Displaying posts tagged with

“fear”

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

In science fiction, alien life forms are always showing up from another world.  Most often they come to destroy and dominate.  In Luke chapter 2, there is a very different kind of alien invasion: “8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 […]

The very hairs of your head are all numbered

“She knows my name,” says Ted, amazed.  “Some of my best friends don’t know my name.” (There’s Something About Mary.) To be known is an incredible thing.  Many a marriage is destroyed when one of the spouses feels unappreciated.  As they take up with someone else they will often say, “It’s just that so-and-so really […]

Consider the lillies…

Brian keeps getting mistaken for the Messiah.  In this scene he must come up with some pithy teaching on the hoof. BRIAN: …Consider the lilies… in the field… ELSIE: Consider the lilies? BRIAN: Uh, well, the birds, then. EDDIE: What birds? BRIAN: Any birds. EDDIE: Why? BRIAN: Well, have they got jobs? ARTHUR: Who? BRIAN: The birds. EDDIE: Have the birds got jobs?!! FRANK: What’s the […]

Take no thought

In 1395, Wycliffe rendered it be not busy:  “Therfor I seie to you, that ye be not bisi to youre lijf.”  (Matthew 6:25) In 1534 Tyndale put the warning, be not carefull:  “Therfore I saye vnto you be not carefull for your lyfe” From Tyndale until 1611 all the translations rendered Jesus’ warning as “be not […]

Spy out the land

What will the future bring?  Blessings or curses? Wouldn’t it be nice to send someone on ahead to make sure the future’s bright? That’s what the Israelites do in the book of Numbers.  Let’s catch up with the story so far… In Genesis, Israel begins as the seed of Abraham then, with Joseph, they head […]

Fear not

“The word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.’” What overwhelms you?  Either for good or ill – what knocks you off your feet? According to the bible, either life overwhelms you and we call that fear.  Or God overwhelms […]