Trembling...

When is that last time you were fearful of something to the point that you actually were shaking? Was it while watching a movie? A friend who scared you? Perhaps a car accident? As a self-proclaimed adrenaline junky, I get a kick out of forcing myself to do crazy things that cause my mind and body to react. I also get a kick out of scaring people. I love to see the sheer panic on their face for a second and then the realization that they are ok. Most people hate me for this, including my wife, but for some messed up reason, I like it! I once hid behind the door of the kitchen at my office and when our secretary opened it I jumped out and screamed at her. As she simultaneously clutched her heart, screamed, and her eyes tripled in size, I began laughing hysterically. After a moment of regaining her composure, I followed her back to her office. As she sat down, I could see her hands were shaking. I scared her pretty good….

As I read the scriptures and see how people reacted in the presence of God, or when God spoke to them, I see a similar reaction. Look at the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, Isaiah in the temple, or maybe David when Uzzah was struck down. What about the Roman soldiers when they came to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane? What about John in Revelation when Jesus appeared to him? What about Paul on the Damascus road?

When God speaks to us, do we tremble? Does our countenance change?

In Isaiah 66:1-2, God, using His wonderful rhetoric, makes it know exactly who He is and what He looks for.

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is My throne, and the earth My footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,’ says the Lord. ‘But on this one will I look: On him who has a poor and contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.”

With all the sermons, opinions, and actions that we label “from God”, I must ask, “Do these evoke a response of trembling in us?”

My friends, I encourage you, as Hebrews 12:26-29 says, to “Let us not refuse Him who speaks….whose voice then shook the earth…and let us serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear…”