From the Editor

And he [Jesus] spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand –Luk 21:29-31.

Summer truly is upon us; and the trees have shot forth. What an interesting term for our modern-day English language, yet we still understand its meaning and have a mental picture of what is happening—the leaves pushing out from places that over winter were bare. For me, I think it is easier to have this mental picture since I have seen time-lapse videos of plants growing or sprouting to life.

Anyway, so much for that. What about the rest of this verse? (…when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.) Surely most of us continue to see the end of time approaching—the wars and rumors of wars, the earthquakes, the political upheaval in nation after nation, societies moving further and further away from God, and churches and families being ravished by sin and scandal.

We have God’s own promise that what we know and experience here on this earth was designed, created, and expected by Him to be only a temporary reality. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail –Heb 1:10-12.

The Prevailing Menace of Doubt & Fear

As we, as a church (FCF) and as a ministry (TBV), interact with numerous challenging situations (broken homes, struggling marriages, adopted children, faltering youth, immoral addictions, emotional struggles, and mental health issues) we repeatedly run into questions of doubt. “Why did this happen to me?” “Why doesn’t God change my circumstances?” “How can I trust God when all these painful things have happened to me?” “How can I surrender my life to God when He isn’t trustworthy?”

Most believers claim to trust God and believe His Word. The challenge that seems to come for each of us is two-fold. First, many of us tend to think that believing is primarily “feeling” instead of “choosing.” Secondly, many of us find it easy to believe what God says when it agrees with our experience, our thoughts, and our feelings; the problem arises when what the Scriptures say pushes on my will, my view, my belief, my experience, etc.

On the first point (believing=feeling) we have God’s clear answer from the Apostle Paul, for we walk by faith, not by sight: –2Co 5:7. On the second point the reality is that each of these struggles are a clear test of whether we will obey God rather than man (including ourselves), whether we will let God be true and every man a liar (including ourselves), and whether we will allow God to be the authority on all things or if we will still insist on our own will. Many of us claim (give lip service) to trust and believe God in all things, yet when we are faced with our own time of testing, we fail miserably (I know I have).

Additionally, many of us define our lifestyle of doubts and worry as being something normal, yet the Bible tells us to be anxious for nothing and to cast all our cares upon our Lord. Here the world has slowly deadened our senses to the clear teaching of the Scriptures, in that we have come to accept as normal that which God would have us to rise above. If we step back and consider the definition of “fear” as being on a spectrum, with some fear being quite minor and some being quite severe, we will see that many of our accepted patterns of behavior are outside of God’s perfect will for our lives. Doubt would be on the lesser end of the spectrum, with worry having a slightly stronger presence and effect, while panicking or being frantic would obviously cause much greater interference in our normal lives. Yet the truth is that each one of these is still in the family of “fear,” with the outcome being that we are allowing fear to control us and dictate our thoughts and behaviors. God’s will is that all His children would walk by faith instead of by fear.

God never gives us grace for any of our worries, nor for any future possible “what ifs”. God only gives us grace to go through what He is placing in front of us moment by moment. In the same way that a woman with child must go through the scary possibilities of the pain of childbirth, so likewise, all human beings must go through each circumstance that God decides is our lot in life. Nothing that we try to think or do (fear, worry, move, change our location, spend money, or ask others to intervene, etc.) will stop or change what God wills for our life. It is our choice to either accept or resist the inevitable in our lives.

The reality is this—each of us will either yield [our] members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin by believing the lies of Satan and continuing to allow fear to motivate and direct our thoughts and actions, OR we will yield [ourself] unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God (Rom 6:13), by choosing to believe what God says in His Word and allowing faith to motivate and direct our thoughts and actions.

Here a balancing perspective needs to be brought in. This does not mean that we never wrestle with difficult situations—Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. It also doesn’t mean that we never appeal to God or our authorities to consider changing our current painful situation—again, Jesus did. Rather, we are to be honest with God (like Jesus was) about the struggle of our heart, but then we need to eventually walk forward in obedience, by faith, with courage (like Jesus did).

Ongoing Support Needed

A big thank you to all who so faithfully continue to support the work of The Berean Voice. It is through the many prayers, emails and phone calls of encouragement and suggestions, and the financial contributions of many believers that we can continue to minister to the needs of others. As a non-profit ministry of the church, we do not charge for our material or services, therefore we rely entirely on the ongoing freewill offerings of God’s people. Please prayerfully consider how God would have you to partner with us in this work.

If you believe that God would have you support us financially, monthly support makes our work easier since most of our bills are monthly. However, if this doesn’t work as well for you that is fine. For your convenience there is a remittance envelope in the center of each copy of the magazine or you can go to our website www.bereanvoice.org and use the “donate” feature there for online donations. Below is an estimated breakdown of our needs for your consideration.

Estimated Average Costs Per Quarter (ongoing)