Skip to main content

Fear Of The Lord


          The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. (Proverbs 1:7) 

          Wisdom: the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the body of knowledge and principles that develops within a specified society or period (Oxford Online Dictionary) 

          Wisdom involves having at least a basic idea of how things work in the universe, and to work within that reality. That means that whatever god you believe in, it’s wise to be sufficiently afraid of him/her/it that you do not provoke him/her/it. Wisdom isn’t rocket-science, it’s just plain good sense. Fearing God isn’t about screaming and hiding under the bed. It’s not (necessarily) the sort of fear one feels when trying to escape from a serial killer. It’s more the sort of fear that leads hikers to wear bear bells and string their food high up between two trees when hiking or camping in Grizzly Bear country. It’s the reason you don’t dress up like a seal and go swimming off the South African coast. It’s the reason you don’t jump out of a plane without a parachute. 
            Quite simply, no matter what god you believe exists (even none) the best, wisest course of action is to work within the rules that god has set. Since peace is agreeing with instead of fighting reality, wisdom produces peace. So yes, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. They would rather try to make the world over in their own image.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen!

  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)            Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.            ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more