At the funeral last week for long-time friend and believer Howard King, one of the songs performed was Great is Thy Faithfulness.  The stirring chorus is “Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided – Great is they faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”

That phrase comes from Lamentations3.22-23:  “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

The beginning of the chapter, however, is full of woe:  skin wasting away, broken bones, bears and lions lying in wait, arrows hitting home, happiness is forgotten. And my favorite yucky thing – “my teeth grind on gravel.”

How does the author transition from dwelling in darkness to proclaiming God’s praise?  The lamentation states all the crappiness of the current situation, then switches with “But this I call to mind , and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases…”

The author remembers the good God who is unchanging and looking out for His people even when they are going through light and momentary sufferings (see 2 Corinthians 4.17).  Howard suffered briefly during his last week on earth, but is now home with his faithful Savior.

In yesterday’s Holy Lists post (2 Thessalonians 2.13-15), we saw two hard instructions for believers, given as appropriate thankful responses to the great miracle of salvation offered them by God.  “Stand firm” and “Hold to the traditions that you were taught” may sound easy enough, but Old Testament biblical history from the Wilderness through Judges and the Kings to the fall of Israel and Judah show that even believers’ hearts are prone to wander.  Many of Paul’s letters in the New Testament warn of creeping heresy and distortion of the true gospel.

Knowing that holding to the truth is hard, and knowing that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17.9), Paul asks God for further help for his friends:

“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave his eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish them in every good work and word.” (2 Thessalonians 2.16-17)

This short prayer acknowledges past history – that Jesus Christ loved us so much he gave eternal comfort and hope through his act of grace on the cross.  Then Paul asks God for more, to –right now – comfort and establish the believers’ hearts in every good work and word.  Only God’s touch on our hearts will allow us to faithfully follow.

Normally a doxology discussion would fall into a Group Prayer category, but the placement of this one makes it a Fear and Awe topic. It is amazing that God can (and will) do all that Paul asks.  It is also amazing that God would inspire Paul to ask for the help needed right after the command is issued.  It is even more amazing that we believers can understand; give thanks for the help requested and given; and get back up to stand firm every time we fall down.  Awesome.

In Luke 8.22-25 (also Matthew 8.23-27 and Mark 4.35-41), Jesus and his disciples get into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee.  A nasty storm arises, the boat is filling with water, and the disciples are scared.  Jesus, tired after teaching and healing for days, sleeps.

The disciples wake up Jesus in a panic, saying “Master, we are perishing!”  Jesus wakes up, looks around, and “rebukes the wind and the raging waves, and they cease, and there was a calm.”  His comment to the disciples is another rebuke, “Where is your faith?”  The passage does not tell us, but I am guessing Jesus goes back to sleep; his teaching was done for the moment.

For the disciples, many of whom were hardened fishermen, it was one thing to be afraid for your life in a raging sea.  But another kind of fear and awe emerged – “they were afraid, and they marveled” – when they witnessed the power and authority of the one who is sovereign over the wind, the waves, and all of nature.

The disciples did not know it yet – Peter’s proclamation of Jesus as Christ is not until chapter 9 and the crucifixion and resurrection are at the end of the book – but this man who saved them from drowning would also be saving them from their sins.  The same God, same Jesus, same sovereign over nature is still inspiring fear and awe, working the great miracle of saving believers from their sins.

Jews were spread all over the world by the time the Holy Spirit showed up at the Pentecost celebration held after Jesus died and was resurrected.  Many of those nations were represented at the festival – Acts 2 says “every nation under heaven,” and specifically mentions “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians.” 

These people from places way beyond Jerusalem heard the commotion of the believers speaking in tongues and they understood the apostles in their native language!  They were “All amazed and perplexed.” This is certainly part of the Holy Spirit providing the Power (Acts 1.8). And it had to leave a lasting impression on those involved. 

Some of these visitors or alien residents believed in Jesus Christ that day and became part of the early church in Jerusalem.  Some returned home immediately after.  They all must have been sharing the story around the dinner table, at the local bar, over the water cooler at work, across the back yard fence, etc.  The rest of the book of Acts follows a few of the apostles, particularly Paul and his friends, to testify that the gospel reached Rome. 

