TFOTL

When we got back to the ship, I found a group of my friends up to no good. Most people would consider what they were doing fairly innocent. On a ship full of Christians, it was wrong. Before a holy God, it was evil. To my shame, instead of exposing it, I participated. Fortunately, circumstances were about to change everything.

One day a friend and I were walking around the ship acting lewd in public and one of the girls told my father. I’m grateful she did. At 13 years old, I got the last and hardest spanking of my life. Before a spanking, some parents say, “This is going to hurt me more than you”. I saw tears in my dad’s eyes that day. 

That was the beginning of a change in me. It was my own sinful heart that was drawing me to do what was wrong but my dad realized that I was being greatly influenced by others toward evil - and just plain stupidity. I always say boys are stupid and when boys get together, the stupidity doesn’t just add, it multiplies - exponentially. So my dad gave me the thermometer versus thermostat speech.

He told me thermometers are controlled by their surroundings. The temperature surrounding the thermometer makes the mercury go up and down. Conversely, a thermostat controls its surroundings. It sets the temperature. My dad told me that I should be like a thermostat. I shouldn’t be controlled by my surroundings, by my friends, to do what is wrong. I should try to control my surroundings, to do what was right and to try to influence others to do what was right. And if I couldn’t, I should just walk away. 

Another very powerful, life-changing event happened on the ship about this time. When my father first became a Christian, a couple named Jim and Joy Dawson had mentored him in New Zealand. The Dawsons were now leaders in YWAM and Joy had a speaking ministry. The leaders invited her to come and speak on the ship about the Fear of the Lord (TFOTL).

The Fear of the Lord is the belief that God is holy and people are sinners. It’s the belief that because God is holy, He cannot abide sin. He has to judge it. When Jesus came, He lived a perfect, holy life and He took God, the Father’s judgment for sin by His death. Anyone who repents of their sin and puts their faith in Jesus will not have to face God’s judgment for their sin. For those who have put their faith in Jesus, His perfect life covers them and God only sees that perfection. Therefore God, the Father can abide with us, despite the fact that we still sin, because he only sees Jesus’ perfection.

Yet, despite the fact that putting our faith in Jesus covers our sin, it does not honor God when we continue to deliberately sin without any regard for Him. If we continue like that, then we are not sincerely sorry for our sin and therefore not really repentant. The Fear of the Lord is a recognition that God is Holy and He hates sin. He wants us to live in a way that honors Him by not being flippant about sin. Of course, we all still sin but living in the Fear of the Lord means that, with His power, we try to choose against sin and that if we do sin, we continue to repent and not just blow it off. 

There is an aspect of actual fear in the Fear of the Lord. Luke 12:5 reads, 

“But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” (NIV)

But for the Christian, it is not just a sense of honoring God but also delighting in Him, delighting in holiness. Holiness is a good thing because it is the best way to live. It keeps our souls and bodies in the best state of being because that’s the way God designed it and that’s the way He designed us.

So the ship leaders shut everything down for a series of teachings on the Fear of the Lord by Joy Dawson. One of her illustrations about going back to our sin was like diving into and playing with a pile of manure sitting in front of the pulpit she was speaking from. The atmosphere got very heavy as God’s conviction began to grip people.