WHY OUR NEW BEST FRIEND

WHY OUR NEW BEST FRIEND

Of all Rudyard Kipling’s six best friends, I think Why is my favourite. Why is a question that leads to understanding –  not just facts, but heart. Kiplings other five friends: Who; What; When; Where; and, How; are really mere lieutenants to their chief, Why. Most of you are probably already acquainted with Why but I want to help you to get better acquainted with this master of the interrogatives – especially those of us who want to change the world!

“Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Mark 2:7

Why leads to discovery and enlightenment. In Mark’s Gospel, he records the Jewish scribes asking themselves “in their hearts” why Jesus dared speak with divine authority. Their question is squarely answered when Jesus “perceiving in His spirit that they thus questioned within themselves" trumped their why with His own. “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins — He said to the paralytic — ‘I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.’ And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw anything like this!”

I guess that these scribes would have been stunned that Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking—and then openly answered their whyquestion with a declaration even more stunning – He was the divine Son of God whom Daniel referred to as the Son of Man! 

¶ “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a Son of Man, and He came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:13-14

But this brief exchange is extremely telling. Why? Because it reveals that Jesus welcomes people’s why questions. And so should we. In fact, the New Testament encourages us to be ready to answer people’s why questions with thoughtful, reasonable, and considerate answers.

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
First Peter 3:15

When we are asked why we think there are good reasons to believe in the God of the Bible, we can share these reasons with them (Rom. 1:19-20). When we are asked why we think the Bible is God’s Word, we can share these reasons with people who have probably never heard them before (2Tim. 3:16-17). When we are asked why we think that Christianity is the only true revelation from God about how to be reconciled with God, we can share these reasons (Acts 4:12). When we are asked why a Christian needs to be committed to a local church, we can share these reasons (Heb. 10:25). When we are asked why sex is sacred and not to be trifled with, we can give the reasons (Heb. 13:4). And so on. But not all of our answers are necessarily grounded in the Bible – because the Bible itself instructs us to use wisdom to make the necessary decisions to advance the Gospel and shepherd God’s people (James 1:5). This is why we welcome why questions about the reasons for our insistence on certain standards and ways of doing things. It’s why we welcome people’s whys about how we help people to grow and to flourish into the roles God has destined for them to fulfil. When someone asks why we believe certain things, we relish the opportunity to answer. And beyond our church, I hope we create a culture of asking why when it comes to the decisions or opinions those in our community hold. All too often our community is impressed by Who says something (like, “Professor Expert says Christianity’s view about sex is outdated and wrong!”) without realising they should be asking Why instead of Who (like, “Why does Professor Expert say that Christianity’s view about sex is outdated and wrong?”).

And Jesus said to Him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.”
Mark 10:18

All too often critics of Christianity are given a free pass when it comes to their negative opinions about Jesus, God, and Christianity. Why cancels that free pass – but it doesn’t do it in an aggressive way – it can actually be an act of great care and concern that may well help someone to realise that they don’t have a very good why for holding their opinion. A question like, “Why do you think that?” or “Why did you come to that conclusion?” might well end up being the stone in someone’s shoe that causes them to look for a better why. 

There are, of course, some why questions we cannot answer because we aren’t qualified to answer them. I thinking in particular about why God might have done this but not that. I can speculate but I’m not qualified to answer these type of why questions – only God is. These questions are best directed to God Himself; but, as Job discovered, God doesn’t always feel the need to answer our why questions about His ways in our life, and thus, like Job, we are left to bend our knees and raise our hands to heaven in surrender and worship instead. And in the meantime, we can rightfully ask our fellow man why they believe what they believe and be ready for when they do the same to us.  

And He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
John 6:65

In fact, if you want to join with me in our campaign to change the world – starting right here in Legana – then I invite you to get better acquainted with our new best friend, why. Why, who knows what God might in and through each one of working together to the glory of God in the mission to see people come to know and grow in Christ?

