The Lion and the Kitten

     So today I gave a message at my school about fearing God and what that really looks like to us. What I'm basically going to do is just give that message to my blog now, so that I have both my in person audience and my virtual audience up to date with what my message was about! Let's dive into it.

     I feel that the church today (building wise) focuses on the feminine nature of God, and kind of puts away God's masculine traits. For example, we all have been preached to about God's love, how it is everlasting and that because of it, Jesus died for us. Nothing can separate us from that love of God. We've also heard about God's grace and how undeserving we are of it. Rarely, though, do we speak about God's severity. God's severity is so important, that we are even told to fear it! Well, how are we supposed to fear God? And what exactly is His severity? We'll go into that.

     God's severity is so glorious and so wondrous, that we as humans sometimes mistake it as misfortune and painful. God's severity comes from His power to judge all and His power to bring justice to His world. An example is that in the Old Testament, God's severity was revealed when He commanded the genocide of millions of Canaanites. Now, obviously to us, that was a little painful to hear/read/know about. However, that plan was much needed in order for God's plan to fully be revealed to Israel. The same happens in our lives, just maybe not as severe. We may go through something like a car accident, a bad break up, maybe a death in your life, or something else that I haven't mentioned. Either way, we need to start loving God for His severity and His just, rather than being angry at Him when we can't even see the full picture of what is really going on.

     Now the main point: fearing God. Fearing God is not being terrified of Him; fearing God is not being too scared to pray to Him; fearing God is not cowering at the thought of Him. Fearing God is paying Him respect and giving Him praise for what He has, can, and will do. Fearing God is loving His grace and appreciating His mercy, while loving Him when death happens and when pain is amongst us. Fearing God is loving who He really is, and not loving what we want Him to be. Too often do I hear people only loving God because of certain good things about Him. What about the God described above who killed those Canaanites? Don't you love and appreciate God for that too? In order to truly love God, we need to learn to love everything about Him, not just what we want to love.

     Another way to talk about it is in Matthew. Jesus tells His disciples not to fear men, for they can only kill the body. Instead, we should be fearing God who can destroy both the body and the soul in hell. He's not telling us to be afraid of God and not love Him because He has that power, rather, He is telling us to respect God and go to unimaginable lengths for Him. Don't worry about what other people will say or do, the least they can do is kill you. God deals with our eternity. Fearing men and not faring God is like running away from the kitten and slapping the lion across the face: it's stupid.

     These are just some thoughts that I've had as I've gone through my study in Matthew. I pray that something that was typed hit hard and that we all begin to truly love and fear God for who He is, and not who He isn't. Grace and peace!

It Has Been A While!

     As the title says, it has been quite a while since my last post on blogspot. I've been very busy with things going on with my church as well as my future with my education and haven't placed blogging as a priority. However, I'm happy to say that I will be doing my best to continue this blog I've started.

     Lots of changes have been going on in my life, far too many to go through and explain all in one blog sitting, so I won't bore you. I want this blog post to have a purpose though, so here's some food for thought before you finish reading.

     I'm currently reading  book titled, "The Power of the Prophetic Blessing" by Pastor John Hagee. The book explains the power of the blessings that The Lord has placed on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the three fathers, and how their blessings received affect us as believers and how they can change our lives. Later on in the book, Mr. Hagee begins to explain to his readers a type of doctrine and theology called Replacement Theology. If you do not know what it is, I encourage you to do your studies on it. I will give you a basic idea, though.

     Replacement Theology is the belief that the church body of Jesus Christ has replaced the Jews and people of Israel as God's chosen people. Replacement theology is taught among many Christian churches today and there are many Christ followers who believe this theology to be true. Before you develop your own opinion, just allow me to explain some things.

     God made a promise to Abram (Abraham's name before he entered God's covenant by circumcising himself) in Genesis that goes as follows,

"I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

     Christians didn't exist then. Jesus had not yet died for the sins of mankind at this point. It was just dialogue from God to Abram. God blessed Abram, saying that he will be a great nation. That nation was and still is Israel. Israel was and still is God's chosen and blessed people. God promised this and even made a covenant with Abram about this. If the church was to come along and replace Israel, that would make God a liar, and would make His word untrue and unfaithful. That would mean that God's promises can be broken and that the promise He made to Abram turned out to be a lie.

     God is not a liar, nor will He ever be. In fact, He can't lie. (Hebrews 6:18). The church was not formed to replace Israel as the "new" chosen people. The church is an example and physical representation of God's mercy and grace to the Gentiles. Without the Jews, God's chosen people, Christianity would never be capable of existing.