Funkyjimmer's Blog

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

OVERCOMING THE FEAR FACTOR -- FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE – It is harder to practice than to theorize

I spoke at church for 3 Sundays recently on this topic of overcoming fear. I chose to do so because:

A. I know I am a fear-prone person and thought it would be helpful to
me in being able to overcome my fears.

B. I thought the teaching would help a lot of people in my church who
may struggle with this as I do.

C. I thought it would help our church get ready for our “40 Days of purpose Campaign. It seemed that using these Bible principles would help us overcome our fear of something different and get us to be willing to get out of our comfort zones so God can do great things with and through us during and after the 40 Days of Purpose.

Now I know God had another purpose in mind in addition to these. I believe He is saying to me, “Jim, here is a chance to ‘Practice what you preach!’”

I went to a Medical Specialist today and what he told me, following a thorough exam, was scary. Now I am petrified. So what do I do? The choice is up to me. I am praying (and would ask any who read this who know me to pray also) that I will choose to follow Biblical principles and deal with my fear, not continue in it. Now I have to move from the THEORY of how to overcome fear in my life, to the actual practice of the Biblical principles I have been teaching and writing on the subject in these Blogs

In other Blogs I have suggested 2 steps that I believe are Biblical that we should take to overcome fear: STEP 1: BE SURE OF YOUR SALVATION; BE SURE YOU ARE RIGHT WITH GOD. And STEP 2: TAKE TIME TO DEVELOP A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. Now let me suggest a third principle:

Step 3: PRACTICE SELF-CONTROL, SELF-DISCIPLINE. 2nd Timothy 1:7 says: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity {fear}, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” I guess this means that if I have a spirit of fearfulness in my life I didn’t get it from God. If I didn’t get it from God, I must have gotten it from Satan.

This verse also tells me that self-discipline did come from God. It seems that I evidence for whom I am living by how I live! OUCH! This takes away my “excuses” for allowing myself to continue living a fearful life.

I’d like to clarify something right here: I am not saying that we shouldn’t be afraid of anything. There are things, people, circumstances that we would do well to fear. What I refer to in these Blogs is being in a state of constant fearfulness.
From the 2nd Timothy Scripture it would seem that our phobias – irrational fears (see a previous Blog for a list of phobias) -- result from our lack of self-control or self-discipline.

Scripture seems to teach that God’s love flowing through us to others drives away fear. At least that is what 1st John 4:18 seems to teach me: “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.”

So to help me be able to control my fears, I need to find others upon which to pour out the love of God. That isn’t hard to if I am really willing to do it. So I guess we should ask, “How’s your love life?” Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) His commandments are many. One of the clearer sets of commands regarding doing for others is found in Matthew 25:35-36. I suggest that you read that passage. It tells us that when we’ve done something (or not done something) for others it is the same as having done (or not done) something for Jesus. That passage is a good prescription for showing God’s love.

Most of us don’t do this because of our selfish nature. Fear and selfishness go hand-in-hand. To get rid of fear we need to conquer selfishness in our lives.

I think I’ve written enough on the subject. I need to move from theory to practice. That’s going to be the hard part. But the Medical Specialist has given me a concrete reason to focus on overcoming my fears.

Please pray for me.

Jim

posted by jim 11:50 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

“LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED; NEITHER LET IT BE AFRAID” (John 14:27)

But I am a Christian. I am sure of my salvation. Yet fear plagues my life. What should I do next?

From reading the Bible it seems that a second step to overcoming fear is to TAKE TIME TO DEVELOP A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD; TAKE THE TIME TO DEVELOP A COMPANIONSHIP WITH HIM. No one needs to go through life alone. Actually, life is too difficult for anyone to try to go through it alone. And there is no need to “go it alone”. God wants to accompany us throughout life. Having accepted Christ as our personal savior and received the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we are not alone. Jesus is praying for us (Hebrews 7;25); the Holy Spirit indwells us (lives within us) to guide and comfort us. And we have other Christians walking with us.

But we must develop a companionship with God. It is not enough to just be right with God. We must stay right with Him. A lot of the Psalms talk about God being the antidote to our fears. Check them out: Psalm 23:4; 27:1-3; 46:1-3; 56:3, 4, 11; 118:6 to list a few!).

If our relationship with God is right and we are in daily companionship--fellowship with God--then we can conquer our fears.

But the catch is that it takes time to develop a companionship with God. It may well be that the curse of our time is BUSYNESS which causes SHALLOWNESS. We need to take time to be holy. There is an old hymn by that title: “Take Time To Be Holy”. If we don’t take the time, we won’t be holy. A 5-minute “devotional” and 30-second “tip-of-the hat” to God just won’t cut it. It takes time to be holy—and a lot of it!

Adam and Eve walked with God. How long has it been since we have even walked, let alone “walked with God”? Walking, in a safe place outdoors or on an indoor track or treadmill, can be useful prayer and meditation time. But we are so busy. We live life by the time clock.