Pastor Andrew 

SCHEMES, PLOTS, AND TRICKS THAT YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF

SCHEMES, PLOTS, AND TRICKS

Most people are unaware that they are the focus of an insidious scheme by an enemy who uses any and every trick possible to harm them! The ancients knew of this scheme and warned as many as would listen. Back in a time when people were generally more spiritual, this vile plot to undermine people’s welfare was frequently exposed; but now in our day, when such things are dismissed as the mere rants of a by-gone era of silly superstitious simpletons, the tricks of the enemy are actually embraced and welcomed by a culture now drunk on the enemy’s liquor of deception. But we hav no reason to fear our Enemy and he has every reason to fear the One who is in us!

so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Ephesians 4:14

JESUS AND THE ENEMY

Jesus didn’t think that the enemy or the enemy’s schemes were ‘silly superstitions’. He had several first-hand encounters with this vile enemy and on several occasions warned His disciples not to be complacent about how their enemy manipulated people’s actions, attitudes, and thoughts.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 
Matthew 4:1-3

Jesus rebuked Satan with the Word of God and returned from this wilderness experience in the ‘power of the Spirit’ (Luke 4:14). But this was not His last encounter with Satan directly or even indirectly. Just before Christ embarked on the climax of the Father’s plan of redemption, the enemy was already at work to manipulate Christ’s disciples. When Peter spoke on behalf of the Enemy, Christ retorted-

But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Matthew 16:23

And even though Jesus had pastored Judas Iscariot daily for over three years, Judas was still susceptible to the Enemy’s manipulation because off the Enemy’s appeal to idolatry in his heart.

¶ Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray Him to them.
Luke 22:3-4

Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
John 13:27

Even after Jesus directly warned Peter that Satan was going to attack him with fear, Simon-Peter lowered his guard with his pride and almost scoffed at Christ’s warning-

¶ “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You both to prison and to death.”
Luke 22:31-33

As Jesus trained His disciples to be ‘fishers of men’ He cautioned them that they were engaging in a supremely spiritual activity to reconcile men to God and in the process they would be opposed and hindered by this Enemy who would constantly attack the truth of the Gospel with his lies.

And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.Mark 4:15

THE TACTICS OF THE ENEMY

so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs (‘schemes’ NET).
Second Corinthians 2:11

There are two very predictable aspects about the Enemy’s tactics. Firstly, he lies, deceives, and misrepresents. Secondly, he distorts, twists, and destroys that which God has created as good for mankind. Christ put it this way when speaking to the Pharisees who opposed Him –

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 8:44

The Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians that Satan repeatedly hindered his attempts to preach the Gospel in Macedonia.

because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.
First Thessalonians 2:18

Our Enemy has blatantly lied to and maliciously deceived the potential members of our harvest field about 5 key truths: God, Bible, the After Life, Sex, and Church.

1. LIES ABOUT GOD

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Romans 1:19-21

The Enemy has thoroughly tricked a gullible world about who God is. The truth is: God is the Creator, the Redeemer; the One who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the One who ‘so loved the world that He sent’ His Son to die for the sins of the world and freely offer the forgiveness He has purchased on behalf of all humanity. In the Old Testament He identifies Himself to the Hebrews as Yahweh — the Eternal Self-Existent One — but the Enemy distracts people from encountering the True God and lures them into thinking that he is their god and even accepts any name (preferably a false name to match his character) that they might call him.

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Second Corinthians 4:4

2. LIES ABOUT THE BIBLE

The Enemy has deceived people into thinking that the Bible is a book of rules when, the truth is, it is the story of redemption comprised of what initially appears to be disconnected stories which, when a reader becomes acquainted with them, are actually a vital part of the  grand meta-narrative of how the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has redeemed mankind through Jesus Christ. The Bible is therefore a love story.

¶ His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him.
John 12:16

The Enemy has deceived people into believing that the Bible is an out-dated, error-laden, irrelevant, encrypted code book – when in fact it is nothing of the kind – because the truth is it is a divinely inspired and preserved revelation from our Creator for us.

