Fear

 Fear 

~Our memory verse was Isaiah 43:1 and our bonus verse was Isaiah 43:2.~

We first dealt with what exactly fear is. Here are a few notes....

According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, it is “To feel a painful apprehension of some impending evil; to be afraid of; to consider or expect with emotions of alarm or solicitude.”  And in the American Heritage Dictionary, it is described as “An emotion of alarm and agitation caused by the expectation or realization of danger; to be afraid, frightened, or terrified.”  
 there is a difference between being scared and fearing the Lord.  When the Bible talks about “fearing the Lord”, it means treating the Lord with reverence, awe, and respect.  Psalms 19:9 says that “the fear of the Lord is clean”, and in Ecclesiastes 12:14 we are told to “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”  
 - Is fear a sin?
Just plain fear is not a sin in and of itself; it is an emotion.  But we can allow our fear to overtake us and keep us from obeying God.  That’s when it can become a sin or lead us into sin. 

Then We went into Part two.....

Apply His word to your life

What I mean by that is we need to memorize scripture more. Now I know pretty much everyone here does a really good job at this--I am the worst at memorizing scripture and am telling myself this as much as you girls--. But we need to memorize verses for those times of fear and suffering. Our living God has given us words to live by so...let’s live by them!! I remember a couple of years ago I had a horrible nightmare and I awoke very frightened. I was so scared i didn’t even want to get out of bed to go to my parents who were just in the next bedroom. So as a way to know that I was safe I started to repeat a verse (and I don’t remember what verse it was that I kept repeating). Well, anyway as I kept saying this verse I started to feel this peace come over me, and I realized that the Lord had come to me when I called out to Him to rescue me from my fear and dread.

And if you don’t get anything back from this lesson i want you to understand that the Lord is stronger than any fear you have. Remember in the beginning of the lesson I asked you to think about your greatest fear, now I want you to compare that to Christ. That fear seems scary compared to us puny little humans, but when we compare it to the Lord who defeated death itself! He wins Every time.

Having a Greater fear When I was about 5 years old my greatest fear was the dark. When everything seemed to creak and footsteps could be heard in my imagination. When I was about 9 my greatest fear was not having any friends (we had just moved here). When I was about 11 my greatest fear was me having to leave my friends when my parents had decided to home school me. Now that I am almost 15 my greatest fear is not being good enough. Do you see a pattern? When I grow I seem to shed off my fears. Sylvia and I are both Christians who love the Lord, but we are in different stages of life. And that is perfectly fine, but I know for a fact we have different fears. I know that in 10 years I will have a different fear that will be just as hard to overcome as it is to overcome the one I am facing right now. When I look back at myself when I was 5 years old….the dark doesn’t scare me anymore, and a big part of it is that I developed a greater fear. If my greatest fear is the Lord then soon enough He will be the only one I fear, but it takes time and prayer and a whole lot of suffering to get there.

-Taylor and Olivia

Separating Darkness from Light

How to Have Discernment in a Culture that Says, "Do What Feels Right to You." 

This was our first meeting of the fall 2016 semester! We started out with singing, and we were blessed to have Taylor leading beautifully on violin. 

Be Thou My Vision 

In Christ Alone 

Holy, Holy, Holy 

After singing, we took prayer requests and prayed as a group, then did our typical icebreaker: tell your name, age, and the color of your toothbrush. We also introduced our new leaders: Taylor, Cecily, Sophi, and Olivia. 

Finally, we started the lesson, Separating Darkness from Light. Notes are below. 

Holiness

1.      That which is separated to the service of God.

2.      A sheep may look white next to the green grass, but when it snows, you can see that the sheep is really dirty!

3.      “Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right.” –Charles Spurgeon

4.      Applecottagecheesesauce!

We need to…

·         Discern between things that seem good and things that are good

·         Evaluate everything in the light of God’s word

·         Take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5)

·         Not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God (1 John 4:1)

·         Look carefully how we walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time (Ephesians 5:15-16)

·         Keep ourselves pure from polluting influences

Examples of polluting influences:

Movies

·         Books (romance novels especially can give birth to unprofitable thoughts) 

·         TV

·         Friends (you become like the 5 people you are around most...spend time with Jesus! :)) 

·         Internet

·         Music (even some Christian music...) 

·         Games

·         Magazines

·         Social Media

·         Advertising

·         Activities/ Activity Groups (is the attitude of the group you're with honoring to God? If not, are you following that pattern or setting the example of godliness?) 

*Note: Not all of these things are bad in and of themselves--we have to evaluate if a certain activity is affecting us in a way that harms our relationship with God, even if the activity itself isn't bad. 

Dealing with polluting influences…

•      Evaluate and be aware of what is impacting us and how it is doing so.

–     Watching a movie: what is it trying to teach me?

–     Class at school: does this line up with Scripture?

•      When possible, choose to fill our minds with better things

–     Leisure time: Studio C or Intro to Classical Music? Random eBook that looks okay or Christian biography? Prayer or daydreaming?

•      Pray that God will help us to be in the world, but not of the world

Discernment in a Nutshell

•      Resisting temptations

•      Not compromising (Romans 12:2 J)

•      Seeking accountability (2 Timothy 2:22)

•      Avoiding “harmless” things that can lead further… (Especially on the Internet, make sure that you are VERY open with your parents about what you see!) 

•      Getting wise counsel

1 Peter 5:8-9

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 

Our lesson activity was a "trust walk" in teams, but with a twist. We played the game as usual, with girls partnering up into mini-teams of two, with one girl blindfolded and the other girl directing her through an obstacle course. Each of these mini-teams was part of one of two bigger teams. The twist: while two of the girls from team A were navigating through the obstacle course, Team B was allowed to shout wrong directions and try to get the Team A girls off course. The blindfolded girl from Team A had to be very careful to show discernment about which voices she listened to! 

After the lesson, we had "snacks and small groups" time, then gathered for singing to end the meeting. 

Take My Life and Let It Be 

Standing on the Promises 

I Will Call upon the Lord 

It was a blessing to have each and every girl that came! We look forward to seeing you back in two weeks for Taylor's and Olivia's lesson on Fear.