Do Not Fear Death

Nearly 2,000 years ago Paul famously penned the words, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain,” in his letter to a church in Philippi located in what is now northern Greece.  The point he was making was that he saw great advantage in death, because in dying he would actually experience gain by leaving this world to be with Jesus. Yet, at the same time he also recognized that living also had great benefit in that it allowed him to continue to work with the church in Europe so that it would grow in joy and faith.  In short Paul did not mind if he lived or died because of his faith in Jesus.

Paul as painted by Rembrandt
(He probably did not actually look like this.)

These were words he had lived out in the presence of the very church he was writing to.  While in Philippi Paul was unfairly arrested and beaten without trial in a way that was in direct conflict with even the brutal laws of the Roman Empire.  He literally faced the possibility of death in Philippi as he did many other times throughout his life and ministry in advancement of the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.  It was a ministry that would indeed eventually cost him his life.

Paul really believed.  He really believed that Jesus died for his sins and that through faith in Him, he not only had forgiveness of sins but access to God.  Anyone who believes this need not fear death because death brings the believer into the presence of Christ.  Anyone who really believes also sees great advantage in life as well, as it gives the believer yet another day to live for Jesus.

If you have ever been around someone in such despair that they want to die you likely noticed that their sense of sorrow is so palpable that it is oppressive to people who merely come into their presence.  They are in such a state of depression that they bring down everyone around them.

If you have ever been around someone afraid of death, you probably noticed something similar, though rather than overpowering sadness you sense their persistent anxiety.  Neither position is healthy, and they both seem in conflict with each other.  One wants to die, and the other fears death to the point where they cannot live.

Yet a christian who truly believes can simultaneously not want to die and want to die without conflict between the two positions.  Not only that, they can live in great joy while maintaining both stances.  I can tell you through first-hand experience that this seaming paradox is a great place to live.  To live life without fear of death is liberating.

The fear of death is very potent these days.  It is a fear that I would very much understand if I did not believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus.

Yet I do not fear it because I believe that Jesus has already gone through death for me.  He took my sins and yours upon Himself and paid the price for all the evil we have done.  He then conquered death through his resurrection, and it is a resurrection that we will all eventually partake in if we believe.  Just as he told a first century peasant woman named Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies.”

As you look around at the world today, perhaps you are afraid that death waits for you just outside your door.  Perhaps the thought of dying terrifies you so much that you are afraid to live.  I urge you to put your trust in Jesus.  Because of Him, you need not fear death, and you can live a life of joy.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” -Jesus (John 3:16)

 

A Philosophy of Courage

The Lion's courage medal from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz
Photo attributed to The MagicImage Collection of Hollywood Memorabilia. 

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Joshua 1:9

Moses had recently died, and Joshua was taking over as the leader of Israel.  The Lord talked to Joshua and gave him instructions about to what to do next.  During that discourse God says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

The command to not be afraid is one of the most often repeated commands throughout the Bible.  It is a command that we all fail to follow, and the result of such failure is never good.

Before we continue, it is important to understand that there is a difference between fear and prudent action, just as there is a difference between courage and stupidity.

Perhaps the deadliest country I ever visited was Zaire.  It was a country full of poisonous insects, predatory animals, deadly diseases, and no quick way out should things go poorly.  At one point I found myself standing in the jungle just a few feet away from a very large Gabon viper (one of the deadliest snakes in the world).

I did not fear the viper.  However, at the same time, I did not kick it, step on it, or attempt to pick it up.  Rather I listened to my uncle’s instructions and stayed back until it slithered off into the grass.  Then we walked away in the opposite direction.  It is possible to not be afraid and still do the prudent thing.  In fact, when acting without fear, it seems to be significantly more likely that people will make wise choices.

Now that we have made that distinction, let us examine why we should not be afraid.

Fear does not help:

Fear often causes us to make dumb decisions.  To be fair, there is a biological reality here.  We have adrenal glands that kick in in stressful situations.  This chemical is designed to give us a boost when we need it most to either fight or run away.  It is a useful tool, but often we use it poorly and panic.  It is not uncommon, in immediate circumstances, to have fear hijack our adrenal boost and cause us to make dumb decisions.

