Glimmers of Hope

Glimmers of Hope and Faith!!!

• Rob • Season 1 • Episode 17

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A pastor's story of ruin after losing reverence. The 'fear of God' isn't about terror, but awe. Maintaining that divine connection is everything. #FearOfGod #FaithJourney #SpiritualGrowth #PastorLife #DivineConnection #AweAndWonder #ReelsOfFaith

SPEAKER_03

In the colour, there are all these glimmers.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for watching.

SPEAKER_02

Well, good afternoon, and welcome to another episode of Glimmers of Faith and Hope. I'm here with Rob. He's graciously let me start off the podcast today. Good job, George. Thank you very much. And we have welcome back, Pastor Colton.

SPEAKER_03

Good to be back. What's up, brother? What's up, guys?

SPEAKER_02

He's going to share some wisdom with us today. And I'm just going to start us off with a scripture reading straight from Isaiah 6, because today we're going to be talking about a controversial and um contemplated topic that is the fear of God. So let me start off with Isaiah 6. It's 13 verses, so bear with me. It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Attending him were mighty Seraphim, each had six wings, with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heaven's armies. The whole earth is filled with his glory. Their voices shook the temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. Then I said, It's all over, I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the king, the Lord of heaven's armies. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, See this coal has touched your lips, now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven. Then I heard the Lord asking, Whom shall I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us? I said, Here I am, send me. And he said, Yes, go, and say to this people, listen carefully but do not understand. Watch closely but learn nothing. Harden the hearts of these people, plug their ears and shut their eyes, that way they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts, and turn to me for healing. Then I said, Lord, how long will this go on? And he replied, Until their towns are empty, their houses are deserted, and the whole country is a wasteland, until the Lord has sent everyone away and the entire land of Israel lies deserted. Even if a tenth remain a remnant survive, it will be invaded again and burned. But as a terebinth or oak tree lives leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel's stump will be a holy seed. Wow. That is a powerful account of Isaiah face to face with the one true God. So Colton, I'm glad we have you here to just tell us what we should have taken from that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I love Isaiah 6, and when you brought up the idea of talking about it today, I was I was excited, man. Um there there's a lot there. I'm we don't have to get into everything, but one thing that's super interesting about Isaiah 6 and is the way it starts, and it's in the year King Uzziah died, and it's such a funny little beginning to what he's talking about. Like what why is that why does that matter? Yeah, and so a couple things. The first is is it gives you a timeline of when this actual event is happening, which is cool, but it also I think it's powerful because Isaiah King Uzziah was a good king, right? And so Israel has a history of bad and good kings, a lot bad, a few good ones. But King Uzziah was a pretty good king, and so what's interesting about this is it's it's as if the king needed to die for Isaiah to take the next step in his ministry. I guess he was relying on the king's leadership, and so when all of a sudden the king is gone, now God's like, hey, I need you to step up, and he has his vision of encountering God, right? And then his he's he's he's um unholy and all these different things, but then he's launched on mission, right? And so I I think I I love the beginning of that. It's so so funny and so interesting in the year King Uzziah died, and I'm always thinking about when I'm reading this and talking to young people, it's like, what things in our life need to die for us to be launched on mission for Christ, right? What are our kings, what are our things we worship, we get caught in that are keeping us from encountering God and then going on mission for Him?

SPEAKER_03

You know, well that's Yeah, that's a great analogy, I think, uh, to present to young people or people of any age. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I know Rob, you mentioned earlier that uh when the seraphim the seraphim were covering their eyes. Can you can you talk about that?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, just in in reading a little bit more about the passage that they cover their eyes because they're in the presence of God. And it's kind of like showing respect. Well. Not too many people actually see God, and you know what happens if you actually step in there.

SPEAKER_01

Not not not a good Indian. No, it's not, yeah. Yeah, the Old Testament tells us that if you are like God has that conversation with Moses, that if you see my face, you will you won't live. Right. Right? And so he's he's asking, this is an Exodus, he's asking he God to see his face. He's like, I need to see you, I need your help, all this kind of stuff. God's like, sorry, man, you can't see my face. And then finally, God's like, okay, I'll just pass by and you'll just get like a little glimpse of me. And that happens, and then um this is on the mountain, right? And so Moses comes down the mountain, and then people see him, and they say his face.

