The Phrase "The Fear of the Lord" in the ESV

  1. (2Ch 14:14 ESV) And they attacked all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD was upon them. They plundered all the cities, for there was much plunder in them.
  2. (2Ch 17:10 ESV) And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they made no war against Jehoshaphat.
  3. (2Ch 19:7 ESV) Now then, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the LORD our God, or partiality or taking bribes."
  4. (2Ch 19:9 ESV) And he charged them: "Thus you shall do in the fear of the LORD, in faithfulness, and with your whole heart:
  5. (Job 28:28 ESV) And he said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.'"
  6. (Psa 19:9 ESV) the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
  7. (Psa 34:11 ESV) Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
  8. (Psa 111:10 ESV) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
  9. (Pro 1:7 ESV) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
  10. (Pro 1:29 ESV) Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
  11. (Pro 2:5 ESV) then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
  12. (Pro 8:13 ESV) The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
  13. (Pro 9:10 ESV) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
  14. (Pro 10:27 ESV) The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.
  15. (Pro 14:26 ESV) In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.
  16. (Pro 14:27 ESV) The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.
  17. (Pro 15:16 ESV) Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it.
  18. (Pro 15:33 ESV) The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
  19. (Pro 16:6 ESV) By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.
  20. (Pro 19:23 ESV) The fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.
  21. (Pro 22:4 ESV) The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.
  22. (Pro 23:17 ESV) Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.
  23. (Isa 11:2 ESV) And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
  24. (Isa 11:3 ESV) And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
  25. (Isa 33:6 ESV) and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure.
  26. (Act 9:31 ESV) So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
  27. (2Co 5:11 ESV) Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

Back to School: A Call to Prayer

A.W. Pink said, "It's true that (many) are praying for a worldwide revival.  But it would be more timely, and more scriptural, for prayer to be made to the Lord of the harvest, that He would raise up and thrust forth laborers who would fearlessly and faithfully preach those truths which are calculated to bring about a revival."

At CRCC, most of what we do (working towards "all") is "calculated to bring about a revival"...first in the individual, then in our homes, then in our churches, and prayerfully, in many in society.  One of the areas where we've been working very hard is discipling and educating children.  And it's working!  Many are seeing a revival in their relationships with their children right now, and we are so very grateful.  It's what we've praying for since 1997 when we started our church.

Today (Sept 4, 2012) as youth in our area get back to school, I'm compelled to offer a quick call to prayer.  Let me carefully say that how a child should be educated is VERY sensitive territory...maybe the MOST sensitive territory.  We know that 85-90% of Christian parents send their children to public schools.  And the reasons are manifold.  Some want to; many don't want to but have no other viable options, etc.  Satan has done a masterful job of destroying family structures and therefore limiting the options of many.  This breaks our hearts.  And of course to do otherwise has a massive economic impact...first in not taking advantage for the taxes paid to fund it...and then the double whammy of private school costs or home education costs.  All very real reasons.

With as much love as I can muster, I'll offer you some motivation for prayer.  The church in America is currently losing between 70-88% of children growing up in Christian homes by the time they are 19-20 years old (Baptist Research Council Study).  For the sake of argument, if you +/- that number 10-20 points, we've still got a nightmare on our hands.  Less than 5% of Christian youth have a biblical worldview (Nehemiah Institute).  Worldview is a function of who taught them (impartation) and the curriculum used (education).  So many make a profession of faith, but don't experience the power of the Gospel in their thinking.  What is education if not the training of the soulish realm?  On the other hand, and citing just one example, 94% of homeschoolers stay in the faith of their parents after their high school years and 93% stay in church (NHERI Study).  (This is not a post to argue for homeschooling.)  But you know what...even if we throw out all the stats...look around.  The Bible asks, "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Ps 11:3)  What do you see?

Oh dear friends, I'm not trying to be mean or the bringer of bad news.  Really.  Just please pray for our students and children in schools everywhere today.  Pray against ungodly associations, teachings, and influences.  Pray that God would bring revival to this generation.  Pray that our eyes will open and we'll see.  Pray that we will understand.  Pray that our tone and tenor will be appropriate as we humbly try to disseminate this information and encourage thought and prayer in this area.  Pray that there is no human judgment, only divine conviction where needed in our lives.  Pray for me please...that if I'm misguided I can see that and repent.  But I am trying hard to see this rightly.  We've lost a generation and working on another.  Something BIG has to change.  It can't be another rock climbing wall or playstation room at church.  Something strategic and fundamental must be broken.  Maybe we should build everything on Scripture?

And pray that the hand of the Enemy will be stopped and that our beautiful children will be protected from humanism, paganism, atheism, agnostisicm, and anything that doesn't exalt the Name of Christ, no matter where they are.

Love yall.

(Deut 6:6-7; Ps 1:1-3; Prov 13:20, 22:6; Lk 6:39-40; 2 Cor 10:5; Col 2:8; 1 John 4:1-4)

Personal Discipline

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (ESV) - Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. (25) Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. (26) So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. (27) But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Coming out of four weeks of rest, reflection, reading, prayer, and family time, I can say without a doubt that my biggest personal conviction and rebuke from the Lord is in this area: Personal Discipline.  (Sigh)

As glad as I am that the Lord "discplines those He loves" (Heb 12:6), it ain't fun.  I basicallly found out that the limiter on accomplishing what He has asked me to do is mostly a time management issue for me.  I know what to do...but it's the doing.....

Sooooo...after repenting and begging the Lord not to take away the grace I've been given in ministry because of my lack of diligence, I've recommitted to:

  1. Rise earlier and pray more.
  2. Spend significant time reading and writing and educating my children.
  3. Spend less time with novelties, media, golf, and my old nemesis...TV.  (Double sigh.  Even the wholesome/educational dvds we watch can be massive time wasters if not kept in moderation!)
  4. Spend more time in personal evangelism.
  5. Continue and improve upon my family worship leadership.
  6. Get in shape and eat better.
  7. Pray more about #6.  LOL.

I  hear you Lord....loud and clear.  Life is short.  Thank you for the refocus and thank you for not giving up on me.

Hey, any of you have any personal discipline stories or encouragement?  Anybody want to take up this challenge with me to be more productive for the Kingdom?

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