Tom Sims

From Scripture

Fear Not

And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings…” Luke 2:10

We live in a generation beset with fear where security has assumed a greater value than freedom. We want secure stocks, secure airports, and secure streets. We seek out secure jobs, secure families, and homes so secure that no one can get in or out.  The same bars that lock burglars out, entrap residents in the even of a fire. We are obsessed with safety, security, and fear.

It was an uneventful night when an angel invaded the darkness of complacency, security, and safety that defined the shepherds’ existence, Explosive light called them to attention. A voice they had never heard summoned them with these words, “Fear not!” Their restless contentment had for too longed masked their anxious resignation that things would always continue as they had been. They rested secure in the routine existence to which they believed they had been assigned until they were disturbed by a great light and an authoritative voice that called tem to revive their expectations and renew their hope.

Life would become delightfully dangerous and spontaneous again as they redefined peace and realigned their hopes with a promise they could neither control nor verify. They were being called to a new kind of life where they would sneer at fear and move out in faith to a place they could never find on their own. In a few moments, they would receive all of the evidence they needed to say, “Let us go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.”

And so, they would move out with a new kind of urgent haste – unlike the haste of other days. This urgency would have no root in fear or distress. It would be the haste of child to the Christmas tree on Christmas morning, the hurried pace of a soldier returning home from battle to his loved ones, the sprint of an athlete in the last lap of a race for Olympic gold. It would be the end of fear for the shepherds and for all who would embrace the promise given to them and to us that night: “Behold!”

God Never Fails

And David said to Solomon, his son, “Be strong and of good courage and do it. Fear not nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God will be with thee; He will not fail thee nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.” – I Chronicles 28:20

Perhaps you have never been discouraged. In the event that this unlikely circumstance is your reality, read no further.  If you are, however, like the rest of us, read on. Better still, memorize these words of David to his son and repeat them to your soul again and again. Personalize them; apply them; and march through life to their pounding drumbeat.

Whenever you feel abandoned, despondent, or worthless, recall these words. They are also for you for you are part of God’s work building a house for His habitation. It is His work and you are His instrument. He intends to accomplish His work and has chosen to do so through you. He is with you.

This work will not end in your lifetime nor in the lifetime of your children or children’s children until He declares it complete along with all time and history – so you have job security and God’s presence security. God never fails in His promises, His power, or His purposes.

Therefore, be strong. It is not your strength, so do not agonize over your weaknesses. Put the focus on His strength and rely upon it. You can be what you are not by His power, grace, and provision. Because He is strong, you can be strong. Therefore, be of good courage, for there is nothing that can conquer you ultimately when you are in His purpose. Victory is pre-declared and God has included you in the destiny of His movement through history. Therefore, do it. It is God’s will and He has commanded action. There is no reason to delay, divert, or distract you effort. Faith calls for action. Do it!

So, fear not and do not entertain dismay. These are negative distractions from the mission and purpose of God. You have a reason. The same God who so empowered David and Solomon is your God and He is with you.

His Right Hand

“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead, and He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, ‘Fear not …” Revelation 1:17a

In a moment of profound confusion, possible terror, and overwhelming spiritual awe, for John, Jesus places His hand on him with reassuring intensity. All over the world where the gospel had been spread and believers gathered, there was severe persecution. Old now, John had been relegated to a place of exile. He was no stranger to trouble, no coward in the face of danger, and not a man to be shocked by anything God could or would do. However, this experience of seeing Jesus in all His glory was enough to knock Him over as a dead man.

It is not said, but one might wonder if John had grown dismayed, discouraged, or disillusioned in the midst of suffering and seeming chaos. Had he grown weary in waiting for the promises of redemption from this world of sin? Certainly, he had remained faithful to his calling and steadfast in his faith, but had his confidence wavered? We may not know about John, but we can no about ourselves. Have you ever needed the boost that comes from a reminder of God’s presence? Have you ever been at that place where you just wanted to know that God had not abandoned you?

The whole church was there and Jesus chose to speak to and through John and He placed his right hand upon him. Whatever John may have lacked in confidence, the right hand of fellowship restored. Whatever may have faded in faith was revived by His touch. Whatever seemed far removed and unapproachable in the vision of the exalted Christ was made intimately present through the personal reach of the crucified, risen Savior, who laid His hand upon an old friend with the compassion words, “Fear not.”

And so He comes to you and to me, dear friend, amid the noise of confusion and the beating waves of doubt an anxiety. His words speak truth and courage to our hearts, but it is His touch that is life giving and life affirming, Fear not!

Fear Not

“… Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth and was dead; and, behold; I am alive forever more, Amen, and I have the keys of hell and death.” – Revelation 1:17b-18

At the start of Jesus’ earthly life the angel brings the same message to the shepherds that the resurrected glorified Christ gives to John on the Isle of Patmos, “Fear not.” He, who is the first and last, has the first and last word in this mater. We are not called to fear, but to faith. We are not designed for timidity, but for courage. We are not relegated to lives of restless anxiety, but to confidence in a Lord who surrounds times and envelops space, One whose purposes are eternal and whose promises endure forever.

He is indeed the first and the last. Nothing preempts His preeminence in all things. In the beginning, He is God. In the end, He is God. He created history and He will sum it up in the final analysis.

It would be enough to know that He is eternal, but He became temporal flesh and blood for us. We can expel fear because He faced our deepest fears in His own body. Death, our old nemesis, has stalked us through all of our years. He turned to death as if to say, “Just try to take me. Give it your best shot.”

And He died – horribly, as hideously as possible, but even in death, He had the last word, “It is finished!”

Sometimes you feel locked in and the walls seem to be caving in on you. Sometimes you feel locked out, unable to enter the place of security and joy. Whether you feel locked in or out, fearful of the unknown, apprehensive of the future, regretful of the past, I have good news for you. The keeper of the keys is extending one hand to you and dangling the keys to all the great mysteries and eternity itself in the other. Death and hell are in His hand. He has been there to release the captives and all we must do is follow Him.

But that is not all. He is alive forevermore demonstrating that death is not final for one who believes with heart and life in the Lord of life. But even that is not all – for even if we were to conquer the fear of death, there would be eternity to contend with.

And to that anxiety, Jesus exclaims, “Fear not … I have the keys.”

Of the Holy Ghost

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.- Matthew 1:20

Sometimes it takes a messenger from God, human or angelic to interrupt our thinking and redirect our beliefs so that we can see that the seemiongly negative events in our lives are nothing less than something conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Joseph was thinking as a natural man with the information he had and the beliefs that focused his thinking. He was filtering reality through a mindset that had not even considered the possibilities that were about to be revealed to him. As a result, he had come to certain conclusions, made certain decisions, and experienced a range of emotions including fear.

The angel’s message suggests that he might have toyed with the idea of marrying Mary in spite of everything, but fear prevented him. He needed a word from God to give him courage and assurance.

Joseph was thinking. Perhaps he was brooding. He may have been playing various scenarios in his mind, rehearsing his speech, considering and reconsidering his options. He must have been on an emotional roller coaster and had drifted into the oblivion of racing thoughts when waking or sleeping, he saw what he had never seen before – an angel.

Thoug startled at first, imagine how Joseph must have welcomed the message he received. He could never have hought of it himself. It was like a breath of fresh air, a reprieve from the nightmare of recent days. It was a word of hope. The angel gave him permission to love the girl of his dreams and take her as his wife because the one impossible scenario was actually the truth: God had done this thing. . It was all His doing and it was good.

Is that not what we need to hear in the midst of our despairing conundrums? We need to know that however convoluted the circumstances and what we believe about them, that the Spirit of the Living God is at work and is working out His eternal purposes. Embracing that word, we are set free from fear.

A Strange Blessing

And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.  Luke 2:34-35

Simeon is an example of a biblical character who loved his country and prayed for its well being. He was devout and he was waiting for a promise that God would deliver to his people, Israel. He was a patriot.

He was also a man who understood that what his country needed most was a baptism of truth and righteousness and that only God’s Messiah could do for his nation what it really needed.

It must have seemed like a strange sort of blessing to Mary and Joseph as he spoke it. Many would rise. Many would fall. As a sign, the babe would be spoken against. He would bring out the best and worst in people as their very heart thoughts and motives were revealed. As parents, they would have their hearts pierced. It was a strange blessing indeed.

Freedom itself can be a mixed blessing. It comes at a price and required continuous vigilance and responsibility.

When Jesus comes, sweet and unassuming, precious, cute, and giggly as a little baby, it is hard to imagine that the planet has just been invaded by a force to contend with. He does not tread lightly. There will be no lasting indifference in His regard. He will not be non-controversial. He defines controversy. He confronts us, shattering our prejudices, exposing our biases, showing us what our religious hypocrisies really look like in the light of His truth.

And so He comes to you and to me, dear friend, amid the noise of confusion and the beating waves of doubt an anxiety. His words speak truth and courage to our hearts, but it is His touch that is life giving and life affirming, Fear not! He threatens our stasis. He shatters our well-formed opinions no matter how many proof-texts we have arranged to support them. He is Lord of all and every notion is subject to His interpretation.

We are not guaranteed safe passage through the sorting out process. We may well be sifted. Nor are those close to him guaranteed that we will not be broken on the wheel of pain and discomfort.

And yet, He is blessed and we will be blessed through Him. By being in His circle of relationships, the siftings will be blessings and the piercings will be blessings too. We need His awful mercy and His harsh healing to be made whole. Strange as the blessing may be, a blessing it is. He is the blessing that our nation most needs today.

Losing and Finding Life

“Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven … He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” – Matthew 10: 31-32, 39

Jesus did not tell people to fear not without reason.

The words, “Fear not” follow some severe warnings and dire predictions of suffering and persecution. The master wants the disciples to know that there would be trouble ahead for them as they proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Even their families might reject them. They were in danger of great loss.

Jesus reassured them. God who looks out for little sparrows would look out for them. Sparrows fall and God notices. They are not abandoned.

People are worth more than birds, Jesus tells them. You are worth more to God than you could ever imagine.

However, you could lose your life. You must lose your grip on life. You must be willing to lose it all in order to gain it all.

Therefore, Jesus says, whatever the cost, confess your loyalty.

When we confess Jesus, we know that Jesus is with us. We have chosen the thing that is the one thing. We have aligned with the purpose that cannot be taken from us. Though it means dying to everything we find life.

Life, in God’s Kingdom is about finding our reason for living. It is about claiming something that we cannot lose.

The stand we take for Jesus in confessing Jesus is a declaration of life even when it looks like a cross.

Jesus is not making a sales pitch for a life-improvement course. He is not teaching a seminar on Five Easy Steps to a Better Life. Rather, he is saying, “Come die to every selfish value and desperate desire you have for things that can never last. Be willing to leave it all and follow me.”

Jesus reminds them that the disciple is not over his Lord. If the Lord himself is willing to die, so must be, the disciple.

In following him, in dying with him, we find life, real life, eternal life.

From Henceforth

“Fear not; from henceforth, thou shalt catch men.” – Luke 5:10

Think about Simon for a moment. He was an ordinary skilled businessman and merchant. He owned his boat and equipment and, every day, he caught fish and took them to market. He was a producer, a merchant, and good citizen. Yet, he was an ordinary guy.

He had been fishing all night and had come to shore and heard Jesus’ teaching. “Now when he (Jesus) had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.”

Simon was dubious, but compliant.”

“And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.”

Then, something remarkable happened:

“And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.  And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink . When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken …”

In Simon’s view, he was also a sinful man. He did not realize how sinful he was until he saw what he

saw that day. It was, in his perception, a major demonstration of the power of God through

Jesus. It made him tremble and want to put distance between himself and this holy man.

Jesus’ response was, as it often was, to reassure him.

“Don’t be afraid, you will do things mightier than that,” is how I would paraphrase it. “You will

catch people alive.”

Now, look at verse 11:

“And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.”

What would it take for you to leave everything and follow Jesus?

Above the Mighty Waves

“Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.” – Psalm 89:9

The world was in a storm. The waves of war raged about the ships of state. The entire planet was caught up in the turmoil and tumult. It was unclear if civilization could survive.

