I just finish reading an excellent book, Fearless by Max Lacado.  God has made Max Lucado the author of many excellent works on Christianity, and Fearless is first class.

Because we live an era when many seek to sap our strength and resources –to imprison us in chains of fear — Fearless is also timely.  With Fearless Lucado explains how we can renew our courage and joy through our faith in Jesus. To overcome our fears, Lucado asks us to grow our faith.  Our faith can overcome paralyzing fears and replace them with a healthy fear of God.

Below is a passage that I think captures the theme of Fearless by citing the work of another great Christian author, C. S. Lewis.  In the book Prince Caspian, Lucy sees Aslan, the lion, for the first time in many years.  He has changed since their last encounter. His size surprises her, and she tells him as much.

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”

“That is because your are older, little one”, answered he.

“Not because you are?”

“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

And so it is with Christ. The longer we live in him, the greater he becomes in us. It’s not that he changes but that we do; we see more of him. We see dimensions, aspects, and characteristics we never saw before, increasing and astonishing increments of his purity, power, and uniqueness. We discard boxes and old images of Christ like used tissues. We don’t dare place Jesus on a political donkey or elephant. Arrogant certainty becomes meek curiosity. Define Jesus with a doctrine or confine him to an opinion? By no means. We’ll sooner capture the Caribbean in a butterfly net than we’ll capture Christ in a box.

In the end we respond like the apostles. We, too, fall on our faces and worship. And when we do, the hand of the carpenter extends through the tongue of towering fire and touches us, “Arise, and do not be afraid” (Matt 17:7). (from Chapter 14 of Fearless)

We think of ourselves as modern. Yet  we still fear that which men have always feared.  Lucado shows us our fears, and he takes us through ancient Bible passages, verses as relevant today as when they were first written.  With a little understanding, God becomes more real, and our fears subside.

Because of our Christian heritage, we think we know what is in the Bible.  Unfortunately, because of our secular education system, relatively few actually study the Bible in this “modern’ era. That is a grave mistake, and that is why Lucado points to passages from the Bible itself. He wants to incite our curiosity. He want each of us to realize that we need to read and study the Bible.