SPEAKER_03

He's all sunburned. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

His face is glowing, yeah, like his face is lit up because he has seen the glory. The Hebrew word is kabod, like the the glory of God. And so then, like in Isaiah 6, we have that same glory filling the temple, the robe, the smoke, the the angels of Seraphim and Jerubim, like blocking their eyes, and it's it's powerful, man.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and you know what else is interesting is that his first thought was I'm not good enough, like I can't be, I'm I can't be good enough to stand in the presence of God. And then the first thing that happened was they brought the coal to his lips and said, You're clean and you're forgiven, and like you're you're a good man now, which is like how I think a lot of people think that they have to be perfect and that you can't be a Christian if you're not like living perfect, and the reality is none of us are perfect, but it's just a it's just awesome that God like chose to let him know right away. Wow, don't be guilty for anything because I love you, and you know, in my eyes you're holy. Like you're worthy of being here with me.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, taking it on the lips with a yeah, hot burning cold. Isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_01

The imagery there is just yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That's smoking hot.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. The only thing that was w required was just a willingness to surrender. Oh, yeah. Here I am, he says, here I am. And he he isn't he's not worthy, but then God's like, man, I I you're what you are worthy. Like you, you are who I want to send. You know, God isn't called the equipped, he equips the called.

SPEAKER_00

Amen.

SPEAKER_01

Right? So it's it's it's a powerful just showing of that that we all need to hear. You know, we don't have all the perfect tools and the knowledge and all that kind of stuff, but do we have a willingness to to be an instrument of God?

SPEAKER_03

And if anybody doubts if they're you know thinking that they're not good enough, just dude, read the Bible. I mean, it's that's right. The list is long of incapable, imperfect, uh just broken people. Yeah, so good. And maybe some women too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of men. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And they had to be willing to surrender first, right? But then he also, like, in his surrender, he had he chose to be on a mission after that. You know, he surrendered and like something died, he surrendered, and then he decided, he said, Lord, send me. Yeah. And then the Lord gave him instructions. Right? Yeah, that's great, man. And I think what the Lord was telling him to do was to go out and proclaim the rev reverence we should have for God, warn about like what you know he saw, like what God said, like that there would be ruin and that the people would come up from that. So just to be ready to to w a warning and then to teach, like to teach that we need God, we need to rely on him, because he's there for healing. Like only through him can we find healing that our heart so desperately needs, not through our eyes, not through our ears, or our hearts, or that's where we're missing is in our heart. Yeah, and he just says like he will he'll feel that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's cool, man.

SPEAKER_02

And that's the good news that he tells Isaiah to go and teach the people of Judah where they're living sinful lives. I think that can relate to our world. I think that's that was God's plan in the word was that it would be relatable.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. That's great, dude. Yeah, I think it's interesting how he he kind of talks about the the last part you read is is like he talks about how their eyes won't see and their ears won't hear. It's as if like like a lot of people aren't even gonna listen. Yeah. You know, but that doesn't matter. Like you still have a calling on your life to share the message. Like go tell people what you've seen. You've seen the glory of God. Go tell people about this message, and some will hear it and some won't. No.

SPEAKER_03

Well, even you know, with Jesus, you know, he would speak with parables and you know, people some people just didn't get it because they weren't tuned in, if I remember correctly. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then some people left after hearing it because they were angry, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But if you were really believing in Jesus that you could understand you know what the parable is. I mean I think so, but I'll have to do a do a double check with your pastor.

SPEAKER_02

I think that's good, Ralph. Yeah, it's great, man. I mean, he he was the wisest person ever live because he had the knowledge of God and he spoke directly to God, so just to I think understanding takes time and it takes conversation with others, prayer and yeah, with that, I think we should talk about what fear of God means and how like that relates to prayer and how we can like now pray to God unafraid and and instead of in the past they had to they had to do sacrifices and they had to uh go to the high priest to have him accept their prayers where through Jesus, we now have a direct line to God. And so a lot of things change with Jesus, but like where does the fear of God still stand?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, um so when when Christ dies, right, and the sky goes black, all that kind of stuff, we're given we're given uh the the story about how the veil is torn. Yeah, which is that imagery of like the old testament way of of going into the presence of God is no longer no longer a thing. Like you don't have to have to do that anymore. You don't need a priest to go in with you and all this kind of stuff, go for you because Jesus is our high priest. Right? And so it's interesting a couple things. So the fear of God was really understood in the Old Testament because of think of all the stories in the Old Testament, like obviously Isaiah 6, but Exodus and the various, like there's a mountain and there's fire and there's smoke and there's just these powerful scenes of the fear of God. And so the people were very aware of that. Yeah, so storms, yeah, and and it's crazy too, and this is another thing that's such a bummer about humanity, is like they still rebelled. Yeah, like imagine being in the presence, like seeing a pillar of fire and a pillar of smoke leading you out of slavery, yeah, and then uh an ocean gets split, and then you get to the other side, and you're like, nah, I'm still gonna worship a golden calf.

