The secret that never was

Have you ever been so excited to be in the know about something really great, and you were looking forward to being able to tell another person about “The news” only to discover that they already knew and your secret was in fact not a secret at all?

I feel that much of what we “discover” in God’s word is very much like that. We discover an aspect of Him that is absolutely amazing and we are so excited to share that aspect of Him only to discover that He has revealed that aspect of Himself all along and not just to you, but to everyone else!

In Sunday school this past Sunday, we looked at a passage that I really found incredibly encouraging and powerful that I wanted to share on the blog.

 “What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the LORD is   with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.”                 ~ Psalms 25:12-14

David starts this psalm the same way he starts many of the psalms, with a profession of His love for God. He does this not to move God but to move himself. In verse 14 of this chapter he refers to “The Secret of the Lord”.

This intrigued me because if there is a secret of the Lord, I want in on it!

What I discovered is that this “secret” was not what I thought it was.

I want to point out the first verse to this chapter.

“Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.” ~Psalms 25:1

What in the world does this mean?

The words “Lift up” mean to raise up, yield, or make an offering of.

In my closet up on the left hand side of a shelf you will find a little clear plastic box of little trinkets and “valuable” things. In that box are cufflinks, tie clips, and things that I value. There is my dad’s high school ring and next to that you will find a little wooden stick. The stick is only about three inches long and about an inch in diameter.

That is the valuable thing.

When my first born son was only about two and a half we used to take little trips to the park in the town that we lived in. He loved to pick up and collect leaves, rocks, and everything else you find on the ground near a public park. It was a constant routine to frisk him before getting him strapped into his car seat. We would always need to check his hands for rocks, leaves, sticks and every other little valuable that this little guy found an important interest in.

He would always resist those parental purges that we gave him and on one particular afternoon he did the unexpected. As we neared the car he reached his chubby little fist toward me voluntarily and as he opened his clenched fist he said, “For you Daddy”.

 There lying in his open little palm was his “treasure”. It was a simple wooden stick that he had carefully sought out when we first came to the park and had carried around with him on all of his adventures. He was giving me the thing that was at that moment the most valuable to him. My heart jumped and I carefully tucked that stick in my pocket and it now resides in the box within my closet which in turn makes that box one that holds trinkets and “Valuable” things.

David looks to the Lord and presents Him with what is the most valuable to him at that moment. His Soul.

The Soul is composed of three aspects. It is our mind, our will, and our emotions.

This is the part that we wage spiritual war for constantly, and the only part of the child of God that the devil can fight for control (Oppression) of. What we do with our mind, will, and emotions will determine what we do with our body. Our Spirit is sealed in Christ, our body will return to dust, and that leaves our soul that we yield to Christ or the flesh.

David is saying in the first verse, “To you God I am presenting my mind, will, and emotions to control”.
Wow!
We see David’s complete confidence in God that would prompt him to readily and willingly make this offering.

“Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”

 ~Psalms 73:24

God counseled David. I love this. When was the last time that you asked God for His counsel and then just listened?

We go to friends, co-workers, pastors, teachers, and everyone else we can think of when we hit a wall, but when was the last time we just honestly went to the Lord for direct advice? Look at what Jesus said and if this does not bless you, then your blesser needs some serious adjustment.

“ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” ~John 14:12-21

He is our God who is our indwelling comforter and counselor! He is there within you now as your counselor and you do not need to make an appointment. You can ask Him now to lead you into all truth, and you can ask Him now to teach you His word, and you can confidently trust Him!

 “O my God, I trust in thee…” ~ Psalms 25:2

Then we come to the secret that never was. What is the deal with the secret of the Lord that is mentioned in verse fourteen? Have we been missing out on something all this time? Yes and no.

“The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.” ~ Psalms 25:14

The word secret mentioned here is the word… COUNSEL. So you could read it this way, “The counsel of Jehovah, the self-existing God of the universe, is with those who have a fearful reverence for Him, and He will help them to understand and discover the details of His league or union with them.”

That is AWESOME!!!!

When you and I can wrap our minds around the fact that God established a new covenant with us on this side of the cross that is based entirely upon HIM and not upon us, it will change our world forever. What does it mean to have God indwell us with His Spirit? What does it mean to be redeemed? What does it mean to be IN HIM? This stuff is powerful and it tremendously impacts the way that we view, approach, and present our God to the world around us.

Will our soul be troubled here in this life?

Absolutely it will, in fact it is guaranteed. Where we present our troubled soul is vitally important. Presenting our soul to people is uncertain and in almost every case will lead to some level of betrayal and hurt. Look at the example set by Christ:

“Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” ~Matthew 26:38-40

His closest companions on earth fell asleep on Him. He took His soul to The Counselor.

How could David do this so easily? I love this passage we are about to see:

“What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.” ~Psalms 25:12

This is it! This is “The Man and The Wall” in one passage! You cannot seek or receive counsel from someone with the intent to follow it unless you truly have confidence in the one you are seeking counsel from. David is saying in this chapter, “I am presenting my troubled mind, will, and emotions to you as my counselor and you are going to teach me in the way that you choose.”

Jesus said in Matthew 26, “If it is possible to go a different route that would be great, never the less I choose the way that you want.”

