Monday, February 25, 2008
The Fear of the Lord
Our pastor preached about the fear of the Lord yesterday. He talked about how Aaron's sons were consumed by the fire of the Lord causing their deaths when they acted irreverently toward Him. This morning, I was reading the first 10 chapters of 1 Chronicles. I came across the verses that mention about how Uzza was struck by God to death when he acted in a way that did not show reverence of His presence. This makes me think about one of God's characters, being a JUST GOD. I was wondering why so many people today show no reverence of God's presence. Obviously, they do not have the Fear of the Lord. I've been noticing that the subject on fearing the Lord has been intentionally left out. Preachers do not even want to preach about it in their churches, saying that they do not want people to be walking a Christian life in fear. But if Jesus Himself preached about hell and the coming judgment more than a hundred times, why can't we talk about it? We all need to know and remember that God is a JUST God. He is a righteous Judge! A righteous judge would never let the guilty go unpunished. This truth should create in us "the fear of the Lord". This kind of fear helps us to get rid of every unholy activity we are engaging in our lives by the help of the Holy Spirit. This kind of fear ushers us to love the Lord our God with everything we are and everything we have. This kind of fear is the defining character that places a woman in an honor that surpasses the attractive reputation of other noble women.
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3 comments:
I think the "Fear of the Lord" is a misunderstood concept by most people especially those who doesn't have any relationship with God.
For me, it's so hard to develop "fear of the Lord" if one doesn't understand WHO GOD is. It is indeed very important that we should know HIM. ANd the more we know HIM, the more LOVE is created. Coz if we love God, the fear of the Lord follows...we started hating what is evil, what is contrary to God.
I've observed also that most churches preaches more about prosperity. (which is kinda sad).
There's one pastor in the philippines i would never forget: He preaches Holiness- and He made an impact in my life.
I think that many people fear death and what will happen after death, but if they are not a believer, they do not associate this fear with God. If they do not know who God is, they can not fear him.
I struggle with the type of approach to take when talking about God's Word. Many people become defensive if approached with a message of condemnation, however, this is still something they need to hear. I feel that God made us all unique in our communication style. We need to pray about how God wants us to share his Word - whether it's approaching people with God's love and salvation or beginning with a message of God being a just judge. God can work through both approaches, as long as we are being true to His Word.
It is indeed misunderstood by many. Knowing who God is as "Love" and as a "Righteous Judge" is very important. Growing up, I experienced the fear of God first, and then follows my experience of His love.
I believe that we don't have a choice on how we are going to approach people in telling them about God. It is important that we tell people the totality of the Gospel and not just some part of it. To tell them "God is love" alone is half of the Truth. And to tell them "God is a Just God" alone is the other half. The issue is not on choosing which "half of the Truth" should we use to communicate the Gospel to the people but, when to tell them which. In all of my evangelism and discipleship experiences I always make sure I tell the whole Truth and not just half of it. There are times that God would lead me to tell them about His love first, and then progress to the other half. But there are also times that I feel like I have to warn the person by telling her/him about the judgment of God first. Every person's heart condition is different. Some people are in a situation where they have already heard that God is love and that He has a wonderful plan for our lives over and over and over again, but just don't get it. They still continue to sin. Tell them about the judgment of God once and they will think about it... they will really think about their spiritual condition and most of them will call upon HIM.
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