BBD 01.17.11 Fear God - Part 2

#1 · January 17, 2011, 12:47 am

Quote from Forum Archives on January 17, 2011, 12:47 am
Posted by: edwrather <edwrather@...>

Visit the Burning Bush websites:

www.theburningbush.net
www.theburningbush.org

The Burning Bush websites have received visits from more than 170 countries.
Celebrating 11 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the
Burning Bush Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more
than 11,000 subscribers across the world.

Please join the Burning Bush Prayer Group. The group began in 1998 and is
made up of more than 300 prayer warriors. Send prayer requests and receive
prayer requests. To join send an email to: bbpg-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

If you love to send and receive inspirational emails the Burning Bush
Inspirational Group is for you. To join send an email to
bbinspire-join@welovegod.org

You can now leave comments/feedback about the devotionals at
www.theburningbush.net.

The Burning Bush Devotional
Welcome to the 736 new subscribers since January 1, 2011!!
There were 4010 new subscribers during 2010!!

01.17.11

Fear God - Part 2

Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. - Psalm 2:10-11.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom
and discipline. - Proverbs 1:7.

Obviously, this kind of fear, a fear of God is something that we should want
to have, and need to have. So, what is the Bible talking about here? When
the Bible talks about fearing God, it is primarily talking about reverence
for God; respect for God. It is somewhat like electricity. I have a healthy
respect for electricity, and I fear what might happen if I were careless
around electricity, or misused it in some way. I do not have a reverence for
electricity, but I do respect it, and in some ways fear it. We know what the
power of electricity can do. Some of us may have been shocked by it in the
past, or we may know others personally who have been injured by electricity.

One of the problems that we have before we come to a proper understanding of
the power of God, the awesome character of God, Who is all powerful, all
knowing, and Omnipresent - is that we may not have personally experienced
Him. Oh, we may come to church, we may read our Bibles, we may pray, we may
serve Him, and we may even know Jesus as our personal Savior. But we have
never actually, personally experienced how wonderful God is. When we have
actually experienced God working in our lives, we will then go beyond a
respect for God, to having a reverence for God.

This is what happened for the Prophet Elisha's servant in 2 Kings 6: "And
when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an
army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to
him, 'Alas, my master! What shall we do?' So he answered, 'Do not fear, for
those who are with us are more than those who are with them.' And Elisha
prayed, and said, 'LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.' Then the
LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So when the
Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, 'Strike this
people, I pray, with blindness.' And He struck them with blindness according
to the word of Elisha (2 Kings 6:15-18)."

After the Syrian king's servant told him that the Prophet Elisha was telling
the Israel king everything that he had planned, he had a simple solution.
That solution was to try to capture, and kill Elisha. What happened for
Elisha's servant was that his eyes were opened. He could see what the
Prophet Elisha could see!

There is no reason to fear the enemies of God, because God is far greater
than anything upon this earth, or anywhere else. You have to think that the
soldiers in the Syrian army had their eyes opened too. This is what we are
told in 1 John 4:4, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome
them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." Once
we have a proper reverence, respect for God, we then become fearless in the
face of whatever this world may bring our way. Why is that? ".because He who
is in you is greater than he who is in the world."

If you do not have a fear of God, I pray that your eyes, and heart may be
opened as were those of the servant of the Prophet Elisha. Because as
Solomon says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.."

Copyright © 2011. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. The Burning Bush website has
been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the
Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather began writing devotionals
in the early 1990s. The distribution of these first devotionals was
primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison facilities
throughout the United States and Canada.

Many prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer
Request page. You can also post your prayer requests there and they will be
forwarded to the Burning Bush Prayer Group (Of course, I am always in need
of prayer - please pray for me.).

If you are not my friend on facebook or myspace you can be, just add me. The
devotionals are posted in my blogs on those two social networks and you can
leave comments, feedback about them there. There are other social networks
designed just for Christians, however, this is an outreach project to reach
those who may not know the Lord or may have wandered away. You can help me
reach out to them.

For information about how to hear my testimony in your church visit this
link: www.theburningbush.net/pages.asp?pageid=22160

If you enjoy the devotional please recommend it to your friends. They may
subscribe by sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

Two videos of my sermons are posted on GodTube (now Tangle) at:
connect.tangle.com/Wrather

You can listen to services at my son, Clark Wrather's church (First Baptist
Church of Broken Bow, Oklahoma) live on Sunday mornings at 10:55am CST
www.kkbifm.com/

There is a complete devotional archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here
is the URL: www.theburningbush.org/33.html.