It was 1941 when two great world leaders met at sea.  American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill convened on board the HMS Prince of Wales to create the Atlantic Charter. Churchill requested a hymn be played.

The words were by William Whiting and the tune, Melita, was composed by John B. Dykes. Dykes named the tune after the island of Melita where Paul and his company stayed after being shipwrecked. Today, it is called Malta.

Eternal Father, strong to save,

Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,

Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep

Its own appointed limits keep;

Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,

For those in peril on the sea!

Everyone felt they were in peril in those days of World War II. At some point in every life, we are caught up in storms. The waves are more powerful than we are. Yet, they cannot move God who can still them or pilot us through them.

Hugh Taylor added this verse:

God, who dost still the restless foam,

Protect the ones we love at home.

Provide that they should always be

By Thine own grace both safe and free.

O Father, hear us when we pray

For those we love so far away.

At another point in time Edward Hopper had a ministry in New York City called the Church of the Sea and Land. There, he met sailors from around the world. He wrote these words to give them comfort and encouragement, not only for their adventures at sea, but as they faced the wind, waves, and storms of life.

Jesus, Savior, pilot me

Over life’s tempestuous sea;

Unknown waves before me roll,

Hiding rock and treacherous shoal.

Chart and compass come from Thee;

Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

When at last I near the shore,

And the fearful breakers roar

’Twixt me and the peaceful rest,

Then, while leaning on Thy breast,

May I hear Thee say to me,

Fear not, I will pilot thee.

Your Father’s Good Pleasure

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.“ -Luke 12:32

After warning the listeners about losing everything by seeking to gain riches at all costs, Jesus speaks these words, Fear not.”

Fear not because your Father loves to give and wants to give you his entire Kingdom.

He gives this advice: Divest.

“Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

As we view a retrospective of the early church, we find that there were many who took this quite literally and threw off the shackles of possessions to follow Jesus.

Others took it more symbolically and dedicated all their possessions to God and lived as if God were the owner of all they had once considered their own.

In both cases, there was a conversion of their thinking about how they viewed wealth and ownership.

He taught his disciples to travel light when he said,:

“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;  And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.”

Be ready to respond and ready to move quickly, not overloaded with stuff that ties you down.

“Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching…”

Things can happen quickly when we live, move, and breathe in the realm of the Spirit.

We need to be ready. To be ready, we must be unencumbered.

We lose nothing by giving it all to God and to others.  It is a lesson I learned early in life from a godly grandmother. She told me two things:

You cannot outgive God and you only save, in this life, what you give away.

God’s desire is to give you far more than you could ever wish for, hope for, or accumulate on your own. It is God’s good pleasure to give you the entire Kingdom. Nothing can compete with that. Fear not, little flock!

“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”

And Grace, My Fears Relieved

(Rev 1:17 )  And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

(Rom 8:15 )  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

It is not enough to learn to fear. Once we have learned the hard lesson of reverence, grace relieves our fears and comforts our troubled, weary souls.

First, we fall as dead before His magnificence; then He touches us in compassion and commands us to fear not.

First we go down into Egypt and experience bondage. There we learn to know Him and in the wilderness, we learn His Name. We are slaves to sin and then to the law, but we are redeemed and released. And we are adopted. And in that adoption we learn to cry, “Abba.”

Bondage brings fear and God uses the bondage of the law as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Bondage informs us of what we are missing because our longings become the pangs of want. Somewhere in the process of learning fear, we come to grips with the deepest desire of our hearts. If we are honest and open, we realize that our desire is for God who alone can meet our needs and grant us redemption and freedom.

Grace taught my heart to fear and my fears relieved many years ago. Yet, I must return to that turning point again and again, sometimes in the singing of the song of Amazing Grace. There I remember. In that moment, I give thanks. In those chords I am realigned with his purposes communicated through His loving kindness which is better than life.

Grace, my fears relieved. I cannot begin to describe the relief, the pure, sure calm that has come over my soul. That can be yours as well.

Conquering the Fear within that Stifles Us

I am not very patient with myself if I perceive I am being lazy. I do not like to be thought of as lazy. I do not like to be lazy.

