“At first I just hung back in the crowd checking everything out. I’m from a Christian home and I am a Christian myself, but, being new, I was really worried about what others were going to think of me. Should I worship God with all my heart, declaring what I really believe, or should I be a little more reserved and just try to fit in? Here’s what I decided: I can’t be afraid of what people think. I just need to be totally consumed with what God thinks. I had a great time on the retreat because I was totally focused on God. I think that’s what happened with a lot of us.”
These were the brief remarks of a tenth grade boy attending a new school. God moved mightily in the hearts of many high school students and teachers at a weekend retreat a couple of weeks ago, and a courageous young man’s chapel message pointed to one of the common conflicts in the Christian journey: fear of man vs fear of God. What a teenager so succinctly stated to a few hundred peers, the Holy Spirit reveals throughout Scripture. Aren’t we glad Noah was more concerned with what God said than what his neighbors thought? Don’t we know he received constant criticism all those years he and his family built the ark? But Noah “walked with God” so he concluded, “Who cares what man says? I will warn of what’s to come, but I will not fail to do exactly what God tells me.” Should we fear the fool with a sharp tongue or the One who bursts the springs of the earth and opens the floodgates of heaven with a single word? The correct answer is obvious, yet how often do we shrink back from bold living for fear of what our neighbor might think?
Peter and John were hauled before the authority of their day for declaring the Gospel of God. They had healed a lame man at the temple gate called Beautiful and many believed their message that Jesus was indeed Healer, Savior, and Christ. “Quit talking about Jesus. We’re warning you… don’t do this any more. Don’t teach in his name; quit saying this crucified Nazarene is the Messiah; and don’t heal anyone else.” What sad threats… but we know these weren’t idle words. Accusations, prison sentences, beatings, and executions remind us there is real danger, but still, who do we heed? Peter and John gave the perfect response: “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
At the end of July a friend and his family spent a couple of nights at our home. About ten years ago this native of Switzerland was serving as a missionary in Eastern Europe. Despite having been taught that signs and wonders were a thing of the past, the Swiss missionary began to read the Word with fresh eyes. He concluded that, since God never changes, the compassionate, powerful Jesus that healed the sick and raised the dead when he walked the earth just might want to do the same things in our generation. “Don’t make such statements,” his critics cautioned. “Don’t expect God to actually heal someone the way he did in the Bible. We’re warning you…” So what do you do? You fast and pray and seek God’s heart… then if there is a conflict between the way of the Lord and human opinion, you choose God – even if it means a lonely path. My friend lost all his support and many friends. He, his wife and two sons moved back to Switzerland to make a living the best they could. Over the course of a long wilderness season they lived simply and continued to seek God’s kingdom. Today they can’t help but share the things they have seen and heard. “Jesus still makes the lame walk, the blind see, and the deaf hear! Our all-knowing God still encourages the poor, the humble, and the broken with words of wisdom and knowledge. The Lord of the Harvest still seeks his lost sheep and welcomes them into an eternal kingdom!” God rewards those who fear him more than man. His words to Isaiah still speak to us today.
“Do not fear what they fear… the Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear…” Isaiah 8:12-13
“I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth…?” Isaiah 51:12-13