You can unsubscribe to the pure text version of the devotional by sending a
blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond to the
confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group by sending a blank email to
burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond to the
confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

Posted by: edwrather <edwrather@...>

Visit the Burning Bush websites:

http://www.theburningbush.net
http://www.theburningbush.org

The Burning Bush websites have received visits from more than 170 countries.
Celebrating 11 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the
Burning Bush Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more
than 11,000 subscribers across the world.

Please join the Burning Bush Prayer Group. The group began in 1998 and is
made up of more than 300 prayer warriors. Send prayer requests and receive
prayer requests. To join send an email to: bbpg-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

If you love to send and receive inspirational emails the Burning Bush
Inspirational Group is for you. To join send an email to
bbinspire-join@welovegod.org

You can now leave comments/feedback about the devotionals at
http://www.theburningbush.net.

The Burning Bush Devotional
Welcome to the 736 new subscribers since January 1, 2011!!
There were 4010 new subscribers during 2010!!

01.17.11

Fear God - Part 2

Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. - Psalm 2:10-11.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom
and discipline. - Proverbs 1:7.

Obviously, this kind of fear, a fear of God is something that we should want
to have, and need to have. So, what is the Bible talking about here? When
the Bible talks about fearing God, it is primarily talking about reverence
for God; respect for God. It is somewhat like electricity. I have a healthy
respect for electricity, and I fear what might happen if I were careless
around electricity, or misused it in some way. I do not have a reverence for
electricity, but I do respect it, and in some ways fear it. We know what the
power of electricity can do. Some of us may have been shocked by it in the
past, or we may know others personally who have been injured by electricity.

One of the problems that we have before we come to a proper understanding of
the power of God, the awesome character of God, Who is all powerful, all
knowing, and Omnipresent - is that we may not have personally experienced
Him. Oh, we may come to church, we may read our Bibles, we may pray, we may
serve Him, and we may even know Jesus as our personal Savior. But we have
never actually, personally experienced how wonderful God is. When we have
actually experienced God working in our lives, we will then go beyond a
respect for God, to having a reverence for God.

This is what happened for the Prophet Elisha's servant in 2 Kings 6: "And
when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an
army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to
him, 'Alas, my master! What shall we do?' So he answered, 'Do not fear, for
those who are with us are more than those who are with them.' And Elisha
prayed, and said, 'LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.' Then the
LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So when the
Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, 'Strike this
people, I pray, with blindness.' And He struck them with blindness according
to the word of Elisha (2 Kings 6:15-18)."

After the Syrian king's servant told him that the Prophet Elisha was telling
the Israel king everything that he had planned, he had a simple solution.
That solution was to try to capture, and kill Elisha. What happened for
Elisha's servant was that his eyes were opened. He could see what the
Prophet Elisha could see!

There is no reason to fear the enemies of God, because God is far greater
than anything upon this earth, or anywhere else. You have to think that the
soldiers in the Syrian army had their eyes opened too. This is what we are
told in 1 John 4:4, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome
them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." Once
we have a proper reverence, respect for God, we then become fearless in the
face of whatever this world may bring our way. Why is that? ".because He who
is in you is greater than he who is in the world."

If you do not have a fear of God, I pray that your eyes, and heart may be
opened as were those of the servant of the Prophet Elisha. Because as
Solomon says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.."

Copyright © 2011. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. The Burning Bush website has
been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the
Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather began writing devotionals
in the early 1990s. The distribution of these first devotionals was
primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison facilities
throughout the United States and Canada.

Many prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer
Request page. You can also post your prayer requests there and they will be
forwarded to the Burning Bush Prayer Group (Of course, I am always in need
of prayer - please pray for me.).

If you are not my friend on facebook or myspace you can be, just add me. The
devotionals are posted in my blogs on those two social networks and you can
leave comments, feedback about them there. There are other social networks
designed just for Christians, however, this is an outreach project to reach
those who may not know the Lord or may have wandered away. You can help me
reach out to them.

For information about how to hear my testimony in your church visit this
link: http://www.theburningbush.net/pages.asp?pageid=22160

If you enjoy the devotional please recommend it to your friends. They may
subscribe by sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

Two videos of my sermons are posted on GodTube (now Tangle) at:
connect.tangle.com/Wrather

You can listen to services at my son, Clark Wrather's church (First Baptist
Church of Broken Bow, Oklahoma) live on Sunday mornings at 10:55am CST
http://www.kkbifm.com/

There is a complete devotional archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here
is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/33.html.

You can unsubscribe to the pure text version of the devotional by sending a
blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond to the
confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group by sending a blank email to
burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond to the
confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.