LLLV18 3-26-2018 Jesus and an Epicurean on Fear
Are you aware that the most often used excuse is not acceptable on earth or in heaven? Many believe that “fear of public speaking” is the number one fear facing Americans. It is true that speaking in public will reveal several things about the speaker not usually apparent in person to person conversation. However, I do not believe having to speak in public is really the number one fear of average Joe or Sally.
Jesus reveals the number one fear in this answer by a man who hid his talent in the ground rather than investing it:
Matthew 25:25 'And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.'
The context reveals the man was in the grip of the enemy that fills many hearts: The paralyzing fear of failure!
Jesus always told stories that teach far more than the surface appears. The fearful man was afraid of making the wrong move, or perhaps afraid the economy would go South. He was afraid God would not love him because of his failure.
The word Talent in the story was a term for money. In our time we can include the three essentials that God gives to us to use wisely; Time, Talent and Treasure. Each have a place in our entire life and should be used wisely in our daily activities.
A man said to me; “Larry, I find it amazing among Christians, how many lack any sense of the value of time, especially other peoples, or the why and way of expending their God given talent, you know Jesus talked about ‘hiding it. Furthermore, it seems to me that Christ and money appear to rival each other in Christian hearts.”
WOW!
My non-Christian friend was on to something big. Time wasting, lackadaisical, wastrels, in financial matters, Christians are legendary! Note this:
“For as children tremble and fear everything in the blind darkness, so we in the light sometimes fear what is no more to be feared than the things children in the dark hold in terror and imagine will come true.” Lucretius, On the Nature of Things.
Fear expressed in the phrase, “What if, is paralyzing to growth!
Copyright © 2018 Larry Lilly
Talented IT work. Oral Deckard
Are you aware that the most often used excuse is not acceptable on earth or in heaven? Many believe that “fear of public speaking” is the number one fear facing Americans. It is true that speaking in public will reveal several things about the speaker not usually apparent in person to person conversation. However, I do not believe having to speak in public is really the number one fear of average Joe or Sally.
Jesus reveals the number one fear in this answer by a man who hid his talent in the ground rather than investing it:
Matthew 25:25 'And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.'
The context reveals the man was in the grip of the enemy that fills many hearts: The paralyzing fear of failure!
Jesus always told stories that teach far more than the surface appears. The fearful man was afraid of making the wrong move, or perhaps afraid the economy would go South. He was afraid God would not love him because of his failure.
The word Talent in the story was a term for money. In our time we can include the three essentials that God gives to us to use wisely; Time, Talent and Treasure. Each have a place in our entire life and should be used wisely in our daily activities.
A man said to me; “Larry, I find it amazing among Christians, how many lack any sense of the value of time, especially other peoples, or the why and way of expending their God given talent, you know Jesus talked about ‘hiding it. Furthermore, it seems to me that Christ and money appear to rival each other in Christian hearts.”
WOW!
My non-Christian friend was on to something big. Time wasting, lackadaisical, wastrels, in financial matters, Christians are legendary! Note this:
“For as children tremble and fear everything in the blind darkness, so we in the light sometimes fear what is no more to be feared than the things children in the dark hold in terror and imagine will come true.” Lucretius, On the Nature of Things.
Fear expressed in the phrase, “What if, is paralyzing to growth!
Copyright © 2018 Larry Lilly
Talented IT work. Oral Deckard
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