Anyone who has been in my “room” knows I have several verses up on my wall. Last night I read about Jeremiah 5:22 and this morning on my wall I saw Isaiah 41:10

“Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me?” (Jeremiah 5:22 ESV)

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10 ESV)

Fear and worry is one of those things that comes with depression and probably a consequence of the lifestyle I lived and most likely a consequence of life in general. Fear is certainly not a pleasant thing and the bible in general tells us very explicitly not to fear.

Doing a word search in the ESV for the words “Do not fear” it comes up with 37 hits in 35 verses.

Gen 35:17; Gen 50:19, 21; Ex 20:20; Num 14:9; Num 21:34; Deut 1:21; Deut 3:2; Deut 20:3; Deut 31:6, 8; Josh 8:1; Josh 10:8; Judg 6:23; Ruth 3:11; 1 Sam 23:17; 2 Sam 9:7; 2 Sam 13:28; 1 Kings 17:13; 2 Kings 17:34; Psa 55:19; Isa 7:4; Isa 8:12; Isa 57:11; Jer 42:11; Lam 3:57; Hos 10:3; Mal 3:5; Matt 1:20; Matt 10:28; Mark 5:36; Luke 8:50; Luke 12:4; 1 Pet 3:6; Rev 2:10

“Fear Not” comes up 33 more times.
Gen 15:1; Gen 21:17; Gen 26:24; Ex 14:13; 1 Chr 22:13; Isa 35:4; Isa 40:9; Isa 41:10, 13-14; Isa 43:1, 5; Isa 44:2, 8; Isa 51:7; Isa 54:4; Jer 30:10; Jer 46:27-28; Dan 10:12, Dan 19; Joel 2:21-22; Zeph 3:16; Hag 2:5; Zech 8:13, 15; Matt 10:31; Luke 2:10; Luke 12:7, 32; John 12:15; Rev 1:17

Stand Firm a dozen more times
Ex 14:13; 2 Chr 20:17; Psa 89:28; Isa 46:8; Dan 11:32; 1 Cor 16:13; 2 Cor 1:24; Gal 5:1; Eph 6:13; Phil 4:1; 2 Th 2:15; 1 Pet 5:12

Do not be anxious 8 times
Matt 6:25, 31, 34; Matt 10:19; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11, 22; Phil 4:6

It is interesting to me that close to a hundred times the Bible tells us not to fear about our lives. And yet most of us spend all our time fearing and worrying about all the things we are not suppose to fear. When we worry or fear we are not trusting God. Though there is ONE thing we are suppose to fear and that is God himself.

Fear the Lord 34 times
Ex 9:30; Deut 6:2, 24; Deut 10:12, 20; Deut 14:23; Deut 17:19; Deut 31:12-13; Josh 4:24; Josh 24:14; 1 Sam 12:14, 24; 2 Kings 17:25, 28, 34, 36, 39; Psa 15:4; Psa 22:23; Psa 27:1; Psa 33:8; Psa 34:9; Psa 115:11, 13; Psa 118:4; Psa 135:20; Prov 3:7; Prov 24:21; Jer 5:24; Jer 26:19; Hos 10:3; Amos 3:8; Jonah 1:9

Fear of the Lord 27 times
2 Chr 14:14; 2 Chr 17:10; 2 Chr 19:7, 9; Job 28:28; Psa 19:9; Psa 34:11; Psa 111:10; Prov 1:7, 29; Prov 2:5; Prov 8:13; Prov 9:10; Prov 10:27; Prov 14:26-27; Prov 15:16, 33; Prov 16:6; Prov 19:23; Prov 22:4; Prov 23:17; Isa 11:2-3; Isa 33:6; Acts 9:31; 2 Cor 5:11

In a simple search of the Bible it tells us to fear the Lord as many times as it says not to fear anything else. Maybe we need to take some time and fear and give reverence, honor and glory to the Lord instead of worrying and having fear for the world.

Quoting from the New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words.
Fear of the Lord. This religious fear, or awe, is God’s answer to the ordinary fears that master human beings.
Such fear is reverence for God. We who fear God recognize him as the ultimate reality, and we respond to him. Fear of God is called the “beginning of knowledge” (Pr 1:7), meaning that taking God into account is the foundation of a disciplined and holy life (Pr 1:3; cf. Ge 20:11; Ps 36:1-4). To fear God means to reject every competing deity and to serve him only (Dt 6:13). Fear of the Lord is expressed by walking in all his ways, by loving him, and by serving him with all our heart and soul (Dt 10:12; Job 1:1; Ps 128:1).
While fear of God is closely linked with morality and with obedience to God’s commands, it is also freeing. To fear God means to recognize him as Creator and to know that his plans stand firm forever (Ps 33:8-11). God has a special concern for all who fear him (vv. 18-19; cf. Ps 31:19; 34:9). Thus those who fear God can say with the psalmist, “We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you” (Ps 33:20-22).

