4SpiritualSecrets

“Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.  Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to You I will pray.  My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up.” Psalm 5:1-3

How do you wake up in the morning?  Do you wake up holy?  I mean, before you have had your coffee are you holy?  I believe it’s possible to wake up holy but many times I do not wake up that way.  George McDonald, a man who mentored C.S. Lewis described the way I often wake up in these words:  “With every morn my life afresh must break the crust of self gathered about me fresh, that Thy Wind-Spirit might rush in, shake the darkness out of me and rend the mesh the spider devils spin out of my flesh, eager to net my soul before it wake, that it may slumber us lie and listen to the snake.”

William Barclay who taught the Bible at Edinburgh University for 40 years told us that when the Bible refers to the flesh it means “human nature unaided by God.” My human nature unaided by God is a monster.  That’s why I must break the crust of self gathered about me fresh every morning and ask the Wind-Spirit of God to rush in, shake the darkness out of me and rend the mesh the spider devils spin out of my flesh.

I have written before and repeat now for emphasis that we should have this kind of quiet meditation in the morning before we play the concert of our day rather than tune our instrument after we have played that concert.

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?’ For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Him be glory forever. Amen.”    (Romans 11: 33-36)

The letter of the Apostle Paul to the Roman believers is considered by scholars to be his theological masterpiece.  He begins the most comprehensive presentation of salvation in the Bible at the seventeenth verse of the First Chapter and he concludes with the verses quoted above at the end of the Eleventh Chapter with an inspired focus on God.

This benediction begins with an exclamation regarding the knowledge and wisdom of God.  How much does God know?  Wisdom is the application of knowledge.  What we do about what we know is vitally important especially when it comes to our knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures. What is the measure of the wisdom of God? By the unsearchable judgments of God Paul means the decisions of God.  Does anyone know the mind of God?  (Isaiah 55: 8-10; Proverbs 20: 24) Is God under obligation to repay anyone?

He concludes this benediction by telling us that God is the Source of all things, He is the Power behind all things and His Glory is the purpose for all things.  By all things he means all the things of which he has written in this letter.

As he moves into Chapter Twelve He follows this benediction with the exhortation that it is our reasonable worship to offer God the unconditional surrender He deserves.

“…but you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will come to you as a matter of course.” (Matthew 6:33 J. B. Philips translation)

The message of the entire Bible can be summed up in just two words: “God First.” That is not easy.  In fact that is impossible without the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3).  But that concept is not complicated.  We complicate this proposition because we do not want to put God first.  However, over and over again in the Scripture the bottom-line truth in a Psalm, in the life of a Bible character, in a parable, a metaphor, or a teaching of Jesus will come down to this simple concept: “God First”.

I was blessed to have a godly mother.  She often said to me: “If Jesus Christ is anything to you, then Jesus Christ is everything to you.  Because until Jesus Christ is everything to you, Dick, He isn’t really anything to you.” As I have studied the values of Jesus Christ carefully, I have realized that my mother had the support of her Lord when she brought my profession of faith to a verdict the way she did.

The verse listed above is the conclusion of a study given by Jesus regarding values. He taught that our heart is where our treasures are.  He taught us where our treasures and our heart ought to be.  He challenged us with questions like, “Where is your heart? What are your treasures? What is your life? What is your body?”  and “Who is your master?”

The conclusion to this marvelous treatise on values was the clarification and declaration listed above.  Think of a target with a bulls-eye surrounded by ten or twelve circles.  According to Jesus, the bulls-eye of our priority target should be that our first value is God.  We are to put Him first.  If we will do that we have the promise of Jesus that God will bless us with everything we need.

Any time we even think about the values of Christ these two words should immediately surface in our heart and mind: “God First”.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

As I look back over my life since I was born in 1930, and born again in 1949, this is another verse that sums up my entire walk of faith and ministry.  According to the J. B. Philips translation, God fits into a pattern for good everything that happens to those who love God and are called according to His plan.  I like this because the implication is there may not be anything good about many of the things that happen to us.  But if we meet two prerequisites – if we love God and are called according to His plan – our loving God will fit into a pattern for good all the events of our life.

Before we personally apply the great promise of this verse we must meet those two prerequisites.  The first one is that we love God.  It isn’t easy to love God.  The Apostle John asked us how we can love the God we cannot see (1 John 4).  We can’t hug a Spirit.  Jesus told us that if we love Him we must keep His commandments.  According to the Apostle Paul quoted above, we can show we love God by being called according to His plan.

We are so self-centered we are quick to assume that the good into which God fits all the events of our life means our good.  However, when we understand what it means to love God the only good that will interest us will be God’s good.

This verse can be a summary of the walk of faith and service of any believer who meets these two prerequisites.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” (John 15:16)

Hours before Jesus was arrested and then crucified He held a retreat with the men He had apprenticed 24/7 for three years.  It was in that setting He spoke the words written above.

His words must have come as a shock to them because they had chosen Him and made many sacrifices as they followed Him.  But He is telling them here that He chose them and appointed them to go and bear fruit that lasts.  A paraphrase of the closing sentence in this great verse is that when they understood this God would answer their prayers.

This has become a life verse for me in recent years as I have looked back in an attempt to understand why God would permit me to suffer the loss of my faculties and become a bedfast quadriplegic.  I now realize that if it had not been for these limitations I never would have produced my life’s work of 782 radio programs or studies that I call “The Mini Bible College.”  These studies are now in 26 languages in 53 countries.

This is the fruit that lasts the risen Christ wanted to grow in my life.  As a normal mobile disciple I would not have had the discipline to write these studies.  I therefore see my limitations as the cutback of a loving Lord and not as a setback.  This verse describes, summarizes and explains my journey of faith and ministry.

