Sunday, April 04, 2021

FEAR

 

Traditions

FEAR

He is Arisen!

By Stephen L. Wilmeth



 

             Quid est veritas?

            There are legions of us asking that very question in languages other than Latin. The world is not the one we remember as a child. Arriving at the same conclusion but perhaps through different indicators, tumult reigns ever more supreme. Up is down and right is wrong.

            What is truth?

            The answer is not coming from elected leaders. If it was, the seats and the tables of the endless-money changers would be overturned. Their doves of arbitrage would be released, and they would be driven from the halls of false leadership.

            Change would be immediate.

There would be a rapid return to gatherings in places like Kenna in rural New Mexico where like-minded men meet once a year to pray together in unabashed joy. Churches on the west side of El Paso, central Ft. Collins, and Cliff, alongside the Gila River in Grant County, would welcome worshipers with not just open doors, but by the laying on of hands. Masks would be thrown away so that those who need to read lips and facial expressions could join in the exchange of greetings and well wishes.

Many more sunrise services would be scheduled where families of faith could view the spectacle of a new day by praying to the Creator of all things … rather than the abstract and beauty of His creation.

Traditions

This weekend should have been centered on the crowning Christian holy day of the church year.

It should have started with the traditional day of prayer and fasting on Good Friday. The real meaning of Easter, the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, should have been at the center of the reflection.

Daily meditation complete with the scripture lessons of each day should have added to the importance of the season. The Stations of the Cross along with your own Divine Prayers of Mercy would have brought the importance of Easter morning into brighter view.

We should have been taught that constant prayer holds us closer to God. The daily Gospel, the Rosary, a litany for the unborn, and individual meditation all add to process, but the foundation is eternal and most important.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

FEAR

Worldly fear is an emotion that most of us share these days.

If our attention was absolute, though, the Easter weekend would have reminded us our view of fear is misplaced. In faith, it stands in juxtaposition to the Biblical expression of FEAR.

We exist within a divine order. These distinctions are fundamental.

It starts with creation and the Creator. Then, there is God and man. There is man and woman. There is animal and man. There is secularism and there is Divine Soul. There is evil and there is good, and then, there is fear and FEAR.

All the former is the body of Christianity as set forth in constant biblical study. It is the latter that holds the key to our salvation.

Fear is worldly. FEAR is Biblical.

The Bible is full of this reference (here is a list of 38 references). If reading through the scripture emphasizing real FEAR ushers forth a dread of the obvious, then the lesson is incomplete and misunderstood. The lesson of Easter is divinely simplistic.

FEAR God, not man!

Among the many scriptures setting forth this concept of FEAR, Luke1:50 is most simplistic. And His mercy is upon generation after generation. Toward those who FEAR Him.

It is God we seek and not the works of man that surround us. Glorious Word! Now reconciled is God, my Lord!

What we see and experience all around us is not a foundation of morality, but a consequential and improper devotion to an imperfect society. Our test and our objective must be the making of good people, individuals who understand liberty is not just a word but a Biblical expectation.

There is hope … He is Arisen! 

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Thanks to Don, Pat, and Luke for their words and acts of inspiration for this imperfect attempt to elevate and separate the fear of our surroundings with the FEAR of eternal Grace and Salvation.”


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