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Jim Bramlett
Jun 20, 2004
Dear friends:
This will bless you.
Jim
____________________INSIGHTS from Bill Bright
Reflections from the late Founder and President/Chairman Emeritus of
Campus Crusade for Christ InternationalFear Of Failure
God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love,
and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7, NLT).Dear friends:
Living the Christian life and walking in the Spirit will take you out of
your natural comfort zone, but put you into a supernatural comfort zone!Jesus, and later the apostles, are our examples. Their message of the
cross was radical and their opposition was great. But they did not fear
failure and were at peace, because God and truth were on their side.
Even martyrdom did not stop them.Some Christians are so afraid of failure that they become reserved,
overly cautions, and uninvolved in life. They follow a policy of
guarded living, holding back time, talents, and treasure from God's
service. Their motto is: To keep from failing -- don't try! We must
not be this way.On the other hand, those who are willing to make mistakes and risk
failure are the ones who ultimately achieve great things. Instead of
being filled with fear, they go forward in faith. Problems are
challenges. While they may not all be solved, these courageous people
would rather live with that reality than have a clean record of no
failures and no accomplishments.Benjamin Franklin once said, "The man who does things makes many
mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all -- doing
nothing."Thomas Edison did not meet all his goals, but it is said that he saw
every failure as a success. The story goes that he failed 10,000 times
in his storage battery experiments. But Edison said, "Why, I have not
failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."What if, out of fear of failure, Edison had quit after the first few
unsuccessful experiments? Perhaps someone else would have invented it,
but maybe much later, and Edison would himself had failed his
God-ordained calling.Let us, as God's people, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, full of faith and
power, not fear anything, especially failure. We must be fearless. "If
God is for us, who can ever be against us?" (Romans 8:31, NLT)."For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power,
love, and self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7, NLT)."The LORD who created you says: "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed
you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep
waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers
of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of
oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.
For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior"
(Isaiah 43:1-3, NLT).Fear is the opposite of faith.
Yours for helping to fulfill the Great Commission
each year until our Lord returns,Bill Bright
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The late Dr. Bill Bright was Founder and President/Chairman Emeritus of
Campus Crusade for Christ, an organization which began as a campus
ministry in 1951 and now has more than 27,000 full-time staff and up to
500,000 trained volunteer staff in 196 countries in areas representing
99.6 percent of the world's population. In the past 50 years, Campus
Crusade for Christ has seen approximately 6 billion exposures to the
gospel worldwide. The film, "JESUS," which Bright conceived and funded
through Campus Crusade for Christ, is the most widely translated and
viewed film of any type ever produced. Since its use began in 1980, the
film has been translated into 839 languages and viewed or listened to by
over 5.7 billion people in 228 countries. Dr. Bright was also the
author of more than fifty books. Dr. Bright recently co-founded Global
Pastors Network to "Touch, Teach and Train" a group of 5 million new
house churches around the world 24/7/365 at
http://www.globalpastorsnetwork!
.org.Copyright (c) 2003, Bill Bright. All rights reserved. However, readers
may copy and distribute this message as desired, without restrictions in
number, as long as the content is not altered. Forwarding this e-mail
to friends is encouraged. For many evangelistic and spiritual growth
materials, visit the Campus Crusade for Christ Web site at
http://www.ccci.org. See http://www.campuscrusade.org for Bill Bright's
own materials.
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