Fear: The third and final part....

“What is truth?”

                                                              - Pontius Pilate

Do you have an answer?

Now in church meetings on Sunday, after the worship time, our congregation are normally encouraged to share what we have on our hearts. It maybe a small song or something spoken. Not everyone speaks but that which is spoken is often poignant, and able to bring direction to either one person’s life or to a cluster of individuals. That's how God works you see. One word can bring out different results in different people.

One day I shared that 'God doesn't want us to fear him, he wants us to love him'. God's been showing me his truth in that statement, but adversely that he requires both.

But how does that work? He wants us to fear him and to love him? There is no fear in love. Thats the truth. But Jesus had 'the spirit of the fear of the Lord'. That's also the truth. Yet, you could argue he personified love. God is love and Jesus is the express image of God.........Anyone a bit confused?

How can so many supposedly contradicting truths have authenticity about them? I've started to think a lot of us, including me, have fear boxed up in some kind of 'one size fits all' hamper. When we hear the word fear we often think of something which is crippling and brings shame, and as far as we are concerned that is the only type of fear which exists. But it is not so.....

There is a fear which brings us into service, and draws us closer to God. To honour him, but also to know him deeply. That is the fear of the Lord.

There are many types of fear that the Bible speaks about. Fear of harm, fear of punishment, the fear which brings timidity, caution and so on. But none of these fears which I have just mentioned are the fear of the Lord. But they are the type of fear which verses such as 1 John 4:18, and 2 Timothy 1:7 refer to. The fear which belongs to God is totally different.

The fear of the Lord is:

The beginning (foundation) of true wisdom (a) 
A life giving fountain (b)
The beginning (foundation) of true knowledge (c)
That which lengthens one's life (d)

The fear of the Lord is good and necessary in order for us to walk in a healthy relationship with God, but though needed, it is not the most important thing God requires us to operate in. Make sense? I'll continue.

God wants us to fear him, not with the fear which the world, the flesh, the devil or anything else brings. He wants us to have the fear which he inspires (In Hebrew he calls that type of fear 'yirah'). However, the most important thing God wants us to do is love him. You see, the old covenant was based on fear, and inspired fear (both Godly and human). But we are not under the old covenant. We are under the new. And the new covenant is a covenant built on the law of love, and sealed by love (his blood poured out for us).

So check this. We can fear God without loving him, but we cannot love him without fearing him. Going even deeper, Love (Jesus) possesses the spirit of the fear of the Lord in it's fullness, yet not all those who have the spirit of the fear of the Lord possess his love.

Now getting to the bottom of this was quite hard for me, and to tell the truth there is probably more to it. But this is foundational. When you make a public statement saying God spoke/showed this to me or start with God doesn't or God said, you have to know that you know that it's from God. Sometimes I've messed up in such instances, speaking out of emotion or in a lying spirit, and come into shame as a result of it. It's important for us to check ourselves, and deal with anything 'foreign' by checking the spirit of a word spoken, seeing if it’s in the spirit of the new covenant and also measuring it against the scriptures. I share this with you because it might help. If not now, maybe in the future.


So back to the original statement 'God doesn't want us to fear him, he wants us to love him'. Through his love, he delivers us from all the fears which life and people bring to us, but he does this in order that we would learn to live in the fear of the Lord.

Now what is the fear of the Lord? I've mentioned it in previous posts but I'll briefly go over it again. It is a reverence, often the result of meditating on God's awesomeness. It is that which causes us to leave the bad behind. There is also so much more to it. But if you love him truly, you do not fear punishment from his hand, for you live to please him. You are not intimidated in his presence, for he is your Father. It is so important we learn to love him, walking in the right type of fear.

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a- Psalm 111.10, b- Proverbs 14.27, c- Proverbs 9.10, d- Proverbs 10:27

Meditations Part 2....

Why is my heart so different from yours?

Why is my heart so different from yours?

