Fear, Terror, and the Believer

  As I sat in a service last week, a reference was made to “terrorist attacks” against a church or believers. It set me to pondering another aspect of fear. A while back I had began thinking about I Jn. 4:18 which speaks of perfect love casting out fear. And so as I began pondering terrorism against believers, it was within a framework of related thoughts. Consider the purpose of a terrorist attack; the purpose is to create terror/fear. Thus, a terrorist attack against a church is meant to create fear within the church. At this point, the passage in Phil. 1:27-28 came to mind which speaks of believers not being at all frightened by their opponents; and this lack of fear is a sign of salvation. There should never be such a thing as a “successful” (terror-producing) terrorist attack on believers.
   So, I set out to look at the topic more in depth. What should a believer fear Biblically, and what shouldn’t they fear? Here are the results of that further study. We are to fear the Lord God of heaven. This is a long, intricate discussion, so I will not delve into it completely. Consider two passages though: Ps. 25:14 which says that the friendship of the Lord is for the ones who fear Him. Also, Ps. 33:18 which speaks of the Lord watching those who fear Him, who hope in His steadfast love. The fear of the Lord is worth deep study to seek out the Biblical meaning; here are some additional relevant Scriptures (Deut. 6:13; Prov. 1:7; Job 1:8; Isa. 8:12-13). The fear of the Lord is the only fear that I find highlighted throughout Scripture. A proper fear of sinning is also mentioned (I Tim. 5:20). And Paul speaks of fearing that his time ministering among certain groups was pointless (throughout 2 Corinthians; I Thess. 3:5).
And what of the things that we need not fear? Ps. 23:4, we should not fear evil, because the Lord is with us. That is a highly significant statement; those who have the Lord as their protector never need to fear evil! We should not fear those who may attack us, if we have the Lord with us. There is nothing that they can possibly do without His permission (Ps. 27:1-3; 3:6; 118:6). And more specifically along these lines, we should not fear those who can kill the body (in context the persecution is for religious reasons)(Mt. 10:16-31; cf. Lk. 12:4). We should not fear death (Heb. 2:14-15). This is a major one, so take some time to look through Heb. 2 carefully. Christ destroyed the power of death with the purpose of delivering us from the fear of death!
   Two more highly relevant passages before a conclusion. Rom. 8:15 indicates that believers are set free from fear when they became children of God. They have a Father to cry out to for help, and thus, no need for fear. The second passage is 1 Peter 3:14-15 which says that when believers suffer for doing right, they should not be afraid of their persecutors, but rather to know that God will do what is right.
   As I was reading through these various passages I began to realize that the only basis that the believer is given in Scripture for a fear-free life is who God is. God’s character is the only anchor that can assure a purpose that nothing can hurt me. Psalm 91 and Isaiah 43:1-7ff are essentially discourses on how the character of God is the basis for a fear-free life. None of these passages promises an easy life; they simply say that God is in control and will certainly work all things out for the best and the ultimate security of His precious children.
   If you read this and are not certain of your relationship with God, God promises peace and freedom from fear only to those who put their trust in His Son, Jesus. He offers this gift to all freely, but for those who reject it there is much to fear. For God has said that everyone who rejects Him will face eternal judgment. Read and consider the various sections of the Bible that I mentioned and those that surround them for a fuller understanding of what God’s Word says to all of us.

*The Bible references that are italicized each have significantly more to say on this topic than I had space to present and they deserve careful study. Other major passages for study on this topic: Phil. 2:12; 2 Tim. 1:7; Prov. 3:21-26

temples

Here's a picture of the Temple of Hadrian in Ephesus. When the guide showed us this temple, she took us into the back section, in front of the stone wall you can see, and she pointed out the striking difference between the inner sanctuary and the outer temple: The inner sanctuary is plain... because the people don't see it. In other words, the important part of the temple is the outside which is visible to the worshiper.

