When I Came To Myself

Did you ever have fear come upon you that you couldn't shake?  Our emotions.  Sometimes they just get the best of us.  We worry and fret over things we have no control over.  So why worry if we can't do anything about it?

I've been there myself.  Most of us have had fear, even while we are believing God to take care of the things we have entrusted to Him, like ... our family.  Are you worrying over a twenty-one year old grand-daughter going to Thailand for the summer on a mission trip.  I'm fighting some fear over that. 

What could go wrong, right?  After all, only four airplanes have gone down somewhere in south east Asia.  Only four.  That's four too many.  And Thailand is in south east Asia.  So, as I am getting ready for bed one night, the enemy of my soul whispers this to me after reminding me of the airliners ... "And God just watched them fall into the ocean without doing a thing."

Yep ... once again the father of lies speaks.  It's always a lie, or at least a twisting of the truth as he plants these thoughts in my mind so I will consider thinking about his lies.  He's still doing the same thing today that he did with Eve in the garden ... he lies. 

When that lie doesn't work on me ... he brings up some really fearful possibilities.  He brings up all the terrorist attacks by the radical Muslim groups around the world.  And then he says ... "What about the sex slave traffickers that forcibly kidnap beautiful young women in these Asian countries.  You may never see her again." 

Okay, I've had enough ... so I turn to God's Word.

There are times when we must do battle.  This was one of those times.  Who am I going to believe ... the tempter, the evil one that Jesus made to be of no effect unto me according to Hebrews 2:14-15.  I like how the Amplified puts it best ...

"He (Jesus) partook of the same nature, that by going through death He might bring to nought and make of no effect ... the devil, that He might deliver and completely set free all those through the fear of death were held in bondage."  (edited for clarity)

Step one in fighting fear ... know that Jesus has made Satan, the father of lies to be ... "of no effect unto you."  To "bring to nought" means that Satan has been made "nothing" to you.

Declare the Word and say ... I will not be held in bondage through fear.
      
The Apostle Paul, speaking of virtually the same thing writes in Colossians 2:15 that Jesus ... ''having spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

Jesus destroyed any power Satan had, therefore why allow his lies to bring fear?

When fear comes, especially imagined fear, it is from your adversary, the enemy of your soul ... but not to worry ... do what David said he did in Psalm 61:2 ... "I will cry unto the Lord, when my heart is overwhelmed ..."

When fear comes like a huge ocean wave washing over you, submerging and overwhelming your heart to the point where you feel you are drowning ... cry or call unto the Lord just as Peter did when he was fearfully sinking into the water.

The word "cry" in this Psalm suggests the idea of accosting the one being addressed by name ... "to approach and call out for help boldly."  I imagine Peter was rather vociferous as he called out with what has been called the greatest prayer ever prayed ... "Lord help."  That's my interpretation anyway.

The next thing you need to do is found in 2nd Corinthians 10:5 ... "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing (like fear) that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought (including fear) to the obedience of Christ."

Fear is usually a mental imagination formed in the mind ... perceived emotionally in your soul to be a real possibility.  Satan plays a kind of ... what if ... game with us.

Cast down those imaginations and follow up with Romans 12:2 ... "Be transformed (from fear) by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Fill your mind and soul with the truth of God ... not the lies of your enemy.  By doing what these two scriptures say ... you can prove what the will of God is for you.

Paul wrote the truth about God in 2nd Timothy 1:7 ... "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and a sound mind" ... which is self control over your emotions ... where the battle takes place.

You cannot worry and be fearful about something if you get in the presence of God.  If you bring your fear into His presence and see Him as He is ... you will see how big our God is and how little our imagined fears are.  You can't worry about what you were worrying about when you see that God is bigger than your fears.

So I ask ... are you going to believe God or the devil's lies. 

Jesus said in John 14:27 ... "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, (with fear) neither let it be afraid."

This one particular night when the devil came to me at bedtime ... I put to use the very same steps I have outlined for you.

It was almost like the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:17 ... "And when he came to himself ..." as if he had been mentally off for a while.  Fear can do that to us. 

So, when I recovered or woke up out of my spiritual stupor, drama or whatever it was ... when I came to myself ... I chose to believe what Jesus said, and not my enemy.  

And yes ... the battle was real.





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An Angel with an Apple

(The following is a true story written by a Holocaust survivor.)

August 1942, Piotrkow, Poland.  The sky was gloomy that morning as we waited anxiously.  All the men, women and children of Piotrkow's Jewish ghetto had been herded into a square.  Word had gotten around that we were being moved.  My father had only recently died from typhus, which had ran rampant through the crowded ghetto.  My greatest fear was that our family would be separated.



