This is hopelessly true. At least, it is in my case. I always open automatic doors using the Force. Try it and see if you can get it to work too!
For those who don’t know, in the Star Wars movies, some characters can ‘use the Force’ to move objects around without touching them – kind of like ‘telekinesis – and this ability can also be used to open doors without touching the handle. I couldn’t find a proper Star Wars YouTube clip to illustrate this, but this is what it would look like:
The DeHavilland Sea Vixen is a gorgeous vintage jet fighter from the same era as many of the aeroplanes in this series, including the Hawker Hunter, the Tu-95 ‘Bear’ and the Vulcan.
My regular readers will know that although I love modern military aircraft, I have an especial love for jets of the ‘Golden Age’ of combat jets, mainly from the Cold War era.
In that period of history, jets were far from the all-singing, all-dancing marvels of technology that we have nowadays; aircraft like the Typhoon, Tornado and Su-30 which can handle more or less any role that is thrown at them. Back in the late 40’s and early fifties, when the Sea Vixen and its contemporaries were specified, designed and developed, the concept of the jet-powered combat aircraft was still in its infancy. These aircraft were, like most of their contemporaries, right at the forefront of what was possible given the engineering, weapons technology and materials science of the day – still marvels of technology, of course, and even then they were extremely capable aircraft.
And the Sea Vixen was no exception. Powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon 208 engines, she was just capable of supersonic speeds in a shallow dive. She was not only capable of performing her design role as an all-weather fighter, but was also designed to operate as a fighter-bomber as well.
With six weapons pylons (those vertical white parts under the wings, two of which are occupied by white fuel tanks in the above photo), she could carry Red Top or Firestreak air-to-air missiles, fuel tanks, bombs, rocket pods or Bullpup air-to-surface missiles. Although the original design was for the Sea Vixen to carry four 30mm Aden cannon, none were fitted in the production versions.
The thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that the Sea Vixen (although you might have guessed it from the name!) was a carrier-based fighter; that is, she was designed to operate from aircraft carriers, with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. A carrier-based aircraft has to be not only built to be capable of performing all its intended roles, but also to be able to cope with the huge stresses of launch from the flight deck of the ship by means of a steam catapult. Landing on an aircraft carrier is even more stressful because you’re thumping some fourteen or fifteen tons of aeroplane down onto a solid deck that is moving in four different directions all at once,* and then being stopped by snagging a big hook under the rear of the aircraft onto a thick cable (known as an ‘arrester wire’) strung across the deck, which yanks you from your flying speed of about 150mph down to a dead stop in a matter of 200 feet or so. Now that means that your aeroplane has to be unbelievably tough! In fact you could even say it’s more like a ‘controlled crash’ than a landing… đ
Here’s a photo of Sea Vixens operating from the steam catapults of HMS Centaur in 1964:
…and then another of a Sea Vixen less than a second from catching the arrester wire, again on HMS Centaur in 1964:
I have to say at this point that this is what I call amazing flying. Even at Bodmin Airfield, where I have been based for the last few years, the main runway is a mere 600 metres long. That looks tiny from the air, and requires precision flying to get in safely even in an aeroplane that lands at about 50mph and weighs just a bit less than a car. It’s much harder than landing at, say, Exeter, with their 2076 metre tarmac runway, and requires skill and experience. Compare that with landing fifteen tons of metal at 150mph on a pitching, rolling flight deck which looks to be the size of a postage stamp (your landing area is only a few tens of metres!), in the middle of nowhere, maybe in the dead of night, possibly also in atrocious weather – now that takes a level of skill and guts possessed by few individuals. It makes my kind of flying look like a walk in the park. All respect to these guys!
I love the shape of the Sea Vixen; she combines lovely lines, sleek and graceful, with an underlying toughness that is of course essential for a carrier-based aeroplane. Sheer beauty and class.
The Sea Vixen is a really photogenic aircraft, as are many Cold War jets, and she presented some great photo opportunities when recently she flew in formation with other Cold War jets like in the air-to-air picture below (sadly not taken by me!):
And this is a really lovely shot of the Vixen and the Vulcan together – a sight we shall never see again, since dear old ‘558, the Vulcan, will never fly again:
Finally, here’s a great video of the Sea Vixen in a recent display at RNAS Yeovilton, where she is (very fittingly**) based:
And at the time of writing, I am really looking forward to seeing this aeroplane display again when she comes to the Torbay Airshow, not far from where I live.
