Wednesday's thoughts

"Faith for the Fear of it"
This sermon is taking a very interesting direction. I had thought I would look at the "fear of the Lord" as a sense of "awe" of "wonder". That is one of the most important elements of faith. If we don't have wonder of awe we have lost something we really cannot afford to lose.

Currently, I have picked up the theme from Psalm 111 in which it is said, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom".

There are three levels that faith moves through. For many of us, if not most of us, our faith began with a sense of fear. It comes to us in conscience. We are brought up believing that there is a God who knows us and who judges us and who watches over us. Some of us consider God to be more than judging; God is vengeful and that evokes guilt and fear.

While that kind of fear of God has significant problems it isn't all negative. There are important truths we can learn if we approach life with a certain amount of concern for the consequences of the actions we take.

While encouraging and expanding on the concept of the fear of God can lead us to become suspicious and resentful of God, there is something about having a degree of respect for the Creator and for the creation that is healthy and helpful.

I doesn't mean we are afraid of God but it does mean we know what it means to approach God with respect and to understand that facing life with an attitude of humility and restraint is best.

It may even be true that a certain amount of "the fear of God" ultimately leads to wonder and the wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

What do you think?
How do you handle the "fear of God"?
What do you teach your children?

If you have thoughts on this subject write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have others read your response click on the box below.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles Schuster