Faith Today - September/October 2017

BEHIND THE SCENES

Karen Stiller of Ottawa, Ont., and
Bill Fledderus of Hamilton, Ont., are senior
editors of Faith Today.

Perfect love drives out fear, we read in 1 John 4: 18. We need such reminders that “the one who is in you [our God of love] is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4: 4).

And so do many of the people in the stories in this issue.

• Christian parents who are fearful for their children after divorce.

• Christians who become so fearful of the extreme changes in our society that we withdraw from cultural engagement into judgmental isolation.

• Anabaptists fearing for their lives in the Protestant Reformation.

(As we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we can’t ignore related murderous persecution.)

• People in South Sudan driven empty handed from their homes by civil war and famine.

Even when such major fears don’t weigh on us, we all know even small fears can hamper our life of faith – fear about inviting someone to an Alpha course, or fear we don’t have enough skills or available energy and time to accept a new leadership position in our local congregation.

To be fair fear isn’t always bad.

It’s a normal emotion that warns us to avoid dangerous situations or motivates us to prepare more fully instead of stepping out too soon.

Fear is appropriate when faced with a militia in South Sudan or anywhere.

Studies show we’re right to fear for children of divorce in our communities.

But thank God for the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, ready to minister to us in our fear, often using fellow believers, our spiritual family, to love us through those situations.

When we ask God He’ll help us discern about that Alpha invitation or new leadership position. And we can trust that if He is calling us into something, He will also equip us and sustain us through it.

He might even use what we learn reading Faith Today to help us make sense of the scary situations that will always be part of our world until Christ returns.

God calls us out of fearful with-
drawal and paralysis into loving
action. Admittedly, it’s an ongoing
process. As 1 John 4: 17 (NLT) says,
“As we live in God, our love grows
more perfect. So we will not be
afraid.”
Admittedly it takes time to “test
the spirits” (1 John 4:1) and figure
out what a loving action might look
like in a situation. And living out
that loving action can be difficult,
even painful.

Throughout it all we pray God will bless you and encourage you, even through the stories you read in Faith Today. /FT

Thank God for the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, ready to minister to us in our fear.

Not ruled by fear
God’s love is stronger

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September / October 2017

Volume 35 • Number 5

PUBLISHER

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada

SENIOR EDITORS

Bill Fledderus, Karen Stiller

ART DIRECTOR

Janice Van Eck

SENIOR WRITERS

Jeff Dewsbury, David Guretzki, Alex Newman, Patricia Paddey

COLUMNISTS

Carolyn Arends, James A. Beverley, Bruce J. Clemenger, Kevin Flatt, John G. Stackhouse Jr.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Joel Arndt, Allison Barron, Terry Burman, Pye Chew, Darryl Dash, Chrissy Dennis, C. David Donaldson, Julie Fitz-Gerald, Rick Franklin, Terry Hiebert, Keith Knight, Matthew Forrest Lowe, Craig Macartney, Alex Newman, Anna Robbins, Marian Van Til

COPY EDI TOR

Janet Dimond

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Brian Shephard

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Gina Waugh

DISTRIBUTION

Anita Kwan

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