Greetings,

Week 17 of the lockdown 😞.

For the fifth consecutive week no new cases pf COVID-19 in both Dixon and Sheridan, including staff. Praise God! Sadly, no new updates as to when the lockdowns for volunteers will be lifted. A check on the Illinois Department of Corrections web site, there still isn’t any visitation

I was contacted by Joe, a SCOPM alumni 10/2012 through 02/2014. As best I recall, Joe wasn’t a believer when he first started coming to SOCPM Discipleship, but one night Joe shared how prior to Sheridan he was not a man of religion. I think he said he was raised Catholic, but seldom attended church. Joe went on to further share what brought him to Sheridan then SOCPM. He was incarcerated for a fatal DUI and his heart first open to knowing God and Jesus, after the family of the lady he killed, contacted him and told him they forgave Joe, they were Christians. God then used SOCPM as a means to bring Joe to know Christ. Upon his release, Joe was connected with a SOCPM volunteer mentor, who Joe said was a blessing. Praise God for those three events and I’m sure many more to that transformed Joe’s life and renew his heart for Christ.

Joe and I’ve been connected through Facebook, but nothing more over the past few years. I did learn through Facebook he got married and has had some children. This week he sent me a Facebook message, asking how I was doing? We exchanged a couple of messages and we ended up taking on the phone. He wanted to share how SOCPM was an important factor in his life. Joe has had some struggles over the past several years, he is in the process of getting divorced, has and is enduring emotional issues and has struggled with relapses. He confessed a lot of his struggles were due to his wandering away from God. But after each struggle and relapse how he turns back to Christ.

It was a blessing to talk to Joe and be affirmed that God is using SOCPM. I share all this first and foremost to give glory to God, but also ask you to pray for Joe. He recently connected with a new home church, is working from home, and seeking to get on more solid ground. He shared how he misses the SOCPM classes. Which led us to talk about the possibility of doing some Zoom sessions with other SOCPM Alumni. Please pray for Joe to remain strong in his walk with Christ, that his new home church is a solid Bible-teaching church and he gets disciplined in God’s Word and pray for God’s leading on pursuing a SOCPM Alumni class on Zoom.

This week’s Midweek Message was ‘The Fear of God.’ It as always was a challenge to edit it down to one page, but it was accomplished. In the message, Joe makes a reference to a theologian Wilhelm Brakel and his teaching on the fear of God. I was able to find the full context of the teaching online and you can access it by clicking here. Joe gave his definition of What is the fear of God? The loving and joyful reverence for God that leads to a careful submission of ourselves to His will. Joe gave three reasons why we should fear God and how to grow in our fear of God. Please pray these weekly messages are an uplifting of encouragement to SOCPM students and God will use it to further disciple them in their walk with God

I close with well wishes and prayers you all are doing well and yourself are growing in the fear of the Lord.

To Him be the glory in ALL things and to Him alone!

Scott Kalas
Soldiers of Christ Prison Ministries

Weekly Message

Wednesday Midweek 07/08/20 The Fear of God - Joe Thorn

For most the word ‘fear’ has a connotation of terror. We all are afraid of something. Fear can be complicated, we often misunderstand it and respond to it poorly. As it relates to the fear of God it is more complicated and the stakes are often higher. Where does fear come from? Fear is something that comes from inside of us. Wilhelm Brakel a theologian contends it is self-love and the fear arises out of wanting to protect what we love our selves. Self-love is not a bad thing, when God calls us to ‘deny yourself and follow me’ it can give the impression we are to deny self-love. You can’t be biblical, a serious Christian, without embracing a kind of self-love. God made us in such a way that we would love ourselves because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. But self-love can become a bad thing. Self-love becomes corrupt when it is overcome by selfishness, greed, or pride. When we use our self-love to fight against God or the things of God or when we sin to feed our self-love.

There is another kind of love that connects to a different kind of fear. Fear of God. Unlike a fear of terror, it is a fear of reverence, awe. The fear of terror we are familiar with, but a fear of reverence, we are not. What is the fear of God? The loving and joyful reverence for God that leads to a careful submission of ourselves to His will. It’s not being afraid of God because He is going to punish us, it is a joyful, loving, reverence, the awe of God that moves us to take Him and His Word very seriously. Deuteronomy 10:12, to fear God and to love Him is the most fundamental command that God gives His people. It is one of the most basic imperatives of the Christian life. These are complementary concepts they’re not antithetical ideas. they work together. Psalm 5:7, we see that these two ideas are intertwined. Why is he going to enter the Lord’s house? Because he is assured of an abundance of God’s goodness. He knows He is a God that loves. He has peace and he goes in but he fears the Lord. It is God’s steadfast immovable love that gives him the courage to go into the place of worship that leads to a kind of fear, not terror but awe.