Our church is gearing up to join over 4,000 other churches in the “40 Days Of Purpose” Campaign October 5 through November 23rd. The dilemma is this: Our lives are already way too over crowded. Now with the “40 Days of Purpose” Campaign we are going to be asked to add three new habits to our schedule. There is a daily devotional reading of about 15 minutes a day; a weekly meeting in a small group for six weeks and a weekly verse to memorize that will probably take less than 5 minutes.

But most of us need to decide first what we are going to cut out of our schedules before we begin 40 Days of Purpose. We can only have so many “irons in the fire”. We are so busy. We must be warned not to associate LIFE with ACTIVITY. Not everything in our lives is of equal value. From time to time we just need to ask, “What am I going to stop doing?” in order to have time to develop holiness, a companionship with God.

Someone one time quipped, “We should live in such a way that when they carry us into the church for our funeral, God won’t have to ask, ‘Who is it?’”

So a second step to overcoming our fear is to develop a companionship with God.

I’ll talk about the next step probably in my next Blog.

Jim

posted by jim 10:30 PM 0 comments

Monday, September 22, 2003

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

I have quit Blogging about personal stuff as often as I once did. But I make an exception now because what I’m going to write about might affect my ability to post Blogs for awhile. First a bit of background:

For you who don't know (not that you really care!) two years ago I had rotator cuff repair surgery in both shoulders. (Not at the same time thank goodness!) Both rotator cuffs were equally torn badly enough to warrant repair (5+ centimeters torn.) I did well in recovery and therapy.

Now, it seems, I have re-torn the rotator cuff in my left shoulder. The doctor says probably from shoveling snow, or a combination of some other dumb things I shouldn't have been doing. Who knows? I probably re-tore the left shoulder because I am left handed and that side gets the most frequent and hardest use.

At any rate, the tear is now at 3+ centimeters torn. It hurts. The surgeon says it needs to be repaired--again. If I don't it will just tear more.

When I have the surgery it will be awhile before I will be able to type. Thus my inability to post Blogs for awhile when that occurs.

I am going to try to postpone the surgery unit after Joel's wedding and after our church finishes the 40 Days of Purpose Campaign. Right now I am thinking about the first part of December--maybe the 8th. When I finally decide I'll post the date on the Blogspot.

Now you know. Later I'll post another Blog on the subject of "Overcoming Fear".

Jim

posted by jim 10:00 PM 0 comments

Thursday, September 18, 2003

WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT MY FEARS?

I Blogged awhile back about fear. We have been studying this at church on Sundays. I have tried to share specific steps from God’s Word that we can take toward overcoming our fears.

I believe that Step Number One is to be sure you’re right with God. As I have studied the Bible on this subject, I have observed that fear and sin go hand in hand. As I stated in a previous Blog on this subject, when Adam and Eve sinned they became afraid. (Genesis 3:10) When we sin, we should be afraid, too. Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a dreadful (fearful) thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.”

Sin makes cowards of us all. “The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. (Proverbs 28:1)

Speaking of the wicked, Psalm 53:5 says, “There they were, overwhelmed with dread (fear) when there was nothing to dread (fear).”

Yet Christ came to set us free from fear.

When the Angel came to Zechariah to tell him of the birth of John the Baptist, he said, “Do not be afraid…..”

When Gabriel came to Mary to tell her she was going to give birth to the Son of God, he said, “Do not be afraid……”

When the Angel talked about the coming birth of Jesus to Joseph, he said, “Don’t be afraid…”

When the angels announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds on the Judean hillside, their first words were, “Do not be afraid…..”

Hebrews 2:15 tells us that there are a lot of people who all their lives are held in bondage (slavery) to the fear of death.

Paul said, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (1Timothy 1:7—KJV)

Yep! The starting point to overcoming fear is to know that you’re saved and that within you is the One who can take out of you the spirit of fear.

If a person doesn’t know Jesus as their personal Savior, then I don’t know how to help that person overcome fear. Jesus plainly taught us to not be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. He said we should rather fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. (Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:4)

So, I’m saved. I’m still fearful. What’s the next step? That will be the subject for a future Blog.

Jim

posted by jim 9:04 PM 0 comments

Friday, September 12, 2003

HOW PROTECTED AM I?

Last month my computer at home was “hit” with the LOVSan, or “Blaster” worm that knocked out so many computers around the world. It seems it hit governmental agencies especially hard. A friend of mine eventually fixed my computer. He works in the Indiana Attorney General’s office with their computers. He worked about three days and 2 nights to get their computers corrected. Then he got to mine.

He “patched the hole”; re-set my McAfee to update daily, scan weekly (oftener if I tell it to) for new viruses and to protect my computer from foreign invasion constantly. He also installed Ad-aware (which is a spy-ware system to protect my computer from unwanted, objectionable advertising that could tempt me to buy something or look at something I should not see!) Oh yes, and a Firewall was installed . I should be well-protected but I don’t fell entirely safe any more.

