Two Lives

We all get two lives.  Our second life begins the moment we realize we only get one life.

- Confucius

In my mind, this is very similar to “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom (Proverbs 1:7 among other places).”  Or Hebrews 10:31, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  There are many today who say everyone has their own truth. But it is because we are all mortal that it matters how we live.

A search on Biblegateway.com for the phrase “Fear Lord” turns up 135 instances.  It turns up in nearly every book from Exodus to Revelation.  That is not counting the many places where slightly different phrases are used, such as Genesis 28:12, Jacob’s Ladder dream: “He (Jacob) was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

Fear of the Lord is a difficult concept for us.  Most (every?) of the times God or His angel appears to someone, the first thing said is, “Do not be afraid.”  And John’s first letter says that “perfect love casts out all fear”.  I don't know if I will ever get to casting out all fear of the Lord. In my experience, it is taking a lifetime of God’s Holy Spirit working on my heart, my mind, my life, to come anywhere close to perfect love.  Maybe after I walk through the Valley...

Fear is not necessarily a bad thing.  Fear of the Lord, understanding God as the loving, all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the Universe, of everything that is, ever was and ever will be - truly understanding that He requires perfection from us and that He will not have sin or evil in His presence should force us to our knees, even prostrate in awe of what He has done.  He has sent His Son, become Incarnate in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, lived a human life, but without sin, died on the cross, bearing the penalty for our Sin, for my sins, and was resurrected on the Third Day.  All of that so that we might be able to be made clean, to come into His Presence.  To be in awe of Him is perhaps the only possible reaction.  What we don’t want is to run screaming in terror.  

But a healthy perspective on our own mortality is a good thing.  Someone once wrote that there is a test to see if God’s purpose for you on earth is finished: if you are still alive, it isn’t.