Anyway I hope you have enjoyed this little foray, not only into the history of this beautiful aeroplane, but also into aircraft carrier operations and the incredible skill involved in flying aircraft from carrier decks.
Beautiful Destroyer – the Sea Vixen. What a beauty!
*Four directions? Yes: the carrier could be pitching (tipping forwards and backwards), yawing (swinging left and right) and rolling (tipping from left to right) and all the while it is moving forwards through the sea at a speed of something like 35-40mph. At least airfields stay still when you’re trying to land on them; aircraft carriers don’t!
**Why is it fitting that the Sea Vixen is based at Yeovilton? Because that’s the main Fleet Air Arm airfield in the south-west of England (there is another at RNAS Culdrose) and it’s also the location of the Fleet Air Arm Museum which has a huge collection of historic Fleet Air Arm aircraft, and some of their erstwhile enemies too, including a MiG-15. It’s well worth a visit if you’re down this way. And there’s a Sea Vixen among the exhibits there too.
I love worshipping Jesus. I love the feeling of being in His Presence in that amazing way that’s amplified so much more when in worship. I find myself singing the songs of the Spirit quite spontaneously; when worship music comes on, my hands just sometimes raise in the air in worship, of their own accord. My wonderful wife Fiona gave me this lovely Scripture from her favourite Bible translation, The Message – because she said it reminded her of me!:
“Donât drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.” (Eph 5:18-20 (Message))
(I love that – ‘Any excuse for a song….’ and that’s just so me….)
Now you know I don’t treat the Bible as a book of Rules. This isn’t telling me what to do and what not to do; rather, it’s kind-of validating what I do in worship. It tells me that what happens to me when my heart is stirred with worship is actually quite normal for someone who is filled up with the Spirit of God. Not that I need validating; but there we go. But that’s what it’s like – any excuse for a song. I find myself singing out loud with the overflow from my heart, and you can too. Wouldn’t you love to do that? Wouldn’t you love to be aware of God’s Presence as you worship just driving down the road? Worship Him in Spirit and Truth and that’s what happens. For “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks…” (Lk6:45)
Now, about 25 years ago, my dear friend Chris returned from Australia having experienced a real move of God in his life, and also bringing back some great songs from Christian City Church in Sydney, where they’d been worshipping out there in the Land of Oz. I remember at the party welcoming them back, the song ‘All Honour‘ came on, and Chris’s wife Dawn was standing next to me; it was lovely to see her eyes close and her hands raise spontaneously in worship……when the Spirit of God moves on a person, all kinds of things can happen. Weeping, uncontrollable laughter (that’s my particular thing), falling over, giddiness….the list goes on. So don’t be surprised when, in the worship clip I am about to share, at 2 minutes in one of the young men in the singing group is suddenly in floods of tears. That’s the Spirit at work. If you’re going to ask for the anointing to fall on you, this is the sort of thing that can happen!
Don’t be surprised either if He does it to you too, as you enter in to the worship. Here’s Ron Kenoly and the Hosanna Music worship band, doing ‘Anointing Fall on Me’ and ‘All Honor’ on the worship session entitled ‘Lift Him Up!’
Find Him as you sing……
Anointing, fall on me,
Anointing, fall on me;
Let the power of the Holy Ghost
Fall on me,
Anointing, fall on me.
Touch my hands, my mouth and my heart;
Fill my life, Lord, every part.
Let the power of the Holy Ghost
Fall on me,
Anointing, fall on me.
All honor
All glory
All power
To You
Holy Father we worship You
Precious Jesus our Saviour
Holy Spirit we wait on You
Holy Spirit we wait on You
Holy Spirit we wait on You
For fire
Here’s a brilliantly uplifting praise/declaration song from the inimitable Ron Kenoly, from his 1994Â Hosanna Music album ‘God is Able‘. Let this song minister to you the full power, joy and truth of Christ’s victory over sin and death, on the Cross and in His Resurrection.
Hallelujah! Jesus is Alive!
I have two close family members who suffer from the debilitating condition known as ‘Myalgic Encephalomyelitis’, or ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’ (ME/CFS). It’s an ‘invisible illness’: one that generally cannot be seen by onlookers except perhaps by those who recognise the signs, such as they are. ME/CFS is characterised by extreme tiredness, aching, inability to sleep properly, inability to walk very far or stand up for long. In sort, this is a limiting illness – something that drastically limits the patient’s ability to live a normal life, or even to gain employment.
