Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

For years I have been trying to understand a certain passage in the Bible. The verse is:

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

I have listened to many pastors, teachers, evangelist, and instructors. I have read many opinions on this subject, also studied the Bible, and meditated the verses dealing with love. But in my life I have had doubts, unbelief and placed myself under condemnation in some way, which opens the door to fear. We all know that fear does have punishment that comes with it, in the form of torment. I am not unfamiliar with love; I know God loved us so much He sent His Son. God introduce me to my wife (the love of my life) and we have four kids that I love with all my heart. God saved my wife from cancer by His love. Also God has saved me hundreds of times in my lifetime. I was a “chance” in a million to even be born (hence the name Chance) and I am alive and well today doing missionary work in Bulgaria. I still struggled with this verse in understanding the full meaning of “no fear in love”, that is, until yesterday.

I am the type person that God has to occasionally hit over the head with a 2x4 to get my attention. Yesterday God showed me what love is about in His unique way concerning me (no 2X4 this time). Dee Dee and I took a friend and his family to visit his mother. When we arrived at the home for women in the mountains, several women came running to the front gate to greet my friend. One of the caretakers came to the gate and was informed he wanted to see his mother. We were going to take her and have a picnic under the apple tree beside the home. While this is going on Dee Dee and I were sitting in the car waiting and then I noticed the caretaker escorting an elderly lady. All of a sudden the elderly lady stopped, the caretaker starting pulling the elderly lady. The elderly lady sat on the ground, the caretaker started dragging her, and then the elderly lady pulled away from the caretaker in absolute fear, hiding in some bushes. The caretaker walked up to the gate and let my friend in the front gate, at the same time the elderly lady crawled out from under the bushes and was sprinting away in the opposite direction of the caretaker. Then my friend starting calling, “Momma, momma!”  At this point the elderly lady saw her son and came running….all of her doubts, unbelief and fears were gone…she was running to her son. After kissing and hugging her son in an unbelievable embrace, Dee Dee and I wiped the tears from our eyes and looked at each other and said, “Love casts out fear”!

When we start learning how much God loves us and realize that He cares for us, we can start to walk in that love. We have to start by getting to know God, and knowing that He is the God of love.  To run to His perfect, loving embrace and let it cast all of our fears away.

Love is the only way

Over the past few weeks we have been busy with an amazing teen conference, several women’s conferences, church services, and visiting a summer camp for orphans.  We try to share insights that we get during the month in our blog, and with everything that has happened, we have come away with many insights.  

A group from Kyustendil (our home town and the church we work very closely with) was able to attend the large teen conference called Love Bulgaria that we were privileged to help with this year.  The group was led by Roddy, who was responsible for five other people from his church. Roddy participated in the sports group for street evangelism.  This is when we go to a village and play soccer (football) involving the community with the purpose of sharing the Gospel.  Roddy was always quick to volunteer and anything he could do to help, he came with a heart of humility and love.  As we did the evangelism, Roddy was always obeying the leaders in charge of the groups and as a member of his team he also participated in playing.  Roddy made a point to pass to open teammates and play any position on the field that would help his team win.  Roddy showed no prejudice to any race and always made a point to praise any good play on the field.  Roddy was the first to volunteer to give his testimony, and he shared his testimony on the last day of evangelism in the city of Razlog.  While Roddy was involved with sports, he looked after his group from Kyustendil like a father looks after his children.  He made sure they attended all events , he protected them, and made sure every need within his group was taken care of with a heart of humility and love.  As I watched Roddy, I was very impressed with his behavior and the attitude he displayed all week.  The week ended a great success!

One of the last things we did this month was to visit a camp held each year near our town for orphans.  We got to see the Bible dramas being told to the young children and listen to them sing praise songs to God.  The staff was made up of teens and young adults from all over the world, coming together in love to share the Gospel of Jesus.  All the children in this camp were very poor Roma children.  They were getting to experience the Love of God for the first time.  The staff is from different countries, races and denominations to share their love with children who have never experienced love of any kind.  You may be asking what does this camp have to do with Roddy?  Well, Roddy is an orphan.  Roddy is Roma.  And Roddy’s testimony is that as a child he attended this camp when he was a young boy and experienced the Love of Christ for the first time.

The Love of God is the greatest evangelistic tool.  “By this all men will KNOW that you are my disciples, if you have LOVE one for another.”