3. LIES ABOUT THE AFTER-LIFE

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6

The Enemy has utterly fooled people with despair about the point to living and dying. Our lives have been designed to behold the wonder, the magnificence, the beauty of the Creator’s precious and extravagant gift of life to each of us. In God’s eyes we are all His children. Jesus revealed the Father’s heart for each of us in His story of the Father with two sons, a dutiful but distant older son and a wayward yet repentant younger son. The Enemy has manipulated sin-stained human hearts to enforce cruel artificial and alien divisions between us on the basis or ‘race’, skin colour, ethnicity, gender, social class, nationality, age, professions, and religion. And it’s the latter, ‘organised’ and ‘unorganised’, which he has used deceived people about the after-life. The religiously atheist has been tricked into thinking that humans are mere animals devoid of a soul and therefore incapable of existence beyond the grave. Using the platform of one religion he has hoodwinked certain people into believing the lie that the after-life is essentially an erotic paradise where men can be rewarded with up 70 celestial female sex-slaves if they kill themselves while killing others to spread their false religion. Using a different religious platform he has deceived people into believing that there is no heaven or hell, just a perpetual cycle of rebirths. But the truth has been revealed by Christ who described life beyond the grave as our eternal destiny where we are invited to enter into His Kingdom and enjoy the unbroken experience of infinite delight and satisfaction; or, to reject our Creator’s offer of reconciliation and experience an eternity enduring the consequences of this regrettable choice.

¶ “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Matthew 7:13-14

4. LIES ABOUT SEX

I guess that there are only a few people in the universe who truly appreciate the profundity of the enormity and theological implications of sex — and my estimate would include the Enemy in that number — which explains why he is so hell-bent on distorting it! With apologies to the late C.S. Lewis, it’s as if the Enemy has convinced the world that playing in a mud puddle outside a beachside holiday house is better than enjoying the beach on the side of the house! When sexuality is misapplied, it not only misrepresents God’s covenant faithfulness, His gift of creativity, and His design for human flourishing, it also tragically brings great hurt. (Dr. Nancy Pearcey has well documented this in her book, Love Thy Body.) The apostle Paul warned that untethered sexuality has lamentable consequences (1Cor. 6:18).

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
First Corinthians 6:18

Our Heavenly Father has designed the gift of human sexuality as a profound expression of who He is. Just as He is Father, Son, and Spirit in perfect union, human sexuality is uniquely designed to bring unity between one man and one woman within the bounds and blessing of covenant love. Just as God is a Creator, He has gifted humankind with the ability to procreate through His gift of sex. Throughout the Old Testament God seems to have placed an almost incomprehensible stress on guarding the purity of sexuality that only becomes obvious as the New Testament unfolds.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Ephesians 5:31-32

The glory of the Christ’s gospel is though, that for all those who have been entangled in the web of the Enemy’s deceit, there is the availability of forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration.

¶ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.First Corinthians 6:9-11

5. LIES ABOUT THE CHURCH

The Enemy has manipulated vulnerable church leaders to disgrace the Lord of the Church and cause untold harm on those they should guard, shepherd, feed, lead, and protect. Recent high profile court cases involving clergy abuse of the vulnerable only serve to remind a cynical watching world of this sad truth. But the vileness of our Enemy is that he has spread the misconception that all church leaders are wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing. 

Reinforcing this devilish scheme to besmirch the Church and its leaders is today Breakpoint commentary from John Stonestreet who writes-

“My pastor recently told me that 25 years ago, the first person that people would contact when they faced a marriage crisis was their pastor. Ten years ago, he continued, it was their counselor or psychiatrist. Today, it’s their lawyers.

A recent study conducted by the Associated Press and the University of Chicago concurs. “Doctors, teachers, members of the military,” and scientists are, according to the survey, esteemed “more positively than clergy.” Among infrequent churchgoers, clergy are viewed as negatively as lawyers. (For the record, that last line came from a member of our editorial team who’s been admitted to the bar in two states.)

As my pastor observed, the declining respect for clergy is a trend both in and out of the church, including among those who attend church frequently. While 75 percent of churchgoers “hold clergy in high regard,” they aren’t as positive when it comes to personal attributes and character qualities of their clergy. Barely half consider clergy to be trustworthy, and only slightly more regard them as “honest and intelligent.”

Remember these are people who attend church at least once a month! Among those who seldom or never attend church, the respective numbers on those questions are 23 and 30 percent.”Breakpoint

And sadly, this devilish deception has beguiled younger believers into a tremendous reluctance to commit to their church as a matter of weekly priority. Yet Christ’s heart for His Church reveals why the Devil is so determined to draw spiritual lambs away from it.

