FEAR THE LORD ONLY!
I recently read the last words read by one of the hijackers involved in the terrorist activities of Sept 11 2001. It was a letter to one of the men who was responsible for the deaths of thousands. The letter contained his final instructions and words of Islamic encouragement. One line really struck me and I believe leads us to the key in overcoming what now plagues America. The phrase that caught my eye was this, “fear is a form of worship and you must fear no one but God”. Now they (Muslims) are worshipping the wrong God but the statement is very true. And even though they are worshipping the wrong God you have to give them credit for doing it wholeheartedly, how many of us Christians would die for Jesus? We say yes but we won’t give Him 15 minutes out of our day. Back to the word fear, by the Hebrew and Greek translations it is used scripturally to mean, highly honor, respect, sometimes using terror and frightening circumstances. So a terrorist is one who instills fear. And if he is successful he has succeeded in getting us to worship his god. So that is what it comes down to, who are you going to worship? The word of God (the real One and Only Creator of the universe) tells us that we are to FEAR GOD, and Him only! “Fear the Lord your God serve Him only..” (Deut 6:13) “.. what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God to walk in all His ways to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart...” (Deut 10:12) “Assemble the people- men women and children..so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of His law” (Deut 31:12) “the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.” (Psalms 19:9) “the Lord id my Light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” (Psalms 27:1) “you will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plagues that destroy at midday” (Psalms 91:5) “ fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..” (Psalms 111:10) “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in His commands. His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.” (Psalms 112:1) ”the fear of the Lord adds length to the life” (Proverbs 10:27) “the fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble” (Proverbs 19:23) “fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe” (Proverbs 29:25) about Jesus it was prophesied “He will delight in the fear of the Lord” (Isa 11:3) Jesus Himself tells us “ I will show you whom you should fear, fear Him who, after the killing of the body has the power to throw you into hell, yes fear Him” (Luke 12:5) We know we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12) And that “perfect love drives out fear” (1John 4:18) But we also have the promise in Luke 10:19 that He has given us authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy, nothing will harm us!! And the encouragement of Isaiah 41:10 to fear not for HE is with us. But then my personal favorite is from Psalms 23, He tells me that even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I should fear no evil, He is with me and His rod and staff will comfort me. The rod is used to correct the sheep and the staff is used to pull the sheep back into the fold. There is great comfort in knowing that if I get off the straight and narrow path that yes my Heavenly Father will discipline me, and pull me back into His lap. There is great delight in the fear of the Lord, He loves me and I love Him!! I shall fear Him only, how about you? Will you fear and bow to the threat of terrorists and anthrax, if you do you let them win. Or will you rest in the peace and love of the Father? Choose you this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.