Tag: fear

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Heart Knowledge over Head Knowledge

As a boy growing up in the 1950s, I felt the fear that many of my contemporaries felt when we were reminded of the threat of atomic war. I had nightmares. Sometimes tears flowed. The reminders were pervasive. Preachers described doomsday in terms of nuclear annihilation. Our teachers told us to hide under our desks. Newspapers calculated the travel time for missiles coming from Russia. Little wonder I was a scared little boy.

That is until I read a verse in the good old King James Bible, “The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe” (Proverbs 29:25). I memorized that verse. I recited it to myself over and over. I cannot explain how it happened, but those childhood fears evaporated. I can only attribute it to the power of God’s word planted deep within.

Christian counselor K.J. Ramsey attributes this to “heart knowledge.” She described her own battle with fear when she had a serious illness. Writing in Christianity Today she said, “In that suffering the word hidden in my heart started countering my fear. I was confused and craving comfort, but God’s story was alive inside of me, welcoming me into the wonder that I am loved at my weakest.”

She quoted researchers in neuroscience and education who describe memory in two ways. “Heart knowledge” is embodied, autobiographical memory. “Head knowledge” is less related to lived experience. It is like the difference between rote learning and applied knowledge. She said, “The word has to be experienced and embraced as living, active and relational to become a lasting part of our autobiographical memory.”

This may be what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the believers at Colosse, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). “The word” is God’s revealed truth, his message, holy scripture. “Dwell” means to live in or to be at home inside of us. “Richly” could be translated abundantly, or overflowing.

If I do this, it means that my Bible reading and memorization will be a response to the living God, hearing from him and treasuring his word. I will then learn his word with heart knowledge by applying it in my decisions, behavior, and thoughts. I will put to use the scriptures I am reading and memorizing, by praying them, sharing them and living them.

If Ramsey is right, there may even be a redemptive quality in my frustrations, anxieties, and pain. She cites brain research which tells us that learning is optimized in suffering. “When we come up against the limits of our knowledge of God and life, when we realize we are not in control . . . God has wired us so that our bodies release the very hormone we need to form new neural connections.” It is then that the implanted word is “rooted in our autobiographical memory,” our lived experience.

Proverbs 19:25 is still precious to me. It is a part of God’s word which has helped to shape my spiritual autobiography. Now when I am fearful or anxious about world events, it is comforting to remember the promise I hid in my heart over 65 years ago. “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe” (NIV).

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Advent: Fear Not, Shepherds!

During the weeks of this season of preparation I have been writing about occasions in the Christmas story where ordinary people were told not to be afraid. Zechariah, Mary and Joseph received messages from heavenly visitors which caused them to be afraid. But the coming of Christ is no time to be afraid.

Fear does strange things to us. The heart rate goes up, blood pressure is elevated, and the body, sensing danger, produces a blast of hormones, inducing a fight or flight response. Other effects of fear might be hyperventilation, sweating, goosebumps or sleep disturbance.

Some other people were told not to be afraid. They are not identified by name in the Christmas story. Rather, we know them by their occupation. Like 7.4% of people in our population, they were night workers. These men took care of sheep.

If they were like David, the shepherd boy of Bethlehem, they must have been rugged, brave, and resourceful. You may recall how David protected his father’s sheep from predators, killing a lion and a bear. If the men we read about in Luke 2 were like David, we would not attribute fear to them. Yet when an angel appeared, it was a shock to the system. They were terrified.

Angels are all over the place in the story of our Lord’s birth. They appear unexpectedly with good news for the participants in the unfolding events. They are powerful beings who are sent to people as representatives from God. As these nocturnal field workers watched over their flocks, all of a sudden a brightness lit the night with the appearance of a mighty and awesome creature who spoke to them and said, “Do not be afraid.”

They may have been humble, anonymous working men, but they were not stupid. They knew a supernatural manifestation when they saw it! The angel might have surprised and scared them, but he didn’t paralyze them. They overcame fear by realizing this was a message for them and they had better believe it.

