THINGS WHICH ARE REVEALED

Things Which Are Revealed

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever. {Deu 29:29}

There is a very special giddiness that forms deep in my heart when the Lord reveals a mystery or a secret or an unexpected connection when studying the Holy Scripture. The feeling is pretty overwhelming. Some verses or chapters I have read hundreds of times but on this day, The Lord reveals something entirely new and previously unseen or unconnected. I call it my BIBLICAL EPIFANY.

O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me.  Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me. {Psa 131:1-2} 

 In this psalm, David opens his heart to the Lord, and rightfully places himself in the proper position of submission to the Lord who created all that is.

King David has seen up close and personal how God deals with lofty egos, and malplaced confidence in themselves. In Psa 25:14, we read;  The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant.

Daniel goes even further when he writes; "However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. {Dan 2:28} He can reveal mysteries to you as well.

If The Holy Spirit reveals, and then for a time conceals, it is during these "Dry Spells" that we suffer great hunger for a morsel, a crumb, anything that might fall from His table of knowledge, but as we read in Job 26:14 ; "Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; And how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?"

As the shadow of the Cross loomed closer in the final earthly days of our Savior Jesus, God incarnate opened his heart wide to the disciples, speaking without allegory; "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. {Joh 15:15}

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.   "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;   that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. {Joh 14:15-17}

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HIS DESIRE IS FOR ME

I am my beloved's, And his desire is for me.

Son 7:10

There are places in this world where just the mention that you are a follower of Jesus Christ will result in violence or even death. I ask myself frequently if I felt that I could rise above the fear in such a situation and proclaim my love and affection for Jesus regardless of the potential for injury or death.

I know that great strength comes instantly from Him through whose promise I am led. This brings to mind a missive that I first heard while spending time with a group of new U.S. Army Rangers near Eglin, Florida a year or so ago. In a moment of horrible challenge, Satan whispers to the warrior, "you cannot withstand the storm"; to which the warrior responds to Satan, "In Christ....I AM the storm!". In all matters of the Lord, if your heart and faith is right with Him, He will fill your every step with His power and grace. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.[2Ti 1:12, Rom 8:38-39]

In the most beautiful and powerful prayer in all the Bible, Jesus confessed to His Father in Heaven saying   "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled." [Joh 17:12]

For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.--  Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of men. [Psa 149:4,-- Pro 8:31]

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. [Eph 2:4, Joh 15:13]

Jesus did just that! He died for you. He died for me. He died at the request of His Father, that we might be set free from the curse of Adam's Sin.

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. --

  for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. [1Co 6:20, Rom 14:8]

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MAN MUST BE BORN AGAIN

Man Must Be Born Again

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover: no foreigner is to eat of it; -- We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. Exo 12:43, -- Heb 13:10

Jesus said; "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." --  Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Joh 3:3, -- Eph 2:12-13

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,  by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, -- So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household. Eph 2:14-15, --Eph 2:19

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. Rev 3:20

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NO PLACE TO HIDE

No Place to Hide

Even the darkness is not dark to You, [ O Lord] , And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You. Psa 139:12

It seems that it took me "forever" as I was growing up to realize that we are never truly alone. Never alone physically, never alone mentally, and certainly never alone spiritually. Someone once said, "No matter where you go.....THERE you are!!". Since I've never been away from "Myself", I am certainly glad that I get along with me!

Our souls that God created to live temporarily in these tents of a body are hard-wired to the Creator. The Lord knows where we are, what we are doing, what we are thinking, no matter where we might be.

  "For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And He sees all his steps.  (22)  "There is no darkness or deep shadow Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. -- "Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?" declares the LORD. "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the LORD. Job 34:21-22, -- Jer 23:24

Being accountable to the Maker of all is a valued part of His examination of our performance while wearing this flesh. Yet there is another component in God's Fatherly role over His creation; Protecting His children from evil - from spiritual and eternal harm.

You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day;   Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.   For you have made the LORD, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place.   No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. --  He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right hand.   The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night.   The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. Psa 91:5,6,9,10, -- Psa 121:3,5-7

Be comforted that He has His eyes on you in all places, in all times. He loves watching the race. Be confident in Him that you may finish the race well!

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Psa 23:4

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