“I’m scared. What can I do?”

Steve Brown:
I’m scared. What can I do? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you think laughter isn’t spiritual or that faithfulness to God means conformity to Christian stereotypes, then this program probably isn’t for you. But if you’re looking for honest Biblical answers to hard questions, then welcome to Key Life. Here’s our host, author, and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeTruth.

Steve Brown:
Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey Steve, how you doing?

Steve Brown:
I’m doing pretty good. Better than you. I, you, only those in our television audience know this, but you’ve got your arm in a sling.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh, I know.

Steve Brown:
And when we talked in my study, you kept wincing and I thought it was something I had said. And realized, no, it’s your shoulder.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, and it hadn’t started hurting until it came into your office, so I don’t know.

Steve Brown:
Now, you had rotator cuff.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, rotator cuff surgery from lifting weights heavier than I should have been. So, that was stupid.

Steve Brown:
Well, it doesn’t matter. Pray for Pete. That’s not a pleasant thing. It’s weeks of recovery. And I must say that you didn’t cuss and you didn’t spit. So, you must be in the process of sanctification.

Pete Alwinson:
Along the line.

Steve Brown:
That’s Pete Alwinson. And if you’re a regular of Key Life, you know that Pete comes in each Friday, and we’ve done this for years and years, and we answer the questions that you have. And I say it all the time, and I mean it all the time, we take you and your questions seriously. You can send your questions to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

in Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

But maybe the easier way to do it is to mail your question to [email protected] and an even easier way is simply to pick up your phone and dial 1-800-KEY-LIFE, it’s open 24 7, and you follow instructions, record your question, and sometimes we put your voice on the air. By the way, those are all places where if the spirit should move, you could help us financially. I realize that all of you can’t, but if you can be as generous as you can. And I promise, we’ll squeeze every dime for the glory of God and be as faithful with your gift as you were in giving it. If you can’t, pray for us. This is an expensive and difficult ministry and God has been faithful up to this point. I assume that will continue. Pete, why don’t you lead us in prayer and we’ll answer these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
All right. Our Great Father, what a joy to come into your presence today and to pray. And as we think of how life is so challenging and there are so many issues that we face. Worldwide and locally and personally, and so Father, we come to you because we recognize that you are the God who is, who was, and is to come. You are kind and merciful. You are all powerful. You know what we’re facing. And Lord, I pray for our listeners, I pray for myself, pray for all of us that we would remember that you know what it’s like to be human, the pain of being human. Lord Jesus, from coming and walking among us. And that you are the sovereign King of the universe. You understand our humanity and our fallenness and our frailties. And so, we bring our anxieties and our fears and our tests and our challenges to you right now and ask that Lord, in a powerful way, you would speak to us and communicate to us, abide in us and through us and fill us with your grace that we could make it through these anxieties. We give them to you right now. And now Lord, this week-end, we pray for our leaders, pastors, priests, teachers, worship directors, all those that are going to lead us into your presence. We ask, give them grace and may we hear the grace that they impart. For we pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Hey Pete, let’s first go to our phone lines.

Caller 1:
Hey, Steve and Pete, I’ve been a Key Life listener for 25 years, but recently I’ve been dealing with some anxiety issues. I pray a lot about the situation. I’m trying to cast my burdens on the Lord like Peter said we should in I Peter 5:7. But I just can’t seem to get rid of them. Any burden casting suggestions? Thanks a lot.

Steve Brown:
Well, first, welcome to the club, you know, if you have not had those before, it’s time you did so you can identify with us. But the truth, you know, we’re recording this, by the way, just so you know, way ahead. But back at the time we were recording this, the hurricane Helene had gone into North Carolina and South Carolina, northern Florida and Georgia, and I have, for the past pile of days, been talking to friends. I grew up there in western North Carolina, and I’ve been talking to a whole lot of friends and some family who’ve been through a really hard time.

Pete Alwinson:
Asheville, that’s where you’re from.