The question arrests my lips

 Spoken with sincerity

Why is my heart so different from yours?

I die a little more

In every glimpse I get of your nature

It challenges me deeper than pores

Breaks through my organs

Deep as cells that hold DNA

Etched in the deeper brain cavities

I feel ashamed

'Cus your my master I follow you

Dont I?

Your words I clasp to for life

And acknowledge through

Every act I do

In all honesty 

 Don't I?

In all honesty I don't and it's all lies

My words say it but 

My heart is far from you

Isaiah prophesied well

Now I smell that I'm the hypocrite you spoke of

When your lively words were construed

To grieve the religious

Walking as the lost fools

Following traditions whilst 

Thinking them as Gods rules

But their hearts don't bear 

The marks of their master

The sensitivity, the compassion

The mercy and the love that he captures

The new covenant caught through

His actions and his sayings

That if somebody smacks you

Don't you repay him

 Turn the other cheek

Though your soul wants to slay him

See the mindset 

Of the broken and hating

And be like your Father

Consoling the pagans

Why is your heart so different from mine?

Why is your heart so different from mine?

If I really am changed

I will relay your life

Not just a smile

And not just in false pretense

Looking like the righteous

But inside dead bones of men

Speak an uncleanness

Saying that I'm sold to sin

Being composed

But corruption is shown within

Do you want that

Do you want that

Really...

Do you want that

I didn't think so

Fear part 2....

“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.”

                                                                                   -Oscar Wilde

Funny quote eh! And yes I think when Oscar was writing he meant to say it that way around, just to make us think a little. But seriously, change the words 'wicked' and 'good' around in the above sentence and you have what I wanna talk about.

Probably less then a week after I wrote the 'fear' blog (and it always seems to happen less than a week after!) I was confronted by this paragraph out of the book.

"Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees--their hypocrisy. The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear! I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I'll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he's the one to fear ".

Hypocrisy........The clause and the catch. But what is a hypocrite? Well here's how the story goes...

Aeschines, a successful actor in 4th Century BC Greece had embarked upon a career in politics (something like the Arnold Schwartzenegger of his day). Like any other in his profession he was known as a hypo-crite which was the name given to stage actors at the time. He once debated one of the premier guys in his field, Demosthenes (the guy who used to put stones in his mouth before he spoke, in order to become a better and clearer speaker!). To cut it short, Demosthenes ridiculed Aeschines integrity as a politician, saying if he could play act as a character in a stage show, what stopped him play acting the role of a trustworthy politician? This is where the term hypocrite got its negative connotations.

Just like then, people have been playacting right through to this century. I once had a conversation with a friend I know from school about the fact that sometimes you can see directly through a person despite all their talk. People that say they're hard, womanizers, criminals but yet when you catch them on their own or out of role, it's obvious that that isn't who they really are. Hypocrisy can work two ways, but God is concerned with that hypocrisy which involves those who claim to follow him.

'Should we be scared of hell? Should this be our motivation to share and proclaim the gospel?.........No.......not if we're in Jesus and sincerely believe in all he's done for us'.

I still agree with this statement but with one important qualifier. We must be living the life which we claim to be living and being true followers of Jesus. You don't go to a Mitsubishi dealer looking to buy a Chrystler. You don't go to a Kanye concert looking to hear a set from the Backstreet Boys. God sees through what we claim to be and looks at our fruit. Now you could be a tongue talking, Bible quoting whatever...but if there's no fruit, if we don't love our neighbours as ourselves, if we are selfish, money grabbing people who look just like the world in a significant amount of what we do...if people can't trust us because we love to chat the business of others, then whats the point? It's inward searching and a test of my heart, just as much as it is yours by the way. 

Of course we don't have to fear hell if we are legitimate, walking in the light, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, clothing, feeding and loving him (often through our interactions with those he loves) and so on. But if we're not.........God knows. It's time to check ourselves.