Psalms 27 "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD. Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD."

Wait on the Lord! If we will but Wait on the Lord we won't have anything to be afraid of. Nothing to fear in life. But many of our problems come from not being willing to wait! We get in a big rush and take things in our own hands, then we make a mess of things. We are not a patient people. We need to learn to practice patience and wait on the Lord. Then we will have nothing to fear for we can be sure that every thing is in His hands.

Psalms 56:4 "In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me."

Psalms 118:6 "The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?"

If God be for us, who can be against us? Why should we fear man when God is on our side? I'm not saying we should take foolish risks by going to bed and leaving our doors unlocked at night. What I am saying, though, is that we should not fear persecution or ridicule from others for Christ's sake. So many times we won't offer a blessing over our food in a public place for fear of what others will think about us. We fear other people's opinion about the things we do (or don't do) and the places we go. And we fear people from other countries, what they may do if we offend their cultures with our religious beliefs. We have allowed them into our great country and allowed them to ridicule our country, our flag and our God so that we might not offend them or their religious beliefs. It's time we stopped trying to coexist with other religions. It's time we stopped trying to just get along with people who don't believe in our God. We need to start standing up for what we believe in. I'm not advising you to go out and pick a fight with someone who is worshipping a false god or a cult member because I firmly believe in loving people into the fold of God. I'm simply saying we should not sit idly by and let people trash our religious beliefs. We have fallen asleep and allowed the government to remove prayer from our schools and the Ten Commandments from public places. Maybe from laziness but maybe, too, from fearfulness to take a stand. It's time for Christians to become bold.

Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding."

Psalms 111:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever."

The fear of The Lord. Do you fear God? But "God is a God of love," you say. Yes, He is. And that's the only way many people see God today. But God can also be a God of wrath. To have a knowledge and an understanding that God's love and mercy will not always strive with man is to have a healthy fear of the Lord and is wise. This scripture does not mean we are to live our lives in fear that God is just waiting until we do something wrong so He can blot us out of the book of life as some ministers preach. That's not how it works. Do you remember the old TV show "Leave It To Beaver"? Beaver was always afraid to go to his father and confess his mistakes because he knew he would be punished, but he was never afraid his dad would disown him, was he? Do you really think God has less compassion than an earthly father? God is not going to disown you. He is going to forgive you, just as the prodigal son's father did when he returned home full of remorse, begging forgiveness. Never be afraid to return to God. We should love God and want to obey Him and keep his laws and His commands and at the same time have a certain amount of fear of the consequence of not keeping those laws and commands.

Hebrews 2:15 "And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

The fear of death can take the joy from life. If you go on vacation and the whole trip you are afraid you are going to have an accident, then fear will ruin the whole vacation. Likewise, if on your journey through life you are always thinking about death, you will not be able to fully enjoy the journey. Death is something none of us have any control over. I tried to explain this concept to my seven-year-old grandson just last week. There is no sense worrying about or fearing death because only God has control over that - it is out of our hands.

I always taught my children as they were growing up, "There's no sense in beating your head against the wall worrying about things you have no control over." If there's something you can change, work on it. If there's nothing you can do about it, leave it alone. With just a few exceptions, death is fixed by God. There is a time appointed to man to die and that appointed time is out of our control and thinking about it and worrying about it won't change it. All we can do is make the best use of the time we have on earth and make sure we are ready to depart when the time comes. We don't know for sure what lies on the other side but we do know who waits on the other side and that is enough!