Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear Part 17

A. Why is the transfigured Christ "Christ in his purest form"?

B. How can a mental picture of the transfigured Christ change the way you respond to adversity?

3. "Christ has no counterparts. Only one tabernacle should be built, because only one person on the mountain deserved to be honored."

A. Do you believe that Jesus Christ has no counterparts? Explain.

B. Name another occasion when G.o.d emphasized that Christ should be honored over others.

4. "Fire on the mountain led to fear on the mountain. A holy, healthy fear. Peter, James, and John experienced a fortifying terror, a stabilizing reverence of the one and only G.o.d."

A. What kind of terror can fortify you in your faith? How can a true reverence of G.o.d give you stability in times of uncertainty and fear?

B. What Old Testament person also experienced fire on a mountain? How did it affect his view of G.o.d? How did it change his life?

5. "How long since you felt this fear? Since a fresh understanding of Christ buckled your knees and emptied your lungs? Since a glimpse of him left you speechless and breathless? If it's been a while, that explains your fears. When Christ is great, our fears are not."

A. Answer the questions above.

B. How does a vision of a great Christ diminish our fears?

EXPOSING FEAR.

1. Read Matthew 17:18.

A. Why do you suppose Jesus wanted his three closest disciples to see him transfigured just before his death?

B. How can fear be both healthy and holy? From where does this kind of fear come? What did Jesus mean when he told the disciples not to be afraid?

2. Read 1 Timothy 6:1316.

A. What does it mean to you that G.o.d dwells in unapproachable light?

B. What impression do you suppose verses 1516 are designed to have upon our minds? What kind of fear does this image generate and for what reason?

3. Read 2 Peter 1:1619.

A. What impression did the Transfiguration make on Peter?

B. What application does Peter make in verse 19? How can his guidance lead us into a holy, healthy, helpful fear?

BATTLING FEAR.

Carefully study and compare the four major accounts of the Transfiguration found in the Bible: Matthew 17:18; Mark 9:28; Luke 9:2836; 2 Peter 1:1618. Make a list of the story elements you find there. Then take time to ponder not only the event of the Transfiguration but how it affected Peter, James, and John. And keep in mind the following statement from Max: "Stare long and longingly at the Bonfire, the Holy One, the Highest One, the Only One. As you do, all your fears, save the fear of Christ himself, will melt like ice cubes on a summer sidewalk."

CHAPTER 15.

Conclusion William's Psalm EXAMINING FEAR.

1. "Fear loves a good stampede."

A. In what way is fear contagious?

B. How can you avoid joining the stampede?

2. "We are the most worried culture that has ever lived. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, parents expect that life for the next generation will be worse than it was for them."

A. Why do you think our culture worries so much?

B. Do you expect that life for the next generation will be worse than it is for you? Explain.

3. "Let's be among those who stay calm. Let's recognize danger but not be overwhelmed. Acknowledge threats but refuse to be defined by them."

A. Describe some ways you can recognize danger but not be overwhelmed by it.

B. How can you make sure that threats will not define you or your behavior?

4. "Enough of these shouts of despair, wails of doom. Why pay heed to the doomsdayer on Wall Street or the purveyor of gloom in the newspaper? We will incline our ears elsewhere: upward. We will turn to our Maker, and because we do, we will fear less."

A. Would meditating on the Wall Street Journal or on the Bible give you more hope? Why?

B. How does fixing your eyes on your Maker help you fear less?

5. "The Lord will never leave His people. / The Bible is His word. / The Lord is a good leader. / The Lord who loves you. / And He will not forsake His people."

A. What does it mean to you that the Lord will never leave you or forsake you?

B. In what way(s) has the Lord been a good leader for you?

EXPOSING FEAR.

1. Read Proverbs 29:25.

A. What is the outcome of fearing people?

B. What is the outcome of trusting in G.o.d, despite one's fear?

2. Read Isaiah 8:1214.

A. Against what fears did Isaiah caution his countrymen?

B. What fear were they to cultivate?

C. How would this righteous fear help them in the here and now?

3. Read Hebrews 13:56.

A. What reason does the writer give for being content with whatever we have?

B. What promise does the writer give us?

C. How does he want us to respond to this promise?

BATTLING FEAR.

For one week meditate several times a day on a single verse of Scripture from G.o.d's own mouth: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb. 13:5). At the end of each day, spend at least ten minutes praising him for his eternal commitment to you.

Notes.

CHAPTER 1: WHY ARE WE AFRAID?.

1.The Report Newsmagazine, January 22, 2001, Candis McLean. http://www.findarticles. com/plarticles/m_hb3543/is_2001/01/ai_n8359052?tag=content;col1 2. Sh.e.l.ley Wachsmann, The Sea of Galilee Boat: An Extraordinary 2000 Year Old Discovery (New York: Plenum Press, 1995), 32628.

3. Walter Brueggemann, "The Liturgy of Abundance, the Myth of Scarcity," Christian Century, March 24-31, 1999,http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?t.i.tle=533.

CHAPTER 2: THE VILLAGERS OF SIILTSVILLE.

1. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Face Your Fear: Living with Courage in an Age of Caution (New York: St Martin's Griffin, 2004), 21.

2. John Bentley, e-mail message to author. Used by permission.

3. E-mail message to Women of Faith, September 6, 2008. Used by permission.

CHAPTER 3: G.o.d's TICKED OFF AT ME.

1. Ken Rodriguez, "History Keeps Digging Its Horns into Texas Receiver," San Antonio Express-News, October 26, 2001.

2. Calvin Miller, Into the Depths of G.o.d: Where Eyes See the Invisible, Ears Hear the Inaudible, and Minds Conceive the Inconceivable (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 2000), 135.

CHAPTER 4: WOE, BE GONE.

1. Bradford Torrey, "Not So in Haste, My Heart," The Boston Transcript, 1875, CyberHymnal.org, http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/n/s/nsinhamh.htm.

CHAPTER 6: I'M SINKING FAST.

1. Sh.e.l.ley Wachsmann, The Sea of Galilee Boat: An Extraordinary 2000 Year Old Discovery (New York: Plenum Press, 1995), 39, 121.

2. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1952), 12324. C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1942, 1943, 1944, 1952. Extract reprinted by permission.

CHAPTER 7: THERE'S A DRAGON IN MY CLOSET.

1. Joshua Previn and David Borgenicht, The Complete Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007).

2. Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him the Savior (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), 105.

3. Pierre Benoit, The Pa.s.sion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, trans. Benet Weatherhead (New York: Herder and Herder, 1969), 10, as quoted by Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary, vol. 2, The Churchbook: Matthew 1328 (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1990), 979.

4. Bruner, The Churchbook, 978.

5. Yann Martel, Life of Pi (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2001), 160. Copyright by Yann Martel. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.