“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24: 14,15
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:37-39
The overcoming of fear—that is what we are proclaiming here. The Bible, the gospel, Christ, the church, the faith—all are one great battle cry against fear in the lives of human beings.
Fear is, somehow or other, the archenemy itself. It crouches in people’s hearts. It hollows out their insides, until their resistance and strength are spent and they suddenly break down.
Fear secretly gnaws and eats away at all the ties that bind a person to God and to others, and when in a time of need
that person reaches for those ties and clings to them, they break and the individual sinks back into himself or herself, helpless and despairing,
while hell rejoices….
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)
From “The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” edited and introduced by Isabel Best.
For since the creation of the world God’s
invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that
men are without excuse. Romans 1:20
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
Romans 2:13
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
Romans 2:14,15
This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. Romans 2:16
Let God be true, and every man a liar.
Romans 3:4b
… so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
Romans 3:19
Who will guard the guardians themselves?
Juvenal (l.c.55-138 CE)
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated” ― The Crisis
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me,
if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—
the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
Acts 20:24
After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the Lord to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
Judges 2:10-13
If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.
Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears,
many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.
Philippians 3:18,19
“I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.
Isaiah 42:8
This is what the Lord says to me: “As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey— and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against him, he is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor— so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.
Isaiah 31: 4
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6
See, the day of the Lord is coming
—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—
to make the land desolate
and destroy the sinners within it.
The stars of heaven and their constellations
will not show their light.
The rising sun will be darkened
and the moon will not give its light.
I will punish the world for its evil, 
the wicked for their sins.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.
I will make man scarcer than pure gold,
more rare than the gold of Ophir.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
and the earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the Lord Almighty,
in the day of his burning anger.
Isaiah 13:9-13
