Ray Comfort: ‘The Fear of the Lord Is Good’
One of the driving factors in America’s sharp turn away from the tenets of God is a lack of “fear” when it comes to their relationship with the Lord.
Charisma News sat down with Evangelist Ray Comfort, founder of Living Water Publications and The Way of the Master ministries, to discuss why some Christians have a heart issue when it comes to the Father.
“Well, one of the major things is the lack of fear of God,” Comfort explained. “The Bible says of Jesus, He was heard in that He feared. You bring up the fear of God, that’s probably the most politically incorrect thing you can say within the contemporary church! ‘Fear God? We’re talking about God’s love. We shouldn’t fear Him.’
“But that’s only said out of ignorance of what the Scriptures say,” he continued. “[The] Bible says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Through the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. You’ll not depart from evil if you don’t fear God, because we love sin.”
He isn’t saying to view Him as some kind of boogeyman who is out to get people, but referring to the archaic version of the word fear, meaning, “to show reverence” to the Lord and His power. Other words used in this fashion include: wonder; amazement; awe and respect. But also maintaining a respect for the awesome power God has over one’s soul.
If one fears the Lord, this will produce obedience and humility to the will of the Lord over one’s own desires of the flesh.
Because it’s not the flesh that Jesus warned humanity about, but their souls and the grave dangers that come with not fearing the Lord.
“Jesus said, ‘Fear not him who has power to kill your body and afterward do no more, but fear Him who has power to kill your body and cast your soul into hell,’ (Matt. 10:28). We take that Bible verse for granted,” Comfort says.
“That’s more than a reverential fear. That’s a fear of what God can do to me if I anger Him, and that is good for me. You know what that does? That stops me [from] looking at the pleasure of pornography, that stops me listening to gossip and things like that. Because I know the eye of the Lord is every place beholding the evil and the good, so that fear is good,” Comfort continued.
When that fear, that respect for the awesome power of God is within a person’s heart, it is humbling. That humility leads to the acceptance of needing salvation through Jesus Christ, otherwise, that person is going to find they are on the wrong side of the Lord’s judgement.
The only way to avoid that is to have their name written in the Lamb’s book of life.
“God can legally take the death sentence off us, upon our repentance and faith in Jesus. The second you come to Christ and say ‘God, I’ve sinned against You, I put my trust in Jesus as my Savior and as my sin bearer’ God will clothe you in righteousness,” Comfort concludes.
“You’ll have knowledge that you’re at peace with God, and the gift of everlasting life. And there’s nothing more precious than that… And when you trust in Jesus, you’ve got assurance of salvation. And as I said, there’s nothing more precious.” {eoa}
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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
