GBC Community Update: Understanding fear

​Good afternoon! I hope you’re making this a great week.  Thank you to all those who’ve wished Alec and Jazz well as they begin their new journey pastoring at Huron Park Baptist Church.  I appreciate also those of you who’ve prayed for him (and all my family) over the years. It really does mean a lot.  I’m excited to see how God works in this but have to confess I’ll miss having them around here at GBC. This really is a great family here!
 
 
Join us on Sunday
This Sunday I’ll  be speaking on the church at Philadelphia. They were doing a good job despite the challenges they faced, which is a great encouragement. Join me and find out why God assessed them this way. You can join us here at 11am or by tuning in on our livestream.
Here’s a quick reminder: you don’t need a Facebook account to join us.  You can connect direct by clicking on LIVE or else you can link to it through our website. Here’s a link to join in:
https://www.guelphbiblechapel.ca/sunday.html
 
 
Sharing our faith Survey Results
As you’ll probably remember, I sent out a survey a couple of weeks ago on your experience sharing your faith. I was really happy with the number of you who participated. In the end it was more than I’d expected.  The results were very interesting.  I’ll be reflecting on them a bit, and this will definitely inform the Outreach Workshops we’ll be having going forward.  On the question of have you ever shared your faith, most say they’ve done it on occasion, which is great!  If it’s been a while, or you’ve never had the chance (or have been too scared to) I’d encourage you to come out to my workshop next Sunday after church.  It’ll only be 30 minutes, so you won’t be too late for lunch, and we’ll explore how to become more comfortable doing it. One of the things that most of you said in the survey would be helpful would be the chance to practice and so there’ll be an opportunity to do that too. Hope you can make it out!
 
 
Thought for the day:
Fear is real and should not be downplayed, no matter what’s going on in the world. This is not just a Covid-thing, its part of life.  The Bible does not minimize many of the things we fear. In fact, it shows that the world will become more dangerous and frightening as the end times approach. But it also shows how we can deal with our fears—both the good and the bad.
First, the good fear.  The Bible does promote an appropriate—a reasonable fear that actually allows us to eliminate all the deceptive and destructive fears. This is the fear of the Lord that we’ve talked about before.  This healthy awe and respect for our Creator puts us on the path to spiritual knowledge and wisdom.  Proverbs 1:7 tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
But many other fears do not have good results.  Our temperament and experiences can contribute to the unique set of phobias and fearful feelings we have. Traumatic events early in life can etch pathways of fear into our brains. Feelings of insecurity can intensify natural human tendencies, like the common fear of public speaking.
Do we have to just live in a constant state of anxiety, punctuated by flashes of sheer terror?  Experts often suggest fighting irrational fears and phobias with education to change our thinking and practice dealing with the anxiety-producing situations. As Christians we can pray, memorize scripture and have people journey with us through these types of things.
But what about the rational fears—the real troubles facing our world that we often have little control over? Do we have to just live in a constant state of anxiety, punctuated by flashes of sheer terror?  No.  When we fear the Lord many of these come into clearer context and the other ones have a source we can take them to- God.  When he sits on the throne of your life it helps to deal with all of this.  We’ll go deeper into this next week. In the meantime, bring your fears to God!
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris