Secret Things

1 Corinthians 4:1

So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and those entrusted with the secret things of God.

Man’s wisdom is futile in the Lord’s eyes. If we find blessing in a relationship with God and if we rely on Jesus as our Savior and Lord, then we can stop competing with men over spiritual things. We are of Christ and that means we are to be faithful to God.

Trusting in our own wisdom moves us away from trusting God. Instead of trying to prove how wise and spiritually powerful we are, we should be about the work of servants. We are to prove ourselves faithful to God by acting out His love.

In our servant-hearted actions toward man, we carry the message of God’s love. Power comes from that love. If we want power, we must remember that we’ve been given secret things from God. Secrets are powerful things. The secret things of God are in His message of love to us. We can unlock secrets as we grow in our relationship with Him.

Being consistent and patient helps us grow beyond the immature relationship we once had with God. We can be known as servants of Christ and those entrusted with the secret things of God if we’ll continue seeking Him.

Hiding From God?

Jeremiah 23:24

“Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?”

I was away from my computer last week. Did you know where I was? No, of course not. But God did.

God always knows where I am. I cannot run away from Him.

As a child, I was told not to run in church because it was God’s house. I wasn’t supposed to run in anyone’s house, especially not God’s house. But I knew God wasn't confined to the church. God was in the church and at the beach and on the football field. I knew God was everywhere.

He sees me when I’m at home or when I’m on vacation. If I go on a family vacation, we can camp in tents in the deep woods and still worship God together. We don’t have to find a church to worship in. We are members of God’s family, and He is with us. Always.

As God dots the earth with color this spring, remember Him. Remember that He can see in the dark, and there is no darkness that can cover Him. There is no secret that He doesn’t know.

Esther's Secret

Esther 2:20

But Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai's instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up.

The month of December is difficult for me because that’s when we buy presents and hide them until Christmas day. I have to work to keep quiet about my kids’ presents. I can’t wait to give the gifts, so I try not to giggle about the way I think they’ll react when they open them. Over the years, I’ve learned to be patient. It’s hard, but I can keep a secret.

I admire the way Queen Esther could keep her secret before and after she became queen. She went through a year of preparation before she was chosen by the king. After she received her crown, she waited until the right moment before she said anything. That must’ve been hard.

She notified the king of an assassination plot and made him aware that Mordecai was the one who discovered it. But she didn’t reveal her secret.

Mordecai was her uncle, and they were Jews. But Mordecai taught Esther to wait until the time was right to tell the king of her heritage.

Because of an evil man named Haman, the king was persuaded to issue an order for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai told Esther to go before the king and plead for mercy. He reminded her that she would be found out and executed along with all the other Jews if the order was carried out. She knew her crown wouldn’t save her, but God would.

She risked her life by appearing before the king, but he was glad to see her and didn’t mind the interruption. Instead of falling at the king’s feet and begging for mercy, Queen Esther invited Haman and the king to a banquet. That night, she invited him to a second banquet and promised to explain why she was doing this.

The king was outraged when she finally told him that Haman had convinced the king to order the deaths of all the Jews, including herself. A servant told the king that Haman had erected a gallows to put an end to Mordecai, who had been faithful to the king and had saved the king’s life by alerting him about the assassination plot. The king made sure Haman was hung on his own gallows.

Then Esther asked the king for mercy since the order to kill the Jews had already been issued. Mordecai was allowed to write a decree to cancel the first. The king gave his signet ring to him to use on the decree so it couldn’t be revoked.

Esther, because of her wisdom, saved her people by revealing her secret at the right time. The Jews promised to celebrate every year at the same time so they wouldn’t forget how they got relief from their enemies.

That’s worth keeping a secret for a little while.

Rahab's Secret

Joshua 2:14

"Our lives for your lives!" the men assured her. "If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land."

Joshua sent spies to check out the walled city of Jericho. They met Rahab who kept their secret. She helped them escape because she’d heard about their God. She asked them to promise that she and her family would be unharmed. At their instruction, she tied a scarlet cord in the window she helped them escape through. She and her family were saved because they could keep a secret.

When your best friend confides in you, do you keep the secret?

Most people will keep the secret entrusted to them based on their opinion of its value. If it’s a valuable secret and you value the friendship more, you’ll keep the secret. If you don’t value the friendship as much as the secret knowledge they gave, you’ll use the secret to benefit yourself and ruin a friendship in the process.

How you keep secrets tells people what kind of person you are. I can’t imagine enjoying a friendship with someone who gives away my secrets. I want to trust my friends. I also want my friends to trust me.

Trust is a two-way street.

I believe a good relationship with God has to have this two-way trust. Can God trust you to do what you tell him you’ll do? Do you trust God to do what he said he’d do?

People who are misinformed about what God said he’d do end up not trusting him because they trusted the second-hand information. Rahab trusted the spies and they trusted her because they were getting the information directly from the source. There wasn’t any confusion in the communication.

