Day 19 The only fear

 Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2

I apologise that this Advent Blog has been so serious.  When I started out this year I didnt think Id still be writing about fear on day 19.  But there is so much to talk about! This might be the last day and maybe the last few will be a bit more lighthearted. We shall see.

Anyhow, what fear really all boils down to in all of its manifestations is the fear of death.  When you peel back the facade of every fear and dig down into what its all about it comes back to this.  The reason Adam and Eve had absolutely no fear in the Garden of Eden was because there was no death. Hebrews tells us that we are all, for all of our lives, held in slavery by the fear of death. This is why we can live free from fear when we come to Jesus. He has destroyed the one who used to hold the power of death and if we truly have received and believed that, then we are no longer slaves to fear. 

Death is on top of the pile when it comes to a hierarchy of things to be scared of.  And if you dont know Jesus you are utterly justified in being scared witless.  The enemy does a good job of trying to persuade people that death is just nothingness, or like being asleep.  Because Satan doesnt really want people to look too closely into death as its a sure-fire way of them coming to faith.  If he can persuade us that we just end and that's that....... well thats great. As long as nobody mentions Hell or eternal separation from all that is good and just and right and holy...  But actually he does a rubbish job because most people, once they stop to think about it, are actually quite worried about death and dying.  I think alot of people fear the process of dying. Which leads them to fear illness and accident and then that leads them to become germ-phobic and not to walk under ladders or on the cracks in the pavement.  Do you see how it works?  All fears filter down from this one big fear - the fear of dying. 

I remember Alan Vincent preaching years and years ago about God calling him to go to India. It was a very clear call but at the time Alan was suffering from frequent and very severe nosebleeds which the doctors couldnt get a handle on.  He was regularly being hospitalised and sometimes needed blood transfusions.  He had prayed and prayed to be healed but God did nothing.  Then God told him to go to India.  He said  ' God I'll go but You'll need to send me somewhere where theres a good hospital cos otherwise I might die'.   I cant remember the details of the story, but I remember it resulted in him realising that he was afraid to die.  If God told him to go, and he died because he went, well that should have been ok.  But it wasnt.  He couldnt.  And once he had realised this he began to pray to be delivered and released from the fear of death.  He prayed and prayed and then all of a sudden, one day, he realised that the fear had gone and he was free.  I remember so clearly that during the sermon he was preaching about all this, he started bouncing around the stage shouting ' I'm FREE!  I'm FREE!' as he described his response to realising that he could now go to India, nosebleeds and all, near a hospital or not, because he genuinely no longer feared that he might die.

He went to India.  God healed his bleeding.  He planted hundreds of churches and we in Edinburgh were hugely privileged to sit under his teaching. 

A couple of years ago I sat for three weeks with my un-saved Mum as she was dying.  She knew she was dying - and she wasn't frightened but she was aware that she wasn't ready.  Lots of people were praying and I was able to tell her that Jesus was coming for her.  She was surprised but really happy to hear that. Even though she had spent all her life pushing everything to do with faith as far away as possible, when it came to those last days she knew she was unprepared and that there were things she needed to do.  She had been very good at doing all the practical things and was in every sense 'ready' in terms of having her affairs in order. But spiritually she knew something was missing.  Which is amazing isnt it?  That even after 84 years of denying God, He still pursued her and called to her.  

Im pretty sure Im not scared of dying. And Im really glad about that.  But I think that probably quite a few Christians actually are, for various reasons.  And most of the un churched world are terrified because they have no hope and no assurance.  Which is why they need to hear the Good News that Jesus has defeated death and proved it by rising on the third day.  This Christmas when you are maybe spending time with aging relations don't be afraid to ask the questions.  Start the conversation.  I know one should never talk about death religion and politics in polite company ........ but hey! we have never been ones to stick to the rules have we? 😄

Lord , thank you that you have defeated death.  And therefore there is really truly nothing else to fear. I pray where I am still afraid of dying please help me to get to a place where I can honestly say that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.  Give me the words to speak to those I know who are wrestling with issues around death, and through me bring them into freedom. Thank you. Amen