Bible Discussion Thread

I have been struggling with the questions, why are we to fear God? I praise the Lord with everything and I Don't understand, is it a fear of what God might do and is it a fear that the bad people need to be afraid of God because they know they have done evil things against God and against Jesus Christ.

Thank you for helping me with this question. I don't know if I should be afraid and have this fear of the Lord that awls I can seem to do anymore is praise his name and try to live as wholly as possible interview blessed by God. Thank you again, Jill

I agree with Jesse's explanation and thoughts. Well said.

Hebrew word for fear "yare" has 2 renderings and have to use in its context; means either to revere or fear. If you are an enemy of GOD, you best fear HIM; but those who obey and love GOD we revere HIM and HE is not angry with us so we have nothing to fear. Go in peace and love GOD.

Many great comments from brothers but the the information you gave us dear Dav is valuable. Something similar to that happens with the greek for fear (phobos). Although it means fear and only fear, there is this feeling that in the Gospel when refering to God it means to honour, to respect God as a person superiour than everybody else who has power, and to love him as a father. Most probably Paul, a Jew himself, just translated into greek what he had in mind in Jewish.

I also liked Ronald's statement "We should have a sense of awe and respect for the majesty of God (and simultameously) the Father" Beautiful statement.

But I would also like to add:

1 John 4:16-19

"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

THERE IS NO FEAR IN LOVE, BUT PERFECT LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

We love him, because he first loved us."

We don't want yo fear God? Then increase in love (For him and everybody else)

GBU

You are 100% correct; I think that is the biggest mistake so many make is they view GOD the FATHER as an untouchable entity! That is the furthest thing GOD our closest kin, our redeemer wants. HE wants to sup with us personally and wants all to come and commune with HIM 1 on 1. HOW do you do this today? Study the WORD, get to know HIM and love HIM as you would your flesh father. Did your flesh father discipline you out of hate when you did something wrong; I hope not. No he hopefully disciplined you out of love. Our true FATHER loves us with a supernatural love that most cant comprehend in the flesh. HE doesn't wake up saying who can I zap today. We have to respect HIM as the our FATHER who created every star and placed them in their spot. HE knows every hair when it falls off our head. HE clothed the Lilly of the field how much more you think HE wants to provide for us. HE loves us and HE said " I don't want your offerings all HE wants is our love" What an awesome FATHER we have. That is what I wake up to every day and I don't want to disappoint a loving FATHER but try in the flesh to please HIM each day!! I have disappointed HIM enough in the past. HE shows me love and I want to show my love back!

Fear and Accusations are evil spirits assigned to you by satan; to slow down your walk with Jesus. In Ephesians 6, shows us that the spirits are invisible.

We know they're stalking us, by their FRUITS. Fear, hath torments (which are evil spirits). Knowledge of the Word of God sets us free. You must be born again as in John 3. If you are born again, you have LEGAL RIGHTS as a child of God.

I'm saying this for the benefit of others who have, or are going through it. Jesus cleans and clears out our physical and spiritual house. The Holy Spirit is inside of us. He teaches the Bible to us; as we read the Bible. We are GARNISHING our spiritual house. If we fail to read the Bible, the armor of God, is UNUSED. Ephesians 6.

MATTHEW 12:43-45 and Matthew 13:3-12

We cannot be invaded again, IF we garnish our spiritual house with scripture.

Matthew 4:

1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the DEVIL,

2 And when JESUS had fasted 40 days & 40nights, he was afterward hungry.

3 And when the TEMPTER came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

We must form a strong resolve to follow Jesus as a disciple. We are fighting off INVISIBLE enemies. Ephesians 6.

I've been praying over this some days. SATAN was an archangel.He was CREATED as like an angel; just bigger and more powerful; in charge of praise and worship of God. He coveted the praise all of the angels gave to God.

Coveting is a sin. He led a rebellion against God. Satan and 1/3 of the angels who followed Satans rebellion, were hurled into the earth.

Most or questions about sin, can be answered by the Ten Commandments, Book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

Do the do's, and refuse the dont's. Receive Jesus as Savior, Be baptized. Attend Church. Ask Holy Spirit to teach you.