Yet there is such a thing as long-term fear as well.  Some fears linger for hours, days, or even years.  It is in cases like this that fear is absolutely useless.  Someone might be afraid of having enough money to pay his bills the next month, yet that fear is pointless.  He must take action to deal with reality.  If he is paralyzed by his fear and takes no action, then his fear actually brings about the reality that he so desires to avoid.  No action means no money which means no paid bills.

Fear is unhealthy:

If someone never leaves his home because he is afraid he might be hit by a car, mauled by a dog, or catch a disease we would all recognize that he has a severe phobia and probably requires some sort of treatment.  Such a person may avoid the dangers of dogs, cars, and diseases, but he does so at the cost of his life.  He wants so badly to live, yet his fear keeps him from really living.

Fear is a tool to control:

Fearmongers peddle predictions of bad futures while at the same time offering solutions that only they can provide.  Those solutions always cost you something.  Sometimes fearmongers operate on a small scale, like the dishonest mechanic who tells us we need to get an unnecessary $500 repair done now or risk a possible $5,000 repair down the road (all the while hoping that we do not have enough mechanical savvy to know that he is a liar).

Other times fearmongering comes from leaders looking to consolidate power.  They predict a bad future unless we do what we are told.  “Our enemies will run over us unless you give me power!”  “The weather will turn bad unless you live the way I tell you to!”  “You will get sick unless you do what I say!”  We must be very careful when such dire predictions of a possible future require us to surrender liberty.  Yet decisions made in fear are seldom done with care.

Sometimes fear is used to spread hate as a means of control.  A classic example of this is the fear that people in some other group are systemically trying to hurt you.  You are told you should fear them, never talk to them, avoid them, hate them, and call anyone in your group who does interact with them by some nasty name.  This example is often used by people who cannot refute a thought someone presents.  Rather than considering the point, they attack the race, country, economic status, religion, or appearance of the person making it.  Fear leading to hate is a powerful and insidious means of control.

Fear makes us miserable:

The final reason we should be not be afraid is that it just makes us miserable.  It does nothing to make our lives better, and it saps all the joy from us.  This alone should be a reason to not be afraid.

What are we to do about it?

For one thing, stop fearing.  Recognize that there are some things in life you can control and others that you cannot.  There is no reason to fear things you cannot control because no amount of fear will give you control over them.

Here is a practical example that might help.  I have no control over the weather.  If I hear that a hurricane was coming to the place where I live there would be no sense in fearing the hurricane as I am powerless to stop it.  At the same time, I do have control over whether or not I board up my widows, secure my belongings, and leave town until it blows over.  Courage can lead to helpful decision making and swift action to deal with threats.  Fear adds nothing and just slows us down.

Yet we will often still succumb to fear in times like this.  This leads me to my second point: Trust God.

God does not promise that everything will go the way we want it to, but we do know that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

Joshua 1:9, quoted above, tells us “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged,” but then it ends with a comforting promise, “for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

This is the philosophy of courage.  Do not fear.  You gain nothing by doing so.  Turn to God.  Be strong and courageous.

In my 41 years on Earth I have visited 31 countries and met people from every inhabited continent.  I know of many people who regret times they lived in fear (me included).  I have yet to meet one person who regrets living courageously.

"Even though I walk

    through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

    for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

    they comfort me."

-King David of Israel

The Smell of Asphalt

On a recent walk with Sasha we passed by a house that had a freshly blacktopped driveway.  As the smell of asphalt wafted through the air, an all too familiar memory came to mind.

I had never shared this memory with anyone before, so it seemed fitting that I should tell it to my wife of 19 years.  When I was a 5-year-old boy, my Dad’s employer had a company picnic at a local amusement park.  There were rides, balloons, and a clown named Putz.  I suspect that the amusement park had recently repaved their parking lot because every time I smell fresh asphalt, I am taken back to that happy memory from over thirty-five years ago.

After relaying that story to Sasha, she told me that whenever she smells asphalt it reminds her of communism.  Apparently, the communists used the stuff a lot to pave whatever needed paving.

It is the exact same smell, but to me it means a fun summer’s day at an American amusement park where the dreams of a child come true.  For her it means the oppression of socialism and a childhood in a country where speaking outside of the party line lead to serious consequences. 

