In the Beginning

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7

At first glance this seems like such a simple verse. If I fear the Lord I will gain knowledge, but the foolish are stupid and rebel against authority. Oh but these words are rich in their meaning.

Look at the word fear. In this passage it does not mean that it is something that I am frightened of. Second Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us this kind of fear. But, if we believe in our hearts (faith) that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead we have a reverent respect and honor for the Lord. We have a reverent fear of who He is, what He has done, what He is doing today, and what He will do in the future. His majesty is beyond any earthly kingdom, authority, and power. His holiness is beyond any earthy sanctuary. He is! He was! He is the Great I AM. In His hands is the gift of life. At His voice the heavens and earth declare His glorious name. He holds the stars in orbit, the sea from rushing the shore, and the mountains from falling down around us. He cares for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. He knows each and everyone of us by name. He is the Great I AM and worthy of our fear and trembling.

This reverent fear, resulting from our faith in understanding the miraculous birth of Christ Jesus, is the beginning of knowledge. This is not the world’s view of college degrees, doctorates, and PhDs. This is the “wisdom and knowledge” of God. This is the beginning of understanding, in the smallest degrees, - God. It is the first fruit. It is the byproduct of the first step of faith – believing Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection.

Who, although being essentially equal with God and in the form of god, did not think this equality with God was something to be eagerly grasped, or held onto, but stripped Himself of all privileges and rightful dignity, so as to assume the guise of a servant, or slave, in that He became like men and was born a human being. And after He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself still further and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!(Phil 2:6-8)

This small step of faith is just the beginning, the first fruit. As you let God into your life you begin to know more and more about Him. This knowledge will increase your love and reverence for Him. “Who am I that you, O God, are mindful” of a wretched man such as I?

In the beginning God…

In the beginning of life - there is death. In the beginning of the knowledge of God - is life. In the beginning of faith - is God. Take hold of Him. Learn of Him. Learn from Him, and grow in reverent fear of the Great I AM!

Am I a Samson?

Teach us to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12 (NASB)

The Sunday school lesson this past Sunday was on the story of Samson. How he was set apart by God, how he was to conduct his life, how God would use Samson to free the Israelites from their captives, the Philistines, and how Samson, though chosen, chose not to live his life in accordance with God’s instructions. After reading this story the question to myself was, “Am I a Samson?”

Over the past three weeks two colleagues have passed away, unexpectedly. And yet one colleague has been graciously spared of death twice in nine years. With each death I am reminded that I do not know the day of my death. I am not sure I want to know. I am also reminded that I serve a risen Savior. I am reminded that I have a hope and a future. I am reminded that I am a wretched man, a man of unclean lips, and that I am not worthy to even enter the presence of the KING. And yet, he offered me eternal life. How have I repaid that debt?

Am I a Samson? Am I doing what I want to do and calling on God in my times of need? How am I repaying my debt? Am I trampling over the grace that was given me? Am I reading the Bible and only consuming wisdom and not tasting the knowledge, the beauty, and the love that God has for me?

O Holy Fire of conviction let not my heart walk away from this lesson unchanged. Sear the gapping hole in my heart that bleeds through and weakens my strength for service to You, and burn within me a reminder that I am a child of grace, that my life is not my own. Create in me a child like heart of unconditional love whose only desire is to please You, my KING.

FEAR

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom 12:21)

A common theme I keep hearing in the classroom is almost one of a lack of perseverance and a frustration with the cyclic struggle of good verses evil. “I try but immediately fail. I get discouraged. I want to do what is right, but I often fail. I am a failure.”

One of my favorite movies is “We Were Soldiers” staring Mel Gibson who portrays Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore. While I was doing my own internet based research on the movie I discovered this quote from an involved soldier named, Bill Beck who was a gunner Sergeant and one of two gun-teams that single handedly drove back the Viet Cong and prevented a devastating blow to the American Forces. He was quoted in a report saying, “Fear, real fear, hit me. Fear like I had never known before. Fear comes, and once you recognize it and accept it, it passes just as fast as it comes, and you don’t really think about it anymore. You just do what you have to do, but you learn the real meaning of fear and life and death.”

The first part of this statement is Fear. The innocence of birth is not born in fear. Fear is not known until there is a greater understanding or experience in ones young life. Simply stated, fear is a learned behavior. Why are people afraid of the dark? It could be from a nightmare, a perceived real event in the mind of a child; or a frightening movie or event; or stories heard from others. Why are people afraid of heights? It could be they have heard, seen, or read the effects of falling from such small or great heights.

Yet, we who are created in the image of God, “were not given a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Tim 1:7) We were given power to overcome fear, we were given love to override fear, and we were given the intelligence to recognize fear.

The second part is he tasted and recognized real fear. He recognized a fear so strong and real and yet never known to him before. A frightening awareness of his perilous surroundings; alone, out numbered, and far from friends or family. He tasted the loneliness of fear.

The third and important thing that I think all Christians should take to heart is, he didn’t “think about it anymore” and he just “did what he had to do” and he “learned” what fear was. He didn’t continue to wallow in self-pity and despair. He didn’t continue drinking from the bowels of fear. He didn’t feed his mind with continuous thoughts of death. Instead, he continued to “do what he had to do.” He moved on. He held his ground. He tightened his belt, dug deep into the trench, and he fought. He fought back against the real enemy. He fought back against the “real fear.” In the words of Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim 4:7) He didn't give up, he fought!

Just like Sergeant Bill Beck, Christians are in battles and skirmishes every minute, every hour of every day. Sgt. Beck didn’t get discouraged that one bullet strayed and missed it’s mark. Sgt. Beck didn’t weep and gnash his teeth in disbelief that once again the bullet did not befall the greatest of enemies. Instead, he hunkered down, aimed intently at the enemy and continued squeezing the trigger. His months of training overriding the core element of fear; which left unbridled will run rampant and destroy any good thoughts or trained efforts of success.

As soldiers in God’s army our mission is to “not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.” We are trained in the simplest of defensive and offensive battle tactics. “Study to show yourself approved unto God…rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim 2:15) We should study and know our battle plans, our enemy’s tactics, how to defend against attacks and how to confront the enemy head-on.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension (untruthful or dubious assertion) that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor 10:5) We destroy and throw away any thoughts that argue against the word of God; thoughts that deceive the Christian into thinking that the life led by the Spirit is difficult and full of pitfalls. We recognize those thoughts that desire we conform them to this world and we remove them before they take hold in our hearts. We “take them captive” and hand them over to God, the Chief guard, to take care of and toss to the deepest depths of the sea.

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Do not give the devil a foothold.” (Eph 4:22-24, 27) Do not give up. Do not give in. In the words of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, “there is always one more thing you can do to increase your odds of success.” Are you doing what you “just have to do?” Are you sitting in the school of learning offered by the Comforter and Teacher? (John 14:26) Are you applying what you have learned and have been taught? Or are you hiding in the trench in fear that you may not hit the enemy and you are doomed to death? Choose this day who you will fear; God above or fear itself?

Death Rags

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (John 11: 38 – 43)

It seems strange to be reading the story of Lazarus several weeks before Christmas when the birth of Jesus Christ is the reason we celebrate this season every year. However, without His birth, there would not be a story of Lazarus, except for how he lived his life, died at an early age, and left a family behind. Yet, with the birth of Jesus we have this miraculous story of how this man Lazarus died, was buried for four days, and God raised him from the dead. A lot of preachers and Sunday school teachers tell how this story symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Yet I see something else in this story.

I see the love Jesus, who is God in human form on earth, has for all creation. He was deeply moved at the sorrow and grief experienced by the family and friends of Lazarus. He loves each and everyone of us with a love that only a father can have.

I see a Savior who has come to lead us out from a darkened world. A Savior whose love can free us from the bondage of drugs, sex, alcohol, pornography, filthy language, hatred, pain, sorrow, or whatever ugliness we have sold our souls to. A Savior whose power can roll away the stone of bondage, free the chains that bind us, the "rags of death" that constrain us, and the cloth that blinds us from seeing God's love for us. “For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death…in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me.” (Rom 7:11-13)

Yet the story doesn’t end there. Jesus sent others in to free Lazarus. He allowed others the joy of seeing the restoration of God and smell the fragrant aroma of life. He allowed others to share in the wondrous feeling of seeing someone dead in sin, come alive, and to see that person as they discover they are a new creature, alive in the power of God through Jesus Christ. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:1-4)

Once alive and free Lazarus had the choice of living as one who is alive and free, or as one still bound to the chains of death; forever remembering the things in the tomb that caused his death, or forever remembering his life anew. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it be so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”

In remembrance of the Christ child, what life are you living? Are you still stuck in the tomb? Are you willing to step outside the tomb, reach for His hand and say. “Yes, I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised him from the dead”(Rom 10:9) Do you long to live outside the darkness? Do you long to feel the radiant presence of the King? Choose this day whom you believe and forever celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel; God with us.