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places…to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.Ephesians 3:8-10, 21

HOW TO BE SPIRITUALLY INVINCIBLE AGAINST ANY SCHEME OF THE ENEMY

Jesus described Himself as a Shepherd who kept His sheep safe, well fed, well led, and protected (John 10). He has ordained under-shepherds to continue this ministry (John 21:17; Ephesians 4:11). There is great safety and protection for the follower of Christ when they are in the fold. 

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
Ephesians 6:12-13

Secondly, the Apostle Paul detailed the spiritual armour and weaponry with which the believer is equipped when they have their minds renewed by the Word (the ‘helmet of salvation’ Eph. 6:17), their hearts covered by their Spirit-enabled obedience to Christ (the ‘breastplate of righteousness’ Eph. 6:14), their confidence informed by the solid teaching of God’s Word which bolsters their faith with good reasons to believe (the ‘shield of faith’ Eph. 6:16), their feet shod with the gospel enabling them to transmit a highly contagious faith (Eph. 6:15), and their hands trained to defend their faith in the God of the Bible and destroy devilish lies with the truth (the ‘sword of the Spirit’ Eph. 6:17). In description of the believer’s armour there is no protection for our backs — because together, as a church, we stand back-to-back in this battle. That is, I’ve got your back, and you’ve got mine. John the apostle could remind his congregation, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1Jn. 4:4). And he could say this because the One who was in them was the One who defeated the devil through His victory on the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.
Colossians 2:15

Amen!

Pastor Andrew Corbett

ARE YOU AFRAID OF DRAGONS?

ARE YOU AFRAID OF DRAGONS?

How different would your life be if you were no longer afraid of anything? I’ll tell you: it would be different. My answer to my question is informed by a series of responses by a large group of elderly people gave to a survey asking what their biggest regret in life was. Almost without exception they responded by saying that their biggest regret was that they didn’t take more risks in life. With the benefit of their hindsight they could now see that what they were afraid of when they were younger was never worth being afraid of! 

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6

Courage is not the absence of fear – courage is doing what’s right and noble, despite being fearful. God knows that we are all subject to various fears at various times to varying degrees. When He says, “Do not fear” – it is not a scold; rather, it is an infusion of His assuring Word into our fearful souls which enables us to be courageous – in much the same way that Christ’s word to Peter, “Come!” had the divine power to obey it infused into it (Matt. 14:29). Most of us fear the same kinds of things: being humiliated, being rejected, being harmed, being a failure, being a loser, and death. How different would our lives be if experience God’s reassurance in these times enabling us to have courage?

Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
For I, the LORD your God,
hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, 
“Fear not,
I am the one who helps you.”
Isaiah 41:10, 13

F.W. Boreham loved cricket. As a boy in the school class room he would often be caught daydreaming as he imagined himself on the cricket ground enjoying all of the delights of the sport he loved. Having matriculated high school at the age of 15, his father arranged for him to be a junior clerk at the local brickworks. A part of his responsibilities was to make sure that the early morning train out of the brickworks yard had the correct number of carriages with the correct loading. One particularly foggy Kentish morning he and the signalman went over to the tracks as usual and F.W. Boreham confesses in his autobiography that his propensity for daydreaming probably caused him to be somewhat negligent about where he was standing as he checked off the carriages. As the train was about to come past them, the signalman pushed the points lever to switch the tracks for the train – but what Frank Boreham had neglected to notice was that these were double points with a dual lever. As the signalman pushed his lever forward the other lever, which the young Boreham was in front of, knocked him onto the tracks in the path of the oncoming train! It was around 50 yards before the loaded train could stop. Frank’s right leg had been severed just below his knee. It was 1886, and medical treatment for such injuries were extremely crude by today’s standards. FWB contracted septicaemia and was given only a slim chance of survival. Medical staff did their best for him, but eventually they realised there was nothing more they could do for him. They telegrammed his mother to advise her that within the hour her son would die. Frank Boreham’s mother immediately went down to her church and pleaded with God to spare her son. She would later write to her son –

“Then I knelt by myself” Boreham’s mother told him, “and I prayed for you. I told God that if He gave you back to me, I should always regard you as His own, and I vowed that I would never rebel against any use that He wished to make of you. When I rose, I felt that an intolerable burden had been lifted from my heart.”
Crago, p. 26

Frank had a sudden and miraculous recovery the very moment his mother prayed and offered her son wholeheartedly to God and His service if He would spare his life. Throughout the rest of life, Frank was never able to play his beloved cricket again. But when he moved to Hobart he got involved in the Hobart Cricket Club and soon became its president. Upon moving to Melbourne in 1916, he became a member of the Melbourne Cricket Club and became one of their most loyal members, never missing a first-class match. 