This is why each person needs to seek God on his own. There’s nothing better than hearing from God. That way it’s one-on-one and we don’t get misinformed by second-hand information. When a person develops a personal relationship with God, there’s a better chance that two-way trust will be developed.

Can God trust you enough to tell you a secret? Find out. Seek Him today.

Justice for the Arrogant

Psalm 12

Help, LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men. Everyone lies to his neighbor; their flattering lips speak with deception. May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue that says, "We will triumph with our tongues; we own our lips —who is our master?"

“Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says the LORD. "I will protect them from those who malign them."

And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.

O LORD, you will keep us safe and protect us from such people forever. The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.

Those who deceive are out there. They want to get away with as much deception as they can. Are they getting away with it?

No. God sees them even when men do not. God sees their victims even when the deceptive do not. God sees, and He will arise. He will protect the oppressed. He will lift up the needy. He is not surprised or unaware.

When the wicked strut around in arrogance, thinking they’re getting away with their deception, they must realize that their time is short. They are on this earth for a moment, and then comes their reward. Some call that reward their just desserts. Some call it h-e-double-hockey-sticks.

God will protect the weak. And if the wicked turn back to God in true repentance, they too will be among the protected. And hell will not touch them.

Protection

2 Peter 2:9

“the Lord knows how to rescue godly men”

God recognizes those who fight against the temptation to sin. He recognizes those who take pleasure in unabashedly carousing in broad daylight. Those who never think to stop sinning are dealt with in one way, and those who are distressed by sin are dealt with in a different way.

2 Peter 2:4 through verse 8 gives us examples of how God has dealt with sin in the past.

Verse 5 tells how Noah stood out: God “did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others…” God sets apart those whose intentions are to please him. He wants to rescue us.

He sees the world we live in. He knows all about the corruption we deal with, the pits set up to capture the unaware, and the lies we are told. He doesn’t expect us to rescue ourselves when trouble knocks on our door.

Verse 9: “if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.”

God always makes a way of escape for us. Noah wouldn’t have thought to build a boat on his own. He obeyed God’s instruction. Daniel stayed connected to God in the lions’ den. And God shut the mouths of the lions for him.

There is always something we can do to act on our faith in God. When we can’t rescue ourselves, we can obey God whose hand is already at work steadying our feet so we can walk out of the dangerous situation alive.

Instead of crying out in terror, “God, where are you?”, we can calm ourselves with the knowledge that he is there and ask, “God, what can I do to obey you in this moment?”

Stay With God

Psalm 97: 10

Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Psalm 97:7 reminds us that those who worship images and boast in idols are put to shame. If you trust in paper, what do you do after it burns? If you trust in beauty, what do you do after it fades? When the lightning strikes, where do you run? When the mountains tremble, to whom do you look for protection?

Is there anyone more powerful than God? He is the creator of the universe. He commands, and it happens. If God is for you and you are for God, you have connected with the one person who will never fail. Stay with him. He can guard and protect you.

Houses are destroyed in earthquakes and money burns in a fire, but God will never leave you. You never have to be distressed. God is with you.

And He is enough.

What's the Blessing?

Psalm 24:6

Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. Selah

Do you want to sin?

Many people are tempted to do things that aren’t right. When they’re caught in traffic and they’re in a hurry, temptation sits in the front seat with them, urging them to cuss and wave their fists and build up into a fabulous road rage. But if you ask them, even in a time of great temptation, “Do you really want to sin?” They would say no if they belong to God.

God’s people have to face temptation. We have the ability to sin every day. But we’d rather not.

We look forward to our heavenly home where there is no darkness. No one in Heaven is trying to get us to sin. However while we’re on the Earth, we have to pass up opportunities to sin as if they were shoes that were too small and out of style. We can encourage each other in times of temptation by asking, “Do you really want to wear that shoe? Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

While reading Psalm 24, I found a riddle of sorts. Verses five and six tells us that those who seek the Lord receive blessing from him. What’s the blessing?

Earlier verses remind us that we are all God’s creation. But not everyone can stand in God’s holy place. So who may stand before God? Verse four gives us the answer.

“He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.”

Those who do not intend to sin receive blessing from the Lord. In other places in the Bible, we find out that if we do sin, we can receive mercy and a second chance. It’s our desire for sin that causes us to lose our way. It’s our desire for sin that keeps God out of first place in our lives.

If we want God more than we want to sin, we will run to him instead of away from him. He will hold back danger and darkness if our grip is on him and not sin.

So what is the blessing we receive when we keep our hearts filled with desire for God?

His presence.

In his presence are all other blessings. In his presence is the protection we call out for in our little emergencies. In his presence is the security we need when we’re challenged.

Those who seek God will find God. He is the blessing.

