Awkwardness, Jim Gilbert, and Jonathan Edwards

After graduating college, I began working for a PCA church in Atlanta as the intern.  Things were going well during the honeymoon period at the church, but after the new-ness of having me around wore off, people slowly started to see the real me.  That’s when they saw it; I am awkward.  My awkwardness became such an issue, that every Sunday it seemed to grow, and I became keenly aware of my lack of confidence in social skills.

So, what did I do?  I asked certain friends of mine I trusted about my awkwardness and some said that I was just being humble.  Were they right?  I needed more counsel, so I called my spiritual Father Jim Gilbert.  Jim told me something very different.  He directed me to 1 John 4:18 which says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involved punishment, and the one who fears has not been perfected in love.” In directing me to this verse, Jim asked me some probing questions.  ”Why do you feel afraid?  What makes you self-aware?  Why do you lose your confidence around certain people?”  I answered every question by saying, “I am fearful of how I look to them”, or “I am worried about how they perceive me.”  Jim knew what was wrong, and I did too.  It was not humility that was causing my awkwardness, but pride and selfishness.

After this discovery, Jim gave me a quote from Jonathan Edwards that has been in my head ever since.  “There are no other principles which human nature is under the influence of, that will ever make men conscientious, but one of these two, fear or love… and therefore God has wisely ordained that these two opposite principles of fear and love should rise and fall, like the two opposite scales of a balance.  Fear is cast out by the Spirit of God no other way than by the prevailing of love, nor is fear ever maintained but when love is asleep.”

That was it, my fear was being maintained because I was not loving the people around me!  What did I do?  What was the solution to my awkwardness?  I tried to love the people more, and slowly this quote proved to be true.

Reject Jesus, Reject God

“Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.” (1 John 2:23)

John is clear here.  If you worship anyone, or anything other than Jesus, you do not worship God.  You reject Jesus, you reject God.  Islam says they worship the only God.  Jews say that they worship the only God.  But John states that those who deny the Son, deny the Father also.  If you deny Jesus, you don’t have the Father.

Listen to Jesus’ own words:
-John 8:19, “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me you would know My Father as well.”
-John 5:23, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
-John 6:45, “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.”
-Luke 10:16, “…he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
-John 5:37-38, “And the Father who sent Me, He testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have the Father’s Word abiding in you, (why?) for you do not believe Him who the Father sent.”

Will you stand for this?  Will you accept the cost it requires to believe this?  It will cost you much in this world!  Jesus stood for it, and Jesus also accepted the cost for it, with His life!  Will you follow Him in this?