GARNISH your "house"

See Acts 19:19, you may need to rid your home of "idols".

Were you afraid of your mom or dad or grandparents when you were a child ? Were you afraid of letting them down ? Or displeasing or disappointing them ? It's the same with your.....Heavenly Father , He is your creator , your sustainer , He gives you every good thing that you have in your life and He adores you . If you didn't ever want to incur your parents annoyance or displeasure how much more should you not want to annoy or displease your Heavenly Father who , unlike your earthly parents , is pure and righteous and always knows what is best for you . It's easy for me to think of God as my Father and my Mother , my breath my sanity my life , I didn't have great relationships with my biological parents so I have no problem in accepting God as my supreme parent .

Jill,

Eternal life is only by the grace of God the Father given through the life death, and resurrection of God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. We only have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, we are justified by faith without the deeds of the law, but by faith and obedience of the only begotten Son, as He was obedient to the Father Hebrews 5:5-9 Matthew 26:38-42

Romans 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Romans 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

When I was young growing up many many years ago, I loved my Dad who has been gone many years now. I knew if I did wrong I would have to face my Dad. Was my fear the punishment I would receive, when I was real young maybe, but later the admiration and love I had for him I feared letting him down, the source of security and love he gave me. We should have a sense of awe and respect for the majesty of God the Father.

In Proverbs 1:7 are we being obedient? Is fear being scared? No! We have His promise, He will never leave us or forsake us, Hebrews 13:5. But with the knowledge that God can be frightening it should give us motivation as sinners to say no to the temptations and riches of this world, for our faith and hope is in the next world to be with our God the Father and Jesus our Lord.

Colossians 3:12-14 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

Obedience, not our righteousness which is of the law, but Gods righteousness, a gift through faith in Jesus Christ.

God bless,

RLW

I was totally blessed by your post. Thank you.

Brother M, (Streetpreacher)

I do not know whose post you are referring to, and I do not need to know. I just wanted to say that the things you said have truly ministered to me this morning. You said, "No matter how hard I try to achieve perfection, I fail." I think every believer should identify with that statement. We oftentimes are busy trying to do the Lord's work when in reality we are incapable of doing His work. How many times in the gospels do we read of situations and circumstances that Jesus put His disciples through, situations that were impossible for them to handle, and what did they do? They tried hard to do things themselves and failed almost every time. I think that was Jesus' whole point. He was teaching them that they could not do it. They thought they could and they tried very hard but came up short.



I used to be that person. I took many years of failing before I learned to give it all to the Lord and let Him work out every tough circumstance that would come up in my life. I was always trying to fix things and solve those tough situations myself. It took a long time to realize that I could not do it. John Chapter 15 (The Vine and the Branches) is probably my favorite chapter in the whole bible. It teaches us what it means to abide in Christ and Christ in us. It teaches us that apart from Him, we can do nothing. We will fail.

Every time I see a picture of a sailboat, it reminds me of being out on the water with my motor running full throttle and I am getting nowhere. It reminds me that I need to turn the motor off, hoist up the sail, and let the wind take me wherever it may. That is how we should all approach the Lord. Turn the motor off, hoist up the sail, and go wherever Jesus takes us.

We have to stop trying to achieve perfection in our own human effort because we will never get there. Jesus Christ is our perfection. He dwells in us, and apart from Him, we cannot do one thing!

Testimonies are such a blessing truly. We're never alone, aimless and threading our way through unknown waters. The reality of His omnipresent and omniscience truly comforts me.

I fail, I blunder through things and problems; until I let go of the rudder. I leave the mess I make and go sit in Isaiah 6 until I am healed from my blunders. He is high and lifted up, my Lord, my King.

I love the story of the Potter and the clay. Can the clay say, What are You doing? In my life?! As He pinches off a piece, reworks it, adds water, and reattaches it. It's painful, but it works better. It's lovelier, stronger.

We dislike the pain, but later, we have to admit that it works better.

I have to remind myself always, nothing is happening to me that He doesn't know about. I search myself__did I cause this? But when we sit at His feet in Isaiah 6, and consider His Holiness, our problems just fall away. He forgives us when we confess. He shows us a better way.

