fear theme?

[savedsol]

Any ideas for a Fear Theme? Bible references?
I recently had a medical scare and had an MRI of my brain. Everything turned out to be fine, but I was really scared! Having this experience has made me think of doing some sort of fear themed ladies meeting. Perhaps use rubbers snakes and fake bugs for center pieces? Anyone?

[Julia]

One of the stories that comes to mind is Joshua in battle. The story is in chapter 10 of Joshua. They were all scared of the enemy. In verses 25 it says,

And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.

That's one of my favorite verses (a favorite of many favorites )

I also think of Peter on the water. I don't have a devotional on fear itself but fear is one of the points in the Caught in the Storm one.

As a sidenote, have you ever wondered why so many people go to those fear based movies? I've never understood wanting to be afraid. I have to just not watch any tv around Halloween because they play those awful ads for all those scary downright evil movies.

[Julia]

BTW, I meant to mention how glad I am that everything turned out okay with your MRI. Praise the Lord!

[savedsol]

Thanks Julia,
A fear themed meeting would be great for October/Halloween/Fall-o-ween Jesus. Another Bible story I thought of was Daniel and the Lions Den. And I am reminded of the Veggie Tales "God is bigger than the Boogie Man."

I agree with you about the scary movies. There are enough scary things in this world - I don't need a movie to scare me even more.

We have done the "Caught in the Storm" devotion last October when we did "Think Pink" However, you could take the stories of Peter, Daniel, Joshua (maybe more) and combine them into a devotion.

[marlene]

We're having a "Trunk or Treat" event at our church today. The saying and verse that I have been using on our printable items is:

There's nothing to fear when God is near!
Fear not, for I am with you. Isaiah 41:10a (NKJV)

The complete verse is: Isaiah 41:10 (New Living Translation)

10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

I also like....

Isaiah 41:10 (New Century Version)

10 So don't worry, because I am with you.
Don't be afraid, because I am your God.
I will make you strong and will help you;
I will support you with my right hand that saves you.

I use biblegateway.com to look up verses because it is easy to change which version of the Bible you are looking it up in.

[CApastorswife]

II Timothy 1:7 is what I think of first, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
And I think it's I John 4:18 - perfect love casts out fear.

I did a ladies' Bible study on this one awhile back, and we played a game like Balderdash with all kinds of odd phobia names. Divide into teams and give each team the same list of phobias but no definition. They have to make up definitions that sound accurate. The person running the game collects the sheets of made up definitions from each team and also has a sheet of correct definitions. She reads the definitions for word #1, and teams must decide which is the real definition. Do one phobia at a time, and mix the sheets up so they're not always in the same order as they are being read. Not as easy as you'd think, and it's really funny!

[savedsol]

Thank you ladies for your awesome ideas... I have stored them in my brain and pull them out when we do this theme.