Results 1 - 3 of 3
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | A Fear of the Lord encompasses what? | Prov 22:4 | Aixen7z4 | 145555 | ||
It is good to see that question. It may cause us to reflect on a most important topic. We need to know what it means to fear God, and we need to fear God (Ecclesiastes 12). It is chilling to realize that there are some around us and more so some among us who do not fear God. David says (Psalm 36) it is the reason people sin, and why some do it with impunity. They do not know God well enough to respect him. They do not apprehend his power to afflict us, or knowing it, they take advantage of his love and patience. But we should respect God because he is Creator and Sovereign and the Judge of all the earth. God is love, but God is also a consuming fire. If we are wise, the first order of business is to be sure we have a healthy fear of God. Like modern Pharaohs (Exodus 5) some show a lack of the fear of God by disobeying or ignoring God with apparent disregard for the consequences. They may profess that they do not believe there is a place called hell, or they say that God would never send people there. That is an attitude they may live again to regret for a long time. Jesus taught us that we should fear God because he has the power to cast both body and soul into hell. And there are some who know God and yet fail to glorify him (Romans 1). In effect they make themselves out to be God, in that they are wise enough to make life decisions without him. And there are some among us who know God personally and yet fail to tremble at his word. We too, may try to take advantage of his mercy and dabble in sin while believing that his grace will abound to cover it. We may play fast and loose with his word and carelessly teach false doctrines. God has warned us about that (Jeremiah 2, 3, 10, 12, Matthew 5, etc.) but some of us do it anyway. We should fear the Lord, all of us, and be careful and humble before him. We should respect him to the nth degree, and in a real sense be afraid of him. God is love but also, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him (Psalm 33:8). |
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2 | A Fear of the Lord encompasses what? | Prov 22:4 | iktoose | 145563 | ||
I have been a Christian since 1991 and the greatest Godly wisdom I got is fearing the Lord, I think. Whenever I am tempted to commit a sin, I think about the consequences (fearing the Lord). iktoose |
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3 | A Fear of the Lord encompasses what? | Prov 22:4 | Aixen7z4 | 145568 | ||
That is good. So many of us act on our emotions without thinking, and we may find out afterwards that we have sinned. And it is still true that the payment for sin is death. There is that consequence attached to it (Romans 6). We are thankful that there is no hell, no eternal bad consequence, for us who are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8). That is what the Lord calls the second death (Revelation 21). But there is a death that we experience while living, when the soul shrivels up and withers and dies (Romans 8). It is a temporary separation from fellowship with God (1 Timothy 5). We are thankful those who die can live again, and those who are separated from God can return to him. This is what we experienced when we were born again; we died and rose again in him. And he constantly calls on his children to come back. He says we should draw near to him and he will draw near to us (James 4). To be near to him is life (Psalm 16). To be away from him is death (Romans 8). There is a sense in which we are never separated from him because he never leaves us not forsakes us. His Spirit is in us. But we can quench and grieve the Spirit by willful sinning to the point that he is passive and not striving with us. Our fellowship with God is broken, and for a time he seems to cease to speak to us (Psalm 22,28). The child of God senses that and grieves about it, and that godly sorrow leads to repentance and restoration to fellowship with God. And we are never separated from the love of God (Romans 8). As the father for the prodigal son, our Father longs to have us back, and there is joy in heaven over one who repents. But it is good to hear him say too, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine”; it is good also to never stray from him. Doubtless will slip from time to time and fall. But with the help of the Spirit we are aware of it and we repent immediately and turn back. We cannot seek the pleasures of sin and fellowship with God at the same time. We respect him too much to try to bring sin into his presence. He is holy and he requires us to be holy. And he provides the means, the blood, to keep us so. The cross of Christ reminds us how seriously God takes the fact of sin. He turned away from Jesus when he took our sin, and he poured his judgment upon him. His holiness and his justice both required that. So I agree with you, my friend. The fear of the Lord will cause us all to stay away from sin. |
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