Fear God, 25

~ The Israelites Were Commanded to Fear God, 18 ~

God does not want His children living in fear.  “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:2-3).  However, God does want His children to have a proper respect and reverence for Him.  We are told in many places in Scripture to “fear God.”  

Comment  ~  This week we look at a passage related to a rebellious son.  We are all rebellious at times toward our God.  The conclusion is that “all” of us should hear and fear God. 

This Week’s Passage  ~  “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city.  And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’  Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear” (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).  

Fearing God Results in Salvation  ~  “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).  “A wise person fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident” (Proverbs 14:16).  This does not mean the Christian is to live a fearful life—but a life which reverences God and seeks to do His will. 

Fearing God Results in Fearlessness  ~  “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).  The answer is: only God.  With the gift of salvation comes responsibility.

Fearing God Results in Witnessing  ~  “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul” (Psalm 66:16). 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

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Bible Answer, 26

~ Did You Get It Right? ~

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~~~~ bible answer ~~~~

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question 26:  How big was the largest bed mentioned in the Bible?

answer:  About 6’ wide by 13.5’ long (or about 2 meters by 3.5 meters).

“For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants.  Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead.  (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?)  Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit” (Deuteronomy 3:11). 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .

Quote: Jim Elliot, 13

~ Foolish Thinking ~ 

Can We Measure God’s Hatred?

The following is an excerpt from a book.

God’s hatred for sin is measured by His punishment of His Son. The Scripture says He made Him, that is He made Christ, to be sin for us. He made Him to become sin for us. God treated Christ as though He were sin. As God treats sin, as God acts toward sin, He acted toward Christ at Calvary. That’s what God did, He put Christ away from Him. He forsook Him.

Christ Himself also told us that God hates sin, so much that if it so much as comes near to Him—even though it be in the person of His Son—He takes and puts it away from Him. He’ll have nothing to do with it. God detests sin. He’s all pure in His being, and that’s the reason that the people in Isaiah’s day couldn’t get next to God, because they had sin in their lives. As a result, sin did something to them. Now, their sin was not necessarily open, immoral sin that could be judged in a law court. More evidently, it was those things that are subtle and underhanded.  

You know, Solomon says that the very thought of foolishness is sin.  Just the thought of foolishness. Proverbs twenty-four comes right out flat and says that the thought of foolishness is sin. Did you ever have a foolish thought? Well, my days are full of them. Foolish thoughts. My heart is continually meditating foolishness. The Scripture says that foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him.  Well, the rod of correction hasn’t been laid on me enough so that all foolishness is gone from my heart. Even the thought of foolishness in God’s eyes is sin.

We don’t usually consider foolishness as sin. We rather enjoy foolishness, don’t we? God says it is sin, and remember this: God is of holier eyes than to behold evil, and God cannot look upon iniquity. It’s humiliating for God to have to look down upon the stars. Scripture says of God that He “humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and the things in earth!” That’s how high and holy God’s thoughts are. He humbled Himself. He humiliated Himself, as it were, to look down. That’s how great God is!

Now we don’t consider sin to be a terrible thing today because we don’t consider God as a very holy God. We aren’t concerned with the awfulness of sin because we are not concerned with the awfulness of God’s holiness. God is a holy God, and He cannot for one minute put up with sin. He will punish sin wherever it rears its head, anywhere. God has decreed that He will punish sin. It’s as much in His nature to punish sin as it is to love the sinner. God will punish sin, and He will punish it in you.

Now, God has some very high standards as to what sin is. James says this: “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Get that. What James is saying is this: If you know that there is some good to do and you don’t do it, you’re sinning in God’s sight. Has there been anything to do in your life that you didn’t do? You say, well, there’s a chance to do good, and you don’t do it? Well, we commonly call these the sins of omission, things we ought to do and don’t do. God reckons them just as much sin as those things that we oughtn’t to do and yet we do. “To him that knows to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

~ from “JIM ELLIOT: A Christian Martyr Speaks to You, pgs 40-42  (ISBN: 9781615797646)

Learn more about this important book at Amazon, the Publisher, or the Author’s website.

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .