The Pastor’s Garage November 5th, 2020

Here’s this week’s Pastor’s Garage from Pastor Mike.

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*Pastor Mike’s Garage-Nov 5/20*

As we watch the current daily, seemingly made for TV, world events
transpire before our eyes how are you doing? Pastor Dave, Judy and myself
were talking about this in the office this morning and I found a growing
knot of fear start to well up in my inner being as we talked. Dave
mentioned that in the Philippines they are going into an intense lock down
where everyone will have to register for a special ID to even leave their
house. For the wealthy educated ones that have access to technology this
will be easily done. The real struggle will be for the many in that country
who have no access or means to even apply, and even if they wanted to many
do not even have the necessary ID (as in birth certificate) to prove their
identity to be able to apply. How do they survive without leaving their
house(or shack for many) when most already live hand to mouth not knowing
where their next meal will come from. As we look at the growing financial,
political, mental, physical, moral, and spiritual uncertainty that is in
the world around us it is easy to let that knot of fear grow within us!
That’s just taking into account the things that we do know let alone that
myriad of conspiracy theories concerning a one-world government or end
times.

I thought about that fear for a moment, where does it come from? For
the most part I would say that in my opinion it comes from the uncertainty
we live in, and the fear of the unknown. Many things that we have put our
trust in and relied upon are currently being shaken. Many areas that we
took for granted in our thinking and common public opinion are shifting
before our eyes! Much of the direction of our society and freedoms we took
for granted are being diminished almost on a weekly basis. While all of
these are very real factors, might I suggest that possibly the greatest
factor in the fear that tends to keep us up at night and turn our hair grey
has a spiritual basis? As I was thinking about this I looked up the word
fear in my bible concordance and found an interesting passage in Psalms 9.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of
the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes; *the fear of the Lord is clean, *enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be
desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter than honey and
drippings of the honeycomb.” Psalm 9:7-10ESV The words that I have
highlighted stuck out to me, the fear of the Lord is clean. Someone once
said if you fear the Lord you need not fear anything else! The fear of the
world is dirty, it causes us to withdraw, make rash decisions, have
sleepless nights and increase our stress load! It causes worry, doubt,
mistrust, withdrawal, and a myriad of other unhealthy characteristics. 1
Tim 1:7 says “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love
and self-control.” He is still in control, our lives are in His hands and
He has our best interest in mind! He knows what the future holds and will
guide us through if we follow His leading! I would encourage you to look up
a song by Zach Williams called Fear is a Liar. Is a pretty powerful song!

In closing I just wanted to share a verse from Colossians 3:15, “and
let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were
called in one body. And be thankful.”

Pastor Mike