Fearless: God wants you to have no fear

a reply to: dffrntkndfnml

Thank you for sharing that dffrntkndfnml. Like to think your Oma and Opa, be proud of you.

Reference all 15 words of blameless (I used King James) in the bible compared to freedom used twice. In my opinion, freedom does not make you blameless. a reply to: Itisnowagain

In fact the wise say this:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

So we are to be made perfect in love.

a reply to: glend

Just come down from the roof. With all that talk of conquering fear, I thought I might tackle my fear at a lower altitrude, The leaves in the gutter are now in hell, God save their smelly souls. I really felt closer to God up there!

Ah! The good old roof top experience. I miss that sometimes from my old house painting days.

Thank goodness you translated it for me. I'd be lost otherwise.

Is that a hint of sarcasm? Maybe it's in my own mind. The burn feels real though, but only in my mind.

I was reading more of the 'The Power of Now' last night.
...
I kinda speed read pages that dont adhear to my belief system - strange that.

I read Tole's A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, 2005 in 2010-ish. My brother in law recommended that I read Tole. That was the book available at the time. I wasn't very impressed to be honest. It struck me that people were thinking that this up coming new evolution of humanity was something to be all happy about as some personal boon for themselves without considering that they would be dead by then, and relics of the past like Neanderthals.

Oh well, I guess heaven has a place for Neanderthals too.

Do you find the book enlightening?

The Tao Te Ching seems quite down to Earth. Not promising wonderful nonsense like some other books. But I'm only on chapter 13; 68 chapters to go. Maybe wonderful nonsense to be found further in, but I doubt it.

As for the demon summoning piece; it's about 1/3 complete. But I find my mind torn now. I've come across an idea that would be a complete and utterly devastating polemic against Christianity. It would be expected that Christians who happen to read it are likely to walk right around it and pretend they never saw it. An obvious exercise in futility for me to write it then.

The demon summoning piece is actually sort of amusing, with clowns even. Okay, demon summoning first, polemic later.

originally posted by: CopeLongCut
Reference all 15 words of blameless (I used King James) in the bible compared to freedom used twice. In my opinion, freedom does not make you blameless. a reply to: Itisnowagain

I don't understand what you are getting at......I never mentioned 'freedom'.

However here are:
20 Bible Verses about Freedom — What Scripture Says about Freedom
www.countryliving.com...

Did you mean that 'blameless' is mentioned 15 times in the Bible?
Here they are:
BLAMELESS IN THE BIBLE
www.kingjamesbibleonline.org...

a reply to: pthena

No not even the slightest sarcasm. It read like scrambled eggs to my mind. A lack of education doesn't help.

Demon's with clowns. Sounds enthralling. Yes If you loose your audience it all will be for nil. Perhaps you should write it like the film ghost. So none is the wiser until the very last scene. Perhaps that's what Tao Te Ching Yasmin has in store for you.

a reply to: glend

Thank you glend.

It took me a long time to more fully appreciate some of their words of wisdom. In our hearts, our loved ones are close by.

The connection between integrity and fear/trying may appear rather vague.

My Opa used to tell me, life was kind of like a rowboat. You're out on the water. Three people are rowing, and there's a beautiful island on the horizon. The better they cooperate, the easier it is for them to get where they're going.

Imo, the way they practice cooperating helps to illustrate the strength that comes from combining one's efforts on more than one level. We don't know what the future may hold. There is a certain peace of mind that comes from knowing you practice doing your best.

a reply to: glend

No not even the slightest sarcasm.

Thank you. Now I can let my mind rest, and allow the mental blisters to subside gracefully.


Here is the thread: Are Clowns Demonic?
I won't do a spoiler about the end though.

a reply to: Out6of9Balance

Actually God wants us to fear him.

Ps 111:10 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do [his commandments]: his praise endureth for ever.
Pr 9:10 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy [is] understanding.
Pr 1:7 ¶ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Job 28:28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

This fear comes with a blessing to those who have it.

reply to: ChesterJohn

At a glance, the word fear may appear in these verses to suggest being scared of the Lord. Imo, there is more to it.

Looking it up before, I believe it's translation can also refer to respect, admiration, and awe.

