“The Land of AWEs” . . . a way to understand a longing of this generation’s heart
Posted by: dan potter / Category: subMERGING
by Dan of DUZIE
In life there is a hallway. It is a passage filled with many open and closed doors. Behind each entrance is a room, perhaps large or small. Some rooms are public, while others are locked without a key.
To the left is an open door with the word “MEMORIES” hung for all to see. From here “memories” come and go as they please. Most are in the most light of the room yet there seems to be some in a far dark corner.
A little farther down the corridor past doors that read “FEELINGS”, “DREAMS”, and “PEOPLE TO KEEP AT A DISTANCE” is one with the sign, “SOUL.” It is closed and does not seem to have any handle. This room speaks through what is uncontrolled and without warning like laughter and tears.
Next is a big beautiful door. In gold and fine script is the word “WONDER.” In this space are all the amazing towers, works of art, unbelievable skills and inventions of man. You can stand at this door for a long time and wonder how people could create such wonderful works.
You pass an unknown number of doors and then you come to one in which you just cannot pass. It says, “The land of AWEs.” Through this door you find more than a room, for it is un-boxable and unending. It is the place of stars, canyons, forests and puppies. All those things that make you exhale, breathing out only one sound “AWE”. This is a “God space” listed as unexplainable. It is beyond wonder.
God’s word several times talks of “AWE.”
Habakkuk 3:2: “LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in AWE of your deeds, O LORD.”
1 Samuel 12:18: “Then Samuel called upon the LORD, and that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in AWE of the LORD and of Samuel.”
Job 25:2: “Dominion and AWE belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven.”
Psalms 119:120: “My flesh trembles in fear of you; I stand in AWE of your laws.”
Malachi 2:5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in AWE of my name.”
Acts 2:43: “Everyone was filled with AWE, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.”
Hebrews 12:28: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and AWE,”
Ecclesiastes 5:7: “Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in AWE of God.”
As Youth Workers, Pastors and Parents we are great at dreams and many words, but how are we at inviting the AWE in? How do we score in the area of AWE?
This generation longs for a God of AWE, a God who is much more than an old story, a list of laws and a weekly meeting. Worship for them must be more than music and messing around. They are asking if they can touch the eternal. They believe that if something is real, it does not have to be explained, but you must be able to experience it.
It is time to get this generation out of the classroom, down the hall and into “The Land of AWEs”.
Read the chapter below (in the next blog entry). Which room do you think David was in when he painted the picture of God found here in Psalms 104?
Let us take this generation into such An AWE moment . . . often. You may say, “I don’t know where this land is!” Well find it, find the AWE, and then leave the door open and lead them to where you have been.
Tags: awe, generation, God
May 17th, 2009 at 5:47 am
A couple of weeks ago this AWE thing happened to me…..
A man I met on a bus called me with a business propesition and bought me me two bus tickets to Cape Town and back (about 1000km) from home to do a presentation for him. When I arrived it involved fraud and Iexplained that as a missionary we did not operate so. I was left at the bus station unharmed and waited for the trip home. As I sat a conversation developed around JESUS and HIS sacrifice , a lady from Spain joined us and said she heard the name “JESUS” –we were conversing in afrikaans (similar to dutch/german) and could I EXPLAIN TO HER THE PATH TO KNOWING HIM. In short the road to redemption was explained and she then requested me to pray the sinners prayer with her,
About 5 min after that she stood up and caught a bus to Johannesburg (about 1400km)
in another direction.
It struck me — GOD used a lawless man’s money to go so far for a 10 min encounter
so that a lady could meet HIM as planned.
I should in awe at how GOD puts HIS plans together
schalk