God-fearing men Archives

There’s plenty to fear in our current world: wars, rumors of war, pandemics, rising crime rates and invasion at our souther border. Yet the Bible tells us to fear not. Simply put, when we fear God, not man, our Heavenly Father blesses us with peace and wisdom.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.–Proverbs 9:10 (English Standard Version)

If the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, what does the fear of man yield?

The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe. –Proverbs 29:25 (ESV)

The American Heritage dictionary defines a snare as: 1.A trapping device, often consisting of a noose, used for capturing birds and small mammals. 2. Something that lures or entangles the unwary.

When a snare catches an animal , the noose tightens as it struggles to get away. This provides a perfect metaphor for fearing man.

How does the fear of man snare people? Worrying what people think or say about us can cause us to stay silent when we should witness or defend our faith in Jesus. You may even decline to stand against evil due to worries of loss of livelihood, reputation, or even your life.

The reality is we are compliant to what we fear. Yes, we obeyed our parents as children our of respect, but mostly because we feared the consequences of the belt or grounding.

Remember also as a child going along with your group of friends because of peer pressure? We did so out of fear of ostracism.

I’d like to now revisit a situation in recent history in which all the fears mentioned above were encapsulated into a single, surreal event: the Covid pandemic . As you will see, this was a snare on many levels.

Many of us lost loved ones due to Covid, which was terrible and tragic. The elderly and those with chronic chronic conditions were most at risk. Yet ,instead of focusing on those who were at risk, government aided by the media chose to frighten every citizen out of their minds.

Numbers were inflated by hospitals . People who died in car accidents or had heart attacks, etc were said to have died of Covid if they even had a trace of the virus at the time of their death. This practice only aided in the panic.

Infected elderly people were returned to nursing homes under orders by health officials, leading to more deaths and inflating the death toll. This was largely ignored by the press, who instead focused on stories of food and toilet paper shortages, overwhelmed emergency rooms or how Covid would affect the incumbent president’s reelection. If this wasn’t bad enough, one news outlet had a Covid death ticker running during each broadcast.

People did anything they could to get out of that snare, as indicated by their blind allegiance to every arbitrary government edict. Many comforted themselves they were doing good and protecting elderly loved ones as they surrendered to tyranny.

People wore masks everywhere, even when walking with their spouse in the park, or driving alone. They stayed six feet apart even though the rule was unscientific.

Families hunkered down, isolating themselves from friends and loved ones. Many parents didn’t pushback against schools shutting down; forcing their kids to learn via Zoom. Many Christians stopped going to church due to fears of catching the virus.

On the other hand, many God-fearing Christians chose freedom over authoritarianism. They resolved not to live in fear, because they believe God determines their calling into heaven. If Covid was to be that opening of the door to eternity, then so be it.

These men and women continued social gatherings during the lockdowns. Despite following mask mandates early on , they later declined when reports came out questioning the effectiveness of the mandates (which recent reports have validated). These were men and women who walked into supermarkets unmasked and allowed their kids to have sleepovers with friends. Their fear of God trumped their fear of man.

So we can confidently say,“The Lord is my helper;I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”–Hebrews 13:6

Why did I spend a good part of this column revisiting Covid? We are in an election year in which certain forces do not want the return of a certain president. We’ll refer to him as DJT.

Covid coincidentally came just before 2020 presidential campaign, along with rioting in major cities. If this happened as a prelude to campaign season, what do you think these forces have planned in 2024? After all, this DJT is winning primaries and surging in polls? It’s not difficult to imagine.

Let me encourage you to fear not as wars, rumors of war, threats of future pandemics and terrorist attacks loom. Pray often, study your Bible,and trust in the peace and protection of the LORD through your faith in Jesus.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.–2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)

If conviction reveals your fear of man as greater than your fear of God, take heart. You do not have to remain enslaved.

Jesus sets you free when you ask Him to be Lord and Savior of your life. Surrendering your life to God, though Jesus and the by the power of the Holy Spirit, reveals truth and takes away fear.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.–Romans 12:2 (ESV)

Now is the time to do this. I hope I am wrong, but I believe 2024 will be unlike any year in our lifetime. Those who keep their eyes on Jesus will be steadied by the power of the Holy Spirit no matter what happens. Therefore, we can encourage others to fear God, not man

“Are you a God-fearing man?” That’s a question a close Christian brother of mine sometimes asks before witnessing to other men.

When he shared this with me I was immediately struck by the term. It’s old-fashioned , masculine and at the the same time, humble. I thought to myself, I have to write a column about the question, “Are you a God-fearing man?”

So here you go.

First of all, what is a God-fearing man? The obvious answer is in the term, a man who fears God. Makes sense, right?

But digging deeper, we find that “fearing” God is more complex than just living life afraid of God. First, let’s look at what Proverbs says about fear:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.–Proverbs 9:10

The fear referred to in Proverbs is reverence of the Lord. Before one can gain true wisdom, he must revere the Lord as Creator, Heavenly Father and Provider. To not hold God in awe is foolishness.