They made the message personal: “The Lord has told us.” What did the Lord tell them in the angel’s message? “Today, in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11). This is the good news of Christmas. God did not send his Son as a political reformer, educator or philosopher. He sent him to be our Savior, to deliver us from the penalty and power of sin. Like those simple shepherds, we need to make this message personal.

A friend of mine told me how she had done this. She attended a Christmas eve service at a church and heard the pastor bring a simple message on John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” She told me that during the singing of the Christmas carol that followed, she bowed her head in prayer and opened her heart to the Lord Jesus, receiving the promised gift of eternal life. That is the point of Christmas. She made it personal and so can you.

The story continues. They acted on the message: “Let’s go!” We are not told much about their feelings, but we do read about their direct and decisive actions. They were men of action. By obeying the message, they stepped out of obscurity and became internationally famous for what they did. They encouraged each other in obedience: “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about” (Luke 2:15).

They did that. “They hurried off” (they were quick to obey the Lord) “and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger” (Luke 2:16). The angel had told them to look for an unusual sign (v. 12), a feeding trough! The baby he was speaking about, the Messiah, will be lying in a feeding trough for animals. Sure enough, they found him there, as the angel had said.

I believe their fear faded when they determined to make the message personal and act upon it. When the shepherds acted in obedience to God, they found his word to be true. It was “good news that will cause great joy for all the people,” as the angel had said. For us too, if we will believe it and act on it.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Advent: From Fear to Faith

C. S. Lewis wrote that one way we know we are living by faith is that what we are doing for God scares us. He said if it doesn’t, there is no faith involved. The Advent message “do not be afraid” can move us from fear to faith.

Mary was scared! An angel appeared unexpectedly (don’t they always?) and told her that God was calling her for a special assignment. She was going to become a living miracle. She, a virgin, would become the mother of the Son of God.

The appearance of the angel must have been frightening enough. Luke 1:19 says that the angel Gabriel stands “in the presence of God.” The name Gabriel means literally “God’s strong man.” He was surely a mighty and imposing presence. He was God’s spokesman. Mary was a simple village maiden from Nazareth.

His message must have been even more unsettling than his appearance.  He told her that she had found favor with God. The Holy Spirit would envelop her and the power of the Most high would overshadow her. But she should not be afraid. “The Lord is with you,” he said (Luke 1:28).

Mary’s fear is understandable. How would you feel if you went one-on-one with a powerful angel from heaven? What if he told you things that would upend your life forever? What would it mean for your plans, your future, your dreams and desires, to be replaced with a whole new agenda? If that thought makes you want to run and hide, then learn from the blessed mother of our Lord.

Mary accepted God’s intervention in her life. Can you do the same? The angel called Mary by name. God knows your name too, and all about your personal circumstances. So do not be afraid. In Matthew 10, Jesus told his disciples three times not to be afraid because the heavenly Father valued them and cared for them (Matthew 10:26-31).

The first word the angel spoke to Mary, “Greetings” (v. 28) means “rejoice!” She could rejoice because the Lord was with her. The Lord Jesus has promised he will be with us, too. So like Mary, we do not have to give in to fear if we welcome the Lord’s intervention in our lives.

Mary listened to God’s message and believed it. “Do not be afraid” is one of the most frequently-repeated commands in scripture. These commands are given to people facing real crises. Mary was altogether human and her mind was troubled by the crisis posed by the angel.

Gabriel explained: “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:31-33).

Mary accepted the word of God through the angel. “I am the Lord’s servant…. May your word to me be fulfilled” (v. 38). Mary shows us the way to replace fear with faith.

Mary accepted what could only be described as a miracle. If the supernatural elements in the Bible trouble you, you are not alone. But the message of Advent is precisely that: the story of a great miracle. It is the miracle of the Incarnation: The Holy One to be born of Mary would be called the Son of God.

Yes, his coming would be by a  natural human birth. But Mary’s baby boy would be the Son of God; his conception would be supernatural. “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (v.35).

