SHARE | MAGAZINE
Volume 5- Issue 2
Fear, what is fear? According to the Oxford Online Dictionary, fear is“ an unpleasant emotion or thought that you have when you are frightened or worried by something dangerous, painful, or bad that is happening or might happen:”( Oxford online dictionary). We all experience it at one time or another. There is healthy fear that is designed to keep us safe from real danger like avoiding an oncoming vehicle. There is also unhealthy fear or phobia that is triggered because of an associated traumatic experience one might have had in the past. It appears irrational but is very real to the person with the phobia. For example a fear of rain or cats.
Contemporary life is increasingly filled with fear both real and imagined as we immerse ourselves increasingly into a virtual reality we struggle to discern between reality and fantasy, fact and fiction, lies and truth. The media does a fantastic job of intensifying people’ s fear with fear mongering in its reporting and we now have“ fake news” to add to the list of silent terrors out there. So then who do we trust? Who is a terrorist? What is safe to eat? Where can we live in peace? Will our banks and institutions defraud us? Is our privacy being invaded by hackers? Oh, so much to fear!
HELLO FEAR! EDITORIAL
What are we really afraid of? Ultimately of death. We have good reason to fear death it is the unknown and we love life as we know it. However, Christians believe that this life is transient it is not final there was an abundant / eternal life that was formerly ours, which we lost when our fore parents Adam and Eve fell from God’ s grace through disobedience, that will be restored to us through Jesus Christ. We look forward to eternal life after death.
Sin, entered the world and time began counting down and life began degenerating until the time set for our judgement. If we do not have this hope then we cannot look fear in the face and say,“ hello fear”. Without the assurance of eternal life in Jesus Christ, we cannot free fall in life, contentedly trusting God to catch us and sustain us throughout adversity and challenges. Jesus Christ is the believer’ s hope in turbulent times.
A fearless future In Genesis, who planted the tree, in the middle of the garden of Eden, from which God told Adam not to eat? You could not miss it but if eating of this tree meant sure death wouldn’ t it be best to remove it? No tree, no temptation, simple! It would be even better to not plant it there in the first place. Whoever planted this tree and in such a precarious
About Us
SHARE MAGAZINE is a FREE Christian quarterly that deals with challenging Christian topics that have been mostly ignored or left unanswered. The magazine includes written articles, poems and thoughts etc. Read our online version at www. TheShareMagazine. com where you can go to our blog to discuss articles or order a printed version. If you would like to submit articles, join our writers group, or to get involved in any other way kindly email us. SHARE MAGAZINE is produced by Select Arrow, the publishing arm of United In Christ charity number 1140448.
Disclaimer
Throughout this magazine the editor & contributors seek to present a balanced and accurate view of Scripture’ s teaching. We are all on a journey of studying and understanding God’ s Word. Because of this, all we can offer is as balanced an understanding as the Holy Spirit has offered us at this time. The views or opinions represented in this publication are personal to each of our contributors and may not fully represent those of any other contributor or editor.
Scriptures quoted are from the Contemporary English Version( CEV) unless otherwise stated.
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4 | SHARE | MAGAZINE April- June 2017