One of our local channels last week aired a report on the dangers lurking in our shower curtains. They took a fair number of minutes getting samples with swabs off people¡¦s shower curtains. Surprisingly in the greenish/black stuff that has grown there in the folds and along the base of the curtains, there were bacteria. Interestingly they never said what type of bacteria had grown. Fourteen-ten, Portland¡¦s business talk radio airs some pretty funny disclaimers the Stock Doctor¡¦s show. One of them goes like this:
¡§You won’t be able to live with yourself if you miss tonight’s Six O’clock News...
¡§Your drinking water may be killing you and everyone you know... but there is a safe and easy solution... details at 6.
¡§Also, your TV news may be trying to scare you into watching... this could affect your work, your kid’s school ... even your sex life. You can’t afford to miss tonight’s Six O’clock News.
It¡¦s followed by the "Six on the Beach" hotline number...
And then it closes with ¡§Tune in to tonight’s Six O’clock News ... the original home of news and the official harbinger of doom for the Stock Doctors Radio show. We dare you to miss it... in fact, we double dog dare you.¡¨
After last week¡¦s ¡§investigative report,¡¨ I can understand why. But fear sells papers and fear causes people to watch the news.
This last week Attorney General Ashcroft announced that the U.S. is seeking seven people concerning possible terror attacks this summer. There is nothing specific but the FBI is asking Americans to be more aware of what¡¦s going on around us. With a number of major happenings, I in our nation it seems like a prime time. Fear wins elections and solidifies political power. It doesn¡¦t matter if you¡¦re stoking the fear of higher taxes or of racial unrest; fear the other party will gut defense or gut school funding all works to raise money from the advocacy groups that surround the various issues we face. Fear not only gets the money out but it can get the vote out too.
In The Culture of Fear, Barry Glassner contends that in a nation well equipped to control disease that it is startling to see just how many people are seriously ill in our nation. He reviewed The Washington Post, The New York Times, and USA Today and found that 59 million Americans have heart disease. 53 million suffer from migraines. There are 25 million with osteoporosis. 16 million are obese and so on. Adding the figures in all the articles, he estimated 543 million Americans were seriously sick. That is a shocking number¡X543 million. It¡¦s especially shocking because the entire U.S. population was only about 270 in 1999 when he wrote this book. Fear is overrated and over emphasized. Maybe part of the anxiety disorders we see so much around us flows from an over awareness of what can go wrong. Quite a few years ago, Zig Ziggler reported in Something to Smile About that:
„« 40% of our worries will never happen
„« 30% of our worries have already happened
„« 12% of our worries are over unfounded health concerns
„« 10% of our worries involve daily fretting that accomplishes nothing
„« Only 8% of our worries are truly justified and lead to constructive action!
Tonight or this week this as you listen to the radio, or watch television, read a paper or magazine. Be conscious of how much fear is played on. It will probably frighten you. Also, be conscious of how much effort we put into the 92% of the things we can do nothing about or which don¡¦t really matter. If you¡¦ve asked yourself, ¡§What if there¡¦s a terrorist attack?¡¨ Have you taken the step of getting a disaster relief kit put together? That you can do something about. The attack you probably can¡¦t. Jesus says, ¡§Don¡¦t worry about tomorrow,¡¨ but as Pastor Craig Burton points out this doesn¡¦t mean to max out our credit cards and declare¡¦ ¡§Hey I can do whatever I want and God will take care of me.¡¨
The promise that God will take care of our needs is not automatic or universal. It is one of the outcomes of living for God and traveling the direction He is going. Live this way and we don¡¦t have to worry. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
If you¡¦ve been following this adventure you¡¦ll probably noticed that although the title is about fear the messages tend to focus on God¡¦s answers to them. In an uncertain world with various threat advisory levels, we chose to memorize God¡¦s word as a way to combat that fear. We adopted a prayer as a way of combating the fear of financial insecurity. Encouraging other people was the way to stand tall when faced with the fear of being rejected or betrayed. And as we confessed those sins that we¡¦ve, so desperately have tried to shove off in the corner of our lives we found that the skeletons in those closets don¡¦t make us afraid any longer. The last two weeks we¡¦ve been challenged to do an outrageously courageous act and to write our own epitaphs or eulogies. In this way, we seek to combat the fear of failing or death.
