God is to be feared…

“For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.” Psalms 47:2

God, He is the creator of all things, everything in existence belongs to Him, He has the right to do as He pleases with His own creation. Do not make the mistake of looking at God as a man, because He is not a man. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” Numbers 23:19 Do not make the mistake of comparing God to a man, God is the Sovereign being of all creatures. God controls all things in creation, He controls all the actions of everything in creation. God does not sin, but He does not always stop sin from happening. God does not cause sin, but He does allow and predestinates sin to happen. God allowed Adam to sin, God allowed Jesus to be crucified, God allowed many Christians to be killed, murdered, even in the most horrible ways. God knows everything, He is everywhere, He has ordained everything, all power is in His hands. Most people do not know God, they do not know Jesus, they have no idea who God is or what He is capable of doing. God does as he please, when He please, how He pleases. The Psalmist wrote, “Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? (3) But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” Psalms 115:2 – 3. Do not make the same mistake as the heathen do, when something happens do not ask where God is, and do not blame God! God has promised to never leave us nor ever to forsake us, He is always with us, even if we walk in the shadow of death. God is the God of love, but He is also the God of hate, He is the God of mercy and grace, but He is also the God of wrath. But whatever God does He does in righteousness and holiness. God gives grace but sometimes God allows Satan to have his evil ways, even with His own children. We never know what God is going to do or what God is going to allow, just as He did with Job, just as He did with the flood. The Psalmist wrote, “…the LORD most high is terrible…” but he followed that with these words, “…he is a great King over all the earth.” God is to be feared, He is to be greatly feared, because God controls everything and has the right to do as He pleases with His own creation. God has control over everything that happens in life, nothing happens out of His control. He can put a king in a field and make him live as an ox for seven years like King Nebuchadnezzar or take everything you have as He did with Job or kill everyone and everything as He did in the flood. However, everything God does, or He allows Satan to do is for a justified and holy reason. But God is to be feared and if He is not feared He will cause fear in your hearts. Most people, even most people who call themselves Christians and even some actual Christian does not have the faintest idea who God is or what He does. God is “terrible” which means - to be feared; morally to revere; causatively to frighten – so fear God!  2 Chronicles 19:7 “Wherefore now let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts.” - Deuteronomy 6:2 “That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.” -  Psalms 111:9, 10 “He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name. (10) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.” God does not owe it to us to be merciful or gracious. God does not owe it to us to stop hurt and harm and even destruction in our lives. God does as He chooses; He can have grace or allow Satan to destroy. He can heal or He can wound, He can cause destruction or stop destruction. When the people of this world live as they do, believe as they do, ignore and fail to fear God as they do, bad things happen. Give this scripture some serious thought. Psalms 89:7 - 9 "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. (8) O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee? (9) Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them." We can fear God or God will cause us to fear Him, but God is to be feared and worshipped as the Lord of lords, King of kings, and especially as the God of all gods.      

We should respect others.

James 2:1-13

As Christians it is our responsibility to God to grow in God’s word and by that grow in grace. Some Christians have failed to mature as godly children of God. Maturity begins with fearing God and respecting His word for what is says and not for what we think it says. We ought to continually search the scriptures daily, ask God’s Holy Spirit to teach us, and obey the truth. “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:” Proverbs 6:23 The bible is a light to our personal understanding of the mind and thoughts of the King of kings and Lord of lords. The scriptures are not of a private interpretation, it does not say or mean what you prefer it to, it’s God’s word.  “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” 2 Peter 1:20 God teaches His children about “love”, but not just love, His love that He has given to us. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,” Galatians 5:22 People are not born with these things, they are gifts from God after we are saved, it is our Christian responsibility to study and grow these spiritual gifts. If we look at God’s gift of “election” to us, it must have all began with “love”, God’s love is what caused us to be part of His elected fold before the foundation of the world. It was His love that sent His Son Jesus our Christ to Calvary for a people that would be born at enmity with Him. As Christians we have a great desire to learn of God, to learn His word, His commandments, his doctrine, and obeying it all. In James chapter one God teaches us that a mature Christian’s patience is tested and from that testing we can scale our biblical education. James 1:2 - 4 "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; (3) Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (4) But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Once we learn and mature in patience then the Lord teaches us about respecting others in your life. Not for who they are, not for them being of like faith, not for them being your best friend, and not for them being wealthy. No, not at all, God says “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” James 2:9 As Christian’s it is our maturity in the scriptures as they teach us to love and respect other people, even to the point of praying for our enemies. “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, (28) Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” Luke 6:27 – 28 Did you hear what God said, then obey what God has said. The very reason we are to love and respect other people is because God commanded it. Can you imagen how Christians must have felt about Saul of Tarsus, can you imagen the churches allowing him to teach them? We never know who God is going to save; therefore, we cannot hate anyone, not even our enemy or those that hates us. Only God knows everything, what we may see, or know, or think, may cause us not to respect someone later if God saves them. Next, money means nothing to a Christian or church, the very day we allow money to affect our thinking we are contaminated. There are a lot of very poor Christians in the world, almost entire countries that has very poor but very devout believes in them. I have been judged by church members because we were poor, we had nothing, but God saved me therefore I have everything. God said if we judge people for what they have or do not have then we are thinking evil. “Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?” James 2:4 Would you have welcomed John the Baptist into your church, what about Jesus? Then why not poor people, never treat another person especially a child of God in an unworthy way. I know people that are in real need, they are trying to survive in a very horrible habitat. While most Americans enjoy a hamburger for dinner they go without or eat rice and water. Their cloths are torn and tattered, they work hard and do without, they work lots of hours a day for less than we make an hour. But their as much a child of the King as we are. God put them in this habitat, and they understand and respect that, but they should never be disrespected. Let us understand that helping others and treating everyone with respect is a commandment not an option. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”  James 2:10  Failing to keep to all of God’s commandments can cause us to lose rewards of other good we have done.