Big, Fat Piece of Steak to Chew On

Today's church service was awesome! Our pastor preached on understanding the "fear of the Lord". It was so powerful. There are so many scriptures referring to the fear of the Lord, but do we really know what it actually means? He went into alot of the scriptural references and basically came up with the definition of the fear of the Lord being: "To respect with the audacity to obey". Respect carries the idea of willingness to do something even when we disagree. Our children show respect when they obey us even when they may not agree with us. Has God not done enough for us to earn our respect? We looked at some men in the Bible that feared and respected God despite their circumstances. Noah - respected God enough to obey despite the abuse and humiliation of his neighbors. Abraham - had the nerve to kill his only son in order to obey God. Isaiah - God asked him to preach to the people naked. Ezekiel - God asked him to lay on his side for one year to demonstrate the burden of sin caused by Israel. Hosea - God asked him to marry a prostitute. They all obeyed God and He showed Himself mighty to each of them. Do I have the nerve to obey God? Because if I don't obey Him, there will be consequences to my disobedience, just as there were for the children of Israel. Everytime I disobey God I am making a statement to Him that I do not fear Him. Disobedience really shows just what kind of regard we have for God. Alot of meat to chew on there. I pray that God would continue to soften my heart to the point of truly fearing Him.