Category Archives: Bible Insights

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Fear God – Fear Nothing

God Fearing Leads To God Blessing

When you fear God, you have nothing to fear. When you don’t fear God, you have everything to fear. To be consumed with love, fueled by faith, and characterized by obedience in a moment-by-moment walk with the Lord—that’s what it means to be God fearing, and that’s what it means to be God blessed. For sure, fear the Lord—and watch your step with those who don’t.

Read: Psalm 128 // Focus: Psalm 128:1-2

“Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.”

King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, began his most famous book by writing, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 1:7) What followed was a collection of wise sayings that were intended to lead the God-fearing person into a life that was blessed by the Lord.

King David, Solomon’s father, and Israel’s most beloved king, began his most famous book by writing, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” What followed was a collection of worship songs that expressed the blessed condition of one who feared the Lord.

Blessed fear—almost seems oxymoronic, doesn’t it? Fearfully blessed—same with that. Yet for the person who fears God, blessings are guaranteed. And for the person who lives a truly God-blessed life, there you will find fear of the Lord at the critical core of their existence.

To fear God, is one of the first and greatest duties of his rational Creatures. (Charles Inglis)

What does it mean to fear the Lord? This is by no means a theological definition, but for all intents and purposes, to fear the Lord means to make him and his purposes both the center and the circumference of your life. It is to be consumed with love, fueled by faith, and characterized by obedience in a moment-by-moment walk with God. That is what it means to fear the Lord, and that is what it means to be blessed by the Lord.

You see, blessing in the purest sense is to be consumed by your love for God, to be fueled by your faith in God, and to be characterized by your obedience to God. A person who lives that kind of life knows pure and unassailable joy at the deepest level. Earthly success, material wealth, personal popularity, and all of the other accouterments the world says are needed for the blessed life simply pale in comparison to a life that is characterized by blessed fear.

When you fear God, you fear nothing else, but if you do not fear God, you fear everything else. (Oswald Chambers)

When you fear the Lord, you are truly blessed. When you are truly blessed by God, you fear the Lord.

May God grant you holy fear, and may God richly bless you.

Making Life Work: If you sense that your “holy fear” metric is off, pray about it. Ask God to reveal his holiness to you. But be serious when you ask, you may just get a revelation that will rattle you to the core. And if you do, believe you me, that will be a holy moment.

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Fear That Is Blessed

Make God’s Purposes Both the Center and the Circumference of Your Life

There’s an old Hasidic proverb that says, “Fear only two: God, and the man who has no fear of God.” To be consumed with love, fueled by faith, and characterized by obedience in a moment-by-moment walk with the Lord—that’s what it means to be God fearing, and that’s what it means to be God blessed. For sure, fear the Lord—and watch your step with those who don’t.

Read: Psalm 128 // Focus: Psalm 128:1-2

“Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.”

King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, began his most famous book by writing, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 1:7) What followed was a collection of wise sayings that were intended to lead the God-fearing person into a life that was blessed by the Lord.

King David, Solomon’s father, and Israel’s most beloved king, began his most famous book by writing, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” What followed was a collection of worship songs that expressed the blessed condition of one who feared the Lord.

Blessed fear—almost seems oxymoronic, doesn’t it? Fearfully blessed—same with that. Yet for the person who fears God, blessings are guaranteed. And for the person who lives a truly God-blessed life, there you will find fear of the Lord at the critical core of their existence.

What does it mean to fear the Lord? This is by no means a theological definition, but for all intents and purposes, to fear the Lord means to make him and his purposes both the center and the circumference of your life. It is to be consumed with love, fueled by faith, and characterized by obedience in a moment-by-moment walk with God. That is what it means to fear the Lord, and that is what it means to be blessed by the Lord.

You see, blessing in the purest sense is to be consumed by your love for God, to be fueled by your faith in God, and to be characterized by your obedience to God. A person who lives that kind of life knows pure and unassailable joy at the deepest level. Earthly success, material wealth, personal popularity, and all of the other accouterments the world says are needed for the blessed life simply pale in comparison to a life that is characterized by blessed fear.

When you fear the Lord, you are truly blessed. When you are truly blessed by God, you fear the Lord.

May God grant you holy fear, and may God richly bless you.

Making Life Work: If you sense that your “holy fear” metric is a bit low, pray about it. Ask God to reveal his holiness to you. But be serious when you ask, you may just get a revelation that will rattle you to the core. And if you do, believe you me, that will be a holy moment.

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Your Divine Guidance System

How Never To Get Lost, Confused Or Distracted

Someone once quipped that the Bible is simple our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. That’s true. And that’s why, today and every day, you should stand upon the Word of God, the B. I. B. L. E.

Read: Psalm 119 // Focus: Psalm 119:24>
“Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.”