"Whatever you do," Isidore, my eldest brother, whispered to me, "don't tell them your age.  Say you're sixteen."  I was tall for a boy of 11, so I could pull it off.  That way I might be deemed valuable as a worker.  An SS man approached me, boots clicking against the cobblestones.  He looked me up and down, then asked my age.  "Sixteen," I said.  He directed me to the left, where my three brothers and other healthy young men already stood.



My mother was motioned to the right with the other women, children, sick and elderly people.  I whispered to Isidore, "Why?"  He didn't answer.  I ran to Mama's side and said I wanted to stay with her.  "No," she said sternly.  "Get away.  Don't be a nuisance.  Go with your brothers."  She had never spoken so harshly before.  But I understood, she was protecting me.  She loved me so much that, just this once, she pretended not to.  It was the last I ever saw of her.



My brothers and I were transported in a cattle car to Germany.  We arrived at the Buchenwald concentration camp one night weeks later and were led into a crowded barrack.  The next day, we were issued uniforms and identification numbers.  "Don't call me Herman anymore."  I said to my brothers, "Call me 94983."



I was put to work in the camp's crematorium, loading the dead into a hand-cranked elevator.  I too, felt dead. Hardened, I had become a number.  Soon, my brothers and I were sent to Schlieben, one of Buchenwald's sub-camps near Berlin.  One morning I thought I heard my mother's voice.  "Son," she said softly but clearly, "I am sending you an angel."  Then I woke up.  Just a dream.  A beautiful dream.  But in this place there could be no angels.  There was only work.  And hunger.  And fear.



A couple of days later, I was walking around the camp, around the barracks, near the barbed-wire fence where the guards could not easily see.  I was alone.  On the other side of the fence, I spotted someone; a young girl with light, almost luminous curls.  She was half-hidden behind a birch tree.  I glanced around to make sure no one saw me.  I called to her softly in German.



"Do you have something to eat?"  She didn't understand.  I inched closer to the fence and repeated question in Polish.  She stepped forward.  I was thin and gaunt, with rags wrapped around my feet, but the girl looked unafraid.  In her eyes, I saw life.  She pulled an apple from her woolen jacket and threw it over the fence.  I grabbed the fruit and, as I started to run away, I heard her say faintly, "I'll see you tomorrow."


I returned to the same spot by the fence at the same time every day.  She was always there with something for me to eat; a hunk of bread or better yet, an apple.  We didn't dare speak or linger.  To be caught would mean death for us both.  I didn't know anything about her; just a kind farm girl, except that she understood Polish.  What was her name?  Why was she risking her life for me?  Hope was in such short supply, and this girl on the other side of the fence gave me some, as nourishing in its way as the bread and apples.



Nearly seven months later, my brothers and I were crammed into a coal car and shipped to Theresienstadt camp in Czechoslovakia.  "Don't return," I told the girl that day. "We're leaving."  I turned toward the barracks and didn't look back, didn't even say good-bye to the girl whose name I'd never learned, the girl with the apples.



We were in Theresienstadt for three months.  The war was winding down and Allied forces were closing in, yet my fate seemed sealed.  On May 10, 1945, I was scheduled to die in the gas chamber at 10:00 AM.  In the quiet of dawn, I tried to prepare myself.  So many times death seemed ready to claim me, but somehow I'd survived.  Now, it was over.  I thought of my parents.  At least, I thought, we will be reunited.



At 8 A.M. there was a commotion.  I heard shouts, and saw people running every which way through camp.  I caught up with my brothers.  Russian troops had liberated the camp!  The gates swung open.  Everyone was running, so I did too.



Amazingly, all of my brothers had survived; I'm not sure how.  But I knew that the girl with the apples had been the key to my survival.  In a place where evil seemed triumphant, one person's goodness had saved my life, had given me hope in a place where there was none.  My mother had promised to send me an angel, and the angel had come.



Eventually I made my way to England where I was sponsored by a Jewish charity, put up in a hostel with other boys who had survived the Holocaust and trained in electronics.  Then I came to America, where my brother Sam had already moved.  I served in the U. S. Army during the Korean War, and returned to New York City after two years.  By August 1957 I'd opened my own electronics repair shop.  I was starting to settle in.



One day, my friend Sid who I knew from England called me.  "I've got a date.  She's got a Polish friend.  Let's double date."  A blind date?  Nah, that wasn't for me.  But Sid kept pestering me, and a few days later we headed up to the Bronx to pick up his date and her friend Roma.  I had to admit, for a blind date this wasn't so bad.  Roma was a nurse at a Bronx hospital.  She was kind and smart.  Beautiful, too, with swirling brown curls and green, almond-shaped eyes that sparkled with life.