Steve Brown:
Oh, it’s been awful. And it’s just awful. We heard from the Cove. They managed to survive okay, but they’re closed until October, remember the time we’re recording this. But you know, Pete, the really interesting thing about this is, and I’ve experienced it myself, we went through Hurricane Andrew and lost our house, so that was a pretty scary time. God sometimes doesn’t give you the peace or the freedom from anxiety until you need it, until you’re there, until things fall apart. And truthfully, the people I’ve talked to who are Christians have experienced that over the last few days, every one of them. They’ve said we’re okay. I talked to a woman this morning, she and her husband are old time friends, and he was the treasurer of a church that I served, and I loved them both. And she said, Steve, I’ve never been so frightened in my life. And I said, well, what are you laughing about? She said, I don’t know. Well, it was the peace that God gives to get you through whatever you’ve got to go through, and that includes dying. So, you know, don’t, a coward dies a thousand deaths, Shakespeare said. That’s cause they’re always, and I do this too, thinking about what if this? What if that? I’m going to be in bad trouble, but a brave man dies only once. So, the first advice, and that’s a long way around the barn, and I’m sorry, but you’re hurting, and I thought I’d do a lot of talking today. God’s going to be faithful. He really is. And you can trust the old guy when I say this. He’s been faithful in the past and he will in the future, so go and get a milkshake. Now, Pete, add some things that are a little bit more spiritual than what I said.

Pete Alwinson:
No, I love that. I think that’s wise. And you’re right. And that comes from age of being able to see God doing a lot of things over a period of time. I would say two thoughts. One thought, is something I’ve experienced too is, and I couldn’t quite tell the tone of voice, but I think this brother might be a little older, like I’m getting a little older and I think age sometimes leads us into periods of time where we become more anxious.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
And it’s harder to put your finger on sometimes because we do have all this experience of God coming through. And sometimes I’ve sat by him, why am I feeling anxious right now? And the only thing I could come up with was, you know, I’m getting a little older and it’s part of that psyche of an older person.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, it is.

Pete Alwinson:
A second thing really comes from Tim Keller, from his book on Psalms and really is that. Every aspect of life should and can lead us into worship, even as your book on lament talks about, Laughter and Lament. Lament can lead us into worship and worship can lead us to peace. And so, your book on laughter and lament and, and Keller’s ideas. In the midst of these, try to worship, try to exalt God and see how that helps you process some of the anxiety. Been there.

Steve Brown:
And the word is always a means of grace.

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely.

Steve Brown:
If you haven’t, and you probably have, memorize the 23rd Psalm. You know, it’s amazing how sometimes when I can’t sleep, I repeat that one and a half times and I’m asleep.

Pete Alwinson:
And amazing. God’s word is meant to do that, to calm us down.

Steve Brown:
That really is. Good question. We understand, believe me.

Pete Alwinson:
Sure do.

Steve Brown:
When we get home, we won’t have to deal with any of that stuff. Pete, this is an e-mail. Once one’s name is written in the Book of Life, can it ever be removed? Is our salvation secure? How important is our obedience and faithfulness to God? That’s three questions.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, I know. And they’re good ones. They’re good.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, they are.

Pete Alwinson:
Now, I don’t know about you, Steve, but my name is in the book forever.

Steve Brown:
And they won’t, they can’t erase it.

Pete Alwinson:
I know. But what about you?

Steve Brown:
You know, well, me too.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh, okay.

Steve Brown:
But you know, you know, there is that Revelation question, and you are my scholar on Revelation, about the different books. One’s the Book of Life, and one’s the book of something. And they take your name off of one and people obsess on that symbolism and they say you can lose your salvation.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, no, no, it’s not, no, no, you can’t, you can’t lose what God gives you and secures in you.

Steve Brown:
That’s right.

Pete Alwinson:
And that’s really a composite statement from all of the New Testament. But read Romans and go back and rest assured, your Father wants you to know that you are his forever because of what Jesus did, not because of what we do. So, our faithfulness and obedience is important.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, of course.

Pete Alwinson:
But it doesn’t secure our salvation. It’s proof of it.

Steve Brown:
That’s what he does.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
Now we, Pete and I both, you know we’re both Presbyterians, and you know that we’re Reformed, so we believe in perseverance and eternal security. But we realize that there are a number of you, many of them pastors, who are not Reformed, who would have some question about what we just said. However, I want you to know that even those who believe you can lose your salvation, the ones who are really Biblical believe that’s a really, really hard thing to do. You’ve got to stomp on the face of Jesus, make an obscene gesture, and never again go there. So, we’re all in the same boat. You know, we’re trusting in Jesus, and He secures our salvation, and you can hang your head on it.

Pete Alwinson:
I would say if you struggle with that, then do read the New Testament. Read the Gospel of John, read the New Testament, and work on that, because He wants us to have that security.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. Hey guys, we’re out of time, we’ve got to go, but one other thing you should remember. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.