SPEAKER_03

And then they then they then they go and Moses goes up the mountain, and he's gone too long, and they're going like, Oh, he ain't coming back. Let's let's go mix some golden calves.

SPEAKER_01

Right, that's right, that's right. So it just shows our humanity, our brokenness, you know. But they were very aware of the fear of God, like they had a very like fearful image and perspective on God, right? And so, which I think some of that is good. Like they had this awe and this reverence that I think was healthy. So but when Jesus comes and he doesn't take away the the awe and reverence that we should have, like we should absolutely have that. But what he does show us is God is now close, he's also our friend, he also is in the trenches with us, he's compassionate, he's loving, he all those things. And so what Jesus does is he gives us a more full perspective on God. Right now we have the greatest revelation of God, who is Jesus. So that fear stuff doesn't get thrown out, it's just part of the recipe, yeah, right? And now that recipe is okay, we do fear God, but not in a not in the sense of I'm super scared of him, but it's I do have awe and reverence for his power and who he is, but he's also my friend. Yeah, he's also close, you know, all those things. So that comes together, and then as we pray, oh my goodness, we have a powerful, almighty God who is also right here, who wants to hear me. And anything you want to say? Anything, right? Because Jesus is our high priest. You don't need to go through any medium or anything like that. He's just listening and in and longing for us to share with him. Yeah, you know, and how beautiful is that, man. Yeah, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02

It it just reminded me of what they call God in the Old Testament, Yahweh Elohim. And Yahweh is the basically the connection and the compassion of God that we have like a direct line to him, and then Elohim represents his divine power, and that reminds me of the fear of God because he's so powerful and he can uh manipulate the the elements and he can he created the whole universe, and then Yahweh is like him in the form of Jesus who came and laid his life down for us and endured the cross for us. And I saw a visual the other day, and it was uh asking a man to choose like one of his kids to die, and he said, Well, I can't do it, send me. And I was like, and the point was that that's what God did for us. He couldn't choose like for any of us to be ruined and to go to hell. So he said, I'll send my I'll send myself in the form of Jesus, the his son, the three in one, and I'll like save them like by like sacrificing myself. And so that's what Yahweh represents, the like the loving God, and like what you're saying is like God is both like like we should be aware of his mighty power and like revere him and like be in awe of that, and then also like Jesus came to show us that he is also like our father, and he's wants to be in a very close relationship with us, and so when we when we whenever we want to get close with him, we can be in his presence at any time and pray and talk directly to him and also spend time in his word.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely he's here right now.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. That's right. Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's great.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Can you say the verse that that that uh which highlights that when two or more when yeah, when two or three when two or three are gathered, I'm there in your name. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But even when one.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. It's just a I mean, that verse isn't necessarily about like there has to be two or three. It's just a reminder of when you are gathered as a community in the name of Christ, I'm there.

SPEAKER_03

You know, you mean there's not a quorum or something?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, it's just if one person's yeah, the Holy Spirit's present, but yeah. But there's it's kind of like uh uh telling you there's power in community, you know. Yeah, like there's power when three guys get together and make a podcast.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well, and the thing is that you know, we can't do every all this life by ourselves.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Yeah, that's good, Rob. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, that's why that's why I brought George in, you know, because you know, I needed the boomer needed help. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I needed help. The boomer had it all set up. I just had an idea. I just had the the vision planted from God, and I prayed on it, and it happened. That's cool. Like the power of prayer is so amazing. It it really we have the power to intercede in other people's lives and to intercede in this world beyond what we imagine is possible, and we just have to believe it to be true. We have to believe that when we talk to God, he really, really will listen and really can like do what we ask. If it I mean, obviously, we want to ask what's in and what's in alignment with Jesus and how he lived and what he taught. And sometimes you may ask for something that's aligned in that and he and it won't be answered in the way you wanted it to be. But I think it still made a difference in how God it turned out because yeah, I mean, the the the verse Romans 8 28, God works everything together for the good of those who love him, even like in the things that we see that don't agree that aren't like a love that aren't they don't come from love, they come from evil. They still work together for good. Yeah, and we don't understand that, but that's why we need a God to believe in, to to know that there is a God that's shaping everything, the good and the bad, for the good. You know. And that's that's something that we can revere revere him for and be in awe of as well. Because a lot of people will just curse him for the bad things that happen in this world.