The four of us drove out to Coney Island.  Roma was easy to talk to, easy to be with. Turned out she was wary of blind dates too!  We were both just doing our friends a favor.  We took a stroll on the boardwalk, enjoying the salty Atlantic breeze, and then had dinner by the shore.  I couldn't remember having a better time.



We piled back into Sid's car, Roma and I sharing the backseat.  As European Jews who had survived the war, we were aware that much had been left unsaid between us.  She broached the subject; "Where were you," she asked softly, "during the war?"

"The camps," I said; the terrible memories still vivid, the irreparable loss.  I had tried to forget.  But you can never forget.



She nodded.  "My family was hiding on a farm in Germany, not far from Berlin" she told me.  "My father knew a priest, and he got us Aryan papers."  I imagined how she must have suffered too, fear, a constant companion.  And yet here we were, both survivors, in a new world.  "There was a camp next to the farm."  Roma continued. "I saw a boy there and I would throw him apples every day."



What an amazing coincidence that she had helped some other boy.  "What did he look like?" I asked.  "He was tall, skinny, and hungry.  I must have seen him every day for six months."  My heart was racing.  I couldn't believe it.  This couldn't be.  "Did he tell you one day not to come back because he was leaving Schlieben?"  Roma looked at me in amazement.  "Yes."

"That was me!"  I was ready to burst with joy and awe; flooded with emotions.  I couldn't believe it.  My angel.



"I'm not letting you go" I said to Roma.  And in the back of the car on that blind date, I proposed to her.  I didn't want to wait.  "You're crazy!" she said.  But she invited me to meet her parents for Shabbat dinner the following week.  There was so much I looked forward to learning about Roma, but the most important things I always knew; her steadfastness, her goodness.  For many months, in the worst of circumstances, she had come to the fence and given me hope.  Now that I'd found her again, I could never let her go.



That day, she said yes.  And I kept my word.  After nearly 50 years of marriage, two children and three grandchildren I have never let her go.


(Reprinted from a Messianic Jewish Web Site.)

They Won't Go There

 I've heard it said that it's foolishness to believe in God.

But in my simple thinking … the intellectual ones with all the scientific theories have never given me a satisfactory answer to this one question ... "How did the universe come into being if there is no God?"

For those who refuse to even look at or consider the intelligent design found in creation, my next question to them is … "Where did life come from?"

When I am told that an ameba crawled out of a swamp, I say ... really? 

Just what is an ameba anyway?  I had to look it up.  It's a … "Naked parasitic protozoa that form temporary pseudopods for feeding and locomotion."  Say what?  Are you kidding me?  These things would die before they could grow into anything else.

Go back in time as far as you want.  A million years, 500 million, 200 billion … it doesn't really matter.  If science claims that some unknown spore started life on the earth, I want them to tell me … where did that come from?  In fact, when that question was addressed by the scientific community, do you know what they said? 

"It came from some other galaxy in the universe.  It came from outer space." 

Now that's just brilliant.  With this answer, all they have done is move the problem somewhere else … they haven't answered the question.  The scientific community says … "We will follow this question of how the world began and pursue the answer ... wherever it leads us."

Except when it leads to God.  They won't go there.  Not God.  Not a creator.

Okay, let's go on further.  If this "spore or whatever" came from somewhere else in the universe, this creates another problem.  My first question.  Where did the universe come from?  Oh yes, I remember … the big bang theory.

Even if there was a big bang … wouldn't it only be a reaction from something already there.  Then the real question would be … what is the first cause that created the big bang?  Where did that material or substance come from?  It couldn't have come from outer space … because the big bang started the whole universe … right? 

So how do they solve this problem?

Science has now decided that it is possible, without anything being there … no sub-atomic particles, nothing, absolutely nothing … that a cosmic explosion happened.  From absolutely nothing.  Give me a break.  There is nothing to explode.
 
Nothing is the absence of something.  Nothing is just like darkness.  Darkness is only the absence of light.  Bring light into the presence of darkness and the light overcomes the darkness.  Darkness cannot overcome the light.  Why is that?  Because there's nothing there.  

So, if … "nothing" … not even a speck or a sub-atomic particle, the absence of any substance, tries to become something else, how can it?  There's nothing there.  Nothing is nothing … forever. 

But man seems to accept the theory that one day, out of nothing … poof … we have everything.  Wasn't that easy to believe.  Nothing becomes something.

No … it took God to make something from nothing.  That's why God is God.  It takes a being who always was and who always will be, one who had no beginning and will never cease to be.
   
There is no other answer.  The universe has a creator.  There is a God.

Let me say this ... if the 1st verse in the Bible isn't true ... then none of it is true.

Genesis 1:1 ... "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

It starts and ends with this position, this thought; there is a creator.  If God isn't ... then there is no hope.  

Studying the whole of creation, points the scientific community to God ...
 
But they won't go there. 



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