What sacres Americans most?

By John Stallings

What scares Americans most?

In order the answers are:

1. Snakes
2. Public Speaking
3. Heights
4. Being closed in a small space
5. Spiders
6. Needles and getting shots
7. Mice
8. Flying on an airplane
9. Dogs
10. Thunder and lightning
11. Going to the doctor
12. The dark

Fear is the enemy of progress.

Fear stops us in our tracks and causes us to over-think simple solutions. Fear demands that we keep running from everything and keep looking behind us. Fear whispers “what ifs” and frightful scenarios in our ears and we unfortunately respond by trying to construct walls to protect ourselves.

If you want to stay where you are in life and make no progress, befriending fear is the way to go. If you never want to win, hold tight to your fears and you’ll be guaranteed a perpetual second place finish. If you’d rather have the status quo and cling to safety rather than maturity, knowledge and revelation then let fear roam around in your head.

If we keep doing what we’ve always done we’ll keep getting what we’ve always been getting.

FEAR KILLS CHANGE

Fear keeps us from getting what we really want in life. Fear kills change-stops it dead in its tracks. So we go on living a disappointing existence, languishing for change and stay the same until the pain of remaining the same becomes too much for us to bear. Then some people find the faith to break through their seemingly unconquerable fear and take an honest shot at change.

But why are we so afraid of change? It’s an incurably transient world we live in. If we want to start living, we must first understand that happiness isn’t forged in fear. If we want to see true progress in our lives we should welcome change.

Several years ago there was a television show called Wide World of Sports. The opening sequence showed a young man on skies wiping out in the most atrocious tumble I’d ever seen. It was so terrible that many people wondered why they would choose to play the clip over and over for several years. The man looked like an out of control helicopter as he flailed and catapulted, head over heels, arms and legs twisting through the air.

I read an explanation of why this incident happened. The man explained that as he was jumping, the surface had become too fast and if he’d completed the jump he would have landed in a bad place beyond the safe landing area. Had he not literally changed in mid-air, the jump could have been fatal. As it happened, although he was captured on film in an awfully awkward fall that seemed to never end, all he got out of what looked like a fatal mishap was a headache.

This points up one of the realities of life; sometimes we are called upon to make changes, and do it, as this young man did, “on the fly.”

THE RAILROADS

At the turn of the twentieth century the railroad industry was faced with a dilemma. Automobiles and airplanes had come on the scene and were starting to siphon off their business. They weren’t very wise and kept doing business as usual. At one time the railroads almost died out.

Someone had wrongly told the railroad folk they were in the railroad business. They were not. In reality, they were in the people business and didn’t know it. When people started to choose other methods of transportation, the railroads were in trouble. Finally the government had to step in and form Amtrak to keep passenger trains running. Today, the only passenger train ticket a person can buy is a government ticket.

THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET
Do you remember the Old Oaken Bucket? Have you seen one lately, other than the one behind dusty glass in the Smithsonian museum in Washington? The Old Oaken bucket was a staple for many years, giving people something to carry water in when water wells were all they had. The sad thing about the Old Oaken Bucket makers was that someone told them they were in the bucket business. They were not. In truth, they were in the people business; or the business of helping people transport water conveniently. When running water became available, the only ones in the bucket business who came out of it O.K were the ones who were visionary enough to buy water utility stocks. The bottom line was- people no longer needed buckets. What happened, pure and simple, is change.

CHANGE IS A CONSTANT IN OUR LIVES

Sometimes folk get so hungry for change they will go to great lengths to make it happen. For instance, intentional body changes, like losing weight. People will go under the knife to accomplish this change. Some get so desperate to change they undergo total body makeovers. Can we say—Joan Rivers?

Yet most of us fear change and don't accept it readily because change often means loss. Being human, we don’t make adjustments easily. However, since life is a journey, how could we not expect to constantly be making changes? A journey is, almost by definition, constant change. We are traveling and moving from one point to another on our trip through life. There will be hills and valleys, deserts and oceans as we advance on our journey. Change is happening from the time we are born to the day of our death. Never to have change would put us in an unhealthy state.

At one time in China tiny feet were so worshipped that in order to keep female’s feet small they’d tightly wrap them with winding cloths. Their feet would indeed remain little and dainty, but when unwrapped they would look ugly and deformed. Growth and change are normal and attractive, while stunted growth is generally extremely unattractive.

When I was a child my father was a Pastor/Evangelist which meant that even under the best of conditions, we moved a lot. If we stayed 2 or 3 years in one place we were surprised but happy. As my dad grew older he would stay longer in Pastorates but that didn’t happen until I was almost grown. What this meant was that my Mom, sister and I had to get used to often changing homes, schools, churches, cities and communities. When I grew older, I’d joke with my father that he would move across the street if he thought he could get a step ahead of the devil.

