how I understand the world, God and even myself.