“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
