BBD 10.11.13 Be Not Afraid (Classic)
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The Burning Bush Devotional
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Classic from 2006
10.11.13
Be Not Afraid
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will
strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right
hand. - Isaiah 41:10.
Jack is not afraid. He is not even afraid of bears. To
prove it, he chased a black bear up a tree that wandered into his yard. Actually,
Jack chased the bear up a tree, twice! Amazing! Who is this Jack? Jack is a
fifteen-pound white and orange cat who resides in West Milford, New Jersey.
Jack had often chased small animals out of the back yard and his owner, Donna
Dickey had joked about Jack’s being on duty as a guard of the house. But, she
had never thought Jack would actually be able to chase a bear up a tree!
Over the past few weeks (In 2006), I have been dealing with
something that I never thought I would be facing as a preacher. For the past year
and a half, I have had increasing difficulty with my voice. It would often fail
and I would drink some water or place a cough drop in my mouth and it would
come back. However, beginning with Easter Sunday, my voice failed and did not
immediately come back at least, not soon enough to finish the sermon. I limited
the frequency of my preaching, but eventually had a specialist take a look and
he found a couple of polyps on my vocal cords. The polyps were removed and
after two weeks of rest, I cautiously began to speak and preach again but, I
still encountered problems. I am resting my voice again, for a few weeks,
hoping and praying that it will be well soon. My fear, that I have been
contemplating, is that I will be unable to continue preaching which would then
require some major changes in our lives if it were to occur. (Since that time, I continued to have occasional problems with my voice, and at times severe problems. Since my retirement from fulltime pastoring at the end of 2012 I was able to rest my voice for several months and I am now back to preaching when I have the opportunity most Sundays.)
At the Pastor’s Conference of the Southern Baptist
Convention, I believe that God had a message for me and possibly for
many of you as well. That message was delivered by Chuck Kelley, President of
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He described some of the unexpected
challenges that he and others at the seminary faced as a result of the
hurricane. Also, he described how God was sufficient to empower them to face
and overcome those challenges and crises. My mind had kind of wandered away as Dr. Kelley was
speaking but then his words caught my attention as it seemed God was speaking
directly to me through him as he said, "Do
not be afraid of what ever path or crisis God has ahead for you."
We can learn from the example of a fifteen-pound cat
named Jack. We need to do the same thing with our fears that the enemy places
in our minds. We need to chase them away and replace them with the truth of
God’s Word. The truth of God’s Word is that if we know Jesus as our Savior then
He is with us through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence. The Spirit is
speaking and He is saying, "Do not
be afraid." "Fear not." Not only is
He saying, "Fear Not" - He is saying not to be depressed, or dismayed. Why
not? Because He promises to "strengthen
us," "help us," and "uphold us" with His "righteous right hand."
Copyright © 2006-2013. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
June 8, 1998 the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
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