What Are You Afraid Of?

So, here is the big question; what are you afraid of? Some people are afraid of spiders, others of dark spaces and others are afraid of heights. There are as many phobias as there are objects in the world. Here are a few you may not have heard of but they are real. Arachibutyrophobia, the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Ergophobia, an abnormal and persistent fear of work.    Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, the fear of Long words. Philophobia, the abnormal, persistent and unwarranted fear of falling in love or emotional attachment. That one I figured out rather easily because the root, philo, means loving or fond of, so a phobia of love there makes perfect sense.

Here is the one I was looking at that started off this whole process; theophobic, a fear of God or gods. There are numerous times where we are commanded in the scriptures to fear God and, for many, this is taken rather literally. Fire and brimstone preachers used to preach that if you did not fear the power of God you could end up in hell and burn for all eternity. Fear the Lord because He holds the power to make you suffer for an eternity. There is some truth to this matter however as Scriptures does say fear God but, in the majority of cases, the term fear means respect and honour God. Is the reason so many do not believe or attend church is because they see God as a vengeful and unmerciful slave master? Do they fear that if they attend a church service, the preacher is going to order the saints of the church to bind the infidels in the basement where they will be tortured until such a time as they repent? Don’t laugh, the Spanish Inquisition and other agencies of similar tilt have done this in the past. Truly I say there are people who fear the Church because of its questionable past. Eccleiophobia, fear of the church, is an actual phobia and what has been done in the past has done His Kingdom a great disservice.

My God, the God of all creation, is a loving God ready to dole out mercy and grace upon request but there are so many out there who do not trust this message, they fear that if they give over and it is not the truth, they will be hurt or even destroyed. Is that why our society lacks trust in the church? Do we need the proof before we will believe? Are we a society ruled by the fear of the unknown so much that unless we can put our fingers in the holes left by the nails and the spear we will question or even mock that which we cannot explain? This Sunday, we begin a series on Fear, The Devil’s Playground. Services start at 10:30 MST and can be seen live on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MainAvenueFellowship/) or viewed afterwards on our website (www.mainavefellowship.blogspot.ca).

Blessings
Pastor Todd