Unfortunately, in society, we are plagued by so many ‘amateur doctors’; ordinary, non-medical people who think that because they know what it’s like to be ill in ‘normal’ ways, they also know everything there is to know about all other illnesses too. In fact, most people can’t even tell you the difference between ‘signs’ and ‘symptoms’ – and this is fundamental! Symptoms are how the patient is feeling – pain, tiredness, nauseous and so on. Signs are what you can see or measure – flushed skin, high temperature, sweating, vomiting, pulse rate etc. And the thing with an ‘invisible illness’ is that it’s almost all symptoms – things you can’t see. But it’s no less real for that. And yet, people with ‘invisible illness’ are judged by these oh so highly qualified people, who sometimes then go on to make hurtful comments and such, to people who are already distressed and feeling ‘different’.
For instance, say I park with one of my ME people in a Disabled parking space, and that person gets out and starts walking, you can see these people gawping as if to say, ‘Huh, nothing wrong with her!’ Thing is, though, that 50-100 yards down the path, the patient may well be exhausted and may not be able to get back to the car without my having to break out the wheelchair. I’m so glad these observing people are not in charge of my patients’ medical care!
So I’m sharing this post today to raise awareness of ME/CFS, even though apparently it was actually May 12th that was ‘International ME/CFS Awareness Day’ (funny how most people remain unaware of ‘awareness days’!) – and that’s two weeks ago. One of my friends recently shared a great post by an ME/CFS patient which describes the condition and its effects very well; I would be honoured if you could read it. It’s my hope that people could perhaps become less judgemental towards those with ‘invisible illnesses’; maybe that person staggering along in front of you when you are in a hurry has something like this, and you need to give them a break. Whatever, take a look; it’s a great article and very well written:
Often people find it hard to understand why ME folk can do something once but not repeatedly. Â
I used to think that way too.
Before I was ill, I remember hearing a comment about a colleague who was off work on long-term sick leave:
Some-one said, “If he’s well enough to be out drinking coffee, he should be back in work!”
I’m spared the memory of my reply because I was dashing out to teach a class at the time, but I remember thinking that he was obviously on the mend and would no doubt be back to work in a day or two.
I would think differently now, because I know that some illness recoveries are not quite that simple. Sometimes recovery stalls.
We are so used to thinking of some-one as either ill and in bed or recovered and at work, that we have difficulty understanding the long-term limbo of chronic illness.
This is where an analogy to a bank balance comes in handy.
We are all familiar with budgeting our finances and with the concept of “saving up” for something special. Â The higher our income of course the more often we can indulge ourselves.
So lets imagine looking in at a posh restaurant. Can we tell who, amongst the diners, eat here often, and who has saved for months for their meal tonight? Â Hopefully not – hopefully all diners are enjoying their dinner with equal delight!
So, just as observing a single monetary splash does not tell us everything about an individual’s financial state, neither does observing a single moment in time tell us much about an ME patient’s actual level of health.
Of course, for those with no flexibility there won’t be this confusion – because quite simply these folk won’t be eating out at all – every penny (or unit of energy) being taken up with simple survival!
Yet, for those of us with ME who are not fully “severe”, we might sometimes be seen out and about, smiling, laughing and looking apparently “well”.
At this point please remember, that it is not possible to tell from this exactly how “well” we are! That hour of freedom might have come on credit, and at a high interest rate. Â It might therefore have consequences reaching forwards over the next days, weeks, or perhaps months.
Adrenalin, and “feel good” hormones are amazing at hiding the true impact at the time!
So, a day out can be bit like spending on a variable budget – with a credit option that doesn’t tell you when you start dipping into it, and an interest rate that is only declared a couple of days after the big spend!
Doing something with this sort of arrangement, means that you can’t risk repeating it too often, and certainly not on a day to day basis.
Yet, to get out once in a while, and do normal things is so very precious. For that reason, sometimes, we’ll just do it anyway.
So if you see one of us having a coffee somewhere and looking well, it could be that we are on a recovery path… but more likely, we are just managing things in order to splash out for a moment!
And were one of us to suddenly really recover?