SPEAKER_01

It's great, dude. Yeah. I um back to the fear of God a little bit. I I heard this story about a super famous pastor, and he had a moral failure and just blew up his marriage, blew up his life, blew up his church, all that stuff. And he actually went to prison. So he's in prison, and another famous pastor called him, and they were buddies, and so he was checking in on him, and he's like, dude, what what happened? Like, what what what changed? Like, did you did you stop loving God? Like, he's like, No, I never stopped loving God. I stopped fearing God. And I think that's such an interesting quote um of just there is a healthy sense of fear, yeah, awe reverence that we must have for our creator. Yeah, you know, as young people, as all people. It's it's not we shouldn't be scared all the time, but hey, like there is a God, and he is the creator and ruler of the universe, and we should fear him.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, like yeah, that that that just reminded me that like we we should like be God gives us blessings so that we will like be like these blessings are so good, it couldn't just be chance, it has to be like God's giving all this to me, so I should be grateful. Or he takes everything, he strips everything so that we need God to put the pieces back together because nothing else will. And I lost my train of thought. That happens sometimes, but it's alright, man. It's how old are you? Twenty. I'm sorry for having a brain fart. Anyways, um yeah. We need a man. I'll I'll think of it in a minute.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Well, it's it's funny because I mean, growing up in the church, I never I never like felt or knew like angry God. Okay. Like it it wasn't I didn't go like, oh my gosh, you know, angry. Yeah. But I like it better to say. Having a healthy fear of God. But not, you know, like I mean, I don't want to experience pestilence and plagues and yeah, all that stuff, but I think that the fear of God is probably a good healthy thing to have. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

To connect it back to your the pastor you were talking about, it reminded me of the.

SPEAKER_03

So what's the end of the story? What?

SPEAKER_02

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I mean he's in prison.

SPEAKER_02

He's still in prison. Well, it that that's he might be out by now. I don't know. We can look it up later. But but the book in the Bible uh that that has Nicodemus in it, he was a was a great king, and like God wanted him to like revere him, but he like had all these signs and and he he did for a second and then he went back to his foolish ways. Just like the Israelites when they came out of Egypt and they saw all these great wonders and they still forsake God. So Nicodemus had his mind and his mental health stripped from him, and for seven years he like lived among the animals and couldn't speak. He was like stripped of his humanity, basically. And I think that's just like like wow, like God literally like punished him for not like you said, we need to have like a re reverence for like the God that controls everything, and that's that's a major example of like somebody who had all the worldly things and never gave credit to the one above, and actually like went against him and you know did evil and God stepped in and stripped him of that. And at the end of the seven years, he did like profess God and live the rest of his days as a Christian. Wow. The same thing happened with with Saul when he was walking. Was it Tarsus? Maybe that's like where somewhere he went, but he was walking.

SPEAKER_03

That's a car.

SPEAKER_02

He was from Tarsus, but yeah, you're talking about the road of Damascus. Saul Tarsus on the road of Damascus, and he had his vision stripped from him, uh, and he had been persecuting Christians prior to that, and and then he saw the Lord in a vision and then became the apostle Paul.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, what does that story sound like? Sounds like Isaiah 6, right? Yeah, kind of a similar yeah it is.

SPEAKER_02

Similar very interweaved book. The Bible is.

SPEAKER_03

Right, dude. Right. I think there's like prophets or something going on.

SPEAKER_01

There's some of that, huh? Do you think most people have a a fear of God or no? What would you say? Like in your guys' communities. What would you what would you say?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I think they people might fear 'em, but I I I just uh I don't live my life that way. Maybe I should, but where oh I mean, I really like having where I can pray to Jesus and you know, like he's he takes my call every time. Yeah. But I don't really know. I mean you know, I mean, I think a lot of people probably have a fear of God depending on maybe their upbringing. Yeah. Um you know, that maybe maybe in my generation people were brought up and it was a little maybe a little bit more uh fire and brimstone preaching and stuff like that. Um But you said you didn't feel that way. I didn't feel that I never felt that way. That's good. Yeah, I mean I went to it was it was more social church. I mean, to be honest with you, that I don't know that it was really deep. Um but uh I agree.

