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I have had intense, wholly crippling physical pain, even very recently. Much worse, I have had intense, even more profoundly crippling mental anguish and fear of horrific ideations that were so powerful they pushed out everything else, even more recently than that physical pain, and many times prior, for much of my adult life.
My only way when facing such is to cry out to God for help, crying out to help me fear His awesome and terrible might to drive out Satan and end my suffering.
Then, love returns, and I am whole and sound again after my lessons, returning renewed and bolder in my witness each time.
I think much of my current failure as a flawed Christian is I do not fear God enough, so I get up my courage and often ask Him to help me fear Him and nothing else: it is a fearsome and terrible prayer that takes a lot of courage to pray, because how He gives you fear of Him usually means tribulation. But I have managed to keep at it, despite what it results in, and can see the fruits, often in anguish, of those prayers, to my betterment and joy, and to His Glory.
A traditional and biblical doctrine that has been mostly avoided by pastors and preachers for quite a few years that is potentially one of the most potent parts of biblical truth is the doctrine of hell. It is potent because, if properly spoken, heard, understood, and believed, it can bring fear of God into a person's life like few other realities can.
Don't underestimate the fearsome aspect to a listener of talking to the unspeakable agony in the worst type of pain inflicted by God in all creation: burning without being consumed in a literal lake of fire and brimstone for eternity with no hope while watching the saved in ecstasy and bliss worshiping God in Glory (brimstone is sulphur: how can you make fire worse? Add sulphur...) .
There is a critical and unavoidable reason for hell: retribution (wrath) for unforgiven sin, and we have a duty not to cave in to modern cultural visceral hatred of those who would speak openly of the true reality of hell to win souls to Christ: knowledge starts with fear of God, and we must not shrink from the truth and effectivity of the whole other part of The Good News: God's pit of hell. Christians who fail at this, especially leaders, teachers, and preachers, will be held accountable, with fewer rewards in heaven.
The core reality to which the above speaks is simple as it gets: binary, a duality with stark unequivocation, a true fundamental: light or dark, heaven or hell, lost or found, good or evil, God or Satan, spirit or flesh, unimaginable pleasure or unspeakable agony.
A few weeks ago the head pastor at my church preached one of the best sermons I had ever heard. It was about hell. I don't think I will ever forget that sermon. He spoke to four attributes of hell: hell is real, hell is terrible, hell is eternal, hell is avoidable.
It is that last one I want to point to here: all you have to do to avoid hell completely, and indeed gain eternal life in bliss with God in heaven, is repent, place your trust in the risen Christ as your Lord and Savior genuinely and from the heart, and confess Him openly to a world in need.
I have no position, little money, no worldly fame or power, few friends, am severely disabled, living in a senior's facility separated from my wife of 30 years, and most of my family is liberal and many godless.
But the few friends I have are true, my family is strong and unwavering in helping me, we have mostly good relations, and I speak The Gospel and give out Bibles to as many as I can, getting bolder in spurts and fits, often shrinking in fear, but then recovering for the better, each passing year.
I work very hard at not lusting after success, position, money, fame, or power: nothing this world can offer me (I pray often that this be true and always so, especially when I feel such lust rise into my heart and mind). Give me Christ and Him crucified, and pray my words and supplications would prevail with my lost friends and family, my nation that is ever more lost each day, and a largely godless world in need of the Gospel - the Good News of Jesus Christ - unto salvation.
I am weak and lowly, pretty much worthless and sinful, often in my fear self-consciously but a worm of a man with a yellow stripe down my back a mile wide. Aren't we all, in truth, of ourselves alone?
All my weakness and failings mentioned above have but one same cure: belief in and being a follower of Christ. And that means fearing Him and Him alone.
The Spirit is very strong in me, giving ever more vitality and courage to my life and witness day by day, year be year, one step at a time, even as I pray often for courage, wisdom, and humility. As one of my good friends who is a pastor told me once, be courageous in the little things so you can be courageous in the big things.
It is through God that all good comes to me, and fearing Him ever more and more is my fervent prayer: fearing Him whom I know is perfectly, completely, and immutably good, and whose love for me will ensure that all tribulation and pain for chastening and instruction will be wholly for my good and the good of those who cross my path in life.
That yellow stripe down my back turns into a rod of iron when I place my fears on Him and gain my true courage in Him, fearing Him alone, placing my burden on Him and taking on His yoke, Him whom I know will turn me ever more and more into a conduit for the most powerful force in all creation: God Almighty Himself!
Fear of God is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom: fear of Him and pain are clean, pure, and, when properly harnessed, chasten the heart, purify it, break the stony heart and turn it to flesh, helping win souls to Christ as it strengthens my witness and brings me ever more holiness, ever more set apart unto His righteousness, prayerfully, day by day.
Take courage, be instant in prayer, a man of one Book, but a reader of many, and fear God: speak boldly the One True Word of God, and eschew all that is worldly, yet work in this fallen, alien world mightily for His ultimate Glory: the salvation of all who answer His call - the salvation of a yearning and burning world inflamed and seemingly on a path rushing headlong to a climax where good and evil will sooner than later clash mightily once again on a global scale.
Satan and his minions are loosed, and running roughshod, wreaking havoc all over this all too often tempestuous sphere that is our home. But, remember, God told us the ending, and we win. Indeed, as soon as Christ was hung on that tree, we had already won.
This letter is a letter to myself, addressed to and in view of my friends, pastors, fellow Christians, and a world lost and in need of being found. I hope it makes a difference. I do not know how you will receive it. I do not judge: that is God's job. I only hope and pray that all who read this article will find in it some seeds of truth that blossom with the sweet, lifegiving rains of The Spirit's nurture into a glorious rebirth in Christ.
I do know it is truth, and timeless truth that speaks boldly in this time of unprecedented godlessness never before witnessed by me in my lifetime to the remnant who remain faithful in my greatest of all nations, The United States of America, and indeed to all the world in desperate need of a Great Awakening the likes of which has never been seen before: maybe soon Jesus will return and that prayer will indeed become a reality once and for all.
Praise God. Thanks be to God.
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