Well our friends wouldn’t be long knowing it, because in the same way that money is easily spent, so health and well-being is hard to hold back.
I think I’d start with my garden….
(click the logo below to go to the article)
Christy Wood is a lady who writes a (sometimes quite challenging) blog full of honest insight and Grace-filled thinking. Her blog is beautifully titled ‘Let Me Be Foolish’.
Here is an excellent blog post that Christy published recently, and it’s well worth a read! Click the logo below to get to the article:
Here’s a profound prophecy from Glasgow Prophetic Centre. I don’t treat prophecy lightly, and naturally we must weigh prophecy; Paul says in 1 Cor 14:29 that “… the others should weigh carefully what is said.” Well, I did just that, and this prophecy struck an immediate bright chord in my heart; I’m confident that God spoke to my heart with this today, He did the same for many people in my Church, and it may also be for others out there too. So I’m sharing it now; if you feel the Spirit speaking it to your heart, then grab it with both hands! Here we go:
“You are being empowered to bring restoration, reversal and restitution into situations that seem irreversible, permanent and hopeless. God is equipping you to speak words of turnaround, ‘enough-is-enough’ and words of finality over prolonged issues, attacks and problems that have sought to paralyse you, slow you down and drain you financially, physically, spiritually and emotionally.
“Terminal illness will be reversed as you speak a word of ‘enough-is-enough’. Brain damage will be undone as you release a turning around. All manner of blood disorders and issues with the lymphatic system will be unwound and removed in an instant as God releases His reversal.
“There will be a reversal of debt and bankruptcy for those who feel like they are trapped in a downward financial spiral. The business that you thought you were going to lose will be resuscitated and brought back to life as a turnaround is released.
“Depression, bi-polar, anxiety and extreme OCD will be healed as reversal is released.
God is reversing, turning around, restoring and undoing circumstance that have encroached around you and a brought with them a weight of hopelessness and despair. Yet, He is doing this work through you and He requires your participation, with the leading of His Spirit, to release words that bring restitution into desolation.
“Begin to make faith-filled, reversal decrees now in the name of Jesus Christ, the miracle worker. Execute royal decrees just as in Esther 9:1. Watch as God begins to move in you and through you in a completely different manner than you have ever known before.”
(Esther 9:1 –
Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, the time came for the kingâs command and his decree to be executed. On the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated them.)
Jeff Turner is another modern-day prophet. His incisive logic and clear thought processes, combined with the heart of a true seeker after God, make him one of the most formidable minds in the modern Grace movement. Here’s a piece of his from Facebook from a couple of days ago that speaks an upbuilding lesson. It’s a bit long, but so well worth the read.
Enjoy!
“The pursuit of a wholly secular society is a pursuit that could not be had if the holy and the sacred did not exist, even if only in the mind of the pursuers. I don’t mean that they actually believe in the divine, but that the pursuit of what is the opposite of the sacred is still to pursue something that exists in the same world as the sacred, and without the sacred the pursued object or ideal would be undefinable. So the pursuit of the wholly secular often ends with the holy-secular, as one requires the other in order for either to exist conceptually. A true secularism would be one that did not derive it’s not identity from non-God, but simply did not even think in the context of a God whatsoever.
“In the same way, the very concept of grace which is so popular today is one that tells people that God is kind, loving, merciful and forgiving; that he is no longer angry, wrathful, violent or holding our sins against us. There is a key word in the former sentence, however, that exposes the chink in this ideology’s armor: anymore.
“To say that God is kind, loving, merciful and forgiving because he is *no longer* angry, wrathful, violent or holding our sins against us is to say that God once was this way. It also usually follows that God is only not this way as it concerns believers in Jesus, but for all others he is still very much angry, wrathful, etc. This “sort” of grace, then, can only exist or even be proclaimed as the solution to a very real problem. There really is an angry God in the universe, but if you come within the confines of this very particular belief system you can be saved from this. So, while it touts the idea of a loving, gracious God, it still very much needs the angry God to exist for some, or to have existed in the past, in order to have any sort of identity.
“For me, the concept of grace led me out of the dungeon of performance, self-hatred and that never ending quest to turn God’s frown upside down, and it truly felt like freedom for a season. But soon I hit a wall. Have you ever seen the Truman Show? Do you remember that almost final scene where Truman has escaped the island on which he lived, overcame a storm at sea, and is heading into what he thinks is open waters and open skies? Do you remember what happens next? His boat crashes into that “open blue sky” and he realizes that it is simply the end of the set on which his pseudo-life had been filmed.