I am certain that the men who laid that asphalt in that driveway were not thinking that they were helping people relive happy childhood memories.  Neither did they think that they were spreading the scent of socialist oppression.  Asphalt smells like asphalt.  It only has one smell.  Yet that fragrance meant something completely different to Sasha than it did to me.

Our conversation reminded me of something written by a first century Jewish scholar named Paul to a church in the Greek city of Corinth.

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.  For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.”   (II Corinthians 2:14-16 ESV)

I hope to live my life in such a way that I give off the fragrance of Jesus.  I want others who see me and talk with me to know who I am in Him.  Yet I recognize that, though the fragrance of Jesus may be pleasant to some, it is not to others.  If I live a life walking with God, I am going to be attractive to some people while simultaneously being repulsive to others.  The same is true of anyone who walks in obedience to Christ.

What should we do about this?  We want people to see and experience the joy of salvation through our Lord.  How do we share truth knowing that some will always be repelled by it?

The temptation creeps in to sweeten our scent.   If we apply enough perfume, our natural sent is masked to the point where everyone who comes in contact with us will find our presence pleasant.  The same can be done with the message of the gospel.  We can cover it with perfume and make people like what they smell, but they will not smell the truth.

We perfume the message by changing it to suit the desires of those around us.  In doing so, we attract people to us, not to Jesus.  We pander.  We do not proclaim.  We do not smell like death to the one group, but at the same time, we do not smell like life to the other.

Those who cover up the truth with smooth talk are useless at accomplishing anything of lasting good.

Our options are simple.  We can smell like the world, or we can smell like Christ.  If we smell like the world, we will be accepted for the frauds we are and become useless.  We will lead no one to Jesus and therefore we will lead no one to life.

If we smell like Christ, some will show us hate and some will show us love.  To some we will smell like death.  Yet in the end, some will find life in our Lord.

Do what is right.  Walk in obedience to God.  Lead people to life.

Lesson from the Sparrow

I sat in my yard and watched a sparrow hop around looking for seeds.  Her head was hardly higher than the blades of grass that surrounded her.  She was tiny, fragile, and vulnerable.  Yet she had plenty.

Nearly 2000 years ago, Jesus delivered a famous speech we now call “The Sermon on the Mount.”  It was written down by one of his closest followers, a government worker named Matthew.

In it he addresses the topic of worry and anxiety:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

In another speech (recorded by a doctor named Luke) Jesus said something similar:

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

This sparrow in my yard was not a fool.  Had I so much as stood up she would have flown away to avoid danger.  Yet, I sensed no anxiety in her.  She did not look worried or even fearful as she confidently pecked away at her meal.

Picture from Wikipedia

We are so quick to worry.  We fear what our future will look like despite the fact that none of us will ever be in the future.

God is watching over you.  This does not mean that nothing bad will ever happen to you.  In fact, if you are following Jesus you are pretty much guaranteed to have trouble as He clearly stated, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”  The comfort is that you do no need to be anxious.  You do not need to worry.  God is in control, “and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28).

Yet perhaps you are not convinced.  If the wisdom of Jesus and the writings of His early followers is not enough to get you to stop worrying, then look at your own life.  Reflect on the times you have worried.  Remember walking around with that ball of fear in your chest that made you feel sick.  Did all that anxiety help?  If so, then by all means, continue to be worried and let fear improve your life.  If not, perhaps you should listen to Jesus and take a lesson from the sparrow.

Well His eye's on the sparrow
And the lilies of the field I've heard
And He will watch over you and He will watch over me
So we can dress like flowers and eat like birds

-Rich Mullins

Fall From Grace

Have you ever heard the term “fall from grace?”  It is a term I have heard used in many ways, but it is usually refers to someone who was once well respected or viewed highly and has since been relegated to a lesser state.  This might be because of his own doing (for example a business man who was loved by his boss until he was caught fooling around with his bosses’ wife), or because of political maneuvering (such as an economic advisor whom the president loved until others began to paint him in a bad light), or because of other circumstances.

Believe it or not, “fall from grace,” is a biblical term.  It refers to someone who has fallen to the point where they no longer have anything to do with God.  It is a state relative to God that can lead to nothing but our condemnation, and it is a state that we should avoid at all costs.

