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| Huntsville Botanical Garden |
We seem to have lost the fear of the Lord. The Bible speaks a lot about the fear of the Lord, and I don’t believe it is telling us we should be terrified of the one true, loving and forgiving God…but to be reverential, to be in awe of Him, to walk in obedience. Perhaps we should be fearful by our disobedience.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). I want wisdom, don’t you? I also want to know Jesus in His majesty. I want to worship God on his magnificent throne…the foundation of which is righteousness and justice (Psalm 89:14), and His throne is where we find mercy and grace in times of need (Hebrews 4:16). I want to know Him in a way that I am in reverent awe of the One who created this universe with the spoken word (Genesis 1), in His great power and outstretched arm (Jeremiah 27:5).
Just a side note…the earth is not billions of years old. Creation took only six days. It disturbs and saddens me that so many Christians take the world’s view of this earth and make it their own. They will justify this belief by saying, “He did create, but He let it happen over millions of years.” I fully believe these people have not studied God's word. But this is a post for a different day.
Where are we disobedient? For me, gluttony is one of my ways of disobedience. It should be more important to me to choose to not overeat because the Bible indicates that gluttony is a sin. I am working on it…not as hard as I should be…but I am trying to make obedience in this area of my life more important than the number on the scale. I need to make the goal obedience, not weight loss.
Most everyone has areas of disobedience in their lives. Another of my areas of rebellion is writing...or the lack thereof. I know God gave me the talent to write but I mostly “write” in my head and that’s where it stays. If God gives us a talent, He doesn’t mean for us to keep it locked away inside ourselves. The singer should sing! The teacher should teach! The encourager should encourage. Writers should write! We need to be about the Father’s business with our fellow man…and woman, of course. Our talents should be used for His glory.
I don’t want to just be a better person. I want to be a better Christian. I want to live out loud (in actions, not words) and with purpose, so that His light shines in me. The days are becoming colder, my friends. We live in an evil generation, and time is growing short. If there is an area of disobedience in your own life, there is no better time than now to start doing what God has called you to do!
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| Opryland Hotel, Nashville, TN |
One of my favorite passage is Job 28:28 And he said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.” If we truly held God in the highest esteem with reverse, awe, and adoration, I think we would keep our eyes focused more on him and less on ourselves, our problems, the world, etc.
ReplyDeleteI too agree with the literal creation in 6 days. The world is not millions of years old.
My disobedience is worry, fear, and anxiety. I need to walk more in obedience.
betty
Yeah...fear and worry. Those are giants in my life, as well.
DeleteWell, once again, I nodded all the way thru this post..and felt guilty. sighhhhhh. But, I did have a moment of a chuckle. It was the "writing in my head" part.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you've ever ridden a motorcycle or not, but just let me say that the passenger on a motorcycle has a lot of power, and if the passenger doesn't know how to ride, things can go badly fast. It surprises most who know me that I do, in fact, know how to ride...but there was this one day...
I was in grad school & Bill and I went for a ride, but I had this paper to write, so I was writing it in my head as we rode. Bill told me we were going to turn left on a particular road up ahead. although I was always very careful to keep my body in line with his, to lean only when he leaned, I was distracted writing that paper in my head.
At any rate, I was sitting back there & suddenly realized that we were approaching the turn. I glanced up,saw no traffic--and leaned hard to the left. You know, because I hadn't been paying attention to where we were and almost missed the lean...which would have made it hard for Bill to turn.
After we got onto the side road, I was startled as Bill suddenly stopped the bike. Bill turned around laughing & said, he had changed his mind and wasn't turning there--While I was writing that paper in my head, I turned us from behind. Talk about a backseat driver. We still laugh about that.
Writing papers in one's head can prove to be dangerous!
I forgot. Yours was the THIRD mention of thoughts verse today. I just got back on Facebook, and there was the post I lifted from my pastor's FB page--before I read this blog post--and, yep, it was that verse. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart... that verse in black and white. Three times today. Ya think God's trying to tell me something?
DeleteI've been on a motorcycle a few times...I was told "lean when I lean." It has been several years! Funny about you making the turn from behind...funny and a little scary. I didn't realize the leaning could be that powerful. I have a feeling there's a lesson in that story!
DeleteAnd yep. God is talking, and we are listening. I'll admit, some days, I quote Psalm 19:14 to myself uh-lot!