“What’s interesting though is that before hitting the wall, he really felt that he had broken away from the false and that he was now experiencing freedom! He had lost relationships, faced storms and overcome his fears, and he was in a place of peace, serenity and freedom! And then suddenly his illusion of freedom was shattered when he realized that there are layers to freedom. It isn’t all instant, and sometimes one bad idea leads you away from a worse idea, until you finally hit a wall and can escape altogether.
“This is what my experience with the popular form of grace was like. It truly felt like freedom and had cost me a lot to pursue it, and I eventually I came to a place where I felt like the fighting was behind me and it had all paid off. Then I suddenly realized that while I was freer than I had been before, it was still an illusory form of freedom.
“The wall I hit was the reality that the God this belief system claimed to liberate me from depended on this same God for its existence. If there were not an angry and wrathful God, the message had no power. Like the secular depends on the sacred, and so is never truly free from the sacred, so “grace” depends on an angry, perfection-demanding deity, and without it has no existence of its own.
“This was my “blind leading the blind” moment. While, yes, the blind can’t lead the blind, and a bad idea can’t lead you to freedom, it can at least drag you into a ditch so you can realize that in all of your wandering you weren’t actually going anywhere. As far as Truman felt he may have sailed from bondage, he was still very much a slave, and so long as the God of anger and wrath existed, even in a domesticated or medicated form, I was still beneath his tyranny.
“Freedom came when I hit the wall, and realized that the concept of God peddled in so many religious systems just does not exist at all. It isn’t that Jesus saves us from him, or that he hides us from him in his own righteousness, or that he satiates his wrath by volunteering to die beneath it in our place. It’s that the “god” who condemns us in that way, and would require that sort of payment isn’t real. He isn’t a problem because he’s not a reality. The only God who can exist for the Christian is the one Jesus called Abba, who he also claims to perfectly represent.
“This is what Christianity really does for the world, I believe: it comes not to give us one more God-concept, but to free us from the ruling God-concept we have viewed matters both natural and spiritual through since the dawn of time. Jesus leads us not into a God-filled universe, but a god-less one. That is to say, Christianity is less about the addition of another God as it is about a negation of all others, including the one we’ve thought him to be. It reveals to us that even the sort of freedom we thought we found in the discovery of what Jesus had done to deal with this God’s attitude toward our sins was a form of bondage. So long as that sort of God exists in our minds, it does not matter whether we call him Yahweh or Ba’al, we are slaves. We need to be freed from it altogether, that we might learn to live in an entirely new way.
“Because I’ve come to understand that the God who needs to be pleased through my efforts, and punishes me when he is not, does not exist, I can speak of things like morality, my own shortcomings, etc., without it triggering thoughts or memories of the tyrannical deity I once served. That god-concept is now dead to me, and so the thought of being an upright, moral person no longer has anything to do with “works” or striving to make God happy. It is simply the way I desire to live because I’ve realized God has only ever been loving, and that as a Father, he loves all that he has fathered. That “god” is so dead to me that I do not even think in those terms anymore.
“I say a lot of this to explain why I speak the way I speak these days. Some who have known and “followed” my material for years have commented on a shift in the way I present things. Some, not fully understanding the journey I briefly covered above, mistake my talk about serving humanity, etc., as being a return to “works” and a system of striving to please God through my efforts. Those are simply terms I no longer think in.
“For me, God is only loving, and only Jesus-like. The idea of following this God, and living a life of others-centered, self-giving love does not in the least sound like a burdensome task, nor something that I need grace to free me from. Again, that God is dead to me. He no longer exists in my mind, and so I don’t have him in mind when I speak.
“I’d ask you, does that God still exist in your belief system? Have you been rescued from him through Jesus? If so, that means that, even if he is simply imprisoned, satiated, “moved upstairs”, or stripped of power, he still exists in your worldview. In fact, that view cannot exist without him. Words like “no longer” aren’t powerful enough to remove this “god” from existence, but actually serve to keep him alive. If this “god” still exists, then, even living in protest against him is another form of being enslaved to him. Thus, even if you feel free from him, there is still a sense in which you are being controlled by him.