When I started in evangelism in my early twenties, I began my own travels all over the country and abroad. When you live like that for awhile, though you may enjoy it, you develop a deep yearning for a home and roots. When it’s your calling, you thrive on the travel but still there’s that constant change of congregations, towns and living conditions. Most people can’t live like that for more than a ten year period in their life and then they just start to wear down. Something within them yearns to put down roots. Though it’s very possible for some to get hooked on constant change and never truly be happy in one place; very few are Nomadic and at some point settle down.

LOOKING BACK AT YESTERDAY STUNTS OUR GROWTH AND PROGRESS.

Though life imposes change, still it’s always a little sad to move on because in order to do so, old patterns and ways must be left behind. However, if we refuse to change, we’ll lose ground anyway. Rebelling against change has its own set of unfortunate circumstances. If we don’t remain open to change, we will be haunted by the same old conditions, problems and frustrations.

In order to have a healthy life, we must be on a lifelong quest for self-improvement and hardest of all, self-discipline.

Genesis 19:26 tells the story of Lot’s wife. Abraham and family had been warned to leave Sodom for it would be destroyed, and not to look back as they left. Lot’s wife looked back, and turned into a pillar of salt. Being a salt statue, she was suspended and stuck in a state of frozen development. Likewise, constantly looking back will freeze us in time so that we can’t move forward to the next chapter in our lives. It’s like trying to drive a car always looking in the rear view mirror. It’s fine to occasionally glance at the mirror but doing it constantly would result in our running into a ditch or colliding with something.

In Isaiah 43:18-19 God tells his people, “Remember not the former things neither consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

In this passage God is warning the people about looking back. He tells them not to remember the former things; to wash them from their minds, and not to even consider them anymore.

In Luke 9:62, Jesus said, “No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Rather a strong warning, wouldn’t you say?

In Philippians 3:13 Paul says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto the things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
IF ALL THE IMPORTANT THINGS LIE IN OUR PAST, WHY NOT JUST DIE?

After all, why would we want to go forward if the really good things are all behind us? If everything of any consequence or to be desired is already over, what’s the point of living? The answer of course is we’re still here and we know that God has a purpose for our lives. With God’s help every one of us can conquer fear and make powerful changes and move toward better things in life. The power of choice and free will are awesome tools in our possession.

For example, a person who is released from prison after serving their time has a choice. The person can make some changes in attitude, readjust to life on the outside and move on, or refuse to change, continue with same mind -set and end up back in prison. Sadly, a great percentage of people who are released go right back to jail proving that prison isn’t necessarily remedial unless an individual will put forth the effort to change.

THE FIRST CHANGE CAME WHEN WE GAVE OURSELVES TO CHRIST.
The KJV version of Romans 12:1 says, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In this passage, Paul didn’t say give God an hour or a day but give him your whole life.

Listen to this translation. “So here’s what I want you to do, take your whole body and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God has for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit in without even thinking. Readily recognize what he wants from you and respond to it. Unlike the culture that always dragging you to its level, God brings out the best in you and develops well formed maturity.”—Message Bible

In the book of Jeremiah, there’s a most beautiful picture of change. God brings the crusty prophet down to the potter’s house to teach him some things about His work, His will, and His ways of bringing them to pass. In Jeremiah 2:13, God had told his people;

“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the foundation of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
When he sees the potter’s wheel, in chapter 20, Jeremiah instantly understands that this is a picture of stubborn, sinful man in the hands of God being changed and transformed. He sees God taking the clay, spoiling it and changing it into what He wants it to be.

Once you really see what this story implies, you realize it’s one of the most encouraging stories in the Bible. God is showing us that in his hands the worst person or situation we could imagine can be changed and made useable.

There is a wonderful old song we used to sing when I was a boy and it went like this;

Have thine on way Lord, have thine own way, thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.”

This is the spirit of the potter’s house experience; to be changed by the potter into a vessel of honor. In Genesis 2:7, we see God reaching down and forming man out of the dust of the earth and breathing into him the breath of life. Certainly the God who formed man in the beginning can take him in his hands and mold him as clay into whatever he chooses him to be.

When it comes to man, God has a plan, God has the power to execute the plan, and He has the patience to complete the work He starts.

Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Romans 8:28 says, “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Lamentations 4:2 says, “The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine Gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter.”


In John 3 we’re introduced to Nicodemus. He was a leader of the Jews and obviously a man of high standing. He came to Jesus by night because he didn’t want to be seen visiting this controversial man in daylight hours. But at least he came. At least he was curious to see if this man had answers for a life that was obviously not very fulfilling. Jesus immediately speaks to Nicodemus about changing. He talks to him about a change so radical that it even has a special name, The New Birth. This hit Nicodemus like a ton of bricks and he likened it to going back into the womb and being born again. Unquestionably the new Birth is a transforming experience.

