Don’t Read This

Most of us find it annoying when we are told not to read something. It’s annoying because human nature doesn’t like being told what to do. Besides, if you do stop reading, you will have no idea what this is about, and that’s annoying. My point is that you and I are very predictable. We don’t like to think of ourselves as being that, but we are.

If we are placed in a room and subjected to lights and noise, day in and day out, we will navigate to a corner and get into a fetal position. That’s where we will find security. That’s predictable. It’s predictability that causes a surgeon to mark your skin, and cut into you knowing the exact position of your liver or your gall bladder. He can expect those organs to be in place, because God made each of us of the same material. Of course, an atheist would disagree that God made us. They are very predictable.

It is because of this unavoidability that I know that every sane person on this earth dreads death. No matter what they say about not caring about death, not believing, not fearing, they are tormented by "the fear of death." Here’s what the human instruction Book says: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Recently, I saw a TV anchor lowered at a great speed from a high building in Las Vegas. He did the stunt as a “dare.” He said that he was terrified, but that he overcame his natural fear because he had great faith in the Hollywood experts, and in the high tech machinery that released the cable.

The complete antidote to fear is faith. It’s more than a belief. It’s a "trust," and those who repent and trust in Jesus Christ are delivered not only from the power of death, but from the tormenting fear that plagues this tragic human race.