And I also think that a visit to the eastern half of the US would be greatly appreciated.

Also, Glen, we have never met, but have been meaning to drop the following note for awhile: My family is very encouraged and built up by what God is doing in and through you, such as what you’re describing in post #13. And I do not think that your desire to share God’s understanding of all things is a personal development. I think this is the testimony of Psalm 1:1-2, Luke 11:28 (and numerous other passages) coming to pass: “Blessed is the man who… delights in the instruction of the Lord,” and “Blessed… are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” I am finding this testimony to be true–the true good in the world, the true reward, the thing all people should envy and desire, is to hear His voice, to delight in hearing Him, and to hold to what He says. So I don’t think this is personal; I think it is one of the things He’s always been up to. And we’ve been feeling the very same things, too; it’s like we’re finally waking up. Or, perhaps more accurately, it feels like we may be done rubbing our eyes, having woken up a long time ago (we became Christians in the mid-1990s).

We’re grateful that you’ve chosen to put this testimony into music: your music–particularly 1960, but many other works–has really been playing a part in fanning all this stuff into flames. If possible, you should play or visit Columbus, Ohio.

I think searching within and without how one feels about this so healthy — certainly puts ye on a learning curve of, shall we say, Biblical resourcin’ …

I find Edwards’ lead-in Deut.-citing gives me the key over-arching and clarifying info, in compact form as Scripture so often tends to do — to-wit:

Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35

It’s a succinct — and comforting — confirmation of cosmic (and karmic [sure, that'll work]) justice: the sinners/evil-doers will get theirs. And “due time” — love that. Needn’t wonder, much less worry — “due time” is being kept in Divine Time and we can’t presume to know That Timeline.

Also love the verb: “slide” implies something that can happen to someone gradually, over a long “time,” from a lack of vigilance/consciousness/edification and, here, an overall inactivity in doing the Right Things. But it also registers as a poor choice, a lamentable course of action — put yourself on the wrong non-righteous path, and bro, sooner or later you’ll be slippin’ …

Finally, speaking to the reconcilability of notions discussed above, the holding of both concepts as non-contradictory: the quote also allows for the image of the pro-active King meting out His (and the Ultimate) Justice, w/ God effecting the “slide” of the sinning “foot” by making that wicked path a dangerous, slippery place — the evil-doers didn’t just bring it upon themselves (tho they did). Ample warning — hey, this path is slippery … I even think it works w/ an image of, uh, a Proportionally Extreme Divine Pro-activity: walk that path in an especially wicked way and you just(ly) might have a whole muddy mountain-side slide down all over ya — and you shall slide, foot-first or not, in a most unpleasant, demonstrably conclusive manner all the way to Hell …

so mike, what you’re saying is totally on. there is no point walking around as someone that God has rescued, yet still personally overcome with fear of the judgment of hell. his love overwhelms that! what a holy fear of God’s judgments gives us is a very clear line between where God has us now and where we were before we were rescued – and an intense desire to never see that line blurred or risk falling back into what we were rescued from.

it also gives us a totally clear perspective of what our function in the kingdom of God is. no wonder Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. the reality of knowing what awaits people outside of the love of God should really drive us. read 2 corinthians 5 again (the whole chapter) in light of this, it’s powerful >>

A little off topic but not really: How is 1 John 4:18 reconciled with this idea of fearing God? How can we love and fear God simultaneously in this context?

i guess the point isn’t whether jonathan edwards is the archetype of sermon-makers. i really know very little about him. i’m just seriously inspired to take God for all that he is. messages like this one make me feel like moses standing at the foot of mt. sinai seeing/feeling the fire & the wild storm…just wanting to dive in. i personally love the image of walking over a very thin fragile floor above eternity – i love the feeling of eternity. it makes me know deep inside that to live IS Christ, and to die is gain. for me it’s not about being threatened into staying saved or even working harder, it’s about deeper more intimate relationship with the living God.

i want so badly to interact with Father in spirit and truth. i don’t want to in any way limit how much he wants to reveal of himself to me. i don’t want any verse in the Bible to seem foreign or strange or too harsh to me. i beg God to let me see things just as he sees them – and i know he’s given me his Word as a lamp to my feet & a light to my path. i know he’s given me his Spirit to lead me & guide me into all truth.

this may just be a personal development for me, but i feel like for the first time in my life i’m totally consciously running after the fear of the Lord >>

But is this sermon true? Has it inspired someone to try harder at work, or visit their mother? If it has then I would say the preacher is tapping into one facet of God. I feel like if I read it too much I’d get nervous and twitchy.

Hebrews 5.7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.

The reality is that the fear of the Lord (or even “terror of the Lord” as 2 Corinthians 5 translates it) that we allow ourselves to live in – will actually intensify the life and love of God that we experience personally, and then are allowed to extend to others. It’s not about a gospel of scaring people into salvation; it’s about embracing the reality of who God really is, and the reality of what God sees – and reaching people out of that.

We presume way too much. When David sinned, he begged God not to take his Holy Spirit from him. Most of Scripture was written in a time where fear was expressed by getting on your face in the dirt and begging for mercy. We live in a time where we don’t have to literally bow to anyone or beg for anything. So we project soft gentle images of benevolent authority figures (who want our approval) onto our understanding of God.

If you’re an ambassador for Ward Cleaver or Grandpa or Santa Claus, you behave very differently than an ambassador for someone who just conquered the entire civilized earth. Your message is different. Your urgency is different. Your authority is different. I wonder if the issue is that we don’t understand who our King really is?

It’s a reverent respect, in my opinion, not what Jon Edwards presents.