Those who fear God are assured of His love, Psalm 33:18. The question is why doesn’t fear corrupt our love? Because there are two kinds of fear terror and awe. The Christian, the one who trusts in Jesus Christ for their salvation, is assured of God’s love based on what God has done in Christ, Romans 5:7–8. God’s love is demonstrated most spectacularly, the sacrifice of His Son, who willingly suffered on the cross to rescue sinners like us so that we can be reunited to Him with an assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of God, Romans 8:39, Galatians 2:20. Paul fears the Lord and knows that God loves him, therefore his love for God is established. We are reassured of God’s love, so the fear of God doesn’t corrupt our love for God because we are assured of God’s love for us. The fear of God is not being afraid of God. A healthy fear of the Lord is not an oppressive, guilty sense of anxiety or dread in our relationship with God. That’s what false religions create, it leads to legalism, superstitions. A lot of cults use it to control their people. Our fear is a holy fear of God that sees God as He truly is as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. Our fear believes in God’s promises in Jesus Christ. He forgives our sin, He takes away our guilt and He secures us for eternity. Our fear is a holy fear that marvels at God’s holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Rejoices in His love for sinners. Our fear obeys God’s commands to glorify Him not to appease Him. The fear of God is intertwined with the fear of God, meaning we are not afraid but affected, empowered, moved to honor Him as God.

There are more but 3 reasons we should fear God. 1) because God of who He is. He is eternal, unchangeable, holy, just and good, because of what He has done, and what He will do. If you know who God is you will fear Him. We should fear God because we are sinners and He is not. He is good, we are corrupt, He loved us before we loved Him. Knowing this we should be in awe of Him. 2) By fearing Him we gain a better understanding of this world and gain a better posture to live in this world. Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 9:10. To properly know and understand the world we live in we must have a healthy fear of God. To have the wisdom to navigate us through this crazy, corrupt, conflicted, broken yet beautiful world we need a fear of the Lord. It keeps Him at the center of our lives. 3) We are changed. We become the people God has designed us to be, we begin to move toward the goal of fearing God Proverbs 8:13. This demonstrates that we are changed, as we fear the Lord because the fear of the Lord is an aspect of faith. Our hearts grow to be in synch with God and that is where real change is happening. God doesn’t move our hand and we do a good deed, our changed heart moves us to do a good deed.

How do we grow in our fear of the Lord? By knowing Him, by knowing Him we love Him and we properly fear Him. This means Bible reading and meditation is because that is where God is revealed. The more we understand about God, the more in awe we are of His actions, His character. Reading the Bible doesn’t change a person. The Spirit using the Word changes us internally. As we are read, we have to think, discuss it, talk it out, pray through it. To have a greater fear of the Lord you need to be a better theologian. You have to know God’s character, heart, what He delights in, & what He hates. They are in synch with Him, hating what is evil and Loving what is good. To grow in the Lord then practice, biblical worship with God’s people, go to church, sing songs, lift your eyes to the Lord. Pray, read, sing, fellowship, repent. As we regularly use the means of grace, we grow in grace and therefore grow in our fear of God. In repenting see the heinous of your sin, the ugliness of your corruption, and repent of it daily and your fear of God will intensify, not because you’re afraid He is going to punish you but because you are in awe that He keeps forgiving you.

It feels good to do what God wants us to do and that is not bad. It is a good thing. You can feel good about doing the right thing. That isn’t necessarily sinful pride it’s because you know you're doing something good and that is God working in you, moving you to work willingly for His good pleasure. Be careful not to weaken your fear of the Lord. You weaken your fear by doing those things in reverse. You pull back from God’s Word, means of grace, people, but there usually is something going on before that. A casual, careless, complacent lazy Christianity. When we become casual, less intentional, less invested, we’re not seeking, we’re just treading water just doesn’t breed boredom it begins to shrink our heart. So be careful, guard yourself, observe yourself, ask people to help you evaluate where you are, and stir yourself up in your love for God but using the means of grace. The fear of God is a loving and joyful reverence for God that leads to a careful submission to His will. If you trust Christ you have no reason to be afraid of God but every reason to fear Him but if you do not trust Christ, you reject Jesus then you have every reason to be afraid of God. Because your sin hangs over your head and if you must answer for it you will perish. But God offers forgiveness in His Son Jesus to all who look to Him and believe in such cases you will not be afraid anymore but will rejoice in God’s love and in that have a holy and godly fear of a God who makes and a God who redeems. – Sorry out of space to send a personal greeting. Praying these messages our helping you grow in the Lord. To Him be the glory.