December 05, 2013
Fear
A promotion video clip for AMC’s War Heroes
Marathon, which was televised on Memorial Day, caught my attention. If the title
was given I didn’t catch it, but the movie appeared to be set in the Viet Nam
era. Actor Sean Penn, who played the part of an enlisted Army man said, “Yea though I walk through the valley of
evil, I shall fear no death.” Considering the evil that is in our world
today I felt a connection with this twist on the 23rd Psalm. Thankfully
the more mature we become in the Word and in faith, we neither fear death, nor
evil.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I guess Sean did twist it a bit! That he got it backwards is no small difference. Dying as who you are is a scary prospect. For we are evil while we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Shoot! We live in that valley. Death is all around us. It is a process of life. Within the past seven years almost my entire body has died. In fact, it has died, cell by cell, eight times now. Everything I've eaten to keep it living while dying has died. Moreover, at least four times I was either half-an-inch or half-a-second from encountering a life ending circumstance. And most people can say the same. But far, far, far more can not, for most have already met their final circumstance. Death is, but not to be feared.
-----What can kill your spirit is to be feared, like the Lord said, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Mat 10:28) This is not a circumstance wherein God is feared because He is evil. He blesses dearly and fully every living, perfect soul of His heavenly host. Ask them when you get a chance (but don’t rush that.) God is to be feared because we are evil. Of Him the Psalmist wrote, “Your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath; and fire will consume them. You will destroy their offspring from the earth, and their children from among the sons of men.” (Ps 21:8-10). There is nothing we can do about our being evil.
-----But there is everything we can do about our being considered evil. If we desire to be righteous rather than evil such that we would sacrifice everything to possess any talisman which might truly make us right, then we will be considered righteous rather than evil for treasuring Christ above all things. Christ as our talisman shields us from our being evil - eternal death - but not from its consequence - physical death.
-----Then, having been made alive in Christ, we no longer walk in any valley of the shadow of evil. Those who hate God do, so they run from death. But we ran to death, already, so our spirits would live on the mountain in the sunshine of Jesus.
-----Since our bodies still must walk through the valley of the shadow of death, things often seem glum. But the meaning of everything in these shadows is far from glum. All the death, all the pain, all the work and toil and drudgery, all the humiliation from bullies and fascists and tyrants, and all the frustrations of simply not seeing eye to eye with others have glorious meaning to those who love the Lord (Rom 8:28). You will see this, too, on the same day you can ask His heavenly host of their treatment. For the place of living spirits and their things is that of boundlessness, the infinite, the eternal, the perfect, and the far more real than material things. Our spirits partake of that place today in their new being and enjoinment with His Holy Spirit. We certainly can not hear, see, smell, feel, or taste it yet, but it is more real than the valley by mighty, mighty far!
-----So, I fear no evil in death’s shadows because I run my mind on those spiritual things of the Lord’s Mountain. I take joy in them. I take comfort in them. I take pleasure in them. And my amazement for what I find up there to praise Him never ceases to top itself.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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