I quit running after human love and relationships, and learned how to be a better friend to all my friends. It changed my goals. The friendships fulfilled my need to understand as well as be understood. I'm at peace with aloneness. Not everyone can handle it. I see that now.

We seek the perfect will of God, but in this flesh, it's hard to attain. We do the best we can. Follow Jesus; not our own wills. He desires us to experience life fully. Love also.

We give glory to God for the gifts He bestows upon us.

And in the cool of the evening, He will come and walk with us (as He did with Adam and Enoch). We can be silent and enjoy, or we can discuss the day. He knows what's in our hearts. He's not offended. Enjoy those times.

I'm guess I'm saying, don't get bogged down in personal failures and despair. He is genuinely interested in what we are doing. He comforts us. Puts an arm around us to calm our fears of "missing it." Don't struggle with failures. Confess and be healed. You're His beloved child.

Jill,

1 Peter 2:17 says we are to fear God. There are three commands in that verse that are Present Imperatives, showing continuous action. One of them is that we are to be continually fear God. Is it right to fear God? Yes! In fact, just by studying the social habits of man, did you know that we make decisions based on who we fear the most, and who we love the most? Sometimes we compromise with our walk with the Lord because we fear how other people are going to react to us if we obey the Lord. We fear them. We fear rejection. We fear their response. But we are to fear God, not man. Why? Because fear causes compromise. We are to be continually fearing God.

In 2 Corinthians 7:1, it says, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

Here's the basis for this: It says in the fear of God. That's a healthy reverence for God. And just in our own human response, we naturally do not fear God. And if we do respect Him, we fear people more than we do God. Sometimes we know that we are disobeying God, but we also know that He's a gracious God and He will forgive us.

But oftentimes we compromise our walk with Christ and then we come back and ask God for forgiveness because we know He's gracious and that He will forgive. But we don't have a healthy fear. That is to say that if we're disobedient, what if God in His love decides to allow us or cause us to suffer the consequences. We think that God's going to protect us in all that we do, but He disciplines those that are His.

So perfect holiness in the fear of God, having a healthy fear of Him. It's the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of knowledge. It's the very first response that we need to be sensitive to. How aware am I of God and His power, God almighty, and the fact that I'm getting ready to make decisions in His presence that might be in disobedience to Him?

I hope this makes sense?

I'm amazed at your post. I'll read it again tomorrow.

No matter how hard i try to achieve perfection, I fail. I have to go to the Cross to get straight. I need Jesus, all the time. If I get silent, He waits. I adore John who wrote 1-2-3 John and Rev.

I will crave His voice and presence forever. Years ago, I asked Jesus if I could stand behind a drape at the marriage supper. I had led a life of aimlessness in sin, 30 years. He helped me remember my life on the farm. I was rescued from death many times, 4-5 yrs old miraculously. He taught me wisdom of nature and natures. I got a washtub and made a habitat perfect for critters I put in it: frogs, horny toads, all kinds of bugs and ants for food; water, leaves for caterpillars and the turtle. I just sat all day watching what they would all do. Somehow I knew Someone was there with me. Interested, comforting, loving. Things started eating other things and disasters ruined my project. I let all the creatures escape or I helped them run away. The day was not a loss. The Lord put something in me that helped me understand this is what the Lord does with us.

He sees everything we do. He truly loves us and is interested in what we do. He is always near to us. We're not alone. I aged and walked away from God for 20 years. He came back to me, Yom Kippur 1985. I saw the Lord. He is beautiful. My life has never been the same as before. 6 months later I was street preaching. I was doing badly. People laughed. I went home, laid my Bible on the table with my head on it, soaked in failure. Then I hear His voice. "Are you through doing it your way?"

I said YES! He anointed me. I worked with other street preachers downtown. In a year I had worn out my Bible. It was all marked up and unreadable. When we work, with the Holy Spirit, in the Harvest_it's miraculous. He gives us the right scriptures for each person. I had 36 years of mostly good memories. I still pray for all the people I led to Jesus. I want to see them in heaven.

Amen Brother Jesse.

Thanks for that great answer.

Blessings.