Month: October 2018

TADB 043: Living the Wow

For God’s family of faith the fear of the Lord on the resurrection side of the cross means respect, reverent wonder, and awe.  It is the response of the soul to the majesty and glory of God that says, “Wow!”

Freed from the penalty of sin and transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, our journey of discipleship is an invitation to explore the indescribable, unexplainable, and incredible majesty of God.  Every day we should be amazed.

Rather than looking at God as a capricious sheriff, the fear of the Lord anticipates seeing something new and wonderful.  The writer of Lamentations expressed it this way:

The faithful love of the LORD never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning (Lam. 3:22-23 NLT).

 The apostle Peter takes the “wow” a step further in his second letter.  He tells us that we are to diligently add to our faith such qualities as knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and godliness (2 Peter 1:5+).  The biblical concept of godliness has at its root the fear of God.  In a previous day it was also called piety.

Godliness can be described as “character and conduct determined by the principle of love and fear of God in the heart.”1 In earlier history it was called piety which Webster defines as a “compound (combination) of veneration or reverence of the Supreme Being and love of his character, or veneration accompanied with love.”2

In other words, godliness expresses reverence with holy living and affection/devotion.  It is the response of the soul to the majesty and glory (“wow”) of God.

The implication from Peter’s challenge is that the fear of the Lord can and must be intentionally developed.  In fact, we are charged with its development along with such obvious character traits as self-discipline and love.

Therefore, we must conclude that far from being an incidental option, the fear of the Lord is critical to our journey of discipleship.  When understood and embraced, the fear of the Lord:

  • Turns knowledge into wisdom
    • Marveling at both His works and His ways
    • Celebrating our dignity while retaining humility
    • Seeing awe and wonder in life’s ordinary events
    • Keeping a clear distinction between the Creator and His creation
  • Accepts all of His revealed nature without distortion
    • Preventing the love of God from trumping His holiness
    • Keeping the Lion of Judah from becoming the genie of Aladdin
    • Replacing embezzlement of His generous resources with stewardship
    • Protecting the transcendence of God from being diminished by His imminence.

Reverent wonder seeks to know God as He is; not like we want Him to be.  Too often we want God to fit into our mental box so we can manipulate Him for our advantage.  We want a God we can control or at least one who is comfortable.    We tend to ignore or minimize the traits of God that threaten our picture of what we want Him to be.

The godliness and reverent wonder that Peter refers to, seeks not only to know Him but to please Him.  It is an attitude of grateful love and constant devotion.  It is a response that honors, respects, and responds to the will of God (John 17:4 NASB).

When we are gripped by reverent wonder, we will be humbled; unable to defend our sinfulness or justify our self-centeredness.  When the eyes of our soul see God revealed in his power, greatness, love, compassion, and creative genius, we can only stand in awe and humbly ask the same questions Paul asked when he saw the “wow” of Lord on the road to Damascus:  “Who are you Lord, and what do you want me to do?”

If we want to gaze in reverent wonder at the nature of God, we have only to look at Jesus.

 “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.  The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:1-3).

Consider taking extended time to reflect on Christ in all the defining moments in His Story especially His ascension, coronation and final revelation (see TADB 17-22).

Several other ideas I have found helpful to increase awareness of the fear of the Lord:

  • Reflect on God’s fingerprint in His design of the cosmos at both the micro and macro levels.
  • Reflect on the touch of God in the defining moments of our own life stories.
  • Study the lives of biblical characters as they experienced God’s patience, discipline, judgment and wrath as well as forgiveness, noting how the laws of the harvest (e.g. we reap what we sow) played out in their lives.
  1. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
  2. Webster dictionary 1828

TADB 042: The Fear Factor

The Oldsmobile was an American automobile icon since 1897.  It sold over 35 million automobiles in its 107 year history.  During the 1980’s Olds tried to recapture its declining market by reinventing itself.  In 1988 it came out with the slogan “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile.”  They tried to reposition the elegant Olds as something different than what it was.  It was the beginning of the end. It was phased out in 2004.