Famous: Solomon

1 Kings 1:47

Also, the royal officials have come to congratulate our lord King David, saying, “May your God make Solomon’s name more famous than yours and his throne greater than yours!”

When Solomon became king, God answered his prayer for wisdom. Solomon began using his God-given wisdom and attracted a lot of attention. According to 1 Kings 10:1-5, the queen of Sheba came to test him because she’d heard about his wisdom and his relation to the name of the Lord. He answered all her questions with ease. When she finished examining him and all that he did, she was overwhelmed.

It’s hard for anyone to compete with Solomon and his wisdom, but if every Christian developed and used their God-given abilities out of obedience to God, more of the curious unchurched would be overwhelmed by what God can do through His people.

I would be thrilled to hear people say that they see the love of God in me and my family so much that they are driven to be a part of the family of God. I would love to overwhelm others with the love of God as I use my gifts.

Maybe we can’t all be as wise as Solomon, but using our individual gifts is something we can do. Whatever talent God has given you should be used to bring the presence of God to the people He wants to reach – even if you don’t get famous doing it.

Famous: Benaiah

2 Samuel 23:20-23

Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab's best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he too was as famous as the three mighty men. He was held in greater honor than any of the Thirty, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard.

Benaiah was famous for killing. Even though God gave us the commandment “Do not kill”, we honor killers. Why? The commandment never said “Do not defend yourself.” The commandment really meant “Do not murder.” The killers we honor are people who defend others.

God told many people to kill. They obeyed God, saved their people, and were honored for it. This makes me think of the war movies that show men doing whatever is necessary to defend and protect their people by killing their enemy. From Band of Brothers TV miniseries, Captain Ronald Speirs showed courage by running through a town the American troops were trying to take. His run took him in front of the enemy soldiers who couldn’t believe what they were seeing. He ran right past enemy, delivered a message to American troops hiding behind a wall, and then he ran back to his company. Both times he ran, he looked unbelievably crazy and, at the same time, more courageous than anyone in the area. He did what was necessary to protect others. He did what no one else would do.

Capt. Speirs reminds me of the story of Benaiah. Courageous acts are done without a lot of thought and planning. Benaiah was crazy enough to use a club to go against a huge Egyptian who had a spear. After he got the Egyptian’s spear away from him, Benaiah killed him with it.

Benaiah was rewarded for his courage when David put him in charge of his bodyguard. David was smart. I’d want Benaiah next to me too.

Famous: Abishai

2Sam 23:18-19

Abishai the brother of Joab son of Zeruiah was chief of the Three. He raised his spear against three hundred men, whom he killed, and so he became as famous as the Three. Was he not held in greater honor than the Three? He became their commander, even though he was not included among them.

David’s three mighty men were brave and loyal. But they were not the leaders of all the other men. They had a commander named Abishai who earned even greater honor than the three men who risked their lives to bring David some water from Bethlehem.

When all seems to be against you, do you give up and go home?

Abishai didn’t. He didn’t give up when he encountered a little discouragement. He didn’t give up when he had to fight for his life. He didn’t give up when three hundred men came to kill him.

He fought off those 300 men with a spear (not a tank) and lived to tell about it.

David rewarded valiant soldiers with positions of authority over the other soldiers because they were trustworthy. He knew what to expect from them. He showed them honor because they were obedient to his will.

Christians who have truly earned great honor have been obedient to God’s will. They know what they’re supposed to do and they do it with great bravery and loyalty, without hesitation.

God is looking for those who want to obey him like a soldier obeys a good commanding officer. If we trust God and obey Him, we know He will lead us to many victories.

Famous: David's 3 Mighty Men

2 Samuel 23:16

So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David.

Read 2 Samuel 23:13-17

Once during the battling days of David, the Philistines were in Bethlehem, David’s hometown. Three of David’s men went to him at the cave of Adullam and heard him say, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!”

My guess is that David was tired and homesick. I imagine he inspired such loyalty that when these men heard David pining over the distance between him and the sweetness of home they couldn’t resist surprising him with a taste of the water he longed for.

These three mighty men broke through enemy lines to get water for David to drink. It took bravery, cunning, and determination to get the job done. They must have had a fire in them to get to the well of Bethlehem and back safely – with enough water to make the journey worth it.

I don’t think they were trying to be heroes. I think they were driven to serve David the unexpected blessing of the one thing he longed for. What a great example of a servant’s attitude. They knew they could do it. And because they took the risk, made the effort, and accomplished what they were driven to do, they became heroes in David’s eyes.

When they approached David with the water, he couldn’t believe they did that. David took the water from the men, but he refused to drink it.

He poured the water out before the Lord. David, who had shown enormous bravery and who had accomplished many dangerous exploits by himself, was amazed at these men who put their lives at risk for a simple drink of water.

The men were valued beyond the water. Because they were driven to take that one trip behind enemy lines, they received the honor of a mention in the Bible as David’s “three mighty men.”