Good evening and welcome to our midweek Bible study on Thursday nights we're going through

the Bible book by book chapter by chapter and verse by verse line upon line and we are in

the book of Isaiah last week we got through verse or chapter 43 we did not make it

to chapter 44 and I think I know why. The Lord gave me more time

to really spend some time in chapter 44. And I got the opportunity really for the Holy Spirit to minister something to me that I didn't

see before. And I want to share it with you and it has to do with fear, more specifically,

not fearing nor being afraid. Now we're going to see this when we get to verse 8, but at first

glance, and I noticed this last week, but I didn't make much of it because at first read,

it was like this unnecessary redundancy. Do not fear nor be afraid. Wait a minute, isn't that the same thing? Well, not exactly.

So I spent some time, went into the original language and discovered that the word fear carries

with it the idea of being stunned, startled.

You know, that's when the bomb goes off.

I'm sorry, I shouldn't, Arabs should not use bomb illustrations.

So the bottom falls out.

Is that better?

Okay?

And you're just stunned.

And that's fear and that fear sets in, it's that panic.

But that's different than being afraid.

In the original language, that word for afraid carries with it the idea of being paralyzed. You're just paralyzed in fear and afraid. And so

we're going to talk about that tonight. And I hope it's an encouragement to you. I know

it's been a tremendous encouragement to me, as I've shared with you very openly and honestly. I have this

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