Do You Fear What I Fear?

"My biggest fear for you is not that you will be an atheist, but that you will create a picture of God that accommodates what you want, and you will collect verses to back that up, and you will build your own system of knowledge, and you will worship an idol, and you will call it Jesus - a god who has no power, a god who has no authority, a god who has no justice, a god who has no strength, a god who sort of winks at evil, a god who is just like us. And the thing that I fear, I fear for those people that don't fear God. If you don't fear God, I fear for you." - Mark Driscoll

It is too easy to focus first or only on the aspects of God we like and practically or totally ignore those we don't.

In doing that we make God out to be a Santa Claus who winks at evil like its no big deal.

Instead we should first focus on the power, the authority, the sovereignty, the righteous judgment, and the wrath of God who hates evil and crushes his enemies, and that we can't measure up to our own standards of goodness, let alone His.

In doing that and developing a healthy fear of God first, we are more equipped to love what he loves, hate what he hates, and then his love means something real to us.

I didn't connect the dots at the time when I first cried out to Jesus and had an overnight transformation, but I remember what I tried to suppress while I was living for myself, proud of all the time and money I had to waste, loving pornography more than real intimacy, and making false gods out of everything in my life - that voice of God very clear in the back of my head telling me that if I kept this up and didn't change, I was going to hell.

How wonderful it is to think that while I was rebelling against him with my entire life, God was already pursuing me and setting me on a path that led straight through the cross of Jesus Christ into his loving arms! There is no way I'd be there without God first giving me a glimpse of who he is, and that picture looks nothing like an old grandpa who loves but lacks power.

Fear God and love God.

Grace and Peace friends.

A Father's Joy

My after-work time at home is normally very good - peaceful home, respectful wife, joy filled kids, all by the grace of God. The other night I experience a particularly glorious dad moment that blew me away. It started with my kids fighting.

"Anda, you're nuts."

Yes, but that is beside the point!

So the girls were supposed to be feeding the dogs, but one was in the doorway with a chair blocking the other, and the one in the back had the scoop for the dog food. "Give me the scoop." "Get out of the way." "Give me the scoop." "Get out of the way." "Go sit on the stairs."

After some contemplation time, I took them into their room one at a time. "What's your sin?" "I was thinking about myself and not my sister." "That's right, in that moment you didn't have love in your heart. Who did you sin against?" "My sister." "Who else?" "You." "Who else?" "God." "That's right, you need to tell all three that you are sorry."

Then I witnessed prayer, heartfelt apologies, and reconciliation. It was beautiful and glorious and just how it should be between God's kids, and it certainly beats an unmeant "SORRY. Humph."

Christian parents, take the time for settling down, getting kids to understand their specific sin, getting at the heart, and encouraging real apologies, real forgiveness, and real reconciliation. It's awesome.

Props to Mark Driscoll for excellent teaching through Proverbs that illuminated some areas regarding child rearing I needed to pay more attention to, and to Jesus for using him so mightily and for never ending work on my own heart.

Grace and Peace friends.