Tried With Fire

The Bible's answer is simple: fear for God is produced by the Word of God. Many modern trends boil down to self-expression. Self-expression, however wonderful it may feel, tells us nothing of God. God's Word produces the right attitude toward Him, because His Word reveals Him, His mind and His ways to us. His Word alone gives content to our faith. Without content, there would be no reason to fear. Without content, there would be no object to fear. Without content, there would be no form to give to our fear. This finds a strong echo in the words of Jesus, recorded in John 8:31-32 - Therefore, He was saying to the Jews, who believed Him, "If you remain in My word, truly you are My students; and you will know the truth, and the truth will free you." (DJP) Our Lord here provides both the promise and the definition of discipleship. His progression of thought is very definite: To be set free, we must know the truth. To know the truth, we must be students (di...

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; Wisdom and discipline, dense people belittle. (Prov. 1:7 DJP) The fear of Yahweh is not a concept without a context, hanging on nothing. It is not a vibration, not a virus. We don't catch it, and it doesn't happen either outside of us, or to us. It is an attitude. It is a mindset. More, it is a worldview; it is the grid through which we perceive, arrange, understand, interpret, and interact with the world. And what is a worldview without a viewer? ... [E]ach of us must make personal application of what we learn here. True, we may well learn something of help to a friend or relative. Still, we should think primarily in terms of how we can learn and personally apply the fear of Yahweh in  our own lives. It is I who must learn to fear Yahweh, myself. And so must you. No one can or will do it for us, as our substitute - not even the Holy Spirit. God's Wisdom in Proverbs , Dan Phillips, Kress, 2011, pp. 66-67.

For receiving intelligent discipline - righteousness, and justice and uprightness. Proverbs 1:3 (DJP) So ask yourself this: Why would Solomon write a book to give us something we could get easier and better by mystical channels? If the formula for wisdom is "Just add prayer and mystical openness, and pop! wisdom!" - then why waste all the quills and papyrus? Just tell us to go mentally limp, and you will save a few trees... or, rather reeds. This "intelligent discipline" will not come to the intellectually lazy.  Intelligent discipline becomes ours only as we diligently apply ourselves to obtaining what Yahweh has objectively given, once for all time, in Scripture. To access it, we must open up, bear down, and accept instruction. God's Wisdom in Proverbs , Dan Phillips, Kress, 2011, pp. 46-47.

No harm befalls the righteous, But the wicked are filled with trouble.  Proverbs 12:21 (NAS) Taken on face value as if it were prose, this verse voices a sentiment that Job's friends would have heartily "Amen-ed, " and which they would have used to further club him over the head as with a frozen meat chub. Job's three wretched comforters reasoned that misery, "harm," is always caused by sin. Then these men noted that "harm" had befallen Job. He was "filled with trouble." Conclusion, Job could not be "righteous" and his misery must have been caused by some personal sin. Or, again, those ignoring the genre might seize upon Proverbs 22:4 - "The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life." Armed with this verse, they might observe; "you aren't rich... so that means you are arrogant and godless." So we are learning that Proverbs both teaches wisdom and requires  wisdom. f...