“My sincere plea to you is that you do not mistake “freedom” for freedom. It might seem like blue skies, and they might certainly be bluer than what you once knew, but keep sailing. You might hit a wall, but don’t lose heart! It is the hitting of the wall that actually creates the opportunity for you to walk out of that system altogether and find true freedom.
“Anyways, this was long, and to those who actually read this far, you have my sincere respect.
“Good Saturday to you.
“Peace.”
Here’s the original Facebook post:
About a year ago I posted a blog entry called ‘The Call to Love‘, where I put out God’s call to love everyone unconditionally.
Well, I’m doing it again. Jesus gave only one commandment to His disciples: To love one another. He said that by this will all men know that you are His disciples (Jn 13:35). Love. Love everybody. Love them unconditionally, love them completely.
Also He said that the two ‘greatest commandments’ were to Love God and Love your neighbour (Lk 10:27, Mk 12:30-31). Using Hebrew parallelism, that passage suggests strongly that one goes hand in hand with the other. To love God is to love your neighbour, and to love your neighbour is to love God.
No exceptions are listed either. Love God, love your neighbour.
How simple is that?
I’ve heard a lot lately about the ‘fear of the Lord’. Naturally, most people read this as meaning that we have to be terrified of Him; like we’re all miserable sinners good for nothing but thunderbolt fodder (hence my ‘wrathful’ header picture of clouds and lightning!). But naturally I disagree with this entirely. God doesn’t want us to perceive Him like this at all!
The problem with using the word ‘fear’ in relation to God in this context is that, even in modern translations of the Bible, it’s actually an archaic word in its original use, which has for some reason been retained in more modern translations. So of course its modern use does not reflect the way in which people originally used the word. A more healthy term would be ‘respect’ or ‘reverence’, or even, in some cases, ‘worship’. Of course, people who use the term ‘fear’ out of its historical context have managed to use it to instil real fear into the people they are supposed to be pastoring. Like in this ‘demotivational’ slogan I saw recently:
I mean, come on. A friend has tried to explain this to me in a gentle way, but I really can’t see it making any sense in the light of the Father’s Love that I personally know….
I cannot put it more plainly: the Believer has absolutely no reason to be scared of his/her Heavenly Father.
He means us nothing but good, and He looks on His children with nothing but favour. I’ve written before on the hopelessly and cripplingly incorrect doctrine of the ‘Angry God’, and I want to reiterate here that the Angry God is not the God Who loves us so much that He got down and dirty and came to save us – mainly from incorrect doctrines like that. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the evil one (1Jn3:8) – and the biggest work by far that the evil one has made is to create a horrible god after his own image, and then stick that label on my beautiful Heavenly Father, so that Jesus had to come in order to show us what God is really like! And sadly so many people believe in the Angry God nowadays that to try to present Him in His true nature is seen as heresy. So the ‘Fear of the Lord’ has, as usual, been twisted and used to misrepresent my Father’s character.
Right, less of the rant; I want to pass you over to Paul Ellis, a great writer who’s heavy on Grace (which suits me right down to the ground) for a superb article from his blog, on the correct meaning of the Fear of God. The article is presented below, quoted in full.
Brace yourself: this seriously could change your life. Enjoy!
What is the fear of the Lord?
This is an important question. You need to have a good answer to this question. Why? Because your answer reveals much about your faith and security. It reveals whether you are walking in grace or under condemnation.
For instance, if you think God is judging your behavior to see whether you merit his unmerited favor, youâre basically saying, âI donât trust Jesus to finish what he started. Sure, I thank God for grace, but now I have to prove that I was a worthy investment.â Those who think like this fear Godâs displeasure, and rightly so. After all, why would God be pleased with anyone who says, âI donât trust Jesusâ?
Iâve had people tell me, âI walk in the love and the fear of God,â by which they mean, âGod is scary and will only accept me if I endure and overcome and obey and do all the other things the Bible says.â Or they say, âGod qualifies me, but I can disqualify myself through sin, doubt, or insufficient repentance. A holy fear of a bookkeeping God keeps me on the straight and narrow.â
Statements like these sound pious but theyâre faithless. They belie a confidence in the flesh that insults the spirit of grace.
This is not the time to get into all those great scriptures about abiding, endurance, and obedience â Iâll get to those later. For now, let me echo something John said: fear and love donât mix:
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)
If you fear the punishment or chastisement of God, then love has not had itâs perfect work in you. Look again to the cross. See the finished work. If God loved you and did all that for you while you were a sinner, what wonât he do for you now that you have come home? God is for you, not against you.