That was responding to your message to me. Over et the word free will a reply to: Itisnowagain

a reply to: ChesterJohn

This fear of God is simply awareness of an ever present Almighty God, I think.

Psalm 36:1, 2

Transgression speaks to the wicked one deep within his heart;

There is no fear of God before his eyes.

2 For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much

To detect and hate his error.

Nineteen centuries ago God pointed out how far mankind had fallen from original perfection by inspiring one of the writers of the books of the Bible to pen these words of explanation:

“What then? Are we in a better position? Not at all! For above we have made the charge that Jews as well as Greeks are all under sin; just as it is written: ‘There is not a righteous man, not even one; there is no one that has any insight, there is no one that seeks for God. All men have deflected, all of them together have become worthless; there is no one that does kindness, there is not so much as one.’ ‘Their throat is an open grave, they have used deceit with their tongues.’ ‘Poison of asps is behind their lips.’ ‘And their mouth is full of cursing and bitter expression.’ ‘Their feet are speedy to shed blood.’ ‘Ruin and misery are in their ways, and they have not known the way of peace.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’”​—Rom. 3:9-18.

In the above portion of his letter that was written to the Christian congregation in ancient Rome, the apostle Paul was making quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures that were all written under inspiration more than 450 years before the writing of his letter about the year 56 C.E. For example, Paul quotes from Isaiah 59:7-20. This indicates that the situation was already quite bad away back there in his day, not only with reference to mankind in general, but especially with regard to those who claimed to be the people of Jehovah God, namely, the Jews, or Israelites. Well, then, today, more than 19 centuries after Paul wrote such things to the Christian congregation in the imperial capital of Rome, what ought we to expect the moral and religious condition of the world to be, not leaving out the section that is called Christendom? What the plain-speaking newspapers and magazines galore reveal to us about it is quite shocking, yes, terrifying.

According to the source of its name. Christendom ought to be imitating Christ Jesus and living up to his teachings.* The nations that make up Christendom ought to know how to do this. Among such so-called Christian nations Bibles, and particularly copies of the “New Testament,” circulate by the hundreds of millions of copies in all the known languages of their realm. Most of their inhabitants know how to read those inspired Scriptures so as to learn how to be a Christian. Since Christendom identifies herself with Christ and claims to be his congregation, her failure to follow the example of Christ brands her as a hypocrite. Her social, moral, religious state is like that of the once “chosen people” of Jehovah God in the days of the prophet Isaiah 800 years before Christianity came upon the earthly scene.

Really, Christendom’s sorry state parallels that of Israel in Isaiah’s day, for she claims to have replaced Israel as the chosen people of God. So, as we read certain chapters of Isaiah’s prophecy, we can have in mind their larger application to Christendom. Did Isaiah’s God look upon Israel of the prophet’s time as being hypocritical and needing spiritual recuperation? Let Jehovah God state his findings!

Comes God’s command to Isaiah: “Call out full-throated; do not hold back. Raise your voice just like a horn, and tell my people their revolt, and the house of Jacob their sins.”​—Isa. 58:1.

According to that command, Jehovah God had found Israel guilty of “revolt,” or rebelliousness, and other unspecified “sins.” He used Isaiah as his mouthpiece to announce His findings, and this prophet was told to blare out God’s charges with the loudness of a “horn” or trumpet. At being told, “Do not hold back,” Isaiah may have felt like Amos, when that earlier prophet said: “There is a lion that has roared! Who will not be afraid? The Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself has spoken! Who will not prophesy?”​—Amos 3:8.

The dedicated, baptized people of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah today should feel the same way about it. They should be moved to take up the divine message for today and blast it out over a far-reaching area. Let them tell out that there is worldwide rebelliousness against the Sovereign Lord of the universe, who requires his people to be loyal and to avoid worldly sins. That explains why this hard message is being heralded earth wide. By heeding it the hearers can be helped to find recuperation.

