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In Proverbs 9:10 it says, “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”

In Jeremiah 32:39 & 40 it says, “I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me and that all will then go well for them and for their children after them. ⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so they will never turn away from me”

We “fear” God as children “fear” their parents who love them. And we are wise to do so. We love to think about God’s Love, but we don’t as often meditate on just how Powerful God really is.

God created our world. He created the sun, moon and stars. He created the seas and the mountains. He created all of the animals and us!

Jesus did not hang on that Cross because He had to, He suffered on the Cross because He was Willing to, because He loved us!

Perhaps we should fear God more, for far too often we ignore Him and do as we please. God will not be patient forever. God gave us a roadmap (The Bible) for a reason, to keep us safe with Him 🙂

Ash Wednesday is believed to have started in the 6th century and it begins again today.  Lent is meant to be a time of repentance and a time to truly meditate on all that Jesus willingly suffered so that we might go to Heaven.

Not only His Death on the Cross on Good Friday and the fact that He Rose to Life on Easter, but all the suffering that leads up to those days.  Think about our own human nature.  Jesus would have thought of His Mom’s suffering and the suffering of His Father.  And the suffering of all of those who loved Him. 

Jesus also would have thought of the good that would occur.  The Saving of us and those before us.  How much He loved us!

Can we truly imagine being whipped or watching whipped we love be scourged? How that must have hurt!

Can we truly imagine how physically hard it must have been to walk to and from all of those cities when Jesus was preaching?  How His back, legs and feet must have hurt.  But because He loved us, He kept going…

Despite His Great Love and Sacrifice for us, some rejected Him. How that must have hurt!  He was willing to sacrifice so much for us and yet there were those who did not accept it and those who accepted it but did not really appreciate it. And sadly, that is still true today!

And it was not just His Sacrifice that was horrific.  Mary stood at His feet and watched Him suffer.  Those who loved Him, like John, also stood at His feet and watched His Great sacrifice too.  How difficult it must have been for Jesus to watch the pain of those who loved Him.  And how horrific it must have been for Mary to watch her Son suffer so.

And there was the Sacrifice of our Father.  How much it must have hurt our Father to watch His Only Son suffer so!  How much God must have loved us to be willing to do that.  And how much our Father loves us still.

This is what Lent is for.  It’s a time for Meditating on all Jesus sacrificed and on the sacrifices of those who loved Him.  It’s a time to meditate on Jesus’ Great Love for us and a time for repentance for us. 

And in a time of Covid and political upheaval, it’s exactly the right time for both.

Many Christians meditate on this Psalm on Ash Wenesday:

“53 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.

² God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.

³ Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

⁴ Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.

⁵ There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.

⁶ Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.”

“False Prophets, whether during the time of Zephaniah, or the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, or the false prophets of our day, all do “violence to the Law”.  They show contempt for the Law, refusing to preach it, despite the example of Jesus (see Luke 10:25-26, 18:18-20) and despite the many other verses that speak of the Law’s function to bring sinners to the Savior” (see Romans 3:19-20, Galatians 3:24, 1 Timothy 1:10, Amos 2:4 and Mark 7:9).-Commentary in KJV Bible

Because we are sinners, we know that we need a Savior.  And in a strange way, that is a Blessing. For with the knowledge that we are sinners, we ask God to forgive us in the name of Jesus Christ, and we ask Jesus to be our Savior. God gave us the Law for a number of reasons.  But one of them is so that we could recognize when we have broken God’s Law and why we need to be Saved from the consequences of violating God’s Law.

A False Prophet may try to convince you that God’s Law is not true.  In doing so, that False Prophet also convinces some of us that we do not need a Savior.  Nothing could be further from the Truth. 

We are sinners and we need a Savior.  We need Jesus Christ.  Now and always ?

False Prophets show contempt for God’s Law.  And frankly, they scare us!  But they need not! 

In Psalm 23:4 it says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”  We need fear no one and nothing, for God is With us.

We all worry-will we spot the False Prophets?  But they are actually pretty easy to spot. They ignore God’s Law and try to get others to do the same.  They can be extremely convincing as they seek to persuade us to reject Christ.  They are adept at mixing truth with lies as they seek to convince us to leave our Father’s Protection.  They hurt others.  They think their violence is justified-always.  They don’t care who they hurt, even when it is their own children.

