LIVING IN THE CELLAR OF FEAR
Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>
Be sure to check our daily blog at
Greeting Cards
http://worldoutreach.ca/gcards
==============================
LIVING IN THE CELLAR OF FEAR
I John 4:11-21
Frank S. Mead, in TARBELL'S TEACHER'S GUIDE, tells about how John Ruskin, the great and sensitive Victorian critic, frequently discussed his beliefs and perplexities in his diaries. He once described a conversation he had with an aged clergyman. "I was in doubt about the foundation of my house," he quotes the wise old man, "so I took a candle and went down into the cellar and ascertained that all was perfectly safe. Since then I have lived in the pleasant upper parts of the house. I don't live in the cellar." Frank S. Mead goes on to comment, "Too many of us today live in the cellar of our lives, counting the black beetles, shuddering over the spiders, bemoaning the dampness, and generally tormenting ourselves in the darkness." (TARBELL'S TEACHER'S GUIDE. (Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1981). )
The question I would like for you to consider today is: Are you living in the cellar of your life, or in the pleasant upper parts of the house? John Canto once put it this way: "If nobody knows the trouble you've seen, you've probably had a face lift." Fear and anxiety are part of living. I have read somewhere that, at any given moment, there are more than 2,000 thunderstorms occurring somewhere on earth. Some of us are afraid of thunderstorms like these, but you can see that they're going on all the time, and that it is inevitable that at some time in our lives one of these storms will be where we are. A lot of us are afraid of other kinds of storms, and we sometimes want to hide in our cellars.
WE LIVE IN A FEARFUL AGE.
Certainly there is enough to be afraid of: violence in the schools, random mass murders, the deterioration of the environment. But fear is part of living. And as many writers and psychologists have demonstrated,
FEAR DOES HAVE ITS CREATIVE ASPECTS.
J. Wallace Hamilton once wrote, "We are motivated by fear every day of our lives, and moved by fear. We do many constructive things. That is exactly what fear is for--it is a friend of order, the buttress of morality, the ally of the kingdom of God."
You may know the story about a wealthy gentleman who advertised for a chauffeur. He selected three of the likeliest applicants and took them to the edge of a cliff near his home. Then he asked each one how close he thought he could drive to the edge of the precipice. The first man boasted that he could drive to within a few inches of the cliff. The second more modestly estimated that he could probably drive to within a couple of feet. But the third man gulped nervously and said that he wouldn't drive within a mile of the place. He got the job. I can sympathize with that, can't you? He got the job because he was afraid of the cliff, which made him properly cautious. Fear does have its place in life. It helps us avoid possible danger, and it can be a creative force, a motivating force, in our lives.
Captain Ahab, in Herman Melville's MOBY DICK, declared that when he was hunting wales, he would have no man on his ship who was not afraid of them.
Fear keeps us on our toes. The great historian Toynbee tells the story of the herring fishermen on the coast of England who would bring their fish back to market in large tanks on their boats. The herring, not accustomed to such confinement, became sluggish on the trip to shore, and as a consequence, their flesh developed an unpleasant taste. One enterprising skipper, however, put a catfish in each of his tanks. The catfish ate a few herring, of course, but the fish were kept swimming about the tank, motivated by concepts of self-preservation, and they reached shore in good trim.(Ronald E. Sleeth. SPLINTERS IN THE QUICK. (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1971). )
Yes, there is some need for fear in our lives, but some of us are trapped in the cellar of fear.
FEAR FOR THESE PEOPLE IS A DOMINATING AND DESTRUCTIVE FORCE THAT CAN RUIN LIVES.
One anonymous poet put it like this:
"It is not the work but the worry that makes the world grow old,
That numbers the years of its children 'ere half their story is told,
That weakens their faith in heaven and the wisdom of God's great plan.
Ah, 'tis not the work but the worry that breaks the heart of man."
Dr. F. Stanley Jones, a great believer, a great thinker, once summed up the negative force of fear beautifully. He said:
"I see that I am inwardly fashioned for faith and not for fear. Fear is not my native land, faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life. Faith is oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear and doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry my being is gasping for breath. These are not my native air. . . `We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than non-worriers. But that is a fact.' But I who am simple of mind think I know. We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue and brain cell and soul for faith and not fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality." (E. Stanley Jones. ABUNDANT LIVING. (Nashville: Abingdon Press). )
Listen to what usually happens when we allow fear to dominate us: New England fishermen like to tell of a former fishing boat captain who inherited a large sum of money. He spent most of it in having a ship-builder construct the ship of his dreams. The magnificent vessel was duly completed and fitted for the sea, but the owner was so afraid of something happening to it that he refused to launch it. Eventually the ship just sank at her moorings, never having been used. Have you ever heard someone say, "I rather wear out than rust out?" Well that's what they mean. And we do face the danger of rusting out, if we are paralyzed by fear.
