Author: Terrence Burton

How the Fear of God Transforms Everyday Decision‑Making

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Embracing the Fear of the LORD in Wisdom

The journey of living wisely begins with a simple yet profound foundation: the fear of the LORD. In the often‑noisy rhythms of daily life, this foundational posture invites calm discernment and a steady heart in the face of shifting circumstances.

In Proverbs we read that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Prov 1:7 KJV)  To “fear” here carries the sense of awe, reverence and respectful submission to God’s authority—not terror, but wise recognition. As we anchor our decisions in that fear, wisdom begins to weave into our lives. Later the text affirms “Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.” (Prov 16:22 KJV)  A life oriented around reverence toward God produces lasting benefit; ignoring that reverence leads to folly.

Wisdom literature consistently contrasts the wise and the foolish, the one who listens and the one who rejects. For instance: “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother…” (Prov 1:8 KJV)  Then that call continues: “Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.” (Prov 1:33 KJV)  In both a moral and a spiritual sense, wisdom begins with hearing, then choosing to walk in the truth. For you and me—this means that “fear of the LORD” isn’t merely theological jargon, but the principle that governs how we train our hearts, make decisions, and perceive the world around us.

It also brings practical clarity: when we respect God’s standard, we avoid destructive paths. “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” (Prov 1:10 KJV)  Doing so keeps us from the net of evil and offers a path of peace. Wisdom offers stability and purpose; the fear of the LORD gives us that stability at the root.

Takeaway: Cultivating reverent fear of the LORD is the root from which wisdom grows and life flourishes.

— Terrence Burton

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

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In every age, God’s people have wrestled with the same question: Who really rules the world? Scripture answers with unwavering clarity—despite human chaos, divine sovereignty stands unshaken.

The Bible continually reveals a God who governs with wisdom, justice, and mercy. From creation’s first breath to the unfolding of prophecy, the Lord shows Himself as the One who holds all things together. His sovereignty is not distant or cold—it is deeply personal, guiding those who trust Him through valleys and victories alike.

God’s sovereignty is anchored in His identity. “The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all” (Psalm 103:19). This rule is not abstract but active. He directs kings and nations (Proverbs 21:1), sustains creation itself (Colossians 1:17), and works all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). Even when human eyes see disorder, the Word assures us that nothing escapes His knowledge or power.

Understanding divine sovereignty reshapes how we navigate daily life. It steadies us when circumstances shift, reminding us that our steps are ordered by the Lord (Psalm 37:23). It strengthens our prayers, knowing we speak to the King who is both mighty and near. And it humbles our hearts, calling us to trust His plan even when we cannot trace His hand.

Takeaway: God’s sovereignty is not just a doctrine—it is a daily anchor that holds when everything else shakes.

-Terrence Burton

Finding Stillness in the Presence of Jesus

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Sometimes the soul grows tired in places no one else sees. We keep moving, producing, deciding, and carrying—yet deep inside we long for a rest that doesn’t fade when the week starts again. Jesus speaks directly to that hidden fatigue.

Worship isn’t merely something we do on Sundays, It’s a place we enter—a refuge built by God Himself. Real rest begins when we let His voice interrupt our pace and draw us toward His presence.

The Psalms repeatedly call God’s people into a rhythm of rest anchored in who He is, not in what we accomplish. David writes, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7). This isn’t passive idleness; it’s an active surrender that trusts God to handle what our hands can’t. In a world that celebrates self-sufficiency, Scripture invites us to a different posture—one that releases control instead of tightening our grip.

Jesus continues this same invitation in the Gospels. His call is personal: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He doesn’t offer strategies, systems, or self-help. He offers Himself. And the rest He gives is more than physical; it’s the quieting of the heart, the steadying of the mind, the re-centering of the soul. Worship becomes the doorway—lifting our eyes from burdens to the One who carries them.

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus says, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). God designed rest as a gift, not a restriction. It reshapes our week by reminding us that God’s presence—not our productivity—is the true source of strength. Even in Acts, after the resurrection, the early believers gathered on the first day of the week to break bread and hear the Word (Acts 20:7). They weren’t performing a ritual; they were entering a rhythm that sustained their mission.

Psalm 23 ties it all together: He maketh us lie down; He leadeth us beside still waters; He restoreth our soul (Psalm 23:1–3). Sometimes God’s love shows up as a command to slow down. Sunday becomes holy ground not because of ceremony, but because God meets us in the quiet and restores what the week has drained.

Takeaway: True rest is found not in stopping, but in coming to Jesus and letting Him restore the soul.