Luke, who wrote this, was a careful historian. He was a physician, a man of science. He did not try to offer a medical explanation for the birth of Jesus. He knew that he was describing something that was beyond the purview of science. Mary lived the miracle and Luke reported it as a supernatural break-in to our natural world.

Mary and Luke remind us that it is not superstitious and gullible to believe in an invisible God of love who would send his Son to save us from our sins. The miraculous elements in the story cannot be side-stepped. They are essential. They remind us that this life is not the only life. There is a heavenly place being prepared  for those who trust in the Lord Jesus. He is indeed the One whom the angel said he is.

We live in a scary time. It is a good time to welcome God’s intervention, God’s message, God’s miracles. So do not be afraid. Rejoice!

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Advent: No Time for Fear

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The four weeks of advent remind us to live in hope, not fear. Today’s post begins a four part series on the “fear nots” of the Advent season. This is an important reminder because fear is all around us these days. There seems to be a contagion of anxiety, panic attacks, and depression fueled by uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic. It has interrupted every aspect of our lives.

In Luke 1:13 the Jewish priest Zechariah had his religious duties interrupted by a message from God: “The angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, your prayer has been heard.'”

Amid the political reality of Roman oppression, the whispered threats of insurrection, the fevered atmosphere of prophetic expectation, Zechariah’s traditional religious observances must have provided him with a degree of comfort. He was offering incense and leading a gathered congregation in the prayers that were prescribed for that day on the Jewish calendar.

As the smoke curled from the censor, a symbol of prayers arising before the God of his fathers, and as Zechariah prayed for the deliverance of Israel and for the coming of the Messiah, suddenly an angel interrupted everything! This was not conventional, comfortable or customary. Verse 12 says “he was startled and gripped with fear.” Well who wouldn’t be?

No prophetic voice had been heard in Israel since the time of Malachi 400 years before this. God’s messenger appeared to Zechariah to tell him that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a son who will be a prophet. He would grow to be a man who would be “great in the sight of the Lord.”

The angel said other things about this son of Zechariah. The most important thing he said may have been the statement that this son, John, would “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). This was a fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3-5 which tells of a forerunner for Messiah, “a voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; … And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.'”

John was to be the prophet who would prepare the people for the coming of the Christ!

Zechariah’s initial response was not praiseworthy. He questioned the word of the angel. For that he was silenced and sidelined for the next nine months. The Lord gave him time to grow in understanding as he watched the unfolding of these strange and startling events. The story ended well. If you read the first chapter of the gospel of Luke you may see how Zechariah overcame his fear and accepted God’s good news.

It was good news of acceptance and grace. John’s assigned name means “the Lord is gracious.” The name the Lord chose for John the Baptist was in itself a message of grace for Zechariah, for the nation Israel and for the rest of us. Grace is the theme of the New Testament. Grace was the message of Jesus.

It was the good news that God hears the prayers of his people: “Your prayer has been heard.” What prayer? It was the prayer that the priests and prophets and people of Israel had been praying for hundreds of years, a prayer for the coming of God’s anointed Messiah. God was now on the move, answering that prayer, fulfilling prophecy. It was time for the advent of the Messiah, the Son of God. Zechariah’s son John would prepare the way.

It was good news of salvation. Zechariah got his voice back when his son was born. He uttered a prophecy that John’s ministry would give the people “the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1:77). This would be made possible through the merit and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and only because of the free grace of God.

It was the good news that Messiah’s coming would fulfill the ancient prophecy of Malachi: it would be like the rising of the sun (Luke 1:78; Malachi 4:2-5).

This good news freed Zechariah to serve God “without fear” (Luke 1:74). With this kind of good news for the Advent season, we have to conclude, this is no time for fear. Let’s ask God to liberate us from anxiety and replace fear with the truth that Jesus has come and he is coming again!

The same God who heard the prayers of Zechariah will hear our prayers too. Come, Lord Jesus!

Pastor Randy Faulkner