Today the positive message is that we establish spiritual boundaries as we ¡§Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.¡¨ Those two phrases mean the same thing. One cannot seek God¡¦s Kingdom without living as God wants us too and one cannot live in a Godly way and not be seeking His kingdom. The problem is that sometimes we have a hard time deciding what is of God¡¦s kingdom and what actually part of our own little fiefdom is. We want to have God love us but we also want the friendship with the world and the relationships with the secular age so we ¡§feel¡¨ like we fit in.
The Kingdom of God is the place where God is in control. We¡¦re not in charge and the fears that come out as we try drop off to sleep aren¡¦t in control. Seeking God¡¦s Kingdom means continually to be in prayer and asking God to take control of those areas that push at your spirit. It¡¦s to plant a ¡§NO TRESPASSING¡¨ sign upon those places and to refuse resolutely to enter those fearful swamps again. We¡¦ve already spoken about memorizing scripture but it¡¦s worth exploring again. Philippians 4: has some marvelous verses to help direct our thoughts away from the fearful and toward the wonder of God¡¦s mercy and grace. Can you memorize God¡¦s word?
Let me point you toward another person in the Bible with whom most of us can relate¡Xthe Apostle Peter. He¡¦s not always the sharpest knife in the drawer. He sometimes does great things and other times suffer from foot-in-mouth disease. But one thing you can¡¦t accuse him of is not being human. He denied Jesus three times even after he¡¦d bravely tried to kill one of those who came to arrest Jesus. He got huffy and declared, ¡§I¡¦m going fishing.¡¨ It was almost as if the last three years didn¡¦t matter. He saw Jesus alive again. He was restored and commissioned to feed Jesus¡¦ sheep. And yet, fifty days later he¡¦s locked away with some 120 folks praying for power.
And it came. Suddenly this same fearful man. This fellow who lived under the shadow of what-ifs becomes a dynamic street preacher. It¡¦s not saying NO! to the fears that are lodged in our hearts. It¡¦s shouting YES! to Christ and the power of His Spirit. Facing this fear by the Power of the Holy Spirit is how Peter was able to preach in the streets down which Jesus had drugged his cross. For when those Christ followers had gathered together to pray, even if they didn¡¦t know it, they had been ¡§seeking the Kingdom of God.¡¨ In that seeking, they became ready to receive God¡¦s power. As they sought God¡¦s Kingdom, they were open to the power that had been promised to them.
They were looking for God¡¦s Kingdom. If we insist on blindly continuing on the same old direction we¡¦ve been going or remain lost in some spiritual fatalistic fog we will miss God¡¦s Kingdom and the revival and renewal it brings. To seek God¡¦s kingdom those disciples did what they were told. They went to Jerusalem and waited.
We have to be in the place where we¡¦re likely to ¡§find¡¨ God¡¦s power and blessing. Trust me when I say baseball is rarely played in the same place and at the same time as the Stanley Cup Finals. They aren¡¦t compatible. If God says we¡¦re going to find His kingdom through His son, Jesus then we need to stop looking for it in human ingenuity, wisdom and the various cultic, latest, and greatest wave of thinking. It¡¦s not found in the platforms of either political party. It¡¦s not found in the best thinking of the loftiest scientific minds. It¡¦s found in the person of Jesus as the Bible has revealed Him to us.
We won¡¦t find Christ¡¦s kingdom if we refuse to deal with the darker places in our lives either. Oh! He¡¦s there. He knows all about them. He¡¦s even more aware of why we continue in those sins than we do. But He doesn¡¦t meet us there so we can stay there. If he meets us, there it¡¦s to bring us out of them and to transform us.
Be where you can see Jesus, and be looking for Him and I promise you that you¡¦ll become a new person for the power of God¡¦s Holy Spirit will come upon you and transform your lives so that you too, may be a part of God¡¦s Kingdom.
