I Don't Fear God.

I was thinking about fear and God all day today. This is more like an extension, or elaboration of my previous post about Heaven and Hell, so I'll try to be brief because this might sound redundant. I see the phrase "God fearing" quite frequently. In fact, it's used as almost an over-arching motto of a lot of churches these days. I find myself bothered by this notion, honestly. Let's clarify something right off the bat: Respect by fear and respect by love, are two different ideals. If I fear something, say a hot stove top, because I've been burnt by it before, I have a respect for it's ability to hurt me. If I look at the blessings God has bestowed upon me, the family, friends, and life in general, I respect him out of love. See the difference? Respect doesn't equal love. When Christians stop worrying about the wrath of God and the eternal damnation stuff,  they can show the true worth of loving and respecting him because they WANT to. God can do as he pleases. I don't fear that God will punish or pour out his wrath on me, because, honestly, he can and will do what he wants whether I fear it or not. According to the Bible, Jesus took that pain and punishment for us, so what should we be fearing? I choose to be "God Loving" instead. If you look at the greatest commandment that we were ever given, it was to love each other. We were created in God's image, and if he wants us to love one another with all of our hearts, I would safely conclude that God himself is of the greatest form of love. Follow me? I try to drive this point home in most of my posts, and it's really the basis of my entire blog. The post about Hell ruffled some feathers and I understand why. My intent is not to push your buttons, it's to think and dig deeper than the standard Christian mindset. If that's wrong to you, then I respect your opinion and still love you! Don't fear challenging conventional thinking and practice, fear becoming apathetic and lazy in your walk with God. That's what I remind myself of everyday, as I do my best to get closer with my Creator.