Reverence Revisited

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Have I blogged about reverence before? I think I haven't, yet it's on my mind so much I think surely I have. Regardless, it is the subject of my post today. First, let's visit a portion of Noah Webster's definition of reverence back in 1828: REV'ERENCE, n. [L. reverentia.] 1. Fear mingled with respect and esteem; veneration. The fear acceptable to God, is a filial fear, an awful reverence of the divine nature, proceeding from a just esteem of his perfections, which produces in us an inclination to his service and an unwillingness to offend him. Yes, this is the proper context of reverence in my mind. It is an attitude we must have toward our Creator if we have even the slightest understanding of who He is. It is a mindset He deserves simply because of who He is. And proper reverence results in our obedience and reluctance to displease Him in any way. So many people around us, however, even professing Christians, focus so strongly on a 'touchy-feely' relationship with God they neglect to render Him the reverence (and thus obedience) He is due. In studying the Bible this weekend I read a couple verses which really drove this point home to me. Consider Job 38:1-2: Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? (NIV) If I may paraphrase, it made me think "Who do you think you are, misrepresenting ME to others when you talk about things you know nothing about?!" Also consider Ecclesiastes 5:1-2: Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. It seems to me we need to be careful because "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31). Now, don't get me wrong, I realize that "perfect love casts out fear" (I John 4:18) and we can boldly approach the throne of grace to obtain mercy (Heb. 4:16); I don't mean to minimize these scriptures in any way. It just seems to me that we will either voluntarily give reverence to God, or we will bow our knees too late (Phil. 2:10) and tremble with the demons (James 2:19). I shudder to think of the price that may be required of people who are so cavalier with the inspired Scriptures. The laws of our land, the judgements of our legal system, the failure to protect the innocent, divisive teaching among believers. . .so many of the problems facing us today could dissolve if we just had the proper reverence for our Creator. This brings me to a book I have hesitated to mention-- The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. I read this book because a couple friends asked me what I thought of it and I didn't want to talk about a book without having read it. I DO NOT recommend that you read this book. That was my disclaimer, I think it should only be read with a great deal of discernment and simply do not want to encourage people to read it. There are a couple nice messages in the book, one of which is 'don't put God into a box limited by human understanding', but there is way too much garbage you have to weed through to get the few decent points. Overall, it was the most irreverent piece of work masquerading as 'christian literature' I have ever encountered. I simply can't believe the audacity of the author. I'm not going to address the many other flaws present in the book, many of which have been dubbed 'heretical', I just wanted to share my 'gut check' which shuddered at the lack of reverence throughout. Who do we think we are, when we casually muddy the character, the awesomeness, of God and lead others to believe falsehoods about Him?