Unfortunately, it sounds a lot like parts of our country today.

If we see or hear a False Prophet, we need to run, not walk to our Father’s Protection.  Do not entertain for even a second what False Prophets say, for it is designed to lead us away from God.   We need to call upon the Father to Protect us-in Jesus’ Name ?. And we will be safe.

It has been said, “”America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within.”  And that is true.

And we can never be defeated as long as the Holy Spirit lives in us.  And the only way that the Holy Spirit will leave us, is if we choose to reject Jesus.  It’s our Choice and we need to choose wisely.

What is Fearlessness? It’s the abscence of fear 🙂

It’s often said that our faith can make us fearless. And it can! Because with the growth of faith comes Acceptance of God’s Will-All of God’s Will. For as we truly realize just how much God loves us, we also realize that He will always take care of us:)

We all know that “bad things happen to to good people” Following Christ does not change that. But as we come to truly accept just how much God loves us, we loose our fear of anything that can happen to us on earth. Because we realize, that in the end, God’s Got Us 🙂

And how do we grow our Faith to that level? We don’t-God does! For faith is a Gift. So we just need to ask Him for it 🙂

But there is one thing that we can do too-Practice!

Trust, like anything else, grows as we Practice it. Think of any close friend that we have. We didn’t Trust them on the day we met them. But as time passed, we “practiced” putting our Trust in them with little things. And eventually, before we knew it, we Trusted them with big things.

It works the same way with God. When we step out in faith to do something we fear, and find that we are still “standing”, we learn to Trust God. And as time goes on, we learn to Trust God Always.

Want to be fearless? Practice Trusting your Creator. He made you and He loves you 🙂

It doesn’t matter how small or poor a church is. It doesn’t matter how big and rich a church is. What matters, is how filled with the Holy Spirit it is!

“no weapon forged against you will prevail”-  Isaiah 54:17

It’s such a comforting verse, but  it can lead to some confusion.  “No weapon forged against you will prevail”, does not mean that in this world we will not “have troubles”.  We will.

But it does mean that, in the end, “no weapon formed against us will prevail”.  This is only part of our life and a very small part of it.  For we will live in Heaven for all eternity.

No matter what happens us here on earth, Jesus will bring us Home to Heaven.  All of us.  No weapon forged against us will prevail ?

“The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”-Isaiah 49:14-15

Isaiah 49 is really about Christ’s Coming to Save Us.  Reading it gives us much comfort.  And the above verses are just one place in the Bible that our Lord reminds us that He will not forget us, because He Loves us even more than a mother loves her child.

As a Mom, I would give my life in a heart beat for my children.  When they hurt; I hurt with them.  When they rejoice; I rejoice for them.  And that will never change.  

It’s hard to imagine that God loves each of us even more than that, but He does.  And He is always Faithful.  If one looks at the state of the world we currently live in, it can be concerning.  But God is here and He loves us – always.  We need not fear! ?.

A friend sent this to me, had to share 🙂

God’s Word shares with you, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those” who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” Do not be ignorant or ignore the importance of God’s Holy Spirit. After all, the Holy Spirit IS part of your Heavenly Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, three in One. Surrender to Him and ask that He sends the Spirit to dwell within you, to guide you in God’s Will and Purpose for you. HE WILL!!

His Holy Spirit IS your constant Companion and has Sealed you as a Child of God, your Comforter and Helper through ALL moments granted you! Amen!
The Holy Spirit enables and equips you with All you need to be God’s servant – to become whom your Father wants you to be – to live in Him and through Him.

Also, He freely gives you His Gifts, to do the things that He would have you to do! What an AWESOME Father you have – that Willingly Blesses you with His Presence – shares His Love and Peace, that only He can provide!

Do you not know that God would NEVER call you to do something that He will not ENABLE you to do! God WILL not hold back His Blessings for Truly Trusting Him in All you are and shall be for Him – leaving All consequences to Him for obeying Him! God IS SO Good! Amen!”