What is truly AWESOME and AMAZING

I was chatting with a young 20-something young man not long ago and we were talking about how the American language takes twists and turns.  Eventually I got to a pet peeve and said to him, “You know, there are 4 words in the English language that so many are just misusing.”  I paused. His eyes were begging for me to tell him the mysterious four words, so I continued.  “The four words are like totally awesome and amazing”.  He stared expectantly at me for several seconds and finally blurted out, his voice dripping with exasperation, “Well, are you going to tell me the four words?”  

It does seem like everywhere we go, everything and everyone is being described as “amazing” or “totally awesome”. The smallest accomplishment, the cutest little thing, the slightest effort expended are universally being described as “awesome” and “amazing”.  I for one believe this is destroying those words’ power and impact.  Is it truly “amazing” or “awesome” if I bank-shot a wadded-up piece of scrap paper into the waste can a few feet away? I hear these words bandied about for everything and anything.  

If everything is described as “awesome”, if everyone is “amazing”, then eventually nothing and nobody can be described as truly awesome and amazing. Those words should be used for what they mean – something way above the ordinary; someone truly outstanding. Certainly many things and many people rise to “outstanding” or “very good” or “that’s great” – but “amazing”?  “Awesome”?  

What is truly amazing is the love of our Father in heaven who gave his only son for all of us.  What is truly awesome is what your Savior and mine did for us.  What are totally amazing are the daily paintings our great God drapes across His canvas of skies for us in indescribable sunsets that just scream color and beauty.  Then if you want awesome, have you ever been in a Florida summer thunderstorm that starts with a blinding crack of a bright white lightning bolt followed a few seconds later by thunder that crashes through your neighborhood, so loud that you can’t imagine it if you’ve never been in one?  Then again and again.  

Read the rest of this blog to find out more about what is truly amazing and totally awesome.  

YHVH – the Creator of Heavens and earth – HE is amazing.  What He touches, what He creates, what He designs, what He says, what HE does – now all THAT is what is truly awesome and amazing.  I find His creation truly awesome – whether it’s a tortoise lumbering up my driveway or a brilliant butterfly brightening up my yard. I’d say a vast ocean is amazing. God created it – of course it would be. The colors of the autumn aspens in Colorado or the New Hampshire hardwoods all orange and red in the fall – that’s what you’ll exclaim is awesome. If it’s tied to the Creator in some way, now that is amazing.  The SON of God who SPOKE the universe into existence, who breathed out billions of stars in billions of galaxies (Psalm 33:6, 9; Psalm 148:5), now THAT is truly awesome and beyond our grasp.  The Hubble telescope is giving us glimpses of how vast and limitless is the universe created by the Word, who later stretched out His arms on the cross for you and me.  THAT is totally amazing. HE is our awesome God (John 1:1-3).  

The one true living God – and anything related to Him such as his creation – is what I believe is truly amazing and awesome.  Here are a few of the many verses ascribing awesomeness to God.

Psalms 47:2
For YHVH Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth.

Psalms 66:3
Say to God, "How awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.

Psalms 99:3
Let them praise Your great and awesome name —  He is holy.

There’s something else that’s amazingly awesome:  our high calling.  Paul – when given a glimpse of it – could only describe it by saying your eyes couldn’t imagine it, your ears can’t yet grasp the sounds and harmonies that lie ahead of us.  “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9, paraphrasing from Isaiah 64:4).  

Stay tuned. We’re coming into the final climactic years of Satan’s reign over the earth and the beginning of the end for him.  We’re coming into the fall holydays of God, depicting the time when you and I will be part of the most amazing invasion to topple the evil spirits in high places that have ruined the lives of countless millions.  We’re coming into the time when Son of God’s awesome power will be displayed – and you and I can be a part of His team, maybe be a part of his awesome Bride, restoring peace, joy, love and beauty to what was once an amazing planet. THAT time is going to be awesome.  THAT is something I don’t want to miss. That is something we should get excited about – “the great and awesome day of Yehoweh (the LORD)”  (Joel 2:31).

Check out the Fall holyday sermons from previous years (Sept-October months) for some truly awesome scriptures and important messages which tell us what is coming ahead for those who love God, who love His Way, who love His law and who love His grace.

What is amazing?  What is awesome?  

I like to reserve those powerhouse words for the things of God, His creation, His Words, His thoughts, His plans, His love, His Son, His kingdom.  His ways are SO FAR above our ways that surely we should not debase the powerful meaning of “awesome” and “amazing” – but reserve it for those things and those persons who rise to unprecedented glory, beauty, accomplishment and power through their connection to our truly awesome Father and Savior.  

Praises be to our amazing, our awesome, God and Savior.