Worship for Today: Our wonderful and terrifying God.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him in 2 Peter 2:9,

"The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the
unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their
punishment."

When I read Scripture I look for those things that help me understand
my God. I want to know him, I want to know what he is like. I make
every attempt to leave my preconceived notions at the door when I
enter into its pages - as difficult as that is. As I do so it helps me
understand him better: not the God I want him to be, not the
impression of what I think God would be or should be - but to know the
true God as he is in reality. After all, God is who he is. He isn't
what I make of him and he isn't one kind of God to others and another
to me. As I say, he is who he is, as his being is an objective
reality.

The reason this is important to me is that from what I have been able
to see of God in the Scriptures, I know that his many-splendored
perfections are a glory that is all his own. Any misunderstanding or
misreading of how God reveals himself to be in the pages of Scripture
will only diminish my own excitement and celebration of him. Nothing I
can conceive can hold a candle to God as he really is. All I can do is
expose myself to how God reveals himself to be. I am utterly convinced
that my worship of him will be directly commensurate with how
accurately I understand him from the pages of Scripture.

That being said, as I read what Peter has to say of God in his second
letter, I find God to be both wonderful and frightful. Those who have
responded to his invitation in the gospel in faith are safe in his
hands. Those who are self-seeking, who reject the truth and follow
evil face a horrific certainty. As the writer of Hebrews says, "It is
a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews
10:31.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd
love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com