Overcoming the Fear of Death

When Jesus sent out his Twelve disciples, one of the things He told them was not to fear death. He said:

"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows." (Mat 10:28-31)

The devil uses the fear of death to hold people in slavery. Scripture says:

"Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, [Jesus] Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." (Heb 2:14-15)

It's natural for people to fear death before they come to know Christ. When John Wesley was on a ship traveling across the Atlantic to America, he feared for his life during the harrowing storms that lashed the vessel. However, he noticed that there were Moravians on the ship from Germany, who were not afraid to die. They knew that if they died, they would not perish but go to be with the Lord in heaven, because they had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Lord taught us not to fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. He taught us to fear God who can kill both the soul and the body in hell. Notice that he said that God can destroy both the soul and body in hell. This proves that He has the power to do more than anyone can do to you here on earth, since nobody else can destroy a soul but Him; and it proves that in hell He can destroy not only the soul but also the body at the same time.

Jesus also warned His disciples not to fear what men fear, since they were worth more than many sparrows. This is also the same warning He gives to us, too. We are more valuable to our heavenly Father than many sparrows.

The things that men fear are not having proper food, clothing, or shelter, because then they might die. But that is due to their fear of death. Once the Lord, who is the Resurrection and the Life, comes to live inside our hearts by faith, then we know that we will not die but live, and if we die, yet shall we live (Jn 11:25). As the apostle Paul said, "To live is Christ, to die is gain" (Phil 1:21), and "To be present in the body is to be absent from the Lord." He said he preferred to be absent from the body and present with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8).

That's why he was able to follow the Lord obediently, regardless of the personal danger it posed to him. He was not afraid to die, and in fact the Lord kept him alive through many hardships including being stoned, beaten with rods, flogged, shipwrecked, and spending a night and a day in the open sea (2 Cor 11:25).

After encountering the Moravians on that ship, John Wesley eventually came to know the Lord personally the same way they did, so that he was no longer afraid to die. If you read his journals as I am doing, you will see that his life was like a continuation of the book of Acts. It's like reading about Paul's missionary journeys. Wesley encountered many dangerous situations and yet the Lord protected him through them all. Mobs tried to attack him, and yet he would come away with only some skin lost from his hand and part of his coat tail ripped off. Or they would throw stones and he might only end up with some dirt on him. Or they would push him off a high wall and he would land safely on his feet. Or they would burst into a building through the front door to attack him and he would walk right out the back door unharmed as they were coming in. He would walk right across a room where stones were coming through the windows, but as he passed in front of the window, no stones were being thrown until he had finished passing by. Or as a mob assembled outside a building that he was in, and someone suggested he flee, he would walk outside right into the crowd and begin talking with them. He fell backwards off his horse, and yet he felt as though someone had gently laid him on the ground. The leader of a mob would come up to him apparently with the intention to harm him, and yet after he took the man's hand and began to speak to him, the man would become docile and lose his desire to hurt Wesley. I admire Wesley for his courage in the face of great danger. Praise the Lord for the amazing way He protected him as he went about preaching the gospel.

May the Lord help us to be strong and courageous. May He help us to trust Him fully. May He help us not to fear man or to fear death, which always leads to slavery. May He help us to only fear God and do His will, knowing that He will take care of us as we do so.

Attribution notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB, copyright Lockman Foundation, all rights reserved, used by permission. 

Author's note:  If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Salvation with Fear and Trembling, Overcomers in this Life, Sins That Will Keep You From Heaven, Drifting Away, Is Obedience Optional?, The Apostasy Parables, Faith Works, Ezekiel Moses' Testimony of Heaven and Hell, Pleasing the Lord, Living a Life Worthy of the Lord, and the other posts available through the links on the Home page. You may also access my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Him.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

______________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.

Leaving Your Family for the Love of Christ

I'd like to write to you about leaving family to follow Jesus, as He taught us to do. This is a very important topic, since the love that many people have for their families may keep them from obeying the Lord.

When He sent out the Twelve, He said, ""He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." (Mat 10:37). Our love for Jesus must be greater than our love for anyone here on earth, including our closest relatives, even our mother and father, and even our sons and daughters.

At another time, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life." (Mar 10:29-30).

First of all, Jesus led by example, and did not ask us to do anything that He was not willing to do Himself. He left the glory He had with His heavenly Father to come to this dark world (Jn 17:5; Phil 2:5-11). He also left His earthly family to follow the call of God. His own brothers did not believe in Him (Jn 7:5). As He was preaching in a home one day, He was told that His mother and brothers were waiting outside and wanting to see Him. His family thought He was out of His mind, so they planned to take Him under their control (Mk 3:21). But answering them, "He said, 'Who are My mother and My brothers?' Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, 'Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.'" (Mar 3:33-35).

When God tells you to do something, then you need to do it, even if it means leaving your family. I had to do this when my parents were very old. When I told my father that I was going overseas as a missionary, he said that he would probably be dead by the time I came back. I loved him and my mother, and it was heart breaking to leave them, but I loved the Lord more, and I knew He was calling me to take my wife and little children overseas to serve Him in Eastern Europe; so I had to obey the Lord despite the love I had for them and the sorrow I felt, as well as the heartache it caused them. The same was true of my brother and sisters. My brother had tears in his eyes as he bid me farewell at the airport, but there was no turning back.

My wife and I, along with our four children, did go overseas to Eastern Europe. We didn't know when we would ever be coming back, and we were prepared to serve Him there for the rest of our lives, if that's what the Lord wanted. Less than three months after we arrived in Hungary, my father died. Then just seven months after that, my mother died. Before we had been in Hungary less than a year, both my parents had died. But despite the pain of those losses, the Lord was worth it. We continued on with the ministry the Lord had given us to do.

Closing Words
The Lord may be calling you to go overseas and serve Him on the mission field, but you are grappling with the difficult decision of whether to leave your family. If you know the Lord is definitely calling you to do that, and you have received confirmations of that, then you need to follow Him and obey the call.

There may be others of you that the Lord is not calling to serve Him overseas, but He is calling you to separate yourself from your family in some other way. For some of you, there may be something the Lord is telling you to do, but your family won't support you in it or give you their blessing, or be present for it. For others, there may be some area where you simply cannot join in with them with a clear conscience, and the Lord is telling you to come out from among them and be separate. He is calling you to stop compromising. You need to obey Him. Love Him even more than your family. Don't let anything stop you from fully obeying the Lord. I trust this has helped to encourage you to do that today.

Attribution notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB, copyright Lockman Foundation, all rights reserved, used by permission. 

Author's note:  If you enjoyed this post, you may also like The Cost of Discipleship, Is Obedience Optional?, The Obedience of Faith, Following in His Steps, Pleasing the Lord, Living a Life Worthy of the Lord, and the other posts available through the links on the Home page. You may also access my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Him.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

______________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.