Is it possible that at least some of your experiences are not a setback but a cutback?

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

People frequently ask if I have a ‘life verse.’ They want to know the one verse that has guided me through my entire experience of life.  I actually have three life verses.  The first is Matthew 6:33.  This verse started guiding my wife and me through our experience of marriage and ministry that both began in 1956.

When it was time for me to preach my first sermon in the storefront church we were just starting, my wife was critically ill after the birth of our first child.  I wasn’t going to go and preach to about 20 adults because the doctors could not assure me she was out of danger.  However, because she insisted I did go.

Our church sight was about 20 miles from the hospital.  During the drive the evil one really beat up on me because I had promised the people I would be their pastor for $50.00 a week – if it came in – and we were running up an enormous hospital bill with no health insurance.

I had instructed our founding elder to show me a slip of paper with the amount of the offering written on it.  When he did the amount was $1,497. 27.  As I saw those numbers I had a private worship service and promised God that I would never doubt His ability to provide for me and my family! Looking back, I’ve never been disappointed in God’s provisions of grace.

As our decades of ministry rolled out this verse has taken on many deeper and more profound applications that have guided us. Are you willing to let Matthew 6:33 guide you through your life?

“The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years… Teach us to number our days,that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90: 10,12)

I attended a conference for pastors when I was 25 years old.  Our speaker was a famous pastor who had snow white hair.  I felt sorry for him because he was so very, very old.  When he started to speak to us his first words were: “I’m old.  I’m gloriously old and I wouldn’t be as young and ignorant as you are for anything in the world!” I was looking at him feeling sorry for him because he was so very old while he was looking at me and feeling sorry for me because I was so very young.

In many cultures of this world today age is considered a plus because wisdom comes with age.  The psalm quoted above makes the statement that we reach 80 years “by reason of strength.”  I have had chronic fatigue since 1978 and have found that strength to be a strength which comes from the Lord and is exhibited in the showcase of my own physical weakness.

I was born eighty years ago today (25 Oct), so these verses resonate with me in a very personal way.  Two of the ways Moses exhorts us to apply this psalm is to number (or value) our days and gain a heart of wisdom about how we should spend them.

He then concludes his psalm asking God to show us the work He wants us to do for Him so that His glory might appear to our children.  His last words invite God to anoint the work He reveals to us.

“…  in everything … with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4: 6, 7)

In the last chapter of the letter to his favorite Church at Philippi Paul gives them and us a prescription for peace.  The peace of God is a state of personal peace in which God can keep a believer if they meet certain conditions (Isaiah 26:3).  I find twelve such conditions in this chapter.

As I seek to maintain my personal peace of God I get more mileage out of the prescription listed above than any of the others.  I have discovered that when I begin to thank God for all the good things in my life it is as if a switch is thrown and I find my mind automatically moving from the negative to the positive.

To use another metaphor, if I were to place all the bad stuff in my life on the left side of a scale-like a scale of justice – and all the good stuff on the right side of that scale, the right side will far outweigh the left side.  That’s what happens when I implement what we might call, “The Therapy of Thanksgiving.”

An old hymn put it this way:

That’s why the prescription of Paul is that when we pray, in everything (not for everything), we should pray thankful prayers.  He promises that when we do so the peace of God will stand guard over our hearts and minds.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55: 8, 9)

If a man’s steps are directed by the LORD, how can that man always expect to understand the way he is going? (Proverbs 20:24)

When God spoke through the prophet Isaiah He told us there is as much difference between the way He thinks and does things and the way we think and do things as the heavens are high above the earth.  Building on that revelation the wisest man who ever lived proposed a logical question: if God is directing the steps of a person how can that person always expect to understand the way they are going?

As a God-passionate person, doing your best to follow the guidance of the Lord, have you ever found yourself completely baffled and blown away by inexplicable happenings like the sudden death of a loved one, or other tragedies?  When we put the two Scriptures quoted above side by side we should expect there to be times when we simply do not understand what God is up to.

Moses explained that what he called the “secret things” belong to the Lord but the things He wants us to do He has made very clear (Deuteronomy 29:29).  That means there are secret things God is keeping to Himself.  If God is keeping those secret things to Himself nobody can explain them.

All these verses considered together are telling us that while we walk with God we should not expect to understand everything.  We walk by faith.  If we understood everything we would eliminate the need for faith.

“For… to Him are all things… To Him be the glory forever! Amen.” ..(Romans 11:36)

The Apostle Paul concluded the argument of his greatest theological masterpiece with an inspired benediction in which he declared that God is the Source of all things, He is the Power behind all things and the glory of God is the purpose for all things.

When Paul puts these two words “all things” together as quoted above he is referring to all the things he has written about in his letter to believers in the city of Rome.  He then concludes his inspired and the most comprehensive explanation of the Gospel ever written by quoting Isaiah: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments (decisions) and His ways past finding out!” That is followed by his benediction as referenced above.

I come to this truth on the day when many who love me are celebrating my 80^th birthday.  A secular motivational speaker, Dale Carnegie, wrote that the most beautiful sound in the world to a man is the sound of his own name.  I disagree with him because there is a sense in which I do not even like the sound of my name.  To me the most beautiful sound in the world is the name of Jesus Christ because apart from Him I would be a zero with the circle rubbed out.

As I reflect on Paul’s benediction I have made the commitment that I do not want to pour my life into any venture unless I am certain that God is the Source of it, He is the Power behind it and the glory of God is its purpose.  How does this benediction impact your mindset?