Day of Praise

Tues, 09/05/17, Godson Cruz Dearing and Father-in-law Bruce Green's birthdays -  "Day of Praise"

1 John 4:18 - "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."

Fear: the topic comes up a lot. Fear of heights. Fear of water. Fear of strangers. Fear of getting cheated. Fear of getting cheated again. Fear of being plotted against. Fear of unfounded fears, which, for the many kids who read this with your parents, means you have fears that have no foundation or basis in fact. As my friend, Steve Wilson, once said, F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real. 

When I was a kid, my older brother, Ben, and I loved to scare our younger sister, Cheryl. The upstairs hallway of our house had a little right-then-left turn about halfway down. That turn was a great place to "hide" (though it was more like "lurking", which for you kids means "to lie in wait, as in ambush"). And Cheryl would come down the hall and almost get to her room and BOOM, we'd jump out from that turn, and we'd yell or growl and scare the daylights out of her. 

Yep. That's what Ben and I did, though, to be fair to Ben, I think I did it far more than he did, especially when my dad pulled the Halloween mask box out of the attic. I loved wearing those masks, ya know, plastic on your whole face that was attached to a string that went behind your head. I'm sure there was a "devil" mask that worked really well, but even Pluto and Snow White worked just as well, if I remember correctly. (I mean, this was like 40+ years ago!) 

But I definitely remember that the thing that made scaring Cheryl the most effective was not the mask or even the darkness, but it was the element of surprise. God bless her; Cheryl got to the point that she was afraid to walk down the hall unless she turned every light in the house on. And my dad, God love him, I'm sure I remember correctly that sometimes I'd get a whoopin' because Cheryl would leave all the lights on and drive up the power bill, and dad knew why she left the lights on. And lookin' back, I agree with him. I actually remember agreeing with him then. It was right for me "to pay" for the lights; it was my cost for seeing my little sister jump right out of her skin. Surprise!

I know this is getting too long, so here's the point: today's Bible verse, "perfect love casts out fear". In sum, there's a lot of stuff in this dark, sinful world that is lurking, just waiting to jump out from around a corner and surprise! Oftentimes the "pouncer" is wearing a mask so you're left wondering just who exactly is behind the whole evil scheme. 

What's a person to do?

Take a hint from my little sister: TURN THE LIGHT ON! Translation: Call on Jesus! Jesus is the light of the world, and light scatters darkness. He's perfect love, and perfect love casts out fear. And he's the Lord! And since he's the Lord, even the little devils and Plutos and Snow Whites and all the other masked creatures must obey him. 

It's as if Jesus is saying to the scary people and things in the world, "Skeeeeeedaddle, ya little devils, no lurking allowed. But when one of ya does get through, it's still too bad for you because my Daddy in Heaven gonna give you a whoopin' that you'll be tellin' your 'friends' about forever."

Indeed, "Perfect love casts out fear!"

Praise God!