Thirty Identifying Marks of False Christian Religions

False Religion is a Snare and a Racket

Isaiah chapter 45: I AM JEHOVAH, and there is no one else. ♫

*: see also my latest addition to the thread "Close friendship with Jehovah belongs to those who fear him." —Psalms 25v14. Especially under the heading "Jesus’ Fear of God".

a reply to: dffrntkndfnml

it is all of them but when a man fears for his life no better time than to fear him who not only can kill the body but both the SOUL and BODY in HELL. Be afraid be really afraid.

a reply to: Out6of9Balance

try and make it mean anything but believe what it says, where it says it, how it says it.

a reply to: whereislogic

JW cult member wont be in heaven and they wont inherit the earth. They will go to hell like as quick as a Roman Catholic Baalite priest, pope and member, a Buddhist, Hindu, animist or new age I am cultist. All want you to believe that you can get to heaven by works in this age.

Good luck with that.

originally posted by: ChesterJohn
Ps 111:10 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do [his commandments]: his praise endureth for ever.
Pr 9:10 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy [is] understanding.
Pr 1:7 ¶ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Job 28:28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

I took another look.I get the impression The hebrew yirat suggests more of an novel kind of wonder.A mystical awe of the divine.

ourrabbijesus.com...

Often Christians interpret “the Fear of the LORD” as the fear of the punishment that God could give us for our deeds. Certainly, we will all stand before God’s judgment when we die. But if you know that Christ has paid for your sins, you should not have this kind of fear anymore. This is what John preaches against when he says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18).

The rabbis often spoke of the “fear of the Lord” — Yirat Adonai — but they always thought of it in terms of the most positive sense of the word yirah. They defined it as awe and reverence for God that motivates us to do his will.

They pointed out that fearing God’s punishment is actually an inferior understanding, because at its core it is self-centered. It doesn’t even focus on God. Rather it looks at God only through the lens of your own interests, by asking what will happen to you because of God’s knowledge of your deeds.

I think you were alluding to Mathew 10:28 with these words:

originally posted by: ChesterJohn
a reply to: dffrntkndfnml
it is all of them but when a man fears for his life no better time than to fear him who not only can kill the body but both the SOUL and BODY in HELL. Be afraid be really afraid.

It can be be viewed from some different angles too.I used to suspect some kind of Satan or even the Lord himself was to be feared here. Imo, it's a different kind of fear then the one brought up in those old testament verses.

More recently, it strikes me as a reminder to practice being vigilant with my own thoughts and actions, having the perspective that man invites his own hardship by going against the Natural laws God rules through.

Even for those who are still young in their faith, they can practice loving Good and following the Golden rule. This will often present opportunities to develope the experience and insights, that encourage further spiritual growth.

Somebody can feel very naked when they start to feel God's presence in their lives more personally. Acknowledging that can be very scary, though ultimately I believe God yearns for us to be close. I think that kind of fear best serves as a stepping stone to a more intimate relationship.

I feel it's important to bring up the context of the verses.Verses about fear in the bible, tend to come up when individuals are going through a dark night of the soul.It's challenging try to reassure them sometimes.

a reply to: dffrntkndfnml

Yep anything but believe it as it is written. Notice how you have to find another meaning to ease your conscience. The context shows that a fool does not fear God and is under his wrath. Being good and following the golden rule do not get you to heaven in and of themselves that would be your own righteousness and not that of Christ Jesus. They who are in the dark night are there because of not fearing God and sinning against him and his words, that is the context.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

Hi Chester.At this point in my journey, I just don't see fear in the sense of being scared as the primary intent behind those verses from the OT. Looking over those verses, I think they would of used the word pachad or another word if they were intending on conveying fear with a sense of dread or panic.

The awe and wonder one can find as they grow closer to God, encourages a more holistic view of spirituality. Fear in the traditional sense, could be a stumbling block. Maybe it's just me, I don't find learning under duress to be a preferred model of higher education.

I don't believe anyone can earn their salvation, grace being a gift from God.I am confident that loving Good, and practicing the Golden Rule set the stage for further learning.When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

a reply to: dffrntkndfnml

I trembled at the knowledge that my sin was sending me to hell. My faith on Christ was because I had no way to save myself or pay for my sins so I trusted in the work of Jesus Christ. Now my fears are eased and I developed a relationship with God through Christ Jesus. I may do that which is in the law but I realize it is not I but Christ in me.

I do not have to practice anything. As God's word grows in my heart through reading and studying I learn more and more that his grace is sufficient and I can add nothing to that Grace.