#19 - The Joy of Fearing God

The last book I finished reading in 2009 was The Joy of Fearing God by Jerry Bridges. It brought my total for the year to 19 and my goal was 12. Praise God!This was a very good book. I recommend it to all. Bridges started off with a bang, seemed to lose me a bit in the middle (it could have been those sleepless nights I had that shut my brain down a bit) but then finished strong. He did a good job explaining from Scripture how there is great joy in fearing God and that those 2 ideas are complementary, not contradictory.

The fear of God and trying to raise my view of God has been something I've been trying to develop especially this past year. This book will definitely help you if you are interested in growing in fearing God. Here are a few tasty morsels of truth:

• 'The fear of God is the soul of godliness.' That is, the fear of God is the animating and invigorating principle of a godly life. It is the wellspring of all godly desires and aspirations. Do you desire to be a godly person? Then you must understand and grow in the fear of God.
• We stand in awe not only of God's fiery splendor and absolute purity, but also of His grace and mercy to us.
• Emotional feelings of awe, reverence, honor, and adoration will definitely be stimulated within us as we have great thoughts about God - as we encounter His majesty, splendor, holiness, and love.
• [John] Calvin concludes, 'As a consequence, we must infer that man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.'
• Had sin never entered the world it still would be fitting for us to fear God - to bow in reverential awe before Him...But sin did enter the world - and because of His holiness, God now reveals Himself as the hater of sin and the just punisher of sinners. But He also reveals Himself in the person of His Son as merciful and gracious Savior. Our awe of His holiness can be joined with amazement at His love.
• 'Godly fear,' wrote John Bunyan, 'flows from a sense of the love and kindness of God to the soul. Where there is no sense of hope of the kindness and mercy of God by Jesus Christ, there can be none of this fear, but rather wrath and despair, which produces a fear that is...devilish;...but godly fear flows from a sense of hope of mercy from God by Jesus Christ.'

Bridges ends with this quote from Isaiah 30:10-11, "They say to the seers, 'See no more visions!' and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!'

"This is the description of so much of Christianity around us today. 'Tell us pleasant things, but above all, stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel. Don't speak to us of the fear of God.'...God does have His faithful ones, however. Even in these difficult days there are those who delight to fear God and who encourage others to do the same.

"Are you one of those? If so you have already discovered the joy of fearing God."

This was a good book but second behind my favorite Jerry Bridges book - The Pursuit of Holiness. That one is a MUST read.