Original Entry: October 8, 2008
McMinnville, OR
Therefore,
my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now
much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and
trembling,
Philippians
2:12
God, who
is enthroned forever, will hear them and afflict them-men who never change
their ways and have no fear of God.
Psalm 55:19
One of the
things I love about Western Oregon is that there are no rattlesnakes. With the amount of rain fall we have a
rattlesnake would have to grow gills to survive. Several rattles in a box at my home sit as
reminders of close encounters with rattlers.
One such encounter happened on an archery elk hunt in 2004 in Quemado,
New Mexico.
I had
already killed a baby rattler after stepping over it, but on this particular
evening I was walking back from the tree stand after watching two bull elk
fight in the trees just 80 yards behind me.
The elk were in such close proximity I decided to leave my headlamp off
as I walked back to the quad. Walking in total darkness, joyfully reflecting upon
the events of that evening, my thoughts were rattled back to reality by the
unmistakable buzzing 3 feet to my right.
I jumped
what felt like 5 feet to my left as my flashlight caught the coiled snake that
was as rattled as me, but with only bow in hand I chose to let the snake live
another day.
Philippians 2:12 reminds us of the
appropriate response in working at our salvation. The one thing every man
should fear is not be the bite from viper but the judgment of a holy God. The fear of God should rattle us up, shake us
down, and move us towards change. The
fear of God should do more than the lame mental ascent of one that claims to be
a “Christian,” but it should draw us closer to God through the conduit of a new
life. The men “who never change their way” (Psalm
55:19) are the men who believe
being an American is synonymous with being Christian. The immediate response to
God is fear. God’s love ultimately covers our fear but the constant reminder of
who God is and what he can do should cause every man to, “continue to work out (his) salvation with fear and
trembling”(Philippians 2:12).
