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The Fear of
God Prov. 1:7,29
Several years ago when I was about
eleven years old some friends and I decided to go camping one night in the
very large cemetery on a hill near our house. We set up a tent far in the
back part of the cemetery . We made a little camp
fire, cooked some hot dogs, roasted some marshmallows, and the told each
other some scary stories. We were trying scare each
other and were doing a good job at that. One of the other boys suggested that
we play hide and seek. After drawing sticks, it became my lot to try to find
everyone once I counted to 100. After I counted there was
dead silence and a sense that I was all alone among thousands of graves. Fear
overwhelmed me as I began looking for my friends. Then one of the guys jumped
up and shouted boo and grabbed me. I could have died because of the fear.
God wants us to fear Him, but not in a way of dread or
terror. We are to have a reverential awe inspiring fear of Him. God needs to
be the great I AM in your heart. We are to have a fear of being found
displeasing in His sight. Our greatest fear should be that God may not find
us well pleasing in His sight. We should have a sense of worship engraved in
our heart that we cling to Jesus. Recognize that the all powerful,
and Holy one is always near. He is aware of your every need. Worship Him
because you are driven to love and honor Him. He loves you so much that He
sent His only begotten son to earth to die for you. When we ignore God and
fail to walk in the fear of the Lord we are the one who suffers and drive a
wedge between us and Him who loved us so much. Some view God
as someone who lives up there, out there, somewhere, but is here, now, and
everywhere. He knows your ever sin and thoughts of your heart.
As a child of God, don't try to flee from
His presence (Psalm 139:1-11), but walk in the Fear of the Lord. Thank Him
for His majesty and love. Love Him for His eternal care for your soul. God
will richly bless you when you love His counsel and choose the fear of the
Lord.
Elijah's
Troubles Iki. 19:4-8
When Ahab returned from Mount Carmel and told Queen Jezebel all that had
happened to her prophets, she was enraged. She immediately sent a message to
Elijah saying, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not
thy life as the life of one of [the slain prophets] them by to morrow about
this time." Soon after that the man of faith lost his faith in God and
ran into the wilderness fearing for his life. Terror began to consume him and
he began to think totally disproportionate to reality. He cried out, "It
is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my
fathers." He reached a point in his life where he was totally beyond
despondency and exhaustion.
Have you ever been there where you couldn't life up your
head to consider you next step. Everything seems to
be happening at once. Nothings seems to go right.
Pressures are mounting. You feel depressed . You are
not sleeping well. The weight of the world is upon you shoulders. You
emotions are in high gear and you easily get agitated with those you should
love the most. Are you starting to loath the company of others? Do you lack
any vision for the future? Is you motivation gone and you feel a cynical
self-centered perspective about life. You, like Elijah, are beginning to
reach the ultimate stress of mental and emotional exhaustion, i.e. burnout.
There are no simple remedies --like a good nights rest or delegating
responsibilities at work to someone else. The ultimate answer can only be
found in the right relationship with God. God has constructed us with a built
in need to be dependent upon Him. We all have emotional boundaries within us
put there by God so that when the stress of life overruns us we will learn to
lean on Jesus. God knows about every problem we have ever faced before we
ever encountered it. Why not give your burdens back to him
? Persisting in a course of ignoring God's provision of strength and
living by you own self-sufficient principles will only make your stress last
longer. Nourish yourself back to strength by spending much time in prayer.
Journey in to the mountain alone with God. Get plenty of rest (vs 5) and eat right.
Once Elijah's spiritual, and
physical needs were met he began to have a vision for the future. God wants
to restore His balance to overloaded lives by having us lean upon our Savior
today. Today we must value only those things that will be valuable to Him in
eternity. Realize that God is in control and that He is sufficient (Isaiah
40:28-31).
Satan's Bid
Gen. 3:1-6
Have you ever found yourself fighting
a strong, inviting, alluring temptation? What did you do?
Did you walk away or did you succumb to Satan's temptation? Satan tempts us
in all kinds of ways. He has a plan to lead you away from God's purpose for
your life. He always attacks us in our mind, in our thinking, in our desires
(IICor.10:5). We must have our thought life under control by
guarding our thinking and bringing it into captivity according God's Word.