Maybe it is time we realign our fears to focus on the one biblically correct fear. What tricks do you use to deal with your fears of the world and help you to realign them to focus on God?

Last night I wrote a blog entry that I am pretty sure no one really understood. Well that is okay. I can live with that. Most people don’t understand what I am thinking about anyway…

The point of yesterdays blog is that EVERYTHING God does is of such a huge scope that it should blow us away. I think most of us understand how bad the wrath and disapproval of sin and where that is going to lead. But do we understand the greatness of God’s love for us?

The love that God has for us is of a scope beyond our comprehension. For someone like me, who is only beginning to learn to love, learning to know what it means to be loved by friends and church family, that is scary enough as it is. All of our attempts to love each other combined in comparison to His is like a thimble full of love in comparison to His Universe full of Love which is lavished upon us (1John 3:1 ESV; I like the NIV version better) undeserved rebellious people who deserves the worst of punishments. We love, both God and others because God loved us first (1John 4:19 ESV). God’s love is as intimate as a loving father (Romans 8:15 and Hebrews 12:7,8,11) and big enough to save the world, not only the world today, but those 2000 years ago and into the future until Christ comes again (John 3:16-17)

I hope that we never become jaded enough where we the Love of God becomes a ho-hum experience. I hope we all, those that are still experiencing the newness and those who have grown up being loved by family, church and God, are still blown away at how incomprehensible God’s love for us is. I pray that when people think about God’s love, that it is not just a nice little reminder, but that it is a knee dropping, take your breath away, God praising experience.

Please tell me what part of God’s love takes your breath away and drops you to your knees in praise to God.

“Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me?”
(Jeremiah 5:22 ESV)

Come on… Fear the Lord? Who has time to fear the Lord? There are real things to worry about. I am to busy worrying about my job, how much money I have, how I am going to eat, my possessions, a new computer, how I look, how much I weigh, how I wish I had a family, how I wish I had a new car, how frustrated I am with people, what I am going to do on the weekend (by the way I could of taken a few more pages with my fears, but I figured you got the point) etc. etc. etc.

Maybe that is one of my problems… I am to busy lost in my petty little fears to realize who God is.

“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes, but see not,
who have ears, but hear not.
Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
they have turned aside and gone away.
They do not say in their hearts,
‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
Your iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have kept good from you.

(Jeremiah 5:21-25 ESV)

In Jeremiah God is preparing to show the people judgment for their sin.

Do we dare look at who God is? God is the God of justice and the God of righteousness and the God of Love. Knowing how much we deserve God’s wrath for our sin and how much we deserve punishment and Hell, do we ever tremble when we read verses like these?

““For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
(John 3:16-17 ESV)

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
(Romans 8:28 ESV)

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:35-39 ESV)

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
(Jeremiah 29:11 ESV)

““Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.””
(Exodus 14:13-14 ESV)

“Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.”
(Micah 7:8-9 ESVS)

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
(Isaiah 41:10 ESV)

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
(Philippians 1:6 ESV)

““Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’”
(Matthew 6:25-31 ESV)

This is the God who spoke the world in to existence, this is the God who contained the Red Sea and drown the Egyptians. This is the God who day in and day out holds together the world preventing it from falling into chaos. I don’t believe God does anything casually. He didn’t decide on a whim to even at the beginning of time to decide to save us. God made a deliberate choice to love us, to take care of us, to give His Son to take our place and to take His wrath. His wrath is terrifying and yet I find it is His LOVE more than anything else that drives me to my knees and am driven to my knees trembling in fearful reverential, prayerful worship towards the Lord.

This last Sunday Pastor Craig preached a sermon called “From Death to Life“ (I am a little disappointed I have not seen any increase of traffic to my website because of his sermon). The text he was preaching from was 1 Peter 4:1-6. His main points was ”Arm yourself with the intention to suffer, understanding that it is inevitable. To do so is to make a decisive break with sin, imitating the thinking of Christ“.

He asked and answered several questions in this sermon such as:

What is the way of thinking we are to imitate Christ in regards to suffering?

1. Christ accepted suffering as part of being in the flesh.
2. Christ accepted suffering as the consequence of holiness.
3. Christ accepted suffering as doing the will of God.

He asked another question which was very pragmatic. He asked ”Why does it have to work this way?“ Why do we as Christians have to suffer, why is suffering inevitable for Christians?

Paraphrasing Pastor Craig’s answer (even typing on my computer I am not fast enough to keep up with him), he said ”When holiness touches a fallen world there is a violent reaction, there is push back, there are sparks of friction.” They are polar opposites.

With that answer is it at all surprising when Holiness personified (Jesus) touched the world that people reacted the way they did? Jesus was hated by the world but He was never polluted or stained by it.

So again why do we suffer (stealing from my notes again)?