Are you living in the cellar of fear today? It is amazing what a fearful society we have become. Everyone lives behind triply-locked doors. But even more devastating than the locks on our doors are the locks on our hearts. We are afraid of trusting life. We are afraid of relaxing and enjoying the beauty of God's creation. Are you living in the cellar of fear?
Eric Erickson's study of the stages of child development throws some light on our basic problem. Dr. Erickson tells us that an infant is born untrusting. A child actually has to learn to trust. As parents, we have the responsibility to provide the secure atmosphere in which our children can learn this trust. Some of us, somehow, did not gain that security when growing up. And even today we are vexed and frustrated by a great anxiety within.
THE SCRIPTURE SAYS THAT PERFECT LOVE CASTS OUT FEAR.
To know that God loves us can give us the security that we are missing. If we only believe that there is a Heavenly Father who looks after us and never forsakes us, what a difference it would make in our lives. Because perfect love casts out fear.
After the Armistice of 1918, a destroyer carried the British prime minister, Lloyd George, from France to England. The weather during that crossing was frightful, and when they reached Dover the conditions were so bad, even in the harbor, that they could not get alongside the docks. So they called for a launch. The only problem was how to get the prime minister from the destroyer to the launch. The destroyer was rolling alarmingly, and there was a danger of having him fall into the sea. What they did was to station five men at the launch. The prime minister was led to the gangway, and the officer in charge told him that at the word "Go" he was to step forward and release his hold. So he waited. The ship rolled down the next swell until her gunwale was almost submerged. When she had reached the limit of her roll, the officer shouted, "Go!" and the prime minister stepped forward and let go. He was caught as neatly and as surely as if he were a baseball in a fielder's hand because he trusted the officer's word. (Ralph G. Turnbull. )
Such is a picture of our Christian faith. It means letting go and trusting ourselves completely upon the promises of God. The perfect love of God casts out our fear. There's a phrase that goes, "The ocean is so great and my boat is so small." But if you know the Captain of the seas, and if you're willing to trust Him for your security, then the breadth and depth of the ocean will not matter. He who stilled the storms upon the Sea of Galilee 2,000 years ago can still the storms in your life today. But you can't be living in the cellar of fear.
There is a book by Colonel Robinson Risner, who was the first Vietnam prisoner of war to step out of the plane at Clark Air Force base in the Philippines to address the nation on national television. His book is entitled THE PASSING OF THE NIGHT. It is a description of the gruesome experience he had for seven and one-half years as a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese prison. It is a very painful book to read. Risner faced unbelievable stress and torture during those years. But he was able to endure it. He was able to endure it through the simple fact of his being a Christian.
In another book entitled DYING TO LIVE, the author, an officer, said he learned through a friend what it was that gave Robinson Risner his ability to endure. He writes that Risner had something that he didn't understand, something he didn't know anything about. And he asked his friend to tell him about it.
Well, you can imagine what a great time that Christian officer had in explaining to him that Risner's integrity was an expression of the authority of his faith in Jesus Christ, because Robbie had really committed himself to the lordship of Christ in his life. When everything looked bleak, he was still able to say in his heart that "Jesus Christ is Lord." (DYING TO LIVE. (Waco: Word Books, 1976))
Are you living in the cellar of fear today?
Perfect love can cast out your fear.
Don't you think it's time that you moved into the upper parts of the house where the sun shines, where things are dry and comfortable?
You can do that.
Make Him Lord of your life.
Let Him still those storms that are troubling you.
Throw yourself into His waiting arms, and your fear will be gone.
Yes, fear can sometimes be a motivating force in our lives. It sometimes keeps us from doing foolish things. But we do not need to be dominated and destroyed and paralyzed by fear.
God loves you, and He wants you to live confidently and creatively as His own child, without fear.
...
http://www.worldoutreach.ca/DearGod
*************************
Our Blog ... http://opahenk.blogspot.com/
Dear God cartoons..... http://www.worldoutreach.ca/DearGod
Our Books…….http://lulu.com/Frijters
SermonsOnTheNet…..http://welovegod.org/groups/sermonsonthenet
******************************************************
…..