DO NOT FEAR

"Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

Isaiah 41:10 (NAS version)

In the above passage, God is promising the nation of Israel HIS help and encouraging them to look to HIM for deliverance instead of focusing on their fears and what was happening about them at that time. God, in these above verses, was reminding the children of Israel that He, the Lord our God, was greater than their fears. God wanted His people to look to Him for their strength and help.

A few chapters earlier in Isaiah 37, King Hezekiah had prayed to God when faced with being attacked by the Assyrian army. At that particular time, the Assyrians were mighty and undefeated. The kingdom of Judah by far was considered the underdog. It didn't look good for Judah. King Hezekiah went before the Lord in prayer with his fears. Verses 21-22 of chapter 37 tells us, "…Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib, King of Assyria, this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him…"

Did you catch that…"Because you have PRAYED TO ME about …."

Wow, to me that is just powerful! That same Lord, our God, who was with Isaiah and King Hezekiah, is the same one who is with us today. Hebrews 13:8 tell us that Jesus Christ (who is part of the trinity of God) is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Those promises above were made to God's chosen people. Back then, they were the Israelites. Today, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross of Cavalry, it includes all those who belong to Him. When we give ourselves over to Christ by being buried in baptism and putting on that newness of a changed life, we belong to Jesus Christ. At that point, we are also given spiritual blessings. One of the most powerful, in my opinion, is the blessing of prayer.

Prayer is our conversation to God filtered by the Spirit in our behalf (Romans 8:26) and with Jesus Christ being our mediator before God in our behalf (1 Timothy 2:5). That means every time we pray, we have the Spirit of God interceding for us and the son of God coming before the throne of God for us. It's kind of like having our own defense team before God. Now that is powerful! Each of us should feel very, very special because to God, we are special.

The sad thing is that there were many times that the Israelites would forget God and forget to use that wonderful spiritual blessing of prayer. But not King Hezekiah! He used it for his and his people’s deliverance from what looked like a certain attack from Assyria. And again, God was pleased that King Hezekiah had used the avenue of prayer instead of panicking. But how often and consistently do we do use that same avenue of prayer that is available to us in our crisis situations?

The wonderful blessing of prayer is such a beautiful privilege and honor. Definitely in our crisis situations, we do need prayer; but, let us also aim to make prayer a bigger part of our life, including praising God and giving thanks and gratitude (Phillippians 4:6) for what He has done for us and continues to do for us. David prayed seven times a day (Psalms 119:164) and many of his prayers are recorded in the Psalms. David prayed when experiencing fear, loneliness, sadness, and depression. He also prayed when he messed up and needed to repent of sin in his life. But there are many, many prayers of David that are filled with joy, happiness, and great praise and adoration towards God. In fact, the word tells us that God considered David, a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). What a testimony about the life of David and his prayer life!

Most of us, like David, are going to go through a tumult of emotions and situations, some good, some not so good, in our lifetime. The world's problems including war and the economy, along with our own personal problems and struggles, are going to impact us at times; sometimes, even several all at the same time. Let's strive, like David and those other men and women of great faith, to use that spiritual blessing of prayer to build that close "heart-to-heart" relationship with our Father not on an "as needed" basis, but on a "You are my everything" basis.



Anita Bick

With My Word as My Bait and God as My Rod PART 2

The thing about fishing is, you need to fish even if there’s only one fish in the lake. The same goes for teaching. You cast, you cast again, and you keep casting your line until you get that fish, and if the fish just won’t bite, then at least you know you tried. So just move on to the next lake. 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted Apollo’s water, but God gave the increase.” God commands us to try our best, and if our best can’t make a non-believer believe, then it’s not our fault, because in the end, it’s up to the fish and God.