But, I also do not like to fail.

I have collected a few thoughts, meditations on the topic, too lazy to bring them into one cohesive essay, I readily admit they are disjointed and I fear inserting the joints because of a stilted sort of perfectionism. 

This is an exercise in overcoming both moods and letting you and God sort it all out

Sitting Here

We sit and wait for something to move us.

But nothing does.

We wait some more.

Nothing.

Then it occurs to us that maybe, just maybe, we have to move ourselves.

Then, in moving, we figure out what we are doing and where we are going.

It is really hard to move anything with the brakes on.

It is time to get up and get going.

“The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth!” Proverbs 19:20

 “When the desire is too much to bear, we often bury it beneath frenzied thoughts and activities or escape it by dulling our immediate consciousness of living. It is possible to run away from the desire for years, even decades, at a time, but we cannot eradicate it entirely. It keeps touching us in little glimpses and hints in our dreams, our hopes, our unguarded moments.”  Gerald F. May, , The Awakened Heart 

The Journey Is the Destination

” I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God. ” – from “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers.

We are all at sea. We are all vulnerable to waves and apparent chaos. He comes walking toward us and we ask, “Where are we going if we follow you?”

It is, perhaps, the wrong question.

“God’s end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now.” – Chambers

So, we walk on it with Him … and the journey is the destination.

“The life that intends to be wholly obedient, wholly submissive, wholly listening, is astonishing in its completeness. Its joys are ravishing, its peace profound, its humility the deepest, its power world-shaking, its love enveloping, its simplicity that of a trusting child.” – Thomas Kelly

So Much Goes Wrong. 

“And even though it all went wrong

I’ll stand before the lord of song

With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah.” – L. Cohen 

Who Is the Boss?

The Kingdom of God is the reign of God.

It is no more and no less.

It is that reign in human hearts and in concentric circles of community.

It is that reign in societies and in the cosmos.

Finally, ultimately and initially,, it is that reign in Heaven now and through eternity.

The Kingdom of God is God’s reign. 

But I Might Fail the Boss.

 “Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.”

– Lloyd Jones 

It Will Not Destroy God or God’s Plan if You Fail.

“The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah” Psalm 46:6-7
English Standard Version

There are some things you can seem to count on that will be going on all the time somewhere.

There will be raging of nations.

There will be kingdoms tottering.

Somewhere, the earth will be melting.

Always and everywhere, the Lord of hosts is with us.

Always and everywhere, the God of Jacob is our fortress.

A Major Mask – Perfectionism often Disguises Its Paralysis As Laziness.

We are afraid to do anything for sake of the greater fear of getting it wrong.

Perfectionism is a set-up because

• it usually revolves around our limited understanding of perfection which is inordinately influenced by someone else’s limited understanding of perfection and even deeper misunderstanding of us, and
•  (2) generally just imperfect because perfection is essentially completion and if our vision of the finished product is flawed our outcome will be even more flawed.

“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” -by Anna Quindlen

The road to perfection is allowing God to make us who we truly are and were made to be.

Fear and Prejudicial Thinking

by Mesut çiçen https://unsplash.com/@mesutcicen

Since I first wrote this y ears ago, I have considered that the cure and management might be a little more complicated and may require even more and deeper thinking and silent listening. However, it does still include this:

We often think of prejudice as merely manifest in angry avarice and dislike of people from other cultures, races, or ideologies. That is certainly one such manifestation, but it is not the most prevalent. If it were, many of us could dismiss ourselves from the indictment with the words, “I hate no one” and be perfectly sincere, honest, and innocent.

However, there is a glitch in that thinking. The most common manifestation of prejudice against people is not hatred; it is fear. Fear is a powerful force and can express itself in fight or flight. Fear based upon generalized, false, or stereotyped assumptions is dangerous, ignorant, and hurtful, but it is also curable.

It can be cured by exposure, conversation, knowledge, and experience.

That is why Mark Twain said, “”Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. “

The cure: Get out among some people who do not look, talk, think, or believe like you this weekend and spend more time asking questions and listening than giving answers and making assumptions. Then, report back what you have learned in a few days.