I was at a church years ago and the pastor of the church used to “wear me out” by making fun of me saying the words “cool” and “awesome.” Those words had become such a part of my speech and usually on a daily basis I heard it, “Why do you still use those words?” I would usually laugh it off and go on thinking, “I don’t need to use those words around him.” Warp ahead one hour and there it is…..awesome! I said it and didn’t really even think about it. I was trying to remember when I started saying those words and it was surely a long time ago, but whenever it was…they stuck. For me the word “cool” is an agreeable term of wanting to be an encourager or positive. Someone might say, “We are going over here to get something to eat” and I would reply by saying “cool.” Some people think it came out of a time where hippies were setting language styles, but I can only trace it back to the eighties where I distinctly remember saying “cool” one night to a friend who told me something about…….Are you kidding? How could I remember the first time I said something? I can’t, and to say I could would be stretching the truth, otherwise known as lying. It just happened and now it is a word that continues to be “who I am.” Of course, I prefer it to the alternative some use…Hot! Not gonna happen….
Another word that has invaded my speech and my thinking is the word “awesome.” It comes from the root word “awe” and is used quite often in the Bible to describe God. Peter alluded to the word awesome and the attitude that goes with it. In 1 Peter 1:17 he writes, “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear (awe)during the time of your stay on earth.” It’s amazing how un-awesome God has become to a lost world and to many Christians. It’s all God can do to get our attention, much less change our lives to conform to His image. We need a healthy fear of the God who saved us and keep in mind that we were not redeemed by perishable things, but with the precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ (verses 18,19). We don’t draw our strength from the things around us here on this earth, but from the God who formed the seas, gives us breath, makes the sun shine and rain fall when we need it, and touches the innermost parts of our heart. Verse 20 says, “He has appeared in these last times for the sake of YOU.” AWESOME! Oooops, see it just comes out doesn’t it!! Who are the you? Verse 21 goes on to finish the sentence….“You who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave HIm glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” Why is God awesome? It takes too many words to answer that but from my heart I must say I am awestruck by His glory and I have to proclaim He is Awesome. This awesome God enables us to not only live life, but control it with strength and power. Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” Our response to who He is should be one of fear and honor. Fear as in awe and honor as in obedience. If the result of you knowing Christ is nothing more than an intellectual exercise of knowledge, then you might not even know Christ. If you cannot proclaim “He is awesome and worthy of my praise” then you might not be attached to the fountain of grace that makes our life worth living. That fountain cleanses, replenishes, and radically changes who we are and how we look at the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,. Our faith and our hope are in God almighty and He is so cool and so awesome! Write that on your heart and your lips will never cease to give Him praise.
The Pilgrimage continues….
David Warren