However, Jesus speaks of fear in a different context when detailing why we should not fear man, but only the Lord.

“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”–Matthew 10:27-28

Jesus is, of course, speaking of God as the one who “is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Yet, in the next verse, Jesus speaks of God’s love for us:

“Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

So God can banish you to hell , yet love you so much that all the hairs of your head are numbered? The best picture I can think of to describe this is a Godly earthly father: He loves you , yet sometimes has to discipline you.

If that fails to take hold, fathers sometimes have to make the tough decision to let you experience the consequences of disobedience. Sometimes the cost of this is devastating and life-changing.

While not perfect, I hope the previous analogy paints a picture of God allowing people the consequence of hell for a life of unrepentant sin.

Like a loving father constantly warning his children of the dangers of disobedience, so God sends warnings to the world. First the prophets, then Jesus, then the apostles and now Christians. This, so no one has an excuse of not hearing the gospel.

Af the forefront of this evangelism are God-fearing men, answering the Father’s call of using our talents to share the good news of Jesus Christ. God sent His Son to die for our sins so we could be saved from eternal punishment. All we have to do is repent from sin and place our eyes on Jesus as Lord and Savior.

“Uh …hold on,” says the secularist.

“God-fearing men? Oh great, they’ll push their religion onto everyone. What are we talking now, a theocracy for America?”

Here’s a news flash. WE are living smack dab in a religious theocracy!

The problem is it’s a secular-leftist, pseudo- religious theocracy. I’ll prove it.

The sacrament for this secular-leftist theocracy is abortion. Nothing else explains the feverous zeal to protect a women’s right to kill her baby. I’m convinced that abortion is ritualized sacrifice designed to appease the secular-left’s god. Here’s a hint, their god is not the God of the Bible and certainly not the Creator of the heavens and earth.

Everything about this pseudo-religion is a counterfeit of God’s creation. Marriage between a man and a woman? We’ll allow same -sex marriage . The family? Government will tell you how to raise your children. Men as head and protector of the family? Government will take that role for single-parent families. Truth? Truth is whatever the secular-leftist narrative needs it to be.

Want to have a trouble free life? Shut your mouth, pretend not to know things and go along with everything like it’s normal. Want to be diminished, ridiculed , and cancelled? Stand for outdated concepts such as Christianity, the Bible , the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Those are your choices under the Secular-leftist religion: Living under the fear of the state, or choosing to live according to the fear of the Lord. The God-fearing man chooses the latter and rejects the former .

The God-fearing man takes seriously the biblical warning of friendship with the world making one an enemy of God (James 4:4). He believes Jesus’ promise of hatred from the world since the world hated Him first( John 15:18). But the God-fearing man also has faith and believes that in persecution comes blessing and reward in heaven (Matt. 5:10-12).

So if God exacts death for our sin, isn’t that it? If we’re dead, what difference does it make?

The problem is you don’t actually “die.” Everyone of us when our physical bodies die, will receive an eternal body. That is, a body built for eternity.

Got it?

Now here’s the deliniation.

Those who accepted Christ as Lord and Savior will have bodies equipped for eternity living under God’s presence in heaven. Now here’s the bad news:Those who rejected the gift of grace through His death and resurrection, will have bodies equipped for wrath. The “death” is total separation from God.

Jesus spoke of hell more than anyone else in the Bible, describing it as outer darkness, fire, torment and full of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Sin, any sin, is a capital offense per God’s law. He is holy therefore, He cannot, and will not tolerate sin.

Most pastors leave hell out of their sermons, so as not to offend or scare parishioners. This is preaching the “modern” gospel which ignores the truth that the consequence of a choice of unrepentant sin is eternal punishment in hell.

Focus on that description , eternal. That means not one hundred , a thousand or ever a million years living under God’s wrath, but forever.

Fearing God means living a life with the knowledge that everyone is accountable to God. This fear is also accepting that everyone, every man, woman and child has fallen short of the glory of God, due to sin.

God-fearing men (and women) only become as such, because they understand the eternal consequences of rejecting Jesus. The Christ is our only salvation from hell.

The God- fearing man knows we are literally enemies of Jehovah without Jesus as Lord. This is frightening and ,at the same time, humbling when you understand only God’s grace saves us.

God sent His only Son as the perfect sacrifice for our sin. Jesus willingly faced God’s wrath and eventual death to save us. His resurrection provided the gift freely offered to us.

We live in a world where leaders are God-mockers instead of God-fearing. They are weak, vindictive, deceitful, hateful , spineless, fearful ,dishonorable and arrogant with no moral foundation. Their schemes are anti-God, anti-life and idolatrous.

Can you see why we need God-fearing men in leadership? Only men who understand their accountability to God should be trusted with power.

What say you Christian? Are you a God-fearing man?