Falling from grace is mentioned in a letter that Paul wrote to the church in the region of Galatia in what is modern day Turkey.  The Galatian church was uncertain how much they had to do to earn their own salvation.  They were engaged in the old debate of whether or not Jesus’ saving work on the cross is enough to be saved, or whether or not they had to add to that work through good works on their own.  It is a debate that exists among Christians to this day.

Some say that we are only saved by what Jesus did for us.  Other say that we cannot be saved unless we believe in Jesus and do good works ourselves as outlined in biblical law.

Christ alone = salvation

OR

Christ + our good works = salvation

Which is right?

It is in chapter five of the letter that Paul makes the point clearly when he writes in verse four, “You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”

Justified in the Bible means “to be made righteous in the sight of God.”  Some Galatian Christians were trying to be made right in the eyes of God by following the law (which for them would have been Old Testament rules such as the ten commandments, following ceremonial rules, celebrating certain holidays, and things like that).  They were trying to have a relationship with Christ while trying to earn a relationship with God.

Others recognized that they could not earn justification and accepted God’s gift of salvation freely given through Jesus.

Paul made it clear.  You cannot even try to earn your own salvation and have a relationship with Christ.  You cannot have both Christ’s work on the cross and your own works as a means of justification.  To try to earn your way into heaven is the same thing as separating yourself from Jesus.

We only have two choices to pursue in justification.  The first option is to try on our own to make ourselves right with God.  The other option is to accept Jesus’ free gift given to us.

The good that I do comes out of the freedom that Jesus gave me.  His salvation paves the way for my good works.  My actions do not earn me favor in God’s eyes. Rather, they are done because Jesus has transformed me to be more like Him.

Christ alone is enough for salvation.

Works alone are never enough.

If you try to add your works to Christ’s to earn your way into heaven, you fall away from grace.

Missing out.

I come back to the United States one year out of every five.  During this time I have a number of speaking engagements and get a chance to reconnect with friends and family.  This year, about 25% of my time in the US I have been stuck at home because of this virus.

Yesterday I was talking with my brother about how frustrating it is to be here yet not be able to be here.  I cannot visit people.  Speaking engagements have been canceled.  I have not even left the county since March.

He calmly asked me, “What would you be doing now if you were back in Bulgaria?”

“I would be stuck at home with even tighter restrictions not able to do anything.”

I guess I forgot the “pan” part of pandemic.  Most of the world is in the same situation.  Everyone is missing out on something.

The Temptation of Recognition

We live in an era of showing off.  Social media has brought a lot of wonderful things, most principally among them the ability to stay connected with friends and family across great distances.  My counterpart decades ago would have no idea what his old classmates were up to.  Whereas I with a few clicks on my phone can tell you all kinds of things about the guy I sat next to in science class 28 years ago.  (He’s a teacher now.)  Yet with all the advantages of social media, it has also created a means of showing the world how good we are.

This might not seem like a bad thing.  After all, it is good to do good things.  Helping victims of a disaster to repair their houses or making meals for refugees are things we should do.  Yet when we take selfies that show off how we helped those on the margins of society or write blog posts about the amazing things we have done for those less fortunate it creates the impression that the only reason we help others is to make ourselves look good.

Those who work in professional ministry or for charity organizations are especially prone to falling into the show-off trap.  Often such people are able to continue their work only through the generous donations of others.  They want people to see the return on their investment, and they do this often through photos and stories of lives changed.  Yet there is a fine line between talking about those who are helped and boasting about we who do the helping.

The temptation for self-glory did not began in the age of the internet.  It has been around for thousands of years.  Jesus addressed it in the first century, and his words were recorded by one of his closest friends, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1)

The temptation to show off how good we are is very real, and it is not without reward.  The man who volunteers at a soup kitchen for the weekend could be quite about it and trust that his reward is in heaven, or he could take a picture of himself with a couple of shabby looking kids in need who have big smiles on their faces because he came to hand out soup to them.  If he does the later, he will get the reward he wants.  People will notice for a brief moment that he did something good.  They will think better of him.

Yet what does that say about his heart?  Is he really a good person, or does he just want to look good?

He did his good works before men, and in doing so he traded in God’s reward for a little blue picture of a thumb.

He made a bad deal.

A picture of me washing the car of a needy guy who lives in inner city Sofia.
(I'm also the needy guy.)