Commercial Break: Facing Fear and Going Deeper in The Present Distress

I recognize that digging deeper within the self is not most of us were ever taught to think about much less do.  The solution to fear was faith and trust in the future.  But we don't actually live in the future. I believe we can't really know the future.  I believe it is what we think we can do or feel the need to do to answer the fearful question "What's going to happen to me and us?"  It might feel good but it does not actually address how to live  and think in the present distress. 

I realize this is not for everyone here of course. And while my personal journey in, through and out of the Worldwide Church of God and all the experiences it brought me personally, we all handle the lessons learned differently depending. We all will process the present distress differently depending. We also go through the stages of anger, denial, bargaining and acceptance. We go through them in different orders. We get stuck in them at times for a very long time. Sometimes forever.  

I hope this is encouraging during these times to some who understand that the present moment is all one actually has in our lives that is real and while looking forward, according to one's faith, may help, it also may be a form of denial and not all that helpful in addressing the fears that are very real in this very real circumstance we all face no matter the politics and opinions about how we got here.

I realize we also tend towards short attention span theater there but a couple of presentations to consider in all the time we all now have to process our concerns, situations and fears as we watch what we cannot control unfold.

There is another way

Living Church of God: Living in fear, even at its most sacred time of year.

Conditions for Mercy: The fear and anxiety generated by the spread of the coronavirus is causing many people to look to God for mercy and deliverance from this invisible plague. While the Scriptures tell us that God is “abundant in mercy” (Numbers 14:18), many today overlook the fact that there are actually conditions for obtaining God’s mercy. David wrote in the Psalms that while mercy is one of God’s benefits, God will grant His mercy “toward those who fear Him… and to those who remember His commandments to do them” (Palm 103:1–2, 11, 18). David also wrote that God’s “salvation [deliverance] is near to those who fear Him” (Psalm 85:9), and the New Testament records that God’s “mercy is on those who fear Him” (Luke 1:50). The prophet Jeremiah warned the backsliding house of Israel, “Your own wickedness will correct you… [because]…you have forsaken the Lord your God, and the fear of Me is not in you” (Jeremiah 2:19). When Daniel entreated God on behalf of his people, he noted that God “keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and… keep His commandments” (Daniel 9:4). When we seek God’s mercy, we must also strive to meet His requirements as revealed in the Scriptures (Deuteronomy 10:12–13; Micah 6:8). During the Passover season, we need to examine ourselves in this regard… and hopefully anyone today who is seeking God’s mercy will do the same.

Have a profitable Sabbath,

Douglas S. Winnail     

Winnail cannot quote a verse from outside the Old Testament that tells those in Christ to NOT live in fear.  LCG is moving into Armstrongism's Passover season, a time where the works of Jesus are supposedly made manifest and yet they cannot discuss the dude.

1Jn 4:9  By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him.

1Jn 4:10  In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1Jn 4:11  Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.

1Jn 4:12  No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

1Jn 4:13  By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit.

1Jn 4:14  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

1Jn 4:15  If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him and he in God.

1Jn 4:16  And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him.

1Jn 4:17  By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world.

1Jn 4:18  There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love.

1Jn 4:19  We love because he loved us first.

Fear of God, fear of his holiness should drive us towards Christ.  Once we recognize the work of the Spirit in our lives, the love of God being perfected in us that fear should fade in to the distance.  As a father and a husband I should fear the consequences of adultery because of the disaster it would bring in my life.  However that shouldn’t be a daily fear.  It should lead me to live according to some wise principles but there is no need to worry about it.

Once we are in Christ we are held tightly in the grip of His love.  His love for us is secure, nothing can separate us from it (Rom 8:35-39).  If I lived in daily anxiety about doing something wrong resulting in disaster for my family I would be told to seek counselling.  It isn’t healthy to live in fear.  That is the opposite of peace and love.  It is no different in our relationship with God.

Paul wrote “we haven’t receive a spirit of slavery.”  The CEV has “Spirit doesn’t make us slaves who are afraid of him.”  A slave is a afraid of his master because if steps out of line he is punished.  Paul contrasts this with a “Spirit of adoption.”  What is fear of the Lord in the New Testament? 

Miserable COG Zealot Can't Wait For A Christmas Shopping Frenzy To Usher In Tribulation

Another day in paradise and another dumb prediction by a fake Church of God false prophet who spends his days bowing to the altar of Moses:

02 April: FEMA orders 100,000 body bags to be delivered as soon as possible, as fears grow of a huge spike in Covid-19 deaths in the US. 

Even if this epidemic eases by July, if restrictions are loosened over the summer the public will throw caution to the winds and congregate in great crowds in celebration of the supposed end of the plague and to satiate a Christmas shopping frenzy in December.  Millions will be exposed to the disease and a few weeks later – especially if the tribulation is beginning, which seems very possible – there could be an exponential explosion of sickness with tens of millions sick and potentially many millions dying. James Malm

"if" "seems" "could": the typical catchphrases that these prophets of doom attached to their predictions to take any blame off their shoulders if the predictions fail to happen, which they will.