Fear and Unbelief

We hear a lot about Isis in the news today. I always hear President Obama calling them by another name, Isil. I wasn't sure about the name the president used so I just looked it up and found out that the radical group is known by many names; Isis, Isil, IS, Daesh.

What I want to talk about is what this radical group is doing as it relates to God; the true God. They say that they have the true god on their side and they are going to be successful in defeating the United States, Britain, Australia, and probably others. Have you thought about what they are trying to do? They are trying to make us afraid. Do you think the One True God would use scare tactics to get us to believe in Him? What does fear do in us? It keeps us from believing and instead we think there is no hope. Who do you think would want to keep us in a hopeless state? It's Satan.

I want to use a story in the Old Testament, very familiar to a lot of people. The Israelites were living in Egypt for about 400 years under great duress from the Egyptians. This was around 1550 – 1500 BCE. They had no hope but to be slaves to the Egyptians. God decided to bring them out of that bondage. He performed a number of miraculous things in the form of plagues on the Egyptians through His spokes person, Moses. In all these plagues the Israelites were not harmed, only the Egyptians. Egypt had many gods but they found that the God of these Hebrew people was more powerful than theirs. This story has great meaning to the Hebrews.

There is great meaning for all of us in this story. We are all born with a nature to sin. Just like those Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians, we are slaves to sin. The good news to give us hope is that God, through His son Jesus has delivered us out of that bondage. One of the words given to or referring to Jesus is redeemer.

redeem

 (rəˈdiːm) verb

1. to buy back (something that has been pawned). I'm going to redeem my gold watch.desempeñar, rescatar

2. to set (a person) free by paying a ransom; (of Jesus Christ) to free (a person) from sin. rescatar; redimir

3. to compensate for or cancel out the faults of. His willingness to work redeemed him in her eyes.redimir, expiar

There are a great many evil things going on in the world today. I hate listening to the news. Most everything is bad news. It is draining my soul. I have found myself at times asking myself, is there really a god? Fear and unbelief are said to be sins. I am a Christian. Jesus has broken my bondage to sin. Why do I keep getting drawn back into my old sin nature? It is because of Satan's work to try and instill fear. That is the best way he has found to keep us from believing.

Going back to this radical group Isis. I believe that their god is Satan. The true God is all powerful. Satan can not defeat God so why should I fear? This next part you may think kind of crazy but if you can catch my rationel you may see this too. Say God is on Isis' side. Can you fight God and expect to win? God will do what He wants to do no matter which side He is on. For some this may seem a form of hoplessness but it should make you see that you and I are at the mercy of God and rest in that decision. The Bible teaches that God's lovingkindness never fails. What does this say about THE TRUE GOD?

Psalm 86:15 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.

Psalm 89:1 Common English Bible (CEB)

A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

89 I will sing of the Lord’s loyal love forever.
I will proclaim your faithfulness
with my own mouth
from one generation to the next.

Proverbs 16:6 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

6 By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for,
And by the [a]fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil.

Isaiah 54:8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

8 “In an outburst of anger
I hid My face from you for a moment,
But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,”
Says the Lord your Redeemer.