Stairs of Torture

We have terrible steps in our house. They have sharp edges. They are too short for my size 13 foot, They are jagged, and they often hurt my feet. I have so many times walked down them and hurt my arches, toes, the balls of my foot or otherwise really bruised them. So much so that I finally got tired of it. So, I purchased soft cushy carpet step covers. They are brilliant! So soft and cushy they make my feet rejoice. I want to just stand on the steps now, and enjoy the comfort! After only a day of having these new carpet covers, I tried to go up the steps. As I took my first step I was remembering and preparing myself for the pain of walking up the old steps, as if there were no carpets there. I got myself ready and almost cringed as I began to walk up the stairs. My muscle memory got the best of my body, but as soon as my foot hit the stairs, I felt the new carpets! It was a feeling of relief, joy, and happiness that hit me. My body immediately relaxed. Suddenly, I felt like my feet were delivered from the incessant torture that they received every time I would walk up and down the steps for the past three years. I thought immediately of our new life in Christ. We sometimes come back to the same situations of life that we had experienced before Christ. Often in those moments I have thought, "oh no! here it comes again, the pain, the sin, the hurt, the torture of our everyday life apart from Christ!" And we even sometimes physically cringe and prepare ourselves for the onslaught of whatever condemnation is coming our way, like I did when I tried to go up the stairs. Romans 8:1 says, "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We are free from the cringeworthy life that we knew before Christ, sort of like the cringing, and pain of my stairs. Are you preparing yourself around every corner for the condemnation of the world, like I was preparing myself for with our torturous stairs? You can be free from all condemnation through faith in Christ! If you have not decided for Christ, then don’t wait! Choose to be free of the cringeworthy condemnation of this world. Place your faith in Christ choose freedom! Christian, If you are in Christ, stop cringing like there is some condemnation coming, prepare for the blessings of life in Christ. Act like you are a son or daughter of God, and adopted into his family! You are not longer cursed, but eternally blessed in Christ!

Sometimes we Christians are preparing ourselves for a condemnation and a curse, and Jesus says, "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?…Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more (John 8:10).” Jesus does not condemn us because he was found to be a curse for us. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…Galatians 3:13). He was condemned in our place so that he can in return say, “Neither do I condemn you.” Are you like me preparing for pain, torture, and condemnation. Or are you expecting blessing, freedom, and justification because that is your position in Christ! This was a freeing realization, an epiphany that I walk around as a Christian expecting condemnation even though I am free from all condemnation. Not only am I free from condemnation, but I am a recipient of his glorious eternal blessing, which is the exact opposite of condemnation. How can I walk around as if I am about to receive a foot beating like I got every time I walked up and down my stairs. I recently watched the new movie “Tortured for

 

Christ” the story of Richard Wurmbrand who spent many years in Communist prisons. His feet were so badly beaten that he could no longer walk regularly for the rest of his life. I remember vividly when he visited my Bible school and sat on the stage in his wheelchair because he could no longer walk on his own because his feet were so badly beaten all those years. He said that although the prison had taken his physical freedom away he had never felt more free. In his book “Tortured for Christ" he wrote, “I have found truly jubilant Christians only in the Bible, in the Underground Church and in prison.” He had found the freedom that Christ had won for him on the cross and had no longer let himself be bound by the constraints of this world, Oh, Lord let us taste of the same wine that these men of faith tasted. Let us walk up the stairs of freedom and blessing. Lord we will no longer walk up the step of torture and condemnation! For you have set us free, and, “if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed (John 8:36)."

Fear of the Lord; The Beginning of Wisdom

 

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." (Proverbs 9:10 NASB)

My Awesome sister Dorothy Moore brought up a question that I have been mulling over for quite a few weeks now and here is how some of our email dialogue went.  I'm pretty impressed with her knowledge and insight about what it means to fear the Lord. Most of these are her thoughts, and my thoughts are at the end. My proverbs prof at CIU used to tell us often that fear in Hebrew has no English counterpart exactly, that it means reserving the most intense emotion for God. it's stronger than awe, according to him it's more visceral/ overwhelming. Believers have a fear of God as that which stands in the uppermost place, to which all that Wisdom will accomplish subordinates itself; that which begins wisdom; Him who is absolutely Holy. And the 'knowledge' here in the Hebrew is meant of lively, practical, operative knowledge (ie, in relationship), which subordinates itself to this All-holy God as the normative pattern. -Franz Delitzsch
And on the other hand "Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-- more than that, who was raised to life-- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us" (Romans 8:34- The only One with authority to condemn us has accepted us and called us friends. "if God justifies, this answers all. He is the judge, and the party offended, and his judgment is according to truth... We have a plea which cannot be overruled. It is by virtue of the death of Christ and our interest in Him, our relation to him, and our union with him, that we are then secured. Divine justice was satisfied by the merit of his death. He is now in heaven to answer all accusations, to put in our plea, and to prosecute it with effect... And is not this abundant matter for comfort?" -Matthew Henry) 'fear' in prov. 9:10 is the Hebrew noun 'yirah' & comes from the verb 'yarah'- "to throw" or "flow out of the gut"...

In response to the above, I agree, completely and furthering the idea Jesus Christ is the same yesterday to day and forever I do really believe that with all my heart, but Jesus coming to this earth and revealing God to us shows us something new of who God is. I came across this quote by Donald Miller in His book "Searching for God Knows What". One of the best books I have ever read by the way. I read it right before Ana was born and with tears I say to you, it has been one of the best preparations that I have ever had for having a child with special needs. It goes...
"If it weren't for Jesus, It would be difficult for me to follow God. When you read the Old Testament now, knowing exactly where the book is going, it is all very easy and simple, but it wouldn't have been around back in the Old Testament, God would have come off as more or less frightening. And I don't think I would have been able to know in my heart that it was the grandness of His nature, not the ease of his anger, that produced the fear."
The question is what produces fear? Because I think I have always understood the fear of the Lord as real fear...but what do we fear... Everything about Him the 'grandness of His nature' not the 'ease of His anger'. We fear his goodness, grace, favor, wrath, loving-kindness, power, peace, sovereignty, and all other things that also make Him God. We must fear and love it all! We cannot leave anything out of the reverent fear and awe that we have for Christ and the Father Who has given Him (Jesus) every command. I'll give you a for instance. I had never before though of Jesus as Lord of my sexuality. i.e. I did not fear him in this area. I came across Hebrews 13:4 in preparation for a marriage series that I have been doing. "Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge." I wondered what 'undefiled' meant so I looked it up in Kittle (The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament). In the general sense it means clean from sexual sins, but the word is also used in the NT for moral purity of our heavenly inheritance, and of the perfect purity of the perfect high priest Christ. Talk about awkward. If I keep my marriage bed undefiled it comes into the same category of the undefilement that our High Priest also enjoys in His Heavenly Inheritance! WOAH! This will make me fear Him as I ought, and thus fear his judgment as this passage says. Maybe we ought to bring more fear and reverent Awe into every area of our lives; maybe then Jesus could become Lord of every corner and pocket of our lives! Just saying...