Through My Kitchen Window

My blog What He has done for my Soul is honored to receive The Reader Appreciation Award. I want to thank Tracy Crump and Marylane Wade Koch of Write Life Workshops for the nomination.

Tracy and Marylane are two writers who team up to help other writers. They offer workshops and webinars to assist others in reaching their writing goals. Their website is: http://www.writelifeworkshops.com/ They have a monthly newsletter called The Write Life which I contribute to regularly. Each month I contribute a 100 word “Strange and Interesting Bible Fact” section to their newsletter.

There are a few guidelines for accepting this award: 1. Acknowledge the giver of the award and provide a link to his or her blog site. 2. Copy and paste the award to your blog. 3. Pass the award to up to ten bloggers. 4. Notify your selected bloggers that you have nominated them.

It is my privilege to nominate the following bloggers for The Reader Appreciation Award.

Linda Jeffreys

Grief has overtaken you for a while. Death has destroyed your security. Life is changing like an earthquake. You can’t find God in this black hole.

Comfort and Joy is encouragement and hope for ordinary people who need the power of God to overcome death. Linda learned about grief as an unwilling student in a life shaken by sudden death as well as devastating illness. She leads classes in grief, and shares how she received healing after facing loss due to suicide, heart attack, and a malignant brain tumor. Comfort and Joy shows you how to navigate the overwhelming new feelings and responsibilities that accompany trauma, death and loss. More importantly, you will see and hear Linda’s heart as you walk through her grief experience. She will show you how to receive healing beyond grief and loss from Jesus Christ, the only One who has conquered death.

The book is available from the website www.TheGriefExperience.com. Please join Linda at her blog: www.TheGriefExperience.wordpress.com.

Jayne Garrison

Jayne Garrison is the second daughter of Stanley and Jane Ray who served as missionaries to Nigeria in the 50’s and early 60’s. She writes to bring comfort to hurting parents, but sometimes looks back on her African years through the eyes of a child through short vignettes that she shares with family and friends. Her book Tragedy’s Ark, A Book of Comfort for Disheartened Parents can be purchased from Amazon.Com and is available in traditional or e-book format. Read her blog at http://jaynegarrison.authorsxpress.com/ and visit her book at Amazon.Com.

 

 

 

 

Those Who Fear God

Have you ever heard someone refer to another person as “godly”? Perhaps you have heard someone say, “My pastor is such a godly man!” or “The leader of our Bible study is one of the godliest people I know!”  What does it mean to be godly?  The term conjures up the impression of someone who is somehow above others in his or her relationship with God – a Christian that is perhaps a little closer to perfect than the rest of us; a little higher up on the ladder towards heaven than most. Yes, we use this term but is it Biblical? 

There are only a very few times in scripture where a person is spoken of as “godly” and the term “Godliness” is found more often. But “God-fearing” is mentioned with greater frequency than either of these other two terms.

In other words, the concept of being Godly is only occasionally spoken of as something to be achieved in one’s lifetime – as a noun, if you will.  Sometimes it is used as an adjective or adverb to describe something, such as “godly sincerity” or “godly sorrow”.  Most often, however, the concept is presented as a verb or an action; something we do.  This can be seen when the words God and fear are linked. The scriptures tell us to fear God as in to revere or worship God. They also shed light on what God thinks of those who fear Him. Confused?  Hopefully, it will become clearer after taking a closer look at the terms.

The word Godly only shows up in the King James Version of the Bible fifteen times.  Several of these verses use it as a descriptive word.  One example of this is 2^nd Corinthians 1:12 which refers to a godly sincerity. It is interesting to consider what Paul does not say in these verses.  He does not talk about godly people. Rather Paul speaks of the people conducted themselves in a godly manor with godly sincerity. 

One of the verses that uses the term godly is a call for action.  Psalms 32:6 says, “Let everyone who is godly pray.” Another time, the term brings with it the warning that all who desire to live godly in Jesus Christ will be persecuted.” Yet even these verses seem to describe a manor in which to live, not an achievement to accomplish.

Only once do I find the tern used exclusively to describe a person or group of people.  This instance is found in Psalms 4:3, “But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself.” What a beautiful verse! But even this verse opens the door to a discussion about the total depravity of man – a discussion I will forgo at this point, except to say that I believe it is God who declares us godly. We are godly because has declared our sins forgiven and us covered by the blood of His Son, Jesus. We are godly because God deems us so, not because of any works of our own. 

The terms fear and God together, on the other hand, show up 135 times in the King James Version of the Bible. If you do a word search on these two words you will be amazed at what you find! There are so many times people are told to fear God or are commended as one who fears God. And there are numerous promises too! God loves for His people to fear or revere Him and He lavishes His blessings on those who do.