Faith or Fear?

Last night, we got home to find (in true Christian Community style!) that we would be joined for dinner by two guys from the "Jesus Christians" movement, Ross & Israel. What was going to be a rushed evening of a quick dinner followed by small group ended up being such an amazing night of "breaking bread" with fellow believers and a true edification of the spirit.

If you're interested, you should check out who the Jesus Christians are by visiting their website: I don't know a whole lot about who they are or what they do, except that they lead a nomadic life serving God in each community they find themselves in and that Ross (a fellow Melbournian) and Israel (from India)treated us to an evening of Christ-centred discussion, which of course, is what we all need more of! I love that even though we may not agree theologically, we can respect each other enough to stop and learn and share our journey. :)

So anyhow, further to what I wrote yesterday, I was able to speak with these guys about the whole "abuse of authority" pandemic in the church at the moment, and it was good to hear about a genuine community by which each person is accountable to each other. One of the things I didn't write yesterday, which we discussed at length last night - was the "Faith or Fear" mentality in the church, particularly in response to matters of Spiritual Warfare.

From my experience (and please note, I'm trying not to make broad statements here, merely speaking from my experience of church) there has been two different camps within the church - both of which I've been a part of. There is the justice camp - the one where we go out and be lights in the darkness that is trying to oppress people - or there is the heaven/hell fear camp. These are the people who fear the darkness, who blame spiritual warfare on all that is wrong with the world, and as a result hide away from other cultures, religions and "worldliness". Now, if you are in the justice camp - you have no way of denying there is evil in the world, that manifestations take place - you see them on almost a daily basis - the difference between that camp and the other - YOU DON'T FEAR IT! Someone once said to me "if you saw a true manifestation of a demon, you'd understand Sarah"... and you know what, I have... and I do understand... I understand that spiritual warfare is blatantly occurring in today's world. I get that, probably more than you realize. But I also know, that we fight the good fight, and we fight the battle that's already been won. I have FAITH that my God, my Jesus, is bigger than anything that the evil one can throw at me, and as a result I'm not scared of it. I don't fear "demons" or "evil" because I know that when the light comes into the darkness, the darkness flees.

For the life of me, I cannot understand Christians who fear the darkness. Who fear spiritual warfare, or who fear people from other faith traditions/other expressions of life or other cultures. I do not understand that fear that if you hang out with a friend who is into the New Age stuff, demons will attack you - because my God is bigger than that! I can't understand Christians who don't want to enter into conversations with Buddhists or Hindus out of fear that you may be attacked - because my God is bigger than that! If you, as a Christian, TRULY believe that Jesus is the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE, then why in goodness sake do you fear the darkness?!

So we were chatting about this and someone said "That's because Sarah, the church either preaches faith or fear... I choose faith, others choose fear". And I think that's it, I think I get it now... I choose faith not fear. You see, no matter what "manifestations" happen, no matter how bad the "evil" you are facing is, you have a choice - Faith that the God you serve is bigger than it and that you hold the light, or fear that the darkness will suck you in.

At the moment, I feel like I've had a real kick in the guts, I feel as though my armour is kinked and I'm battle weary - but I hold faith that the very worse that can happen in life is this:
1. Our reputation is left in tatters - in which case, God has a blank slate to start again with.... or
2. We die - in which case we spend the rest of our eternal life with Christ.

So if you are battle-weary like me... if you don't know how much longer you can stand... if you are struggling to stand...kneel with me. Let's be each others armour bearers. Let's take all our broken and kinked armour and share the load and burden together. Because if we have faith that we actually hold the truth, and that the light is within us...the darkness will be extinguished and we may feel like we've lost the battle but we will win the war.

Let's start choosing faith not fear.