As you read through all 174 verses of Psalm 119—the longest chapter in the Bible—you will notice the repetition of the phrase, “according to”. In fact, it is found twenty times—once every eight or nine verses. Obviously, it is an important phrase to the writer, since he repeats it so often.

But what is of particular import is that the phrase is describing the one whose life is lived “according to” the Word of God. And to the one who so orders their life, the rest of the psalm is mostly a detail of the various benefits that follow. And of all those wonderful benefits, perhaps the greatest is that these holy statutes serve as a personal counselor—a Divine Guidance System, if you will.

What a comfort! The counsel that comes to us when we live “according to” God’s Word lifts us far above our limited, shortsighted, earth-bound perspective and provides a heavenly view of life as we journey through it. The Word of God becomes, as Timothy Dwight described, “a window in this prison-world through which we may look into eternity.” It is, as Henry Ward Beecher wrote, “God’s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbour is, and how to reach it without running on rocks and bars.”

That’s why we must invest the first and best part of our day (Psalm 119:147) to reading, studying, meditating and applying God’s Word. Psalm 119:130 reminds us that “the unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” As you can see, not to give full devotion and highest place to the Word of the Lord would be nothing less than foolish.

If you have chosen to read God’s Word each day, whether through this blog or in some other form, I congratulate you. There is no better investment. Psalm 119:89 says the Word of the Lord is eternal—nothing else in this world can lay claim to that distinction—so while all else around you is being shaken, because you have delighted in his laws, you won’t be!

As Psalm 119:165 promises, “Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” That’s what you get when you follow your Divine Guidance System.

Making Life Work: Open your Bible today and read! Meditate on it, Memorize it. Master it. Minister it. Hands down, it is the very best thing you can do today.

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The Central Point

In The Exact Middle Of God's Word You'll Find The Exact Center of God's Will

Want to find God’s will for you? Go to the very center of the Bible—literally! 594 chapters from either the front or the back will bring you to Psalm 118:8, and there you’ll find the best advice ever: Go with God! Don’t put your hopes in a politician or a celebrity or a sports star or anyone else for that matter. God alone is eternal and dependable and perfect in all his ways!

Read: Psalm 118 // Focus: Psalm 118:8

“It is better to take refuge in the LORD tan to trust in man.”

This isn’t original with me, but I thought you might find it interesting nonetheless:

The shortest chapter in the Bible is the previous reading—Psalms 117. The longest chapter in the Bible is the one to follow—Psalm 119. Today’s chapter, Psalm 118, is the literal center of the Bible.

There are 594 chapters before Psalm 118 and there are 594 chapters after Psalm 118. If you add these numbers up you get 1188.

What is the center verse in the Bible? None other than Psalms 118:8,

Far better to take refuge in God than trust in people; Far better to take refuge in God than trust in celebrities. (The Message)

Does this verse say something significant about God’s perfect will? Obviously, it does! So the next time someone says they would like to find God’s plan for their life and that they want to be in the center of His will, just send them to the exact middle of His Word, and there they can read for themselves the central point of God’s purpose for mankind:

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. (NKJV)

Now isn’t it odd how this worked out, or was God at the center of it?

Making Life Work: Write out Psalm 118:8 from your favorite version. Post it where you can see it throughout the day for one week. Memorize it, meditate on it, pray it, share it, thank God for it and most of all, live it!

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A Near Death Experience

The Sacred Lesson of Learning What is First and Foremost in Life

A near death experience – avoiding a devastating accident, escaping a crushing spiritual blow, overcoming a life-threatening illness – leads us to the overriding conclusion of what is most important in life: the extension of God’s mercy to us and our response of love to the Lord. That is a sacred lesson no one wants to learn, but afterwards are glad they did!

Read: Psalm 116 // Focus: Psalm 116:1

“I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.”

There’s nothing like coming face to face with death to bring clarity to what is most important in life. The psalmist had either come through a literal near death experience, or he had gone through something spiritually that was so intensely difficult that death would have been a welcomed option. Whatever the reason for this deeply personal psalm, staring the grim reaper in the eye led the writer to this bottom line: I love the Lord!

I don’t wish a near death experience for you, me or anyone, but I do pray that we would come to the same overriding conclusion of what is first and foremost in life: The extension of God’s mercy to us and our response of love to the Lord. Tell me, what else in life is more important than that?

Now I understand, as do you, that love is a term used rather loosely in our world. We love our favorite food or football team, or a certain TV show, or a song or a celebrity—we even love our pets (dogs I can understand; cats I can’t). And when we are teenagers, we love our best friends one day and hate them the next. Love is a pretty squishy thing in our culture.

