“Why Are You Afraid, You of Little Faith?”

This past Saturday, October 5, 2013 we gathered together in Regional Pre-Convention meetings. We listened to Bishop Greg Rickel via video as he asked us to consider the place and power of scripture in our worship, in our lives and in the world.

We then had a Bible study, Luke 4:14-30, when Jesus filled with the power of the spirit, returned to Galilee and began to teach in the Synagogues. Read this passage of His when He came to Nazareth His home town and the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. The crowds were amazed and thrilled as He started, but as He lectured to them and told them that no prophet is accepted in His hometown they became enraged, drove Him out of town to hurl Him off a cliff, but He passed through the midst of them and on His way.

We were asked two questions:

1. How did Jesus use scripture to stir up the people?
2. How can scripture move, inspire, and even offend us today? 

A lively discussion and period of reflection followed which was positive and good. I had read Forward Day by Day for Saturday, October 5, 2013 prior to our meeting and it struck me as being more than coincidental! Matthew 8:18-27 “Why are you afraid, you of little faith” speaks to us today as Jesus and His disciples did then. It spoke of a prominent pastor giving a conference to a group of colleagues on strategy he employed to get people in the door. When they expressed FEAR TO USE HIS IDEAS he said, “how do you expect anyone to know Jesus if you are too afraid to tell them”?


Faith requires that we take risks. Fear is not a Christian virtue and we cannot allow it to dominate us. Amen.


Chuck