The Fear of the Lord

[sparrow]

I'm not too sure that much of the Church has lost it's childlikeness.  Now, those that have dogmas but no real study and practice of the Word and the Spirit, then they've unquestionably lost the childlike.  But it recently occured to me that children are not only more prone to be trusting, but they're also the ones the most heavy burdened with homework and that's all the Bible's ever prescribed with Proverbs 4, Mark 4, and all of the related passages related to reaping and saying as Dad says (Colossians 3:17).  I've heard some people try to balk that the systematizing of the truth of God's Word isn't childlike, but is it only adults that learn their multiplication tables?  There's no difference.  It's usually children that have all of the academic burdens from age 3 to age 36 minimally.  It's usually children that have to practice, practice, practice, and practice, and practice some more when they're past the point of wishing to throw the piano through the window or are wishing to give up the dance and martial arts classes so badly.  There was no change in contexts between Jesus affirmations towards children and His determined purpose that we continue in His Word in the precise same way as He continues in the Word of our Father (John 8).

No, you are misunderstanding me.

These are the "child-like" qualities I am referring to:

-innocence
-purity
-truth
-sense of wonder and awe
-gentleness
-goodness

The child possesses the very things that we NEED in order to SEE TRUTH. That "child" in us is the very foundation of TRUST, WONDER, AWE. God gave us this foundation to BUILD UPON. So many "houses" COLLAPSE because the foundation has been RIPPED AWAY.

Life is a circle.
We come here with the purity and innocence of the child. We grow and mature and continue our walk through this valley of the knowledge of good and evil, LEARNING what LOVE is. It's a rough road. For all of us. For every human being. We are returning to that wonderful state of purity/goodness... but we will be BETTER than innocent. Innocent is not knowing. We will KNOW what LOVE really is.... We will see the big picture and be ABLE to understand.. LOVE (GOD IS LOVE.)
This is how eternal life is possible. The KNOWING, the SEEING. Seeing and KNOWING God.
We must walk this life.
In order to live in absolute, beautiful, loving harmony for eternity with God.

The meaning of life, I believe, is so simple, even a child could understand.
I truly believe this with all of my heart and soul.
It doesn't have to be so difficult and full of puzzles and mysteries.
Mankind makes it that way. I suppose because there is so much chaos in this world...
We see SO LITTLE.
But the Little that WE DO SEE... becomes so hazy, and muddied and out of focus.
It doesn't have to be that way.

peace.

[reFORMer]

Explaining the fear of God . . .

The little boy knows he's not to get in the cookie jar.  He's been told he'll be punished more severely if he does it again.  He's stacked a box on a chair to get on the cabinet where he has another box he's standing on to just barely be able to reach his hand into the cookie jar on top of the refrigerator.  He has just touched a wonderful chocolate chip with pecans cookie and mother comes around the corner into the kitchen!  What do you imagine he feels?  I don't think the terror could be much worse.

"As a man am I saying this, because of the infirmity of your flesh. For even as you present your members as slaves to Uncleanness and to Lawlessness for lawlessness, thus now present your members as slaves to Righteousness for holiness." (Romans 6:19, CLV)  Though in time to come the body will come into the liberty of the glory of being itself born of God, because of its present weakness it is going to be enslaved.  Either the body is a slave to sin with its end in death or a slave to God with the fruit of holiness resulting in life.  The flesh is spoken of as an animal in Scripture.  Even Jesus is referred to as various beasts:  a lion and a little lamb, for instance.  With this concept of an "enslaved beast" consider the fear of God.

A man just got a beautiful and intelligent dog.  It is only a puppy.  It messes in the house.  There are various ways to deal with it.  A while back I used this example and some thought it wrong or cruel to use a few rolled up sheets of newspaper that make a loud noise when you hit something with it; but, it doesn't actually hurt.  Try it and see.  It only produces fear in the dog.  That's the way I learned to train a dog.  Use the paper and put the dogs nose in its own poo, then take it outside.  In nothing is the dog hurt.  You wouldn't know it from the wails it produces.  I only had on puppy and I trained it that way.  I only did it twice, as I remember.  No problem ever again.  You can shake an empty soda can with a dozen pennies in it and make the noise that gets the dogs attention when you see it doing its job, then put it out.  Even though the example is diffused a bit, I think the point is legitimate, that the owner by subjecting the dog to his fear has an outcome of a wonderful relationship for a lifetime with each other.  The ministry of fear for a few days brings the animal into a subsequent intimacy with its owner.

Both these examples explain how I understand God to have worked a fear of Him into me.  He made me understand that He could do terrible things.  For me, most of the terrors I underwent were in my heart and my head; but, oh was it aweful!  He gets us to be obedient that we can have a better relationship.  The animal must be trained.

In some ways similar is a vision called "The Harness of the Lord" by Bill Britten.
http://www.piecemakers.com/god/holyspiritold.html

your brother, James Rohde

[Cardinal]

  Wow. Thank you for posting that James. When I came to the Lord He would not let me read anything but the Bible for 2 years. When He released me to read something else, He provided Bill Britten's little books through someone I met. It's been close to 20  years since I read any of his stuff, but it still stirs my spirit like it did then. Thank you, Father. Blessings...

[Doc]

Y'know, our pastor is an ETer mostly from tradition, but says that he studied it personally and settled it for himself years ago (i.e., my mind's made up, don't confuse me with the facts). In spite of this, he does great sermons on the love of God and such, and very rarely even says anything about hell. When cornered however, he will maintain ET to the death. It seems odd, but it just goes to show how strong the deception of fear is. He says he loves the church, and I believe he does, which is commendable, but someday I'm going to say; "pastor, I know you love the church, and that's great; so do I. But do you love her enemies just as much?" Because his answer to that will say far more to me about how much of God's heart he really has.