Fear of What?

I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, (Isaiah 51:12)

There have been great things happening on Wednesday night with my congregation as we have begun a study titled "Who Turned Out the Lights." It has been encouraging and exciting to hear my brothers and sisters speak honestly as we consider the letters addressed to the churches in Revelation. Needless to say, this has not been a tradition of my fellowship and instead of honesty of thought, others like myself, often consider their thoughts carefully so they will speak only the things appropriately representing the consensus of our fellowship.

One of the greatest conflicts coming to my mind when I consider the fellowship of my heritage is the idea of making sure we FEAR God and keep His commandments. In reality, this idea can be found in the bible but I "fear" we take it too far in the demonstration of our faith. This concept has long ceased to be the fear of God and taken on a new life of its own. In our previous desire to make sure we keep the commandments of God, we have given birth to the idea of fearing men who apparently SPEAK for God.

I fully believe each of us is either standing with or against God as we live out our lives. Unfortunately, we have taken on the responsibility of defining who is and is not standing with God as we use our own understanding of what it means to be part of His family. We grow up through a process of learning causing us to accept an idea of what is right and wrong in service to our God and when we discover the freedom of Christ, it is difficult to break free of the bonds holding us hostage.

Not called such last Wednesday, the idea of being held hostage by fear was clearly demonstrated in our discussion. The fear being discussed was not the fear of God, but rather the fear of men and if we allow this to continue, Satan will have won a great battle against the forces of righteousness.

Many fears were mentioned but it was common to hear fears relating to what others think when we do something not commonly thought of as acceptable in our fellowship assembly. When my heart is moved in response to God, I often feared what will be said if I say or in some cases sing according to the response perceived in my heart. There have been men (elders) tell me not to sing during the time communion trays are being passed through the auditorium and yes, I am fully aware some people are uncomfortable with this happening. From what I can tell, this is probably tied to the traditions of our fellowship and no real understanding of the bible or God. At times, my heart begs to sing and even be joyful during the time of communion and my fear of what others will say or do has caused me to "respect" their position.

Oddly, my response should have nothing to do with their response and we should each honor God without fear of the reprisal from someone not capable of enjoying the freedom found in Christ. I was raised to believe one person doing something during our worship time was effectively forcing all to participate. If someone sings then all are singing and yet you only have to lead singing a few times before you realize a great many people do not sing on any given song. I used to criticize them for not raising their voices to God and now realize there is no reason for them to participate in some facet of the service not speaking to them. The argument has also been taken to ridiculous extremes when preachers have preached all are using instruments in a service if even one is using an instrument.

I believe my grandfather had it right when he told me to follow along when a prayer was offered and add my own thoughts to the prayer offering as they were guided by the person leading prayer. The usual response relative to singing during communion is born from the idea forbidding the mixing of the various acts of worship and will state singing during communion interferes with the prayers being offered up to God. Turn the statement around and we have the prayers interfering with the singing of a song.

The statement is actually a valid argument and those wishing to sing have, in the past, been refused the opportunity to sing because the official "creed" of the Churches of Christ only allowed prayer during communion.

I look forward to the day when none of this will matter to anyone in the congregation and each person will lift their hearts to God according to the gift given to them by the Holy Spirit. After all, personal expression to God is not something God instructs me to control in the lives of others. It is a difficult thing when we attempt to quit running the Christian lives of others but hopefully it will allow us to focus on our own lives and offer ourselves more fully to God.

I started out with fear and so I will end with fear. The greatest fear I believe having bondage over my fellowship for the majority of my life is the fear of LOSING OUR SALVATION. In the words of Joe Beam, "Forgiven Forever," I can still hear him say this is most likely not as easy as we have accepted in the past. He does not deny the possibility but we have lived under the concept of our salvation being lost as a PROBABILITY! He goes on to say, "if Satan can't take our salvation from us, then his next best job will be to make us as ineffective as possible!"

My current fear is the accuracy of his statement with respect to our church fellowship today and recognizing Satan may be winning the battle to make us all ineffective as we "pretend" to live a life with hearts devoted to God.