It struck me then, as it strikes me now as I just read I Kings 6, how very differently those who serve the LORD God are to see worship and temples. In I Kings 6, the account is given of Solomon building the temple, and the skilled workmanship and valuable treasures that went into every part, and particularly the inner sanctuary, are highlighted. Expensive carved cedar which covered skillfully worked stone and was in turn overlaid completely with gold. An altar of cedar overlaid with gold, two golden cherubim made of olivewood approximately 15 feet high. Everything was as valuable as Solomon could make it, even the floors were overlaid with gold.

Was this really the inner sanctuary that would only be seen by one human, once a year? Yes, for the heart of real worship is related to Who God is, not what man sees. God does not value outer brilliance if there is inward desolation.

Well the news in my life is not very exciting, so I have not been sure what to post. I am continuing on in Turkish classes; currently I feel that I am doing ok and learning and improving... but that is subject to change without notice. :) Today I did a presentation in class on Ismet Inonu, Turkey's second president and the man who led the country into a multi-party democracy. The research for that was quite interesting, and the presentation.
I enjoy following political news, and so this primary season has interested me quite a bit. Unfortunately I still don't know if I like any of the major candidates for a long list of reasons. :) And when it comes down to practical things like foreign policy, I don't really see anyone who fits my definition of reasonable. I assume that means that I'm unreasonable. :D
Anyways, I figured I should put some new news up and this is the randomness that you got. Hope you like it.

from recent reading

Oh, for more men who will be simple enough to get in touch with God, and give him the mastery of the whole life, and learn his will, and then give themselves, as Jesus gave himself, to the sacred service of intercession.

It is what we are out of the [prayer] closet which gives victory or brings defeat to the closet. If the spirit of the world prevails in our non-closet hours, the spirit of the world will prevail in our closet hours, and that will be a vain and idle farce.


- E. M. Bounds (Purpose in Prayer)

The News

This is not a particularly good picture of me in my opinion, but it does show my tendency to do a bookshelf-examination, even when the books are in a language which I don't understand very well. This was actually a very high-quality library despite it's small size.

Now, what else should I mention. Today was the beginning of Turkish class again, and that fairly well. As it is a repeat of what I have already done, it should not be as difficult as last time, but there will definitely be a lot to learn. There are two new teachers, so that means that there will probably be a lot to learn in terms of new phrases and "preferred vocabulary." Again, our class is full of people from all over the world, and it will be fun getting to know them all. It is nice though that one of my friends from the former classes is in this one with me.

As you can see in the picture below, we have finally had some snow. We ended up getting several inches, but it all melted within about a day. This was late last week. Over the weekend, we had some friends over for an evening of food and fun, and we ended up playing Taboo, in English. Setting up fair teams was a challenge, but we ended up doing a pretty good job and the guys' team won by one point.

  Details for studying at Bosphorus University are continuing to come together, and I am hoping to start that when the spring semester starts in February. (Turkish schools are still in their final exam week for the fall semester right now.)

More when more happens...

Since the last post...

So, Christmas was as expected, quiet with lots of time talking to family. During the day, I went to Starbucks and listened to classic Christmas music while reading my book.
Since then I have been working on small things and beginning to get re-acquainted with Turkish study again. So, I'm basically finding out what I've really learned and what I committed to short-term memory sometime in the past. It's not been too discouraging, and by reviewing virtually everything that I've supposedly learned, I'm being able to fill in a few of things that I missed in the press of learning more major things.
Tomorrow I'm planning to try again to make arrangements for university study in the spring. And next Tuesday, Turkish classes are supposed to begin again. So, that's the structure of life. Now for a few details. :)
Last night, D&D and I went over to a couple of friends to celebrate New Year's. The Turkish celebration is significantly less exciting than Suriname's, and about the same level as America's. However, they do have one interesting traditions which I thought I'd mention. At midnight, we each got a pomegranate and threw them on the ground as hard as we can. Those who had theirs burst are supposed to have success this coming year. Mine burst. :)
Anyways, till later...