With Fear and Trembling

I find myself in a state of deep remorse today.  Not because of something that has happened to me but rather due to what I and many Christians have become.  Pride has always been mankind’s biggest shortcoming.  Pride led to disobedience and the Fall.  It led to the breaking of the covenant with the Jews and the subsequent cycles of exile, redemption, betrayal, further exile, and destruction of the temple.  Pride led to the Pornocracy, the period starting with Sergius III lasting some 60 years though the rule of Pope John XII.  Not only were these men unfit for the papacy, but also it is definitely worth mentioning that they were not even Christians.  Pride has been mankind’s biggest struggle and it still is.

 

As Christian’s we are not exempt from the temptations of humanity but in every victory against those temptations we view it as triumph by which we were the deciding factor in the battle.  God is our strength and our salvation.  Yet, I often feel as if all of creation orbits around my desires and me.  Yes, it is a silly notion but not one that is foreign to any of us, especially in the West.

 

We have lost the fear of God.  We do not pray with fear and trembling.  We are skeptical of God’s wrath, forsaking that immutable trait for ones that are more pleasing to our narcissistic and self-preservation mindsets.  This trend is partially the fault of prosperity preaching, which is compounded by the fact that we fail to remember the power of God.

 

God does love us.  He loves us more than we can comprehend.  However, God hates sin and we wallow it like a pig in the muck.  As Christians our sin penalty has been paid through the atonement of Christ. 

 

But we often still live as we had when we were dead.  The new birth, the new life is still under attack by the old one.  When we fall victim to sin we face the repercussions of our actions, whatever they may be.  Yet, as God sanctifies our hearts these things become more of a shadow than a predator, though we are never truly rid of it in this world.  It is in that sense that we should truly praise God.  We know what it was like to be void of Christ, so it is with fear, trembling, and hope that I look to my Savior’s return and the abolishing of anything that stands in opposition to His glory.