My Weekly Devotional

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I was off on a "stay-cation" last week, and so surrendered devotional writing in favour of time with family. Some people might be interested in why I do this. It grew out of my doctoral program a few years back. It was a way of engaging my then congregation with possible sermon themes and ideas. People seemed to like the engagement and so I just continued it after the D.Min. program was over and carried it forward into my new church. I have a daily routine of reading a portion of Scripture, praying about it and writing out a page or so of reflections on it, and my weekly published devotional usually takes one of those morning reflections and fleshes it out a bit. Last week I was doing some reading in the Psalms and was taken with Psalm 34:11 - "Come, my children, listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Fearing the Lord has become such a catch-phrase in some Christian's faith, and I think it's sometimes totally misunderstood, so I chose to unpack the idea a little bit:

http://randomfaiththoughts.blogspot.ca/2017/03/a-thought-for-week-of-march-20-2017.html
 
I must have been fortunate because it seems to me that I was taught from my days in Sunday School that to 'fear' the Lord, meant to be in awe of God - to feel respect or reverence. The God who by grace surrounds me with unconditional love is not to be feared.
 
Great Writing --Well said ----Teaching and Preaching ---well done in my view -----this is what the people need to come to Church for to learn and have light shed on what terms really mean which bring understanding to what the scripture is saying to people who otherwise would not understand as you point out in your writings ------Ministry should include Teaching more than Preaching --that is my personal view -----

God is a God of True Agape Not Fear as it is known in this world ----
 
Great, if your God is not to be feared, then there is nothing to fear by ignoring the claims until evidence in favour of this God is found.
 
Reading from Crossan last evening I came across one of my favourite snippets from the prophet Isaiah, describing a vision of the Realm of God - "... and none shall be afraid." I am reminded of the many times in scripture when people encountered a vision and were told "fear not" or "don't be afraid".
 
chansen said:
I agree. But it's kinda popular in some circles to say there is.
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Which is one of the points I made - some people just honestly misunderstand what's meant by the fear of the Lord, but others understand perfectly and abuse the idea to either make people afraid of God or turn people off God completely.
 
The third option is a bit of a hybrid - they say that "fear" means a form of "respect", and then they will tell you all about the punishment if you don't believe. You can't say "fear" doesn't mean the modern concept of "fear", then say this deity could do (or refuse to save them from) something that would cause them to fear.

You can't have it both ways.
 
chansen said:
The third option is a bit of a hybrid - they say that "fear" means a form of "respect", and then they will tell you all about the punishment if you don't believe. You can't say "fear" doesn't mean the modern concept of "fear", then say this deity could do (or refuse to save them from) something that would cause them to fear.

You can't have it both ways.
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Which is an abuse of what is meant by "the fear of the Lord" if you read and understand the thing in the language in which it was actually written. I haven't done an etymological study of the English word "fear" but it's at least possible that the word had a bit of a different meaning or connotation when the Bible first was translated into English. The Bible started to be translated into Old English in the 7th century. One would have to see what word was used in these passages, how it came to be the modern English "fear" and how the words were understood from say the 7th-14th centuries when translating the Bible into relatively comprehensible modern English was completed in order to understand how the original translators meant the translation.
 
chansen said:
The third option is a bit of a hybrid - they say that "fear" means a form of "respect", and then they will tell you all about the punishment if you don't believe. You can't say "fear" doesn't mean the modern concept of "fear", then say this deity could do (or refuse to save them from) something that would cause them to fear.
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Airclean--post--I cannot believe Chansen. But here I agree with you. I believe the fear of GOD is the beginning of once walk with The Father. When you walked as though there were no GOD. Then you find there is a GOD. The first feeling is fear, for I have walked not in His way.
2Sa 23:3The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God,
2Ch 26:5He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechari'ah, who instructed him in the fear of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.
Job 4:6Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
Rom 3:18"There is no fear of God before their eyes."
2Co 7:1Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God.----

--
When I was young ,I can remember I had rules to live by . If I broke then Punishment was soon to follow. I never hated my Father or Mother. It was me who broke the rules. With my Father in Heaven He has told me carful of my rules. If you call a Brother down , you to could be put down. If GOD The Father fines ,I won't fit in His Kingdom. Then I will go into the Lake of fire, Still Loving Him".
 
revsdd said:
Which is one of the points I made - some people just honestly misunderstand what's meant by the fear of the Lord, but others understand perfectly and abuse the idea to either make people afraid of God or turn people off God completely.
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Keep an open mind ... why god cracked heads in the Sinai! Tis continued through the misunderstood yom kippur a small fishing expedition under the stars! Tis a fete loaded with satyrs and the like ...