But all these Pentecost hearers had spread the word far and wide even without Paul.  The groundwork had been laid, the topic introduced, and curiosity peeked.   The Apostles were to be the witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth; they were to entrust the gospel to faithful men who would pass it on to other faithful men.  And, the Holy Spirit was planting seeds all over the world based on the power shown at Pentecost.  What a plan!

Several events in the Bible describe miraculous events which draw people’s attention and involvement while provoking the amazement and wonder side of fear. 

Acts 19.11-20 contains the semi-comedy of the sons of Sceva trying to harness the power of the Holy Spirit for casting out a demon.  They had seen Paul do it and figured they knew the formula. When the sons command, “We adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims,” you expect the man with the demon to say, “What do you mean, ADJURE?” Nobody uses that anymore.”   

The recorded response of the demon is more subtle comedy and quite logical – “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And then the scene turns to slapstick as the demon-guy beats the crap out of the brothers, tears off their clothes, and throws them fleeing from the house, naked and bleeding.

The result in Ephesus is instructive: “And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.”   It was scary to know that one man could overpower seven; it brought fear when they realized the power that Paul had access to for healing and miracles needed to be used wisely. The chapter goes on to say that many believers and non-believers gave up their magic arts practices and burned their sorcery books.

As with the entire book of Acts, “So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”

This category used to be called “Kept Promises.”  It is true that the LORD keeps his promises, but that is only one part of what makes the One True God of the universe AWESOME!   Creator, sustainer, comforter, redeemer, defender, healer, provider… the descriptive list has limitless potential beyond keeping promises.

The Fear aspect is not the terror of horror movies, but rather consists of two biblical concepts: 

(1) Understanding the world and myself as created entities of a glorious and grace-filled God – “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1.7) and

(2) Applying the knowledge in a God-oriented manner in real-life situations – “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111.10).

The guidelines for A. Knapp Fear and Awe entries:

–          Big (the universe) or small (inner workings of the cell) – size does not matter when describing God.

–          God IS awesome! Jeremiah 9.24: “Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth”

–          God is big and I am small. Micah 6.8 “and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

–          Know that God communicates in many ways, and all communications need to square with the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

You might like to check out the reasons for the other categories in this blog – click on the WHAT’S WITH THIS CATEGORY heading above.

Have you ever worried that heaven might be really uninteresting?  Lots of singing and pretty things, angels and other creatures crying, “Holy, holy, holy” all the time.  Good food and no pain and all.  But what do you do for excitement?

Twice in the last week I have heard or read concerns about the quality of life in an envisioned heaven.

From the song “Broken White Line” by Kris Delmhorst, about her friend who died too early:   “And I hope that you won’t rest in peace because that would bore you right to tears”

From the book Forever Rumpole ( p187), a collection of humorous short stories about an English criminal defense barrister: “It seems to me that a world without evil might possibly be a damned dull world – or an undammed dull world, perhaps I should say – and it would certainly be a world which would leave Rumpole without an occupation.”

To combat the concern, remember two key concepts about heaven vis-à-vis life here on earth.

First, the curse of sin (Genesis 3.14-19) has us all discombobulated.  All the people, all our relationships and work, all of creation, all our senses are affected negatively. We don’t perceive reality as well as Adam and Eve did before the Fall.   We can’t even imagine the splendor and sumptuousness when sin is abolished in heaven.

Second, God’s glory and grandeur are more than we can bear right now. When Isaiah (Isaiah 6), John (Revelation 1), and others caught just a glimpse of God in heaven, they had to fall on their knees in fear and awe.  Paul prays for his friends to get to know God better (Ephesians 1.16), partly because our time here on earth is prep time to get ready for the beauty and brilliance, the wisdom and wonder of knowing the LORD fully in heaven.

The two concepts are summarized, somewhat cryptically, in 1 Corinthians 13.12: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.”