All of this (that you readers could care less about) got me thinking about my spiritual protection. I pray daily for God to place a hedge of protection physically, spiritually and morally around my wife, my family and a number of young people whom I care about and a couple of them whom I love very much. (There’s more to my prayer for protection for these ones who mean so much to me, but you get the idea.)

Anyway, all this got me thinking, “How well protected am I spiritually and morally? What have I done to install a “McAfee anti-satanic attack detector” in my spiritual life? Have I installed a “spiritual Ad-aware” to keep me from looking at Porn or fantasizing about immoral things? Do I have a “firewall” installed to protect me against the unwanted attacks of Satan?

Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. I would say that I have “installed” some protection systems. I worship daily in some form or other and I participate in Corporate Worship each Sunday. I have a regular plan of Bible reading and study, besides what I study to prepare messages for Sunday. I have an active and regular prayer life. It is mostly for others. As I have analyzed my prayer life I have become aware that I don’t pray much about myself. Maybe that’s all right, I don’t know.

But I have to admit that I don’t have all the protection in place that God has provided for me. One of the “systems” God has given is the Armor of God. (Ephesians 6:10-19.) I know I don’t have all the armor in place all the time. I must be more diligent about that. If I thought about it I know there are other things God has provided that I could use to be more protected from “…the wiles of the devil…” (Ephesians 6:11, King James Version). Paul told the Corinthians to not be ignorant of the way the devil works. Because when we are, we leave ourselves open to His devious attacks.

But neither am I totally unprotected. I know people pray for me. I have a good friend with whom I correspond via email almost daily who prays specifically for me to maintain moral purity. This friend encourages me to purity of thought and action and holiness by his prayers and emails. I am so thankful for him. God has used him to protect me from much sinfulness and impurity of thoughts and actions. I am so grateful.

I have noticed with my computer at home that in spite of all the protection I now have in place, “stuff” still happens. Hackers, viruses, worms, trojans, whatever, still occasionally get through to my computer and mess things up and corrupt it.

And I see that in my own life. No matter how much spiritual and moral protection I may have in place, Satan is allowed to slip in and corrupt and I sin. Oh how I hate it but it happens all too frequently. Porn is a terrific temptation, mostly via the computer internet, but there are other ways, too. I have to watch my eyes in daily activities, too, or Satan slips in and I began to have immoral fantasies because of what I have allowed my eyes to see.

Yep! It’s a constant battle and I don’t always win all the battles. But because of God’ grace and forgiveness, He has already won the war for me.

Paul said it best: “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Maybe I’ll have more to say about this later. Or maybe I won’t!

Jim

posted by jim 10:24 PM 0 comments

Thursday, September 04, 2003

LIST OF FEARS:

For you who read this Blog (and for you "first-timers", if there are any!) you know that my last post (below) was about fear. I mentioned the list of 57 fears. I am posting them here. There is one that is duplicated, in my opinion. I think it should only be 56 fears. But I see how they come up with 57. Anyway, here they are. How many of these do YOU have?

Air: Aerophobia
Animals: Zoophobia
Bees: Apiphobia
Being dirty: Automysophobia
Blushing: Ereuthophobia
Books: Bibliophobia
Cats: Ailurophobia
Change: Neophobia
Climbing: Climacophobia
Cold: Psychrophobia
Colors: Chromatophobia
Dampness: Hygrophobia
Darkness: Nyctophobia
Daylight: Phengophobia
Deep Places: Bathophobia
Dirt: Mysophobia
Dogs: Cynophobia
Dolls: Pediophobia
Error: Harmatophobia
Fire: Phrophobia
Fish: Ichthyophobia
Frogs: Batrachophobia
Fur: Doraphobia
Germs: Microphobia
Ghosts: Phasmophobia
Glass: Crystallophobia
Hair: Trichophobia
Heat: Thermpophobia
Heights: Acrophobia
Ideas: Ideophobia
insects: Entomophobia
Light: Photophobia
Many Things: Polyphobia
Mirrors: Spectrophobia
Missiles: Ballistrophobia
Night: Nyctophobia
Odors: Osmophobia
Rain: Ombrophobia
Right (side): Dextrophobia
Rivers: Potamophobia
Robbers: Harpaxophobia
Sleep: Hypnophobia
Snakes: Ophidiophobia
Spiders: Arachnephobia
Stairs: Climacophobia
Sun: Heliophobia
Teeth: Odontophobia
Thirteen: Triskaidekaphobia
Thunder: Keraunophobia
Time: Chronophobia
Trains: Siderodromophobia
Vehicles: Amaxophobia
Walking: Basiphobia
Water: Aquaphobia
Wind: Anemophobia
Work: Ergasiophobia
Writing: Graphophobia

Can you believe we were born with just 2 fears: falling and loud noises. “Fear will prove to be a snare” – Proverbs 29:25

Jim

posted by jim 7:53 PM 0 comments