In both cases- dealing with catching fish and teaching the gospel, you must be persistent! There is never a grey area! You cannot cast your line and then leave it unattended while you go in for a dip, you’ll never catch a fish that way! Be willing to sacrifice and give up pleasure to work towards the greater goal. This includes temptations. There will be plenty of obstacles in your way as you try to go God’s will, metaphorically, things like old tires, boots, and weeds that hook onto your line and tangle it, trying to pull you under. Do you remember that playground I mentioned earlier? Well, let’s compare it to the devil. It drew me away from my duties, presenting me with something much more exciting and appealing than what I was already doing. This is exactly what the devil does. He doesn’t like Joshua 1:16, he wants us to disobey God as much as we can, so he presents new schemes to ruin our ties with God with each new generation. But you don’t have to go it alone. We can relate my parents to fellow Christians. They helped me to stay on task, and smudged that tempting playground right out of the picture. You can always lean on other Christians to help you out, just as my parents encouraged me.

Motivation, persistence, commitment, discipline, and especially enthusiasm are all virtues necessary to carry out God’s will, and catch as many fish as you can. Like I said, enthusiasm is probably on of the most important characteristics. Just look at the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8, he didn’t know God, but he was so willing to, that he tried to learn on his own without anyone to teach him. That is how we need to be when teaching the gospel. We must want to teach it! It’s no good if you go out fishing just because your buddies want you to. In that case, you’re not very likely to have any fun and you probably won’t catch many fish. If the Ethiopian Eunuch hadn’t wanted to learn, he wouldn’t have been baptized that very same day. If you are truly enthusiastic about what you do, you’ll catch a whole ocean of fish and have a blast while doing it.

It’s funny how after 14 years of fun and exciting memories, I choose an old childhood fishing trip as my topic. Maybe that’s because it taught me an important lesson, one that I still haven’t forgotten. If I put effort into what I do, and truly care about my goals, I can accomplish anything. People fish for a lot of things: money, clothes, maybe even friendship. As for me, I fish for God, and I fish to lead others to, or back to God. I’ll close with this: Matthew 4:19, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

--Kristina Kohl

With My Word as My Bait and God as My Rod PART 1

When I was four years old, my parents entered me into the local fishing tournament, meant for children of all ages, and trust me, there were all ages fishing that day, anywhere from four year old me to my 60 year old grandparents with the video camera. I remember how boring I thought it was, and how nobody in the whole competition had caught a fish yet. The glassy pond we were fishing in was just one of the many attractions of the beautiful park. There were also sidewalks, and fields, and, a four year olds dream- playgrounds. I begged and pleaded with my parents, trying to convince them to let me abandon my boring, un-moving, un-tugging, un-anything fishing rod, to go to the colorful jungle-gym, glistening in the sun, calling my name and pulling me towards it. But my parents refused, they saw my childish impatience. They told me to be persistent, to not give up, and if I stuck with it, I would be very happy. So, trusting my parents, I obeyed them and kept a firm eye on the rod.
~~~

An hour later I was holding a shiny gold and red trophy in my hands, gripping it with all of my heart. I was one of the only children in my age group all day to catch a fish- it wasn’t even a big fish, but it still mattered. I had a big old grin on my face the whole time, loving that my parents’ promise of happiness with persistence had come true.

There’s a lot to learn from this story, and when I first heard the verse, “All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.” (Joshua 1:16) I couldn’t think of a good topic, but as soon as I came across this memory, I couldn’t get it out of mind. Ideas and ways I could relate that verse to Christianity kept pouring over me until finally they were let loose through pencil onto paper. Joshua 1:16 is telling us that whatever god tells us to do, we need to do it. An example of one thing God wants us to do is in Mark 16:15, where Jesus says to, “Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” So, Joshua 1:16 commands us to do what God commands, and Mark 16:15 tells us exactly what to do. Now, here’s where my story comes in. Fishing seems to be an awful lot like teaching the Gospel. You need a great deal of faith in order to teach the Gospel, because when times are hard and it feels like no one is listening, you must trust God, just as I trusted my parents, that you will be rewarded when the “fish” bites.

Written by: Kristina Kohl
LOOK FOR PART 2 NEXT WEEK!!!!