Monday, December 4, 2017

Passing the Faith Along!!

As I was reading Deuteronomy in my private time, I was struck by the amount of time Moses spends on the topic of the Fear of the Lord. In verses 2, 13, and 24. Notice what he says.

Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life.(CSB) The same text in the Message 
This is so that you’ll live in deep reverence before God lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I’m commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives.

In this text God wanted Israel to pass their reverence of God, their obedience to God, and His expectations from one generation to the next. This was to help pass along their experiences in following God and obeying God. God wants to move the teaching from experiential to being alive on the heart and being part of the thought process. How different from today, the way God is presented as my "buddy" and we don't respect Him as the creator of the universe. We have decided to make God into our image, rather than us being in the image of God.

I have been working in church all my life and recently I fell away, and part of the reason, I lost my respect for God, forsook worshiping Him. Along the way, God decided to let me have that time as a learning experience. What I saw was that people, who didn't serve God, but served other deities, but did so with respect and honor. When God called me back to Him through Jesus, I was acutely aware of the church's lack of fear of the Lord. 

We start late most services, joking about C.S.T. (Christian Standard Time), people sit in the sanctuary and joke and play, and wonder why we don't see the power of God in our services. As I have been in my private time, God has dealt with my attitude, and has brought me into a new place of respect and awe of His power and His grace. I just heard a person say that we approach God as consumers, what we can get out of God, not as a people to worship God. 

Moses warns people that they are moving into cities, and houses they didn't build, drink from wells they didn't dig, and eat from gardens they didn't plant, and they would be tempted to forget God. After this warning Moses restates to fear the Lord, he isn't talking about scared fear, but a reverential awe of who He is, that keeps us from living willy nilly, and grace balances so that we don't live in legalism. 

Today as a 3rd generation Pentecostal, I have attended churches, I didn't build, and heard sermons, and read books, that I didn't study and allow God to speak to me directly, I just accepted their word and believed they were right. In my private time, He has had me reading the scriptures without my own "glasses" own, but allowing Him to teach me. He has also really made me more respectful and in awe of what He did in my life and what He is doing in me on a daily basis. Expand this out to the larger country, we haven't taught our children to respect God or anyone else, so should we be surprised at the lack of respect for others we are seeing today. The scary thing is one day they will be in charge, if our society makes it that far. 

Today, as you reflect on your relationship to God, ask yourself how you view your heavenly Father, and be honest. Perhaps as you see Him as He is, you will find yourself in His presence more. I also recommend reading John Bevere's book on the Fear of the Lord for a more detailed discussion on the topic as a whole. 
Grace and Peace be multiplied to you. 

No comments:

Post a Comment