5. "How can we fear God and also love Him at the same time? Isn't that a contradiction?" Read Billy Graham's response:
Yes, the Bible's command to fear God and yet also love Him may seem like a contradiction at first -- but once you understand what the Bible actually means, the contradiction goes away.
Let me explain. It's true that the Bible repeatedly tells us to fear God: "Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him" (Psalm 33:8). But what does it mean by "fear"? We usually fear something (such as a vicious dog or a violent storm) when we expect it to harm us. In other words, we fear something that has no concern for us, and is a source of constant danger to us.
But that isn't what God is like! God created us, and He also loves us -- and the proof is that He sent His only Son into the world to die for our sins. Would He have done this if He hated us? No, of course not. The Bible says, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Stop right now and thank God for loving you and sending His Son to die for you.
To fear God is not to shrink back from Him in terror. To fear God is to have a deep reverence for Him, and to stand in awe at His holiness and majesty and power and love. Only then will we love and serve and worship Him as we should.
PEACE WITH GOD
Would you like to know how you can have peace with God through Jesus Christ? Learn more.
"http://www.billygraham.org/SH_StepsToPeace.asp?BA=1040&QR=116"
“Billy Graham” - Oct 25/07
Getting into God's stride
Enoch walked with God.
Genesis 5:24
The test of a man's religious life and character is not what he does in the exceptional moments of life, but what he does in the ordinary times, when there is nothing tremendous or exciting on. The worth of a man is revealed in his attitude to ordinary things when he is not before the footlights
(cf. John 1:36). It is a painful business to get through into the stride of God, it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride; but when we have got into it, the only characteristic that manifests itself is the life of God. The individual man is lost sight of in his personal union with God, and the stride and the power of God alone are manifested.
It is difficult to get into stride with God, because when we start walking with Him we find He has outstripped us before we have taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined into His ways. It was said of Jesus - "He shall not fail nor be discouraged," because He never worked from His own individual standpoint but always from the standpoint of His Father, and we have to learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned by atmosphere, not by intellectual reasoning. God's Spirit alters the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and things begin to be possible which never were possible before. Getting into the stride of God means nothing less than union with Himself. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don't give in because the pain is bad just now, get on with it, and before long you will find you have a new vision and a new purpose.
“Heartlight” - Oct 12/07
