We live in a culture and society where Truth has become obsolete, and everything is seen through a relativistic lense. God has become weightless, to quote David Wells (God in the Wasteland). The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Proverbs screamed in our ears.... Who am I to tell others what to believe or not believe in their spiritual or secular journey of hope or hopelessness? It is in this light I want to study the Fear and the Character of God in a post modern world... One by one evangelicalism has become more spiritual, less holy, more accommodating, less honest, more tolerance, less truthful, more nicer, and less committed to biblical truth. The church is become more and more like the culture and people it is reaching with the God's word. Evangelicalism has become weightless in its teaching of the word....
Fear God and live! I often hear people explain the fear of the Lord as a mere respect or reverence. But the Bible uses the word fear at least 300 times in reference to God, so we make a mistake when we downplay it. The subject becomes even more mysterious when we read something like 1 John 4:18 that says that "perfect love expels all fear." So how do we marry this dichotomy? How can we fear God while he expels all fear?
Scripture is full of examples of how fearing God is a positive rather than a negative thing. For example in Genesis 42:18, Joseph wins his brothers' trust when he declares he is a God-fearing man. It was because the midwives feared God that they obeyed him instead of the authorities by sparing the Hebrew babies (Exodus 1:17). Pharaoh brought disaster on his nation because he did not fear God (Exodus 9:29-31). Moses chose leaders to help him on the basis that they feared God and wouldn't take bribes (Exodus 18:21) and told the Hebrews that God met with them in a terrifying display of his power so that they wouldn't sin (Exodus 20:20). The Mosaic Law cites fear of God as a reason to treat the disabled and elderly well (Leviticus 19:14, 32). And lest you think this is only an Old Testament idea, note that Jesus states this stronger than anyone when he says, "Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). And Paul says to work toward complete holiness because we fear God (http://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/bible-answers/spirituallife/what-does-it-mean-to-fear-god.html) (2 Corinthians 7:1).
We are afraid of offending society, we want to be politically correct in our speech and daily walk, rightly so, but when it comes to the fear and character of God; we have no fear for the infinite, omniscient, invisible, awesome, omnipresence God of the universe... It is time to confront this post modern culture with the truth, the fear and character of the God who is there. My God is a talking God, he sees, hears, and he speaks today... Join me as we explore the FEAR and CHARACTER of our God.... Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit, Psalms 147:5
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