And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”
Daniel 10:19

When F.W. Boreham was discharged from hospital and came home to recuperate, the day came when he could return to work. As he walked from his front door on his way to the Brickworks he had barely made it past his front gate when he lost his balance on the icy pavement, slipped, fell and broke his left leg. He would break this leg another three times throughout his life and would live in the constant fear that this would happen again. Added to this constant fear, Frank was incredibly shy and had to work incredibly hard to be around people. When he wrote his autobiography he would reflect- 

Like the medieval saint, we can testify that we have had many and great troubles in our time, but most of them never happened!
F.W.Boreham, “My Pilgrimage”, 1939, p.221

Boreham learned that each of his fears could be overcome doing two things: (i) keeping his focus God and living in His presence (Matt. 6:33). In his classic book, A Bunch of Everlastings, he quoted Brother Lawrence to make this point, “Were I a preacher, I should above all other things preach the practice of the presence of God; and, were I a director, I should advise all the world to it, so necessary do I think it, and so easy, too. I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the presence of God: while I am with Him I fear nothing, but the least turning from Him is insupportable” (p. 34); and, (ii) walking in faith rather than according to his natural feelings. To this end he determined to lay down his life and shyness for Christ and try to develop Christ’s heart for people by initiating celebrations with others around significant dates and events in his life. This included his birthday, his ordination as a minister, his induction into his pastorate, his wedding anniversary, and the anniversary of his church.

Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Luke 12:7

As someone who battles with shyness, I have learned from F.W. Boreham about how to deal with it and glorify God in the process. Yet, I know that for many of us, fear can be crippling. It’s common for people to fear the unknown. The future is unknown. It’s common for people to also fear change. People bring change. People can be scary. If I could give everyone who battles with fear two gifts, I would want to give them the two gifts that God has given me through F.W. Boreham – a greater vision of the grandeur and beauty of God, and, a holy courage to do what is unnatural but good by choosing not to be intimidated by people.

THE THING ABOUT DRAGONS

There is a classic story about a boy and his dragon. One day he comes into the kitchen and asks his mother whether there is such a thing as dragons. She tells him of course not. But Mum, he protests, they must be real, because there is one in my bedroom. That’s ridiculous his mother tells him. The boy returns to his bedroom and the dragon is now bigger. The boy then asks his mother to come and see the dragon in his room. Shoe comes to his bedroom and refuses to acknowledge that there is actually a dragon there. As she persists in her denial of dragons, the dragon gets even bigger. In fact, the dragon gets so big she has to move around it to vacuum the house – yet she persists in denying its existence. At the end of the day when her husband arrives home from work he finds that their entire house is now missing. A neighbour comes over and tells him that a giant dragon poked its feet through the floor of their house and walked off with it. The father tracks down their house and asks the dragon to return their house, to which his wife joins in the request (finally acknowledging the existence of the dragon), to which the dragon agrees and puts their house and then begins to shrink back to its original size. The moral of this story is that when we avoid and deny our fears they only get bigger and scarier. 

The fear of man lays a snare,
but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.
Proverbs 29:25

In the closing book of the Bible, Christ is introduced to His frail and fearful first century audience by telling them fear not!    

¶ When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. But He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 
Rev. 1:17

And then His Revelation closes with the best reason ever for not ever being afraid of the dragon again.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Revelation 12:9

And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
Revelation 20:2

It is my prayer for you that whatever dragons you’ve been afraid of, that you will now get a revelation that Christ is greater, grander and more glorious than any dragon! With your eyes fixed on Christ and your heart set on walking after Him by faith, you no longer have to be a slave to your fears and you can now live with the constant assurance that God is your heavenly father who has adopted you as His child – and He is the kind of Daddy who always looks after His children!

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:15

 Your pastor,

Andrew