Could it be that in the church today, in order to recapture a declining market, we have copied the Oldsmobile strategy by trying to reinvent God?  In our attempt to reinvent or at least remarket God to a declining audience, are we in danger of domesticating the Lion of Judah and emasculating the King of Kings?

Our culture has lost the fear of the Lord.  It is absent in Hollywood, schools, government, and in many homes.  It’s not that God is absent, but rather that God is whatever we want Him to be.  He is a convenient icon to be made and used at our discretion.  He is a P.S. to our history, an appendix to our essay, and only a conclusion to our speeches.

The critical question for the church today is, “Have we corporately and individually lost the fear of God?”  The fear of God is not an outdated, primitive view held by unenlightened and superstitious people who were just too ignorant to know better. It is a theme that runs throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.  Moses taught it (Deut. 10:12, 20, 21).  The Psalmist reflected on it (Psalm 103:13), Jesus stressed it (Matt. 10:28), Paul preached it (Phil. 2:12), and the early church got it (Acts 9:31).  But somewhere along the line we have lost it to our shame and detriment.

What is the fear of God?

The word fear is a broad term that can mean anything from fright and terror to reverence and veneration.  We often use the word fear to refer to our phobias which run into the hundreds.   It seems new ones are being discovered every day. Daily news and advertising continually prey on our fears whether real or imaginary.  We are given the impression that just about everything in our lives is a threat or unsafe at one time or another.  Hollywood feeds our fear with its love affair with disaster and end of the world movies.

First, we must recognize that fear is a gift from God.  When our lives are threatened, we feel fear.  Healthy fear moves us to take action…protective action.  Fear also keeps us (most of us) from taking risks beyond our ability.  Parents wisely keep close tabs on young children near cliffs because they know that the “fear factor” is not fully developed.  (Someone also needs to keep tabs on senior men who climb ladders for the same reason!)

Some like Timothy Treadwell pay the ultimate price when they lose their healthy gift of fear.  Mr. Treadwell lived among grizzly bears in Alaska for a number of years assuming they were his friends.  One day in 2003, Mr. Treadwell and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by the grizzly bears he was no longer afraid of.  Fear is a gift.

But the term “fear of God” is not about feeling terror that causes us to shrink from His presence.  Rather it is a reverential fear that is described as the “controlling motive of the life, in matters spiritual and moral, not a mere “fear” of His power and righteous retribution, but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him…”1 The fear of God is based on His power and holiness as revealed in Scripture rightly leading to the question, “How can we ever be right with God or live in His presence?  Does our current Gospel message of the love of God adequately reflect the fear of God?”

The good news is that when we come to God by grace through faith, the fear of condemnation is eliminated so we no longer shrink from His presence.  Jesus Christ is now our high priest making it possible to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).  Therefore, we can approach Him confidently, but we should also approach Him with reverence, awe, and gratitude.  This reverent fear of God is the platform for our entire journey of faith.

I wonder how well we are teaching the fear of God to the next generation.  I know there has been a strong reaction to previous generations that presented God as stern, angry, vengeful, and usually unapproachable.  That view of God is not correct but neither is the one that makes God our “buddy”.

I would suggest one contributor to this loss of reverence is the changing style of worship.  Many of our worship services promote entertainment and a casual “coffee house” atmosphere rather than humility, reverence, and awe before God.  I am not suggesting we go back to the cold, sterile and formal days of the past.   Styles must and will change, but can we stay relevant and yet maintain that which is critical to our understanding of God?  The verdict is still out.

In the next blog I will discuss why the fear of God is important.

Questions for reflection:

  1. In what ways are we modeling an attitude of awe, reverence, and respect for God?
  2. How are we teaching the reverent wonder of God to the next generation?
  3. How does the transcendence and imminence of God impact the fear of God?

 1.  Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words; W.E. Vine.