Perhaps the most outstanding examples of this in the Bible is the experience of Saul of Tarsus who was changed on the road to Damascus. His change was so dramatic that it’s what we call a phenomenal conversion. One minute he was going about his life’s work of oppressing Christians and the very next he was crying out to God to tell him what was His assignment for him. It would be somewhat like the late Ted Kennedy, the embodiment of a liberal political animal waking up one morning and being a conservative who would be more extreme than Rush Limbaugh. We’re talking change now.

OUR WORLD IS IN A CONSTANT STATE OF CHANGE.
In 1943, a man by the name of Thomas Watson was the president of the IBM Corporation. He actually said, “I could never see a worldwide need for more than five computers.” Can you imagine a smart business man saying that? The reason for this profoundly ignorant statement was, he didn’t comprehend how much in the state of flux the world is in.

A new innovative city bus program will soon be used in our town, Orlando , Florida. In a city famous for traffic jams, our city officials hope to create a better way to move people around. Here’s how it will work. Using a computer at home, at work or at special places around the town, a rider would order a bus trip. The request would be dispatched by computer to a bus driver who would then pick up the rider at a particular stop within 12 minutes and go to the stop closest to the destination. Sounds good doesn’t it? Obviously the on-demand service has already been tried successfully in other cities.

My point is that we are living in a time of diverse change and all of us will have to adapt to it or live in the past, [if that will even be possible.] Change is one of most uncomfortable things we do but life is constantly demanding it of us. Keep in mind that I’m not speaking of the Obama version of hope and change.

The network news media is now wrestling with the reality of the changing world where people no longer have to wait until six o’clock at night to find out what’s happening in the world. We now have 24 hour cable news not to mention the internet.

Churches have also been faced with the necessity of change. Because of changes in the work place and lifestyles, old traditional ways have been supplanted with new ideas and concepts. Certainly the Gospel hasn’t changed but the way it’s piped to people has. Nowadays, a person can turn on satellite television and get preaching and teaching 24 hours a day. Many churches are going to Sunday morning only with cell groups meeting in different parts of their cities through the week. It’s not intrinsically bad or good -it just is. Having said all this, it would be extremely unwise, not to mention unscriptural for us to forsake assembling together corporately.

Change is inevitable. At this moment your body is going through all sorts of changes. Your brain is changing. The Universe, including the earth, is changing. How the world does business and everything about our economies is changing. I remember when I traveled on the west coast in the early sixties; we didn’t telephone home to Florida but once a month because it was too expensive. Now we call with a cell phone from airplanes, ships and trains, half way around the world without hesitation. It’s hard for me to believe as I look back that things have changed so much in so short a time.

We all have a choice. We can embrace the change that’s coming anyway, or allow fear to influence us to hide from it. But unlike the poor people in the Indian Ocean when the Tsunami struck, we have been advised. We’ve been given a heads-up to what the future will be like. Either we prepare and cooperate with change by adapting and benefiting from it, or sadly, we’ll just be swept away.

Markets change from bull to bear; weather changes, sometimes on a dime. The seasons change several times a year. Of course that’s cyclical in nature. Technology changes and when it does -things never go back the way they were. Jobs change, management changes, people change, everything in life changes. If we look back, we’ll see that we’ve weathered many changes already in our lives. We may have resisted some change but you can probably look back and say, “thank God that changed and look at the great things that came of it.”

THE GREATEST CHANGES ARE JUST AHEAD.
Jesus is coming back to the earth soon to take his church away. Seven years later we’ll come back to earth with him at which time He’ll fumigate the place and rule and reign forever.

Listen to 1 CORINTHIANS 15: 51,

“BEHOLD I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY; WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP BUT WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED, IN A MOMENT, IN A TWINKLING OF AN EYE, AT THE LAST TRUMP: FOR THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND, AND THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE, AND WE SHALL BE CHANGED.

FOR THIS CORRUPTIBLE MUST PUT ON INCORRUPTION AND THIS MORTAL MUST OUT ON IMMORTALITY.”

SO WHEN THIS CORRUPTIBLE SHALL HAVE OUT ON INCORRUPTION, AND THIS MORTAL SHALL HAVE PUT ON IMMORTALITY, THEN SHALL BE BROUGHT TO PASS THE SAYING THAT IS WRITTEN, OH DEATH WHERE IS THY STING? OH GRAVE WHERE IS THY VICTORY?


This will be the change that will sweep us into his presence for all eternity.

Blessings,

John