The Fear of the Lord.

What does the Bible say about the "fear of the Lord?" The fear of the Lord is found throughout both the Old Testament and the New testaments.

One text  that I have often used with my grandson is Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge. I would explain to Caleb, when we fear God it brings us real, life giving knowledge.

How about Psalm 112:1- Praise the LORD! How blessed is the man who fears the LORD - We see that the man who fears the Lord is a blessed man or a happy man. The fear of the LORD prolongs life

And then Proverbs 10:27- The fear of the LORD prolongs life - Here we see that the one who walks in the fear of the Lord will live a long life. Think about this in practical terms. Think of all those who have died due to willful and immoral lifestyles: The man who abuses drugs and alcohol...the one who lives a sexual immoral life style...the man who lives in fear and anxiety because he has no fear or trust of God in his life.

There are hundreds of texts that point to the evidence of fear as being a hallmark of the man who walks with God. The fear of God in one's life is a certain evidence that God has given that man the "new life."

Here's a thought from an old timer- Charles Inglis (1734 – 24 February 1816) who was an Irish clergyman...he said this about the fear of the Lord:

TO fear God, is one of the first and greatest Duties of his rational Creatures.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/fear_god.html

"To fear God, is one of the greatest duties of his rational creatures."

Walk today in the fear of the Lord my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

TO fear God, is one of the first and greatest Duties of his rational Creatures. Charles Inglis
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/charlesing352988.html

TO fear God, is one of the first and greatest Duties of his rational Creatures. Charles Inglis
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/fear_god.html

TO fear God, is one of the first and greatest Duties of his rational Creatures.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/fear_god.html

TO fear God, is one of the first and greatest Duties of his rational Creatures. Charles Inglis
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/fear_god.html

“Simul Justus et Peccator.”

                    



       “Simul Justus et Peccator.” The Bible gives us many evidences to examine our life; and  of all the evidences there has always been one that jumped off the pages of divine writ and spoke directly to my heart. The sense of my own sin. What I was saved from.  How great is the depth of the depravity of my sinful flesh. The prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon sums it up so well with this comment:

“Evangelical repentance is repentance of sin as sin: not of this sin nor of that, but of the whole mass. We repent of the sin of our nature as well as the sin of our practice. We bemoan sin within us and without us. We repent of sin itself as being an insult to God. Anything short of this is a mere surface repentance, and not a repentance which reaches to the bottom of the mischief. Repentance of the evil act, and not of the evil heart, is like men pumping water out of a leaky vessel, but forgetting to stop the leak.
Some would dam up the stream, but leave the fountain still flowing; they would remove the eruption from the skin, but leave the disease in the flesh.”

The Christian lives in a dichotomy of sorts...while he is still a sinner, he is at the same time a saint. We struggle with our fallen nature daily. We live in a battle. We die daily to our sin. We die daily to our own self wills.

Our deep awareness of our sin drives us to the cross. We don't wallow in our sin, just the opposite, we run as fast as we can to the endless sea of God's redemptive love and grace.

One of my favorite authors puts it like this:

 “For every look at self, take ten looks at Christ” Robert Murray M'Cheyne.