Do we mainly fear to respect "the ALL" for fear we can learn something from it ... contrary to some brute powers? Does cause inflection, or flecks, spots and other points to pass the I 've sol! Some people even believe the sol as metaphysical rather than physiological ... thus essences of brain ... essences sometimes labelled spirits!

Can anyone imagine why creation gave some people sol and other's not; being the disbelievers believe sol non-existential? Is that spooky or what ... then they are frightened out of thoughts!

Sachmoe (Armstrong) stated if you have to ask ... perhaps you have no (process of) sol ... a kind of Process Theism/Deism/Daemon that may haunt your aspirations and dreams to the point of fearsome dark Nessa!
 
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airclean33 said:
Airclean--post--I cannot believe Chansen. But here I agree with you. I believe the fear of GOD is the beginning of once walk with The Father. When you walked as though there were no GOD. Then you find there is a GOD. The first feeling is fear, for I have walked not in His way.
2Sa 23:3The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God,
2Ch 26:5He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechari'ah, who instructed him in the fear of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.
Job 4:6Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
Rom 3:18"There is no fear of God before their eyes."
2Co 7:1Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God.----

--
When I was young ,I can remember I had rules to live by . If I broke then Punishment was soon to follow. I never hated my Father or Mother. It was me who broke the rules. With my Father in Heaven He has told me carful of my rules. If you call a Brother down , you to could be put down. If GOD The Father fines ,I won't fit in His Kingdom. Then I will go into the Lake of fire, Still Loving Him".
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You attempt to trade in fear. You are terrible at it, but you try.
 
chansen said:
You attempt to trade in fear. You are terrible at it, but you try.
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--Chansen our GOD is a GOD of rules .As it was in the beginning. so it is today". He can be very hard on His Chosen. You can read this all though the Bible . Read the Old testament and you will see. It is not good ,to do things GOD has said no to. GOD has a plan, for us chanson. If you don't want any part of it . That is your choice. -- Sholom--
 
An idea'l-sm of rules is required for those that fail to be extensively aware and caring for the entirety of creation ... even distant idealisms ... thus closed social orders!
 
revsdd said:
Which is an abuse of what is meant by "the fear of the Lord" if you read and understand the thing in the language in which it was actually written. I haven't done an etymological study of the English word "fear" but it's at least possible that the word had a bit of a different meaning or connotation when the Bible first was translated into English. The Bible started to be translated into Old English in the 7th century. One would have to see what word was used in these passages, how it came to be the modern English "fear" and how the words were understood from say the 7th-14th centuries when translating the Bible into relatively comprehensible modern English was completed in order to understand how the original translators meant the translation.
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Actually, even in modern dictionaries, "fear of God" is defined as "reverential awe" (per definition 4 in the entry linked) which is definitely not the same thing as regular fear, which is defined as "a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid." I haven't found an etymology that explains where that definition came from, though, since the Saxon root of fear definitely means "ambush" or "danger" (etymology from the Dictionary.com definition that I linked):

Dictionary.com said:
before 900; Middle English fere, Old English fær sudden attack or danger;cognate with Old Saxon fār ambush, Dutch gevaar, German Gefahr danger,Old Norse fār disaster
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I would speculate that "awe" and "distress aroused by impending danger" do often cause similar physical symptoms, hence them being equated and using the same word. Basically, your awe causes overwhelming sensations that lead you to fear that which causes the awe sort of thing.
 
airclean33 said:
--Chansen our GOD is a GOD of rules .As it was in the beginning. so it is today". He can be very hard on His Chosen. You can read this all though the Bible . Read the Old testament and you will see. It is not good ,to do things GOD has said no to. GOD has a plan, for us chanson. If you don't want any part of it . That is your choice. -- Sholom--
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And you can paint it as a "choice" all you want. I don't have a choice when it comes to believing. No version of Christianity even approaches my threshold for evidence before I believe. And the (modern) fear you and others try to instill is backfiring. Mostly because it's more funny than scary.

Other Christians are too timid to say it, but they are trying desperately to distance themselves from you without being confrontational (because confrontation is something Christians save for atheists). Look at revsdd's chosen account title - "Faith ... Not Fear". You try your "God as Good Cop/Bad Cop" routine all the time, and you're not the only one. The best service I can provide is to highlight the comedy of it all, because it's funny. And I'll take making people laugh over making people afraid, any day.
 
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