awesome and prepared to hold his people to account. I have talked to
my teens about the need for a bumper sticker to counterbalance the
popular “Smile, God Loves You.” This one would say “Tremble, God
is a Consuming Fire.” Sober your children with the realization that a
major theme of more than one third of the Bible (the minor and major
prophets) is judgment.
(^) Like any area of theological truth, the key to growth is not the
cognitive identification of truth. It is understanding the pertinence of
that truth in daily life. You and your children must understand the
fear of the Lord in a manner that reorganizes your lives.
(^) You must make the fear of God functional in regular living. For
example, teenagers struggle with the fear of man. They worry about
what their friends will think of them. They make decisions based on
fearing the disapprobation of their peers. Peer pressure is simply
living in the fear of man rather than in the fear of God.
(^) What you must do is shepherd your teenagers toward living out of
the fear of God rather than the fear of man. You must help them see
the relevance of knowing the God who is a consuming fire.
(^) You have to talk with them, helping them to see the ways they are
experiencing the fear of man. Then, you must help them understand
the bondage that is produced by living for the approval of others. Help
them see the futility and idolatry of organizing life around the desire
to have approbation. Help them see the true freedom found in a holy
indifference to the opinion of others.
(^) Often, the most powerful way these things are taught is by sharing
one’s own experience. My children were all teenagers when I started
doctoral studies at Westminster Theological Seminary. I was
pastoring a church and attending classes one day a week. My classes
were on Thursday. Each Wednesday night, I would burn the midnight
oil. One Wednesday night at about 2 a.m., I was scribbling madly on a
legal pad. My wife was strapped to the typewriter, making order of
my scratchings. Suddenly, I began to reflect on what I was doing.