Latter Rain Update - September 1997
LIVING SAFELY IN A DANGEROUS WORLD
We are living in troublesome times, and as Children of God, it is important to walk in wisdom. Walking in wisdom includes knowing something and appropriately applying what we know. How do you apply the wisdom of God to everyday situations that involve a potentially dangerous interaction with the world or someone of the world? Here are some helpful tips on just how this can be done:
1) What do you do when someone shows up at your door asking to use the phone? How do we judge who needs help and who is out to cause us harm? You need to keep away from compromising positions. Offer to call someone for them by yelling through the door, but don’t open your home and let them come in. If their claim is truly legitimate, this act of kindness will be sufficient for them.
2) Lock your car doors as soon as you get in.
3) If someone shows up at your door that you don’t know and recognize, don’t let them in. Yell-out in your roughest, toughest, loudest, most intimidating voice, "What do you want?" Don’t just hide and pretend that you’re not home because a criminal might see that as an opportunity to break-in to your empty home.
4) Don’t shop in the middle of the night. You can wait until it is light outside.
5) As children, don’t walk home from school through back alleys or apartment complexes; take the main roads home.
6) It is also a good idea to have a home address and a mailing address. With a mailing address, people don’t know where you live.
YOU CAN LEARN ALOT FROM A DOGGY
FEAR is an automatic response, a physiological reaction, but you do not have to give into fear. When confronted by fear, you can either "fight or flight" You can either take control over the fear and decide to overtake it, or you can be overcome with fear and run for your own life without considering others who may be in danger also. Giving in to fear cannot help you to overcome the situation, on the contrary, it can short-circuit mechanisms that help you to get out of bad situations. By taking control of the fear, you can choose to walk in love and protect others around you.
Here’s the scenario:
There’s a building with a car beside it a few feet away. Seven people are standing around the car, and one person is inside the car. Out of nowhere from the side of the building comes two vicious looking dogs. They begin charging at the people. All eight of the people moved and did something. Six of them started running the opposite direction of the dogs. The person in the car opened the car and started to get out, and one person charged at the dogs. The dogs were rightfully intimidated at the one person who charged at them and headed in another direction. Situation over. What just happened?
Fear motivated the six men to run while their comrades stood in harms way. Fear makes you do things that aren’t wise and causes you to engage in futile exercises. There was no possible way that any of those men could have ever outran those dogs had they continued to pursue the six, so it was a wasted effort to even attempt to flee. Most importantly, fear blinded these men to know that God has given his angels charge over us, or that others may be in danger and in need of protection.
Why did the one man run toward the dog? He aimed to kill the dogs with his bare hands, if necessary, in order to save the others. He chose to walk in love. He was also furious that any animal dared to come up against a man. All creatures are supposed to be under our dominion, not us under theirs! How dare those dogs come up against them! He was armed with his weapon, the Word of God, and he rebuked the dogs in Jesus’ name, commanding them to flee. The dogs turned and ran at his words. He exhibited courage, valor, and faith. The one man in the car was also valiant by wanting to jump out of the car to protect the others. He was the only one that was already safe, and yet he put it on the line to protect the others.
This situation teaches us a very valuable lesson. Do you love? Love will stand on behalf of another; it will pick -up the standard and fight when necessary. When faced with a threatening situation, will you act in fear or in love? You never really know how you will act until you are in that situation. A valiant man walks in love and will not give in to fear; he is willing to sacrifice himself for someone else. The greatest love is to even lay down your life for someone else’s (John 15:13). Those whom you love the most, you’re going to help first. If you love your own flesh most of all, you’re going to protect yourself first. There’s something to think about.
Choose to walk in love and overcome the fear that grips you in a threatening situation. It is a decision you make. By doing so, you will be in a position to protect others around you and glorify God.
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