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In the homily of a church worship service, a minister is taught to have a Bible text as the foundation of the theme upon which he will speak. So, I don't have just one Bible text, but 365 Bible texts! There are 365 verses in the Bible that begin with the words of my theme today: "Fear not."

I must tell you that I have never counted the 365 "Fear Nots" in the Bible; that's what I was taught in seminary. I did, however, check my Bible Concordance this morning and I do believe there are 365 Bible verses with the words "Fear not." One, it so happens, for every day in the year.

FEAR NOT!

The Bible doesn't tell us, "grieve not." The Bible doesn't say, "weep not." But the Bible does say, "fear not." Again and again and again, there is one verse for every day of the year, because there isn't a day in our life when you and I do not need courage. The Bible is the Book of Courage.

This week, in preparation for my message, I went to my dictionary to read how the dictionary defines "courage." It says, "Courage is mental or moral strength. To venture, persevere, withstand, confront danger or difficulty."

Then I looked up the word "dare." The definition of "dare" in Webster's Dictionary is, "to be bold enough to challenge, to confront boldly, to have sufficient courage." Wow!

If you want to maximize the potential in your life as you face opportunities, as well as when you face horrific tragedies, you need Courage: The big "C."

I used this title when I was asked to give the funeral message for Senator Hubert Humphrey in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1978. Senator Humphrey became my friend shortly after he found out he had cancer. He was watching the Hour of Power in Washington and we became friends through the next months and years. He kept saying, "I'm fighting the Big C." And I would reply to him, "You're fighting the Big C with a Bigger C."

"Oh, what's that?"

"You're fighting the Big C with a Bigger C, and the Bigger C is Courage!"

Courage. What is it? Do you have it? Who needs it? When? Does it really make a difference? And, where do you get it when you have to have it?

Courage: Who needs it?

I say Christians are the ones who need it today. I suppose most of the people in my audience here and on television are Christians or believers in God and people who reverence the name of Jesus Christ.

We live today as Christians in a world that's becoming increasingly secular, and even scornful of some of our moral positions. How easy it would be, through our silence, to condone evil rather than to confront it. The ultimate law is not the law on the books of the state or the country, but it's the social and cultural pressures that we all must deal with.

I am talking primarily to young people in these series of messages, and I was talking to a young mother the other day. She has two little girls in a Christian school. They pay an enormous sacrifice not to give their children free public education. She said, "The truth is, probably a third to a half of the parents of the kids in the public school where my girls are students, are parents who use recreational drugs." She continued, "Our daughter was invited to stay overnight with a classmate whose parents were very wealthy. I know the mother very well through the tennis club, where I heard her enthusiastically share how, in the evening after dinner in their luxurious home, she and her husband enjoyed their Jack Daniels whiskey which, she said, went so great with the wonderful hash that they smoked."

"When my daughter was invited to spend the night in that home, that scared me. And I said, ëNo!' ëNo!' ëNo!' And I then made the decision to surround my children with schoolmates whose homes had the same Christian values as our home."

We live in a horrendously, embattled cultural world today. The classic Judaic Christian values are constantly being challenged by those who have no moral values.

Another young parent recently told how she found a pack of cigarettes and a cigarette lighter in her 13-year-old's bedroom. The mother had been listening to Dr. Laura Schlessinger's radio program. Dr. Laura was my Hour of Power guest a few weeks ago, and she is one of the most esteemed child psychologists and counselors in America today with 25 million listeners. From Dr. Schlessinger, this mother got the idea on how to admonish her 13-year-old daughter for having a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. The daughter went to school as usual, and while she was at school, the mother moved all of the things out of her daughter's bedroom and put them in the bedroom where the two younger girls slept. When her 13-year-old came home from school she still had a bed, if she wanted to sleep there, and pillows, sheets, and a blanket, but everything else was in the room of her two younger sisters. It was a very smart move.

It takes a lot of courage to be a parent today. It takes a lot of courage to administer the right discipline to your child. It takes a lot of courage in society to say, "You know, that may be what all of you believe, but I have to say I can't go along with that. I can't agree to it."

Courage: Who needs it?

Legislators need courage not to be intimidated by the lesser good in our culture.

Courage: Who needs it?

I submit we all need it to confront today's culture in a positive way.

Maybe you read in the paper, only a couple of days ago, that the state of Hawaii amended their constitution to define marriage. They would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman for the purpose of hopefully producing children and creating a family, the basic building block of society.

We need to teach our children how to have courage. Teach them to find courage not through fame, not through fortune, and not through power to enslave.

Children are presumably taught courage through some children's cartoons, but courage is too often attributed to the hero who blows everybody away and everybody else is dead and he's alive. Noble courage inspires beauty and boldness, but not brutality!

Courage: Does it make a difference?

The Crystal Cathedral is only a mile from Disneyland, in Orange County, California, near Newport Beach, with its expensive homes and cars, but you should know something else. Not too many miles from the Crystal Cathedral, in Santa Ana, is Minnie Street. Minnie Street is packed with dope peddlers who peddle their dope in daylight right from the front curb and the bullets fly by day and by night. And it is getting worse.

In Santa Ana, California, two policemen said "Enough is enough!" Tony Romero and Dan Armendarez said, "We will move into that community."

Both of those policemen moved, lock, stock and barrel to Minnie Street. They sleep there, they eat there, and they have become neighbors there. They, too, dodge the bullets there.

This is what our newspaper, The Orange County Register, reports: "In seven months, crime has diminished 45 percent!" Why? Because two cops had the courage to move into the territory to live there. They are good cops. Both of them unashamedly can often be seen carrying not only a gun at their side, but a Bible under their arm.

Courage: Does it make a difference?

I was so profoundly moved and impressed when Governor Keating's wife announced that there would be a prayer service after the horrific tragedy of the Oklahoma bombing. I thought, "How does she dare to do that?" There are institutions and organizations that are geared up to attack anybody who would try to put together a public service of prayer. Especially one that is sponsored and organized by a community and a political power person like the Governor's wife, Cathy.

It was amazing. All of America joined in weeping, crying, praying and praising God through that service. The audience must have numbered in the tens of millions of people in this country alone. And interestingly enough, the voice of the enemy was never heard. Those individuals who would attack religious movements suddenly were silenced. They had nothing to offer.

Atheism has nothing to offer the dying and the weeping.

Where does real courage come from?

Real courage comes from a dream that you have to turn this world into a more precious place to live. That is the real courage which comes from a "Divine Call." It is a "Divine Call" that leads to a commitment. I know many people who made a daring commitment to their dream, and when I've said to them, "You surely have courage. You've taken some real risks."

They reply, "Oh, I don't think I have courage, I'm not brave. I just made promises, and I can't break these promises! I made commitments and I must keep them!"

That leads me to the last word of this message. Where does real courage come from? It comes from a word that is deeper than duty or honor. It comes from a word that I call Integrity!

Moral integrity.

Spiritual integrity.

Financial integrity.

Integrity is what you have to do because it is the right thing to do. You wouldn't be caught dead not doing what you know is the right thing to do! Integrity doesn't look at the danger.

Integrity listens to the call for help in the night and goes running to save a life.

Where do you get integrity? From the Holy Bible, the Book of Courage.

From whom do you get real courage? From Jesus Christ, the Lord. He had real courage when He accepted the cross.

Jesus Christ had integrity. He had to die on the cross for all humanity and He was consumed by God's call.

Courage is the big "C" in the Holy Bible. And the Biggest "C" is Christ.

Get a personal connection with Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord, and you will know a courage that is sweet, saving, inspiring bringing humble boldness to your soul. It is my testimony that Jesus Christ brings a courage that brings beauty to the insignificant areas of all of life.

Prayer: Lord, we thank You. You are at work in this world. We thank You for the Holy Bible, the Book of Courage. May we open it and read it and find power in it. Jesus, be our Savior. We pray for Your courage in our life. We want to be brave enough to be beautiful people, boldly for Your honor. Amen.