Topics:<\/b> Awe; Divine Power; Experiencing God; Fear; God\u2019s Glory; God\u2019s Wrath; Wonder; Worship<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> Deuteronomy 6:13; Psalm 11:4\u20136; 19:1\u20136; 24; 33:6\u201319; Isaiah 8:13; Matthew 10:28; Revelation 1:8; 4:1\u201311<\/p>\n
A few summers ago we took a family vacation to Toronto. We\u2019d never been there, but all the guidebooks said, \u201cYou have to go up the CN Tower, the world\u2019s tallest building and freestanding structure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just the thought of being 1,815 feet above the ground made me queasy. But the kids said, \u201cAw, Dad, we gotta go,\u201d so against my better judgment, we went.<\/p>\n
I was the last one into the elevator. We started up, which was when I realized that the door of this elevator was actually made of glass, and that this elevator was affixed to the outside of the tower. As we rushed up the side of the CN Tower, I could see the city of Toronto falling away at my feet. My palms started sweating, my throat got tight, and I started breathing really fast. I told myself, \u201cJust hang on. Soon you\u2019ll be on the observation floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stumbled out of the elevator onto the observation floor, where I thought it would be safe. But I found that some sadist had installed a glass floor there so that people could walk on it and look straight down to the ground.<\/p>\n
The kids were laughing as they walked onto the glass floor, jumped up and down, and even laid down.<\/p>\n
\u201cC\u2019mon, Dad!\u201d they yelled.<\/p>\n
That same year, we went to the Grand Canyon, where you can stand at the South Rim and peer 6,000 feet straight down. At the Grand Canyon, you are not separated from your doom by blocks of glass 2.5 inches thick. So every year, an average of four or five people die while visiting because of (in one website\u2019s words) \u201coverly zealous photographic endeavors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the Grand Canyon is so beautiful that I was drawn to it. I had to see it, to get near it. I wouldn\u2019t do anything too foolish near the edge, but the same awesome beauty that caused me fear also drew me toward it.<\/p>\n
When the Bible talks about \u201cfearing God,\u201d what is it talking about? Is it talking about the kind of fear I felt at the CN Tower? Or is it more like the fear I felt at the Grand Canyon?<\/p>\n
For years, preachers and writers have told me that it\u2019s like the fear I felt at the CN Tower. \u201cWhen the Bible says to fear God,\u201d they explained, \u201cit doesn\u2019t really mean fear. It means awe or reverence. You should respect God, of course, but you don\u2019t need to actually fear him. It\u2019s like you\u2019re standing on the glass floor 1,100 feet up in the CN Tower. Being there may give you a thrill or a quick feeling of awe, but you\u2019re completely safe. So if you do feel any terror with God, that\u2019s unnecessary or even irrational.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Bible disagrees. Isaiah prophesies, \u201cThe Lord Almighty is the one \u2026 you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread\u201d (Isaiah 8:13). And Jesus says, \u201cFear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell\u201d (Luke 12:5 NLT).<\/p>\n
So when the Bible talks about fearing God, it means not just awe and not just reverence. It also means fear. It\u2019s the kind of fear I felt at the Grand Canyon, where I was drawn to amazing beauty, but I also felt a realistic fear at the danger, because people who acted foolishly near it have died.<\/p>\n
\u2014Kevin Miller, Wheaton, Illinois<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Awe; Divine Power; Experiencing God; Fear; God\u2019s Glory; God\u2019s Wrath; Wonder; Worship References: Deuteronomy 6:13; Psalm 11:4\u20136; 19:1\u20136; 24; 33:6\u201319; Isaiah 8:13; Matthew 10:28; Revelation 1:8; 4:1\u201311 A few summers ago we took a family vacation to Toronto. We\u2019d never been there, but all the guidebooks said, \u201cYou have to go up the CN … Continue reading “FEARING
\n HEIGHTS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}