The Fear Killer-How to Dismantle Fear in your Daily Living, Dreaming and Doing.

Join us at The University of Kentucky 4 consecutive Thursdays 21st, 28th, Feb. 4th. 7:00pm. We are giving away “The Fear Killer” book to all blog subscribers. Just stop by and say hi, say you subscribe to the blog, We would love to meet you at U of K.

The Fear Killer – Anatomy of Fear – 4 week Series

Jan. 14th, 2010, University of Kentucky, 7:00pm – Anatomy of Fear

Jan. 21st, 2010, University of Kentucky, 7:00pm – The Autopsy of Fear

Jan. 28th, 2010, University of Kentucky, 7:00pm  - Remember The Lord

Jan. Feb. 4th, 2010, University of Kentucky, 7:00pm  - The  Antidote

My sin is great - great sin that produces worry, anxiety, and fear in my soul, sin that deadens my spirit and alienates me from eternity. The last thing I need is a self-help gospel. I am helpless. I don’t need another three-step program. I don’t need a better me, I need a transformed me. I don’t need a better life, I need a new life.

Too often, the gospel is reduced down to a quaint, cute story about a phenomenal man (Jesus) who inspires us and examples for us a new way of living. This is partly true. In fact, Jesus was the most inspiring person to have ever walked this terrestial ball. But is Jesus just an inspiring example? Is an inspiring example the best God can do? I can find plenty of inspiring stories in sports or in the military. A good example may inspire me but it won’t save me or change me.

The gospel is more than inspiring; the gospel is regenerating (it makes me alive), transforming (it changes me), justifying (it declares me not guilty), and sanctifying (it begins a work in me that will one day be complete). A cute, quaint, self-help, three-step mish-mash of “me and God” just doesn’t cut it. I don’t need more of me in the process. That’s the problem. I need less of me. Correction! I need none of me because I am dead in my sin. I need to be made alive. This is the kind of gospel I need.

The gospel is the only kind of transforming, life-altering good news God gives us in Jesus Christ. God enacted the “great exchange” in Jesus Christ. He exchanged my unrighteousness for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In other words, God imputed my sins to Jesus Christ ‘as if’ he had committed them so that he could impute to me Christ’s righteousness to me ‘as if’ I had never sinned. This exchange is realized in me when God awakens me from the deadness of my sin and makes me new in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:1). Once awakened in Jesus Christ I’m no longer on the run from God, fearing that I’ll be caught and exposed for the fraud that I am. In Christ I am forgiven. Who, then, should I fear?

So, away with the cute, the quaint, and the purely practical; in with the conquering, transforming, life-changing, fear-smashing, worldview altering gospel of Jesus Christ.

<object width=”445″ height=”364″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/VPumhMIp9C0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&border=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/VPumhMIp9C0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&border=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”445″ height=”364″></embed></object>

I’m in a very sarcastically bad mood today. And what’s the source of my dower attitude? Answer: the lack of real fear. Let me explain. I hear so many people use the phrase, ‘I’m afraid of…?’ They then fill in the blank with some superficial fear such as – I’m afraid my outfit doesn’t match my shoes; I’m afraid I’ll be late for a latte with my equally shallow friend at the local ‘artsy’ coffee shop; I’m afraid I won’t be up-to-date on the latest music or TV show; I’m afraid they won’t think I’m hip/cool, etc. This litany of shallow fears reveals a shallow life. Shallow fears diminish legitimate fears.

This is what we’re afraid of? You’ve got to be kidding me? Are you joking? Get serious! Is our cowardice to be measured by whether or not we are brave enough to wear the right kind of clothes or have the right kind of look or on whether or not we’re current on the latest drivel in the media? If so, we’re in more trouble than I first thought. If these are our fears it let’s me know that most of us are not even on the playing field of life.

If we’re going to have fear let’s get some real fear! I mean some supersized fears for a supersized gospel. For example, let’s be afraid of not getting the ‘God thing’ right; let’s be afraid if we don’t get the parenting thing right; let’s be afraid of not getting the marriage thing right; let’s be afraid of not being committed to a set of important principles by which to live; let’s be afraid of being known as a person who is a ‘mile wide and an inch deep’ instead of a person of depth, commitment, and loyalty; let’s be afraid of having lived an unconsidered life without purpose.

Shallow, silly fears do not constitute essential fears. Shallow, silly fears cover the real fears of life. The gospel of Jesus Christ is THE sin-crushing, fear-smashing power of God that alters our ego, rearranges our priorities, and changes our world-view. So, if you’re going to have fear get some real fear so that you’ll understand the awesome power of God in Jesus Christ.

Fear, generational divides, and change are on my mind today through a particular image. The image is that of a snapshot, a still photo, a picture that decorates most of our refrigerators doors,  some wall somewhere in our homes, or some video that is stored on our laptop. All of us are mental photo-takers, capturers of images. We take mental and emotional snapshots or capture a spiritual video image in life of meaningful moments, people we love, epochs, times, and events. We then live by these images. We reference our ‘mental and spiritual image inventory’ all the time as we make everyday decisions. We say to ourselves, ‘This is the way it ought to be.’ The good part of being a photo-taker is that these snapshots become reference points, reminders of good things, expressions of how we think and feel about a time in our life. Who doesn’t like to look at a photo album or review a video. This explains the rediculus popularity of YouTube.

The problem with a snapshot/video is that things change, don’t they? We get older, styles change, time passes, things don’t stay fixed, places and people come and go. The danger is that we fail to continue taking snapshots, photos of new people, places, experiences, and things. This happens in churches. For example, we grow up in a church or join a church that has great meaning in our life at the time. But as times passes we fail to take new snapshots and we continue to live by the old snapshots of church life that no longer reflect reality. This is not just true in the church; it’s true of every area of life, i.e. business, school, family, etc.

Again, the good in taking snapshots and capturing video images is that such images reflect a time that was meaningful to us, moments that God used to shape us, and that now form a part of who we are as a person. This is the best of what it means to take a snapshot to store a mental video image of life.

However, the fear of taking new snapshots or capturing new video images of life – of living new experiences, of finding new places, of meeting new people, of seeking new adventures – keeps us from living in the present and planning for the future, while yearning for a past age, a time long ago that will never be recaptured. We become stuck in a time that no longer exists.

Again, in the church, this plays itself out generationally when someone will say, ‘The way it should be done was the way we did it in the 50’s (just add your age or era).’ To that person the snapshot of that meaningful time is IT! The conflict comes when differing people start bringing their pictures and videos to the party saying, ‘This is the way it ought to be.’ Differing snapshots and video images potentially produce conflict.

What are we to do? We should thank God for the snapshots and video images of life, those meaningful moments that have shaped our life. We should appreciate the photo albums and the video images others bring to life. But we must also continue to take photos and capture video images of new experiences, people, places, and events, understanding that God is still at work in this era just as He was in past ages.

You might ask, ‘But does anything stay fixed? Is there any one snapshot or video image that remains by which I can live life? Is there one meaningful moment that supercedes all other moments? Is there a fixed photo or a timeless video image of the way things should be?’ Yes! We change, we age, we die, governments change, politics morph, but the snapshot, the continuing and living images of the life of Jesus, His cross, His resurrection, and His continuing revelation of Himself in His Word never change (Heb. 13:8). So, take out your camera or turn on your cell phone camera, make a place in your heart for a new photo/video album, and start taking snapshots of new people, new places, new experiences, and new images of life knowing that Jesus Christ alone never changes. Don’t be afraid to ’snap away.’  He’s the frame of reference in which we post our old and new photos/videos of life.