When Satan appealed to Eve he caused her to miss focused. He
got her mind to think she was missing something in life, which is to be like
God. She was already like God living in a perfect environment. He appealed to
a specific desire which she already wanted. He always offer you what you want , but at the wrong time, or the wrong place, or the
wrong method. He always appears that he is looking out for you. Often he will
help you get what you want so that he can get what he wants us to have. He
will help you buy that car so that he can get us deep into debt. He'll help
that boy friend to like you so that he can divert you from God's best for
your life. He will help you get that job so that he can keep you out of
church. He always wants us to be miss focused for
his benefit. Like a mouse looking a piece of cheese, he see only what he
wants but does not see the trap set for him.. Satan is an absolute liar! He
makes things appear to be what they are not. When Satan appealed to Eve he
cause her to miss understand God. Every sin that man has
ever committed was committed because of a warped view. If we could but
perceive the absolute holiness of God we would walk in the fear of the Lord
continually. Satan got Eve to debate with him and doubt God's blessing and
God's sufficiency. My friends God has already given us enough to be perfectly
happy and content in Him. We do not need one more thing of this world to be
content. Whenever Satan attacks us we need only to quote scripture and Satan
will flee from us. Jesus' response to Satan when He was tempted was to quote
the Word of God, "Man shall not live by bread alone...." Do not let
Satan get you to miss place your values. He will offer you
temporal things so that he can ruin your eternal rewards in heaven. He will
try to get you to focus on the material ( lust of
the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life) at the cost of you
sacrificing the spiritual . Satan wants you to sacrifice what you already so
that he can get what he does not have.
Hard Living
Prov. 13:15b
Many years ago Dr. R.V. Clearwater
told the story of his conversion to Christ. As a young man he fell deep into
sinful ways and left home. He ran away to the Pacific
Northwest hoping he would make lots of money. His godly
Christian mother did not know where he went. He was just glad to be out of
the house and on his own to do whatever he wanted. Like the prodigal son, his
substance was wasted in riotous living. Gambling became a way of life and a
gun was his companion. One day while working in the forest as a logger, a
tree fell on him and nearly killed him. For weeks he lay in a lonely hospital
room. No one seemed to care. Some how someone got word to
his mother in Minnesota that her son was in
critical condition in a hospital in Washington
state. She sent him a card with only these words,
"....but the way of the transgressors is hard. Love, Mother". Those
words sunk deep into his sinful soul and eventually led him to return home,
to Christ, and to Bible school.
My friend if you are going to
be stupid you better be tough. Whenever you run from God's claim
upon your life you are going to pay a great price. If you are going to live
in sin and immorality, you had better be tough enough to watch your own
children rebel against you and live the same way as you. If you are going to
smoke, you better be tough enough to face death by cancer. If you are going
abuse drugs, better be tough enough to accept a lot of
misery, self destruction, and the destruction of those you love. If you are
going to drink alcohol, you better be tough enough to die or kill someone in
an automobile accident. If you are going to compromise church attendance, you
better be tough enough to have your children question why even go to church,
and even later have your grandchildren live in wickedness. God's law demands
that a man eats that which he sows. A slothful man shall eat the fruit of his
own laziness. The transgressor shall eat his own
violence. The immoral man or woman shall eat the fruit of their own shame.
"A wise son heareth his fathers's instruction: but a scorner hearth not rebuke.
(Prov.13:1). Do not overthrow the ways of God, because the way of the transgessors is a hard life.
Dangerous Leaning
I Cor. 10:12
A tree will fall in the direction it
is leaning. It is very difficult to get a tree to fall in a different place
than it is leaning. Likewise, all men have certain leanings. Some are good
and some are bad. Bob Jones Sr. said, "Show me a man's slant on life and
I will tell you where he will end up." It is not a matter of a mans' present position, but his future destination, i.e.
leanings. Balance is vital to your standing straight and tall for God. No
leaning! We must continue to do right, regardless of the trend, because right
is always the right thing to do. When you loose your balance you will fall.
You will fall in the direction you are leaning. Your thoughts are an index of
the direction you are leaning. Too many Christians have focused on results,
money (I Tim. 6:9-10), materialism (Eccl..5:10), and
now they are leaning the wrong direction. Achan leaned toward wealth (Josh. 7:21) and soon lost all
he had after he caused Israel
to loose the battle. Demas leaned toward the world (2Tim.4:10) and soon
became part of the crowd that he once condemned. Peter followed the Lord afar
off and eventually during a time of great danger cursed God. Which way are
you leaning today? If your slant is toward money, then money will cause you
to fall away from God. If your slant is toward worldly trends then the world
will draw you away from God. Are you leaning away from soulwinning
and separation, and leaning toward new evangelicalism, eccumentalism ,
liberalism, or immorality? DO RIGHT! Lean on the breast of Jesus (Jn. 21:20). Be careful not to lean unto your own
understanding (Prov. 3:5).
May God give us some mighty men who will do right
regardless of the direction our friends are leaning.
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