But when a near death experience peels all the false “likes” and faux “loves” back from the core of what love truly is, we find a response of love for God that expresses itself in very real terms and quite practical actions. The psalmist mentions several:

• Prayerful dependence on the Lord in daily life: “Death stared me in the face—I was frightened and sad. Then I cried, ‘Lord, save me!’” (Psalm 116:3-4, LB)

• Calm assurance in the face of death: “His loved ones are very precious to him, and he does not lightly let them die.” (Psalm 116:15, LB)

• Heartfelt gratitude for God’s goodness: “O Lord, you have freed me from my bonds, and I will serve you forever. I will worship you and offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving.” (Psalm 116:16-17, LB)

• Ruthless follow through of our vows to obey God’s law: “Here in the courts of the Temple in Jerusalem, before all the people, I will pay everything I vowed to the Lord.” (Psalm 116:18, LB)

• Vocal, even visible and thoroughly authentic demonstrations of public praise for the God we claim to love: “Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 116:19).

Do you love the Lord? I do! How about we not just say it, but show it today in one of those practical ways. After all, in his mercy he has saved us from a great deal of bad stuff in life: “Then I called on the name of the Lord: ‘Please, Lord, save me!’… He has saved me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.” (Psalm 116:4,8) More than that, he has saved me from even worse stuff after death: “The Lord cares deeply when his loved ones die.” (Psalm 116:15).

Wow! Now that I think about it, I really do love the Lord!

Making Life Work: Psalm 116:2 says, “Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!” God is bending down to listen to you pray right now. Why don’t you give it a shot. Call out to him and tell him what’s troubling you. He’s ready to hear—and act! And don’t forget to thank him as an act of faith and trust.

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Bad News Immunity

When You Fear the Lord, You Have Nothing to Fear

There is no such thing as bad news for the God-fearing, commandment-keeping believer. I didn’t say they are immune to bad things, only to bad news. You see, when God is on your side, or perhaps more correctly, when you are on God’s side, no matter what, you win—always! And that’s good news.

Read: Psalm 100 // Focus: Psalm 112:1,7

“Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”

You’ve heard it said, “no news is good news.” The psalmist puts a different spin on that old bromide: There is no bad news! You see, for the one who “fears the Lord” and “takes delight in his commands” (Psalm 112:1), good things will happen and even bad things will be turned into blessings (Psalm 112:4). Furthermore, God will not only pour out blessings on the one who fears him, but ensures prosperity to their posterity, according to Psalm 112:2,

“Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.”

When you fear the Lord, you have nothing to fear! (Psalm 112:1,8)

Now I know what you are thinking: “No bad news for the believer—you gotta be kidding!” Yes, there is no such thing as bad news for the God-fearing, commandment-keeping believer. I realize that you could point to any number of faithful people in the Bible—Joseph, David, Daniel, Jeremiah, the disciples, Paul, even Jesus himself—and remind me that they indeed experienced bad news during their respective journeys on earth. And talk about bad news—what about Job? If you were to look up the definition of bad news in the dictionary, you would find Job’s picture there.!

I wholeheartedly agree with your point, but that is not what I am talking about. I didn’t say that the godly are immune to bad things, only to bad news. You see, when God is on your side, or perhaps more correctly, when you are on God’s side, no matter what, you win! And that’s good news. How so? God turns even bad things into good things for you, and while he is at it, he uses them to bring glory to himself as well. That’s what is promised to God-fearing, commandment-keeping believers in his Word. I love how John Newton, the former notorious slave trader who was dramatically and profoundly converted to Christ, put it,

“We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage.”

Wow! No bad news for believers! If you doubt Newton’s theology, take a moment to absorb Roman 8:28,

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.

Now please don’t think I am promising a pain-free life. I am not; nor is God. What God is promising is to use all the things that occur in your life for his purposes, and even use them as the very catalyst that will conform you to the image of his Son. From that perspective, what others consider bad news you can embrace as good news. So in a very real sense, you, dear God-fearing believer, are immune to bad news.

Now that’s what I call good news!

Making Life Work:Make a list of all the difficult, unwanted things you are facing right now. Once you’ve done that, pray over each one this prayer: God, thank you for using this to shape me!

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Make An Example Out Of Me

Squeeze Blessing Out Of A Really Bad Day

When you are going through a really difficult season, no matter what its source, simply appealing to God to use you as a example of his grace and mercy for future generations is a great way to squeeze blessing out of what is otherwise a really bad day. Go ahead, ask him to make an example out of you!

Read: Psalm 102 // Focus: Psalm 102:18

Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD. — Psalm 102:8

The writer of this psalm is in a bad way—a very bad way. In fact, the title says the author was a man who had been severely “afflicted”. We don’t know the man’s name, nor do we know the specific nature of his affliction, but we do know the depth of his despair since, to a greater or lesser degree, we have all been there at some point in our lives.

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