An Awe of God

Psalm 99:1-5

"The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble!  He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earthquake!  The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
Let them praise your great and awesome name!  Holy is he!  The King in his might loves justice, You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.  Exalt the LORD our God; worship at his footstool!  Holy is he!"

The first five verses spoke to me and brought about these questions; does your nation have a reverence, an awe of God?   If you're not sure about the word "awe” let me share from the dictionary, "mixture of wonder and dread" or reverential worship, or even frightening.  What about the State or community and what about the Church you are affiliated with?  When people understand who God is only a fool would not live in awe of Him.

The sad truth is I live in such a place, it’s called the land of the free and the home of the brave, it’s the United States of America, it's Texas, it is New Braunfels, and it's the community where I live.  I hope it is obvious I did not include Oakwood Church in New Braunfels; the staff and the Church have a reverence and awe of God.  I did not say all the ones on the membership role do, for many of them have been AWOL for years.

Many that go by the name Christian have no fear of God, for they have no understanding of who He is or His Son, much less the Holy Spirit. Let's begin with some of God’s commandments the easy ones first; give a tithe to support the ministry of your Church.  Now you may be of the mindset, a tithe is Old Testament law, and you are not under the law, you live by God's grace.   A great quote from Randy Alicorn; "Being under grace does not mean living by lower standards than the law. Christ systematically addressed such issues as murder, adultery, and the taking of oaths and made it clear that his standards were much higher than those of the Pharisees (Matthew 5:17–48). He never lowered the bar. He always raised it. But he also empowers us by his grace to jump higher than the law demands." Randy states that God owns all you have been given, so 10% is at best a starting point.  CDF Capital provides these statistics for 2018, only 5% of people who attend a local Church give a tithe, and this statistic from LifeWay Research that in Protestant churches more than half saw fewer than ten people become new Christians in the past 12 months.

Tithing or giving as the Holy Spirit leads you that is easy, but what about this commandment found in Matthew 28:19-20, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you."(Matthew 14:15-17)  Not my words, but Jesus Christ’s, and the question is for all of us, do we love Him, are we full of religious words, much like the Pharisees of Jesus time?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice