To Fear or Not To Fear

This morning during my quiet time I read two passages from two different books of the Bible and was struck by the coincidence of the 13th verses found in each one. I opened my Bible to Proverbs chapter 8 (since today was the 8th day of the month-deep, I know) and read all 36 verses stopping to underline verse 13: "To fear the Lord is to hate evil..." I mulled the verse over in my head a while as I tried to grasp the concept of fearing the Lord equalling hating evil. The whole "fear the Lord" phrase has always been a tough one for me. How are we to fear a God that is so loving and full of mercy and grace? I fear snakes, spiders, something terrible happening to my children, but God? Then after not being totally satisfied with reading just one chapter I flipped over to Isaiah 8 (again the day of the month thing) to see what I would find. After all, the last few times I read anything in Isaiah I was greatly encouraged.

I started reading Isaiah chapter 8 without much conviction and not really understanding what was going on or who was even telling the story when I came upon verse 13: "The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear..." There it was again! The whole "fear the Lord" thing. This is when I had a revelation: Fearing the Lord is NOT about being afraid of him or of being harmed by him, it is about being afraid of not being in his will. Not because he has his finger hovering over a "smite" button waiting for the second you screw up or step out of line to mash it, but because his will is the most eternally secure place to be. It's about being afraid of disappointing him and seeing his saddened face over the poor choices we make. It's about loving him so much you're afraid to go a single day without seeking him. It's about fearing what HE thinks of us, instead of what people think of us.

And now as I glance at the clock and see it is 8:13 pm I am reminded that the only thing for me to truly fear is being outside of where God wants me to be, because that is a scary place indeed. And how ironic that God used the number "13" to speak to me today...

Fear not, dinner is here.

Crock Pot Pork Roast
1 (3-4 lb) Boston Butt Pork roast
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 sprigs of fresh Thyme
Salt and Pepper

Rub roast with salt and pepper. Place veggies in bottom of crock pot and place roast on top. Add about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water (just enough to cover veggies) careful not to rinse off salt and pepper from pork. Add thyme. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Gravy
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
2 cups of liquid from crock pot

Melt butter in a small sauce pan then add flour to make a roux. Cook until light brown. Add liquid from crock pot and whisk until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
1 lb red creamer potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil potatoes AND garlic cloves until potatoes are tender. Drain then return potatoes and garlic to pan. Add butter, milk, salt and pepper and blend until creamy adding more butter and milk as needed.

Sauteed Fresh Asparagus
Simmer about 1 inch of salted water in large pan. Add asparagus and cook until bright green and slightly tender. Drain then return to pan with 2 tbsp butter and garlic salt. Saute for 3 minutes then serve.

Enjoy and goodnight.