Of course, not every Christian is afraid of God. If you count yourself among the fearless, let me ask you this question: What is the fear of the Lord?
If you are like me, youâll probably say, âTo fear God is to worship him. Itâs to give him the reverence and honor due his name.â This sort of fear has nothing to do with pain and punishment but is a proper response to a God who is holy, righteous, awesome, and good.
Iâm not saying that God isnât scary and that his enemies shouldnât be afraid. But if youâre not his enemy then you have nothing to fear. (See Luke 12:32, Rom 8:15, and Rev 1:17 if you need proof.) If you know God as your heavenly father, then understand that the fear of Lord is not cowering before his smiting hand; itâs trembling before his eternal goodness.
Demonic fear would have you flee and beg the mountains to fall on top of you. But true, Biblical fear is where you fall in breathless adoration, marveling at Godâs goodness and love.
âTo fear God is to worship himâ
Perhaps youâve heard people say this, but do you know where this idea comes from? It comes from Jesus. Remember how he quoted scripture to silence the devil in the wilderness? Well letâs compare what Jesus said with the actual scripture he quoted. See if you can spot the difference:
What Jesus said: âIt is written: âWorship the Lord your God, and serve him only.â (Mat 4:10)
The original text: âFear the Lord your God and serve him only.â (Deu 6:13)
Did you spot the difference? Moses said, âFear God,â which Jesus interpreted as, âWorship him.â Whenever you read an exhortation to âfear the Lordâ in the Bible, you can rightly interpret it as âworship the Lord.â Jesus gives you permission.
âBut Paul, âthrough the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil.â Itâs only the fear of punishment that stops people from sinning.â
Thatâs great advice when dealing with three-year olds â or stubborn Israelites. The fear of punishment can be a great motivator. It was used during the old covenant to keep people in line. Back then, if you didnât keep the rules, you got whacked. This is why that covenant is known as a death-dealing ministry (2 Cor 3:7). Its purpose is to kill you â or at least kill your confidence in your own abilities so that you might see your need for Jesus (Gal 3:24).
But the good news is that in Christ you have died (Col 3:3). You donât need to be killed any more. Your old self is in the grave. Now that you have been raised with Christ you are free to live fearlessly.
Fear and love donât mix
Fear has no place in a healthy, loving relationship. Itâs important that you get this. You canât balance fear and love. They are like light and dark. You cannot have a part of your heart shouting, âI love you Lordâ while another part whispers, âbut Iâm afraid of you.â Why not? Because you will never give yourself wholly to someone youâre afraid of.
Your heavenly Father loves you more than you know. It grieves him when you hold back because you are uncertain of his love. And it breaks his heart when you shrink back because you think heâs going to hit you. Maybe your natural father did that but your heavenly Father never will. He loves you so much he died for you and now he lives for you. He longs for you to receive his undiluted love.
Fear not
If you ever hear a sermon or a message that leaves you fearful and uncertain of the Fatherâs love, reject it! The words may be from the Bible, but the spirit behind it is not from the Lord. God has not given us a spirit of fear and intimidation (2 Tim 1:7). Rather, he has poured his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5). The Holy Spirit will always seek to remind you that you are Godâs dearly loved child.
âSure, Paul, I get that. I know God loves everyone.â
Not just everyone; He loves you. You need to make this personal. You need to see yourself as the apple of your Fatherâs eye.
I encourage you to get into the habit of agreeing with the Holy Spirit. Tell yourself every day, âGod loves me and thereâs nothing I can do to make him love me any more or any less.â And as the love of God roots and buds in your heart, it will drive out fear. The oft-repeated phrase âFear notâ will become real to you. You wonât fear failure, you wonât fear men, you wonât fear death, and you certainly wonât fear your loving Father.
Unbelievers fear, but the sons of God are fearless. The wicked flee when none pursue but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
But from everlasting to everlasting the Lordâs love is with those who fear him. (Psa 103:17)
Only those who are secure in the everlasting love of the Lord know what it is to truly fear the Lord.
It is to see him as he truly is and respond with awe-struck adoration.
It is to tremble in his presence knowing he is surely good, he is surely supreme, and he surely loves me.
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