• We suffer because we choose God’s will and we inherit suffering.
• We suffer because human beings hate holiness unless we embrace holiness

If we have been called (Romans 8:30) and we have chosen to follow God’s will, we will be transformed from the depraved lawless idolaters (1 Peter 4:2) to being holy and blameless, conformed into the image of his son (Colossians 1:22; Romans 8:29). The metaphors that describe this process in the bible is anything but fluffy bunnies, comfort and ease.

God knitted us together in the womb to make us the way he wanted us (Psalm 139:13-14). He once again takes up His tools to reshape and transform us into a holy image of His Son. One of His tools of choice is our suffering. God orchestrates our suffering to transform us as the master potter uses a clay knife and potter’s wheel (Isaiah 64:8) or as a metal smith uses a a refiner’s fire (Malachi 3:2-3) or furnace and files to forge and shape metal. (See Proverbs 17:3; Isaiah 48:10; 1 Peter 1:6-7; Titus 2:14)

God uses suffering to purify us from the world. Unlike Jesus we do get polluted and stained by the world. God needs to scrape, file and burn off the sludge of our sin and worldliness. That process hurts. We were born of the world and have always lived within it. Now God is scraping the worldly and sinful things that we have come to depend upon to replace it with His holiness, grace and love.

As God continues to work on me I am beginning to understand why both Peter and Paul see their suffering as a gift and are able to rejoice in it.

Thank you Lord for letting me suffer through my depression and bringing me from death to life. I pray that you continue to teach us all how to trust you especially in our suffering.

We talk often about the still soft voice of God. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel, for the first time was addressed directly by God. God called Samuel three times and if it wasn’t for his teacher Eli’s discernment Samuel may not have answered (1 Samuel 3:1-10 ESV). The encounter with God was definitely not a meet and greet. God just promised to “do a thing to Israel that will make the ears of anyone who hears about it tingle”. On top of that God told Samuel that he is going to punish Eli’s (his teacher) family forever (1 Samuel 4:10-21 ESV).

I am not sure I could imagine what Samuel was feeling at this time. First Samuel just encountered the Almighty God. Second God declared in direct revelation that something profound was going to happen to Israel. Third, he is struggling with the fact that he needs to tell his teacher everything including the punishment of his family.

Eli, demanded and threaten to curse Samuel if he did not tell everything of his encounter of God. I could picture Samuel bracing himself for some sort of profound reaction of grief or anger or something as Samuel shared everything that God said (1 Samuel 3:11-18 ESV).

A teaching moment has come and Eli’s reaction was anything but predictable to me and I suspect Samuel was surprised and awed by it too. Eli said:

““It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him.”” – (1 Samuel 3:18 ESV)

I have been thinking a lot about this story in the Bible and how it shows Eli’s trust in the sovereignty of God in a time of struggle. One of the struggle that I have is cyclical depression. Living with depression is a taste of Hell that I hope most will never encounter. When I sink into the bowels of depression, self-pity, hopelessness, anger and despair. I strike out towards God and everyone around me. I am angry and frustrated that though I believe in God, he allows me to suffer through these bouts of depression. I am angry because I know that he can cure the depression without effort. He can sanctify me. He can transform me in a second.

And yet God chooses not too. God chooses not to end suffering, mine and others. At first glance (and yes, second, third, fourth, three hundredth glance) that is a hard thing to swallow. Then you encounter texts like in 1 Samuel 3:18 where you see Eli is facing the disappointment in his sons who are dishonoring the priest and more importantly God and facing the inevitable death of not only his family but himself and yet has complete faith in the Lord.

Eli did not have the promises of the New Testament. He did not have the promise of Romans 8:28. Though he had a relationship with God which we will not have on this side of glory.

God will do what is good to Him. Thankfully what is good in His eyes is always good for us in His purposes.

I pray that we all are able to face our lives with the complete trust that Eli had in the Lord.

Toward a more effective definition of “accountability” for men. – 22 Words.

The other day when I was on Justin Taylor’s Between Two World blog. I saw this Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote and realized how true it is. After spending half of my life in counseling and at times medication through the world of psychology. It is a relief to find out that there are those who understand. I found the more counseling I got the sicker I was, the more hopeless I got. When I was introduced to Jesus Christ and his grace filled gospel I found understanding, forgiveness and hope.

The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus.

The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is.

Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this.

In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner.

The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness.

The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (pp. 118-119):

H/T: Between Two Worlds

John Piper’s response to our President in regards to abortion.
I respect how Piper respects the man and vehemently disagrees with him on abortion.

God put Barak Obama as our president for a reason. A man who we disagree with in a lot of ways. One of our challenges is to learn to respond to him in a God honoring way.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”
(Romans 13:1-2 ESVS)

There is nothing that I can say other than watch this video.

My friend Scott Wiyninger has FINALLY started his blog on worship. The blog is called “To the Praise of His Glorious Grace”. His first entry “Worship – How do I do it?” is about Psalm 71. If this entry is any indication of what he will be writing about it will be a great blog. He is a compelling person and a great worship leader. Welcome him to the blogsphere and let’s keep encouraging him writing and focusing on worshipping our God.