SPEAKER_02

I think uh church is has become very social in the United States, whereas a great pastor I listened to talks about other countries in the Middle East and um other countries as well, not just the Middle East, but uh they have a a deep reverence for God, and I think they would classify that as a fear of God. And I think church here is um is a lot more focused on like the social aspect, and well, I don't want to say it's a lot more focused on the social aspect, but I think there's a lot of fear of man and not as much fear of God as there should be. So people hold back feelings and convictions they get from the Holy Spirit to just be unfiltered in their love for God and their passion for God. And the Lord says, like, don't fear man, fear God. And to worry about what other people are gonna think of how you worship God and how you profess your your faith and your love for Him is actually a sin. Like to worry about that and to not fully surrender any like worries of how you're gonna look to other people by being a complete devoted Christian, devoted, completely devoted to God and everything that you do is a sin because you're not you're not fearing the Lord, you're not loving Him as your number one priority, you're loving your image, and you're idolizing your image of how you're gonna look to these people who actually aren't doing it right. Like you be the one who stands out, you be the one who loves God with all their heart, all their soul, all their mind, all their strength, and follow his word, and his word tells you how to act, and you should go out and act in a way that's completely unshielded, like let down, let down your shield and just like wear his armor, not not the like armor that you build up over your heart, let your heart be completely open to him.

SPEAKER_03

Well, and for me, doing this podcast, I mean, you know, it in in this world, you know, to go and actually beyond out on social media, you know, talking about faith. Yeah, and it's like it never it didn't make me afraid to do it. It was kind of like, no, this is what I want to do. I think it's important, you know, talking to young people, seeing what they're what's on their mind. And uh because we just want to be send a positive message. And I'm not I'm I'm not afraid of uh if there's a backlash or of people go like, oh, geez, you know, but you know what I mean, but yeah. So I think that you know that's good. It's actually a freeing experience to freeing, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02

It's true freedom, yeah. At the end of the day, God's gonna provide for those who are faithful. And so when you when you truly like let go of all your fears of how you're gonna be viewed, God is gonna bless you, and then he shows that. So just trust that he will, and he'll he'll show you blessings in the way that you feel, most importantly, because you're gonna feel free. And that's what Rob was just saying.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, because I don't go through life. Um, I know that not everybody's gonna like me. That's okay. You know? I like you do. Thanks, man. I like you guys too, man. Thank you. No, but but it's just you know, you can't go through life going like, oh gosh, you know, um, you want to be accepted. And you, you know, I just you just gotta live your life. Yeah. Um, be who you are. I mean, hopefully it's a good version. But uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's good, guys. I back to Isaiah 6, because I think this really connects with everything we're talking about, is the kind of the trajectory of the text is so something in his life dies, like it leaves, right? King Uzziah died, and then he encounters God. So we encounter God, and then a few things happen. Is we see God correctly, right? We see him for who he actually is, this holy God.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then we see ourselves correctly, because what does Isaiah do? He's immediately like, man, I'm sinful. Woe is me.

SPEAKER_04

Humbled, right?

SPEAKER_01

Like he's he's like, I'm broken, man. Like in the presence of an almighty loving holy God. Yeah. So that's that has to be quite a like wake-up call, right?

SPEAKER_02

Ego dies.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and that should happen to us when we get into the presence of God. Like in prayer, in scripture, we're reminded, man, I'm I'm broken, and that's okay. But I I I should I should put that before God, though. I need to repent of my sin and my brokenness. And then, so we see God correctly, we see ourselves correctly, and then we see others correctly. As we're talking about not people that we need to be like comparing ourselves to, but as people that we need to reach for the kingdom, right? And so I'm not gonna worry about what they think. I'm just gonna tell them the good news and love them and not be scared of their opinions of whatever, right? We just have to go. And so, but that only happens when we, like Isaiah, encounter God, like when we get into his presence. Yeah, then all those things are brought back into their rightful place, you know. So it comes back to man, we gotta, we gotta spend time with Jesus, you know, we gotta make it a priority. And that's what young people, that's what all people need to do. You know, not get caught in the crazy busyness of their lives, but just remember, hey man, like you have to spend some time spend some time with your creator. And he will he will he will reorient your life on the things that really do matter the most, you know. So it's great.

SPEAKER_02

That's a great time to end the podcast. We really appreciate y'all tuning in, and we're gonna be continuing to meet and talk about our savior. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03

Please reach out to us. Info at glimmersofope.me