Honor, Love and Fear

Honor everyone.

The word translated as honor from Greek is the word “time” (prounounced tim-may’). It means to value or highly esteem. This word means to treat as precious, weighty or valuable. -Craig Groeschel

What do we honor today? I didn't ask WHO we honor, because I think in many cases we honor things more than people these days. Things don't let us down like people do, they don't quit or turn their backs on us.

Before we put the cart ahead of the horse, lets talk a little more about what honor is, because it isn't a prominent thing in American culture. We're much more into respect. There is one big difference between the two. Respect is earned, but honor is given.

We choose to show honor to someone, regardless of what they have done or haven't done.
We respect authority and wisdom and accomplishment. We honor effort, motive and existence.

Who do we choose to honor?

Love the brotherhood.
This can mean two things, I think it means both.
Love the people in the brotherhood.
Love the brotherhood itself.

What's the difference? One is loving the believers around you, the other is loving the bond that makes us an extended family. There are plenty of ways to demonstrate love to people, but how can we show love to the bond that keeps us together?

Fear God.
When was the last time you just sat back and thought, "Sweet merciful crap, God is incredible!"? When was the last time you let Him knock your socks off? When was the last time you had a Holy Sense of Divine Wow?

Like so many things, God doesn't force this on you. It happens only if we let it.

Honor the emperor.
"Everyone" includes the emperor, president, governor, police officer, elder, parent, group leader, boss, manager, _________

We choose to give them honor. This isn't an option, or something we withhold until it is earned.


1 Peter 2:17

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Double Edged

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

I've spent a lot of time over the last week thinking about and studying fear. Particularly, I've looked at the fear of God as it is described in the Bible. In many instances, this fear is an awe or reverence. We used the phrase "Holy sense of divine WOW" this weekend, and in general that's true. But not always.

There are times when fear of God means shaking in your boots, teeth chattering, sweat breaking out, hairs standing on end fear. Read Hebrews 10:26-31 and try to interpret it any other way. You can't. Crossing God is a dangerous thing to do and we should be afraid to do it in any sense of the word. Just ask the followers of Korah... of wait, you can't - because the earth cracked open, swallowed them and closed again. That's a holy sense of "I'm gonna need some new pants."

Mysterious Fear

The (final) season premiere of LOST was last night and true to form, nothing was cleared up and more questions were raised. (Talk about split personalities!) That's the show's modus operandi and that is why people love it. It is a mystery. It keeps people guessing and never makes things completely crystal clear. We love intrigue. We love not knowing. We love to guess and dream.

But only on TV.

In real life, mystery is a whole different matter. Then we want certainty, fact and proof. If geometry class taught us anything it is that we can't just look at two triangles with two like angles and say that they are proportional; we have to write a page-long proof in something resembling a foreign language to make certain.

Mystery in real life means danger. It means we don't know what's going to happen, so we can't take every precaution before it happens. It's no mystery that driving a car into a tree, telephone pole, brick wall or another car will cause the car to stop faster than those riding in the car. We know this, so we can prepare with seat belts, antilock brakes and airbags. Less mystery, less danger, less fear.

I say forget that. No mystery means no excitement means no fun. No mystery means no fear means no faith. Jesus spends all of Matthew 24 confusing his disciples. He tells them the temple is going to come crashing down, that people will claim to be him, that there will be wars and famines and destruction and false prophets and death and destruction and that they will never know when the end is really coming. He fills them with mystery... and with fear.

Fear and mystery aren't the end goal, but they are main ingredients in what Jesus was really preparing. Faith is trusting God in the midst of fear and mystery. Jesus tells them that their futures will have plenty of both, it is up to them to trust him through it all. The same it true of us.

We spend so much time trying to figure God out, when really we should be focused on trusting him when we're scared and unsure.

No Fear

When Elijah acted, he acted. He didn't plan an exit strategy, he didn't worry about the bridges he burned. He knew he was acting within God's will and that was all he needed. The first time we read about Elijah, he was standing up to king Ahab, no small feat on and of itself. And his words were not timid. He told the king that it wouldn't rain until he said so - and it didn't. More than that, he knew that since he was acting in God's will, God would provide. He went to the wilderness and depended wholly on God - for water and bread and meat. God sent Ravens twice a day to meet Elijah's needs.

Do we trust God? Are we willing to be bold in his service? Are we willing to stand up to others? Are we willing to trust God to supply our needs? If not, why not?

If so, when is that last time you actually did?

Phew.

"Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in fear of the Lord."

If it happened before, it can happen again, right? (In the church and in my life.)

Here's to hoping.

Luke 8 - Fear

Jesus casts a Legion of demons out of a man and into a herd of pigs. What is the response to such an act? Were people overcome with amazement? Did they leave everything to follow Jesus and hear every one of his words? Did their lives change?

Nope. They were "overcome with fear" and they chased Jesus out of town. Jesus had upset the status quo and people couldn't handle it. That Demon Guy was supposed to stay the Demon Guy. Sure he was weird and scary and hard to talk to, but he was the Demon Guy and a part of regular life and the people had grown accustomed to it. Now Jesus messed all that up. Suddenly their reality was turned upside down and they had to reconsider things.

What were the people afraid of, Jesus and his power or the idea that if he stayed around things would continue to change? Were they afraid of Jesus or of the impact that he had?

What are we afraid of? Are we afraid of committing are lives fully to Jesus because we are afraid of Him or because we are afraid of the changes that will come with Him?