-Terrence Burton

LOVE BASICS

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A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

John 13:34-35

LOVE: THE COMMANDMENT

To fully understand what God expects from us, it is essential to explore the concept of love. Jesus summarized God’s expectations using just one word: “love”. However, this word is often used, yet not fully understood. To obey this commandment, we must first clearly understand what love is. Love is not just an emotion or a feeling, but a decision and an action. It is a selfless act of kindness and care towards others and an essential part of our relationship with God. Therefore, we must strive to have a clear image of what love is, and filter out what it is not. We must understand that love is not just a fleeting emotion, but something that requires effort and commitment. By exploring the true meaning of love, we can understand God’s intent and obey His commandments. In this blog, we will delve deeper into the concept of love and explore its various dimensions, so that we may have a better understanding of what it truly means to love others and fulfill God’s expectations.

WHAT LOVE DOESN’T DO

I will begin by highlighting what love doesn’t do.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 13:10

The verse above speaks to the fact that love is not only about what we do, but also about what we do not do. It is not just about being kind and compassionate towards others, but also about refraining from anything that may harm or cause ill to our neighbor. For example, love does not steal from our neighbor, because this act would cause them harm and violate their trust. Similarly, love does not lie about our neighbor or covet anything that belongs to them, because these actions would also cause them harm and rob them of their possessions. In essence, love demands that we act in a way that is trustworthy, honest, and respectful toward our neighbors and that we refrain from anything that may cause them harm or loss. By doing so, we build a relationship of trust and mutual respect with our neighbors and demonstrate our commitment to treating them with the same care and compassion that we would want for ourselves. Therefore, if we are unsure whether our actions towards our neighbor are loving or not, we can simply ask ourselves: will this action cause them harm or benefit? If it is the former, then we can be sure that it is not an act of love, and we should refrain from doing it.

WHAT LOVE DOES

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

I will not be reviewing each word used in the verses above because the things that love does not do can be categorized in the section about how love does no ill or harm to one’s neighbor. Instead, let’s review the things that Paul says love does, as written in these verses.

  1. Love suffereth long
  2. Love rejoices in the truth
  3. Love beareth all things
  4. Love believeth all things
  5. Love hopeth all things
  6. Love endureth all things

LOVE SUFFERETH LONG

Can we admit that everyone has flaws? If so, then we should also recognize the need to be patient with people as they grow, just as we would want others to be patient with us as we grow. This ties into the instruction to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If you would like people to be patient with you, then it is wise to be patient with others as well.

LOVE REJOICES IN THE TRUTH

Paul emphasizes that love rejoices in the truth. Love always celebrates the triumph of truth and encourages honesty and integrity. It values transparency and is grateful when people choose to be truthful, even in difficult situations. Love also inspires us to seek the truth and to be open to new perspectives and ideas. It teaches us to be patient and understanding, to listen carefully to others, and to value their opinions. Love helps us build strong relationships based on trust, respect, and mutual understanding. It motivates us to live our lives with purpose and to make a positive impact on the world around us.

LOVE BEARETH ALL THINGS

This phrase means to cover (like a roof). When someone is going through a storm, which inevitably we all go through, how do you handle it? Do you expose them to the elements or do you cover them. If it were not for the roof of a building, a house would be exposed to rain, snow, and all other elements that could possibly get into the house. The Bible says if you’re going to love, then you’re going to cover them like a roof. You’re going to protect them from the elements that could do them harm. The purpose of love is to protect. So cover people like a roof and protect them from dander.

LOVE BELIEVETH ALL THINGS

What in the world does this mean? Does it mean that love is naive? Of course not. It means that you give people credit. Let’s look at what that means in the banking system and then we’ll evaluate what it means in this context.

In banking, you are giving the person a certain amount of dollars in credit, in advance of say for example them buying a house. So they purchase the home with the credit that you gave them. Now they pay you back for the money, in credit that you gave them.

How does this tie to love? It’s simple. You give them credit, meaning that you extend some trust to the person in advance of them proving they deserve it from you. If they are unworthy of the trust, you’ll find out and you can make adjustments at that point. But love gives people credit that they will either improve over time or ruin.

LOVE HOPETH ALL THINGS

Simply put, love has good expectations of everything that it finds itself in. So love is not paranoid. But instead, love expects great things to be born from anything it is attached to. Love expects good in all of its relationships whether marriage, dating, work, friendships, or family. It simply expects good, no matter the situation.

LOVE ENDURETH ALL THINGS

This means that love remains. Love is not persuaded to quit due to pressure from wherever it may come. You cannot lure love away from what it loves and what it wants. Faithfulness is built into love. Love, in its purest form, can be trusted because you know that it will always be there. You know that a person who loves you will always be there. They will not leave due to pressure because of the faithfulness that is inherent in love.

LOVE NEVER FAILETH

The word “faileth” means become “inefficient”. “Efficiency means to make the best use of time or resources. Therefore love makes the best use of its time and/or resources. This is an amazing summary of what was stated prior in this chapter. You see, the previous verses were actually telling us what the best uses of our time and resources are. You see, for example, it’s a waste of time and resources if you are in a relationship and not expecting or hoping for good. why are you there?

Another example would be jealousy. It would be a waste of your time and energy resources to be jealous or envious of someone. Do not spend your time or resources on things that serve neither you nor others. Love is the BEST use of your time and resources.

So let us love, as we have been commanded!

INTERCESSION: THE ART OF PRAYING FOR OTHERS (PART 1)

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Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

James 5:16

INTRODUCTION:

As we discuss the matter of praying for others, let’s look into our own hearts and seek to correct attitudes and beliefs that interfere with our ability to reach heaven and serve others with our prayers. As we evaluate our own hearts, not in judgement or evil criticisms, but to simply wash our hearts with God’s word, we will find ourselves in deep places whereby we are increasingly sensitive to God’s Spirit and prevail in prayer.

CONFESSION, PRAYER AND HEALING

As we explore the art of praying for others, we will lay some ground work here in focusing on 3 points of contemplation to start…confession, prayer and healing. Now, there tends to be a natural desire to pursue healing, which is the alleviation of pain or particular problems. That’s fine, but we will look at a pathway here that will lead us into the healing that we desire.

CONFESSION:

The first point that we will address is confession. Well what is a confession? Basically, a confession is an admission. It is a statement of truth. In this verse, James tells us to confess our faults one to another. Why would we do that? For what benefit will this confession serve? Here, we are instructed to confess our faults in particular. Have you ever been keeping something secret and you felt like you couldn’t share it with anyone else? Do you remember the pressure you felt inside holding it in? Do you remember the feeling of relief that you felt once you released it and shared the secret with someone you trusted? This is the reason for the confession.

In order for you to be healed, you must be relieved of the pressure that you are carrying inside. This pressure can contribute to stress, which can cause serious health problems for you. So here, God is wanted us to relieve ourselves of the pressure by releasing it. I don’t want to sound crude, but you can think of it this way. Imagine you had eaten a lot of enjoyable food. Of course you know that food was never intended to stay in your body. We eat the food, digest it and then it exits our body. So you at some point begin to feel pressure within that signals to you that you need to make it to the restroom soon or there will be problems. So you go to the restroom to eliminate the waste from your system.

Now if your body is not regularly eliminating waste, there are health problems that will develop. Likewise, If we keep things bottled up inside that we really should talk about, the result will be similar. There are physical and or emotional problems that may develop due to us holding things in. So we have to decide with whom we can open up to and when we should open up to them about our faults.

Here’s another reason why confession of faults is necessary. In context, this is a group of people confessing to one another their faults. One particular benefit this serves is that you understand that you are not alone. Oftentimes we are defeated by life because we feel isolated. We believe that we’re alone and as a consequence we suffer defeat because we thought something was wrong with us and we were an anomaly. In this group of friends, that lie is destroyed, shame is lifted and you are healed.

PRAYER

The next point is prayer. To piggy back off of the first point of confession, the aim of which is to take us into the point of prayer. So the purpose of confession is not for gossip, but it is for the purpose of prayer. You see we can prayer more effectively as we talk to one another. This is because, in conversation, we learn things that we may never have learned without it. So in this phase, we are to use what we learned in the confession phase as a point of reference in the prayer phase.

As an aside, you can use this principle when praying alone, as well as in groups. You can begin this type of prayer by confessing your faults and or sin to the Father.

So at this point when the group enters the prayer phase, you can take turns praying as you are lead based upon the confessions made in phase one. It is not necessary that all persons pray. Each setting may be different. The leader may pray for the group or each person in the group may provide prayers as they are lead to do so.

I want to point out something here that may not be obvious. We are told to pray “for one another.” In order to pray for one another, we need to care about one another. We need to love each other and care about each other’s highest good. Without loving one another and caring about the well-being of each other, praying for one another will be a daunting task.

HEALING

What does it mean to be healed? When I think of healing I think of a problem being resolved. For example, if someone had cancer, healing would be the cancer is no longer in their body. If they cut their finger, the wound closes up and there’s no more pain. Healing is the putting back of things as they should be or as God intended. So the aim of the first 2 phases is to carry those in the group into phase 3.

This, you should have in mind as your target or goal. But not only that, you are fully believing for those in your group to be healed. You are believing for things to be set right in your lives as a result of your confessions and prayers.