“God’s purpose not fairness settles the circumstances of our lives”

I sat in Sunday school absolutely stunned as Fran went through this in much more detail. I let the Word of God soak into my mind and began mediating on the passages and the thoughts that came from the meditation and I wanted to post on this today. I am not sure what is going on in your world as you read this, but I do not believe in coincidence at all. I truly believe that you are reading this post among all of the things that you will read today because God wanted you to see this. I also believe that God is waiting and He longs to prove Himself to you as the trustworthy counselor He has always been.

 

Are your mind, will and emotions troubled about something? Could I challenge you right now to take those thoughts and hurts that are held tightly in your fist that you guard so much and value as yours and look up to your Father and present them to Him with an open hand and an open  heart that cries, “ For you Daddy”

The Secret that never was, is that God has always been!

Climbing with you,

~Dan

 

 

 

Who told you that this was all there was?

 

 

 

Which do you see. A beautiful young woman or a tired old lady?

The answer is that you see what you are looking for. It is amazing to me how different people can look at the same picture or hear the same words and draw different conclusions.

The Gospels are a perfect illustration of this.
Matthew saw and presented Jesus as The King.
Mark saw and presented Jesus as the servant.
Luke saw and presented Jesus as man.
John saw and presented Jesus as God.

They each tell the story of Jesus through the lens that they viewed Him.

I completely understand this because I present Jesus to others through the lens that I see him, in fact, this is something that we all do.

I was reading the book of Mark this morning and saw something that I had missed in reading that had reflected in my view of God which in turn had defined my presentation of God to others.
"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;" ~Mark 1:1 Did you catch it?

No?

Well I missed it too, so let me re-list this passage with what I had missed underscored. This missed portion truly impacts the way that we see Christ and in turn, present the Christ we see to others.

"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;" ~Mark 1:1

The word Gospel simply means, "Good News".

So you could read it this way, "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ..."

The presentation of the Gospel or the "Good News" of Jesus that is presented in any of the four Gospels is in fact just the beginning of the Gospel or the "Good News".

We are the ones that put the period to the Gospel after the resurrection, not God.

You mean to tell me that there is more to the Gospel or the "Good News" of Jesus than His arrival in a manger, living sinless among us, being crucified for our sins, and rising on the third day?

ABSOLUTELY!!! That is just the beginning!

We look at the title, "The Gospel of Mark" and assume that the "Gospel message" is what is written within the bookends of chapter one and chapter sixteen. Just because the Gospel of Mark concludes sixteen chapters later does not by any means place a period to the Gospel or the "Good News".

If all there was to the Gospel then God's forgiveness and grace would truly be just a license to sin, but there is far more to the Gospel than that!

"Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; (What is the mystery that was hid from the ages before the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and ressurected?)  which is Christ in you, (When He ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit descended) the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." ~ Colossians 1:25-29

We now have what the greatest of old testament saints never had. A permanent abiding Holy Spirit of God within us! Hebrews tells us that they received not the promise, but we did!

"And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." ~Hebrews 11:39-40

I don't care how incredible the heroes of the old testament appeared, we have God within us!

"Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." ~Galatians 4:3-7 

The rest of the gospel is Christ living today through you and through me!!!

Christianity is not about how many events that we attend in a building or how many chapters we read in His book, it is about the living Christ expressing Himself through us to a world that is perishing without Him!

He did not come to earth to be crucified just to love us, but rather so that we in turn could now love like Him!

How we see the gospel or the "Good News" will determine how we present Jesus.


It will determine how we handle setbacks, hurts, wrong doings, and our responses. How do you see Jesus? If it is just as a divine employer who only values you for what you can do for Him and His organization then you may need to look at the picture again.

He desires you to know Him, and in turn express Him for who He is and not what we think He should look like.


Climbing with you,
~Dan

My kid just said what???

 

The bathroom mirror can reveal an awful lot about the person looking into it. They show us what the world sees, and they hear us say only what God hears.
As the water I had just splashed on my face ran down my chin I stared back at myself and asked my reflection, "Dan, are you ready for this?"

Little did I know that God was about to answer my question in a way that I certainly was not expecting.

The last four years of my life and my walk with my Father have been transformational to say the least. I have spent the majority of my life viewing God through the lens of "Divine Employer".

My motto was, "God has no hands but our hands, no feet but our feet, no voice but our voice..." and the list went on and on. If you really stop and think about that view, you might walk away thinking that God to me was a quadriplegic.

The bottom line was that my viewed value to God was based upon my level of performance for Him. So God, in His love, took me to a place where I was fully able to see production value based thinking on full display. It was the straw that was needed to break the camels back, or in this case, the faulty paradigm of God and His relationship with us.

God's value on me was not about me or anything I could do for Him. God's value on me was about Him,who He is, and what I could now be through Him!

Once I figured out where this piece in the puzzle fit, God very plainly gave me His clearance to move on to the next assignment.

This is where the "Mirror, Mirror on the wall" conversation kicks in.

To be completely transparent here, I was more than a little apprehensive about my first day of  work at the "New Assignment". This was the mark of the next chapter of my life and like your first day of school, you just hate the idea of change.

I stared into that mirror this past Monday, and I said to the reflection I saw, "Dan, you are just a bit scared huh?"
I flipped off the bathroom light and went to get ready for the day.

I was finishing up my devotions for the morning when my eight year old son Clark came out of his room to say goodbye.

He asked me if he could watch a cartoon and I suggested that he go to his DVDs and ask God which one he should watch.

What???

Yep, there are two things that I want to teach my kids before it is my time to check out:
1) How to hear and see God in their life.
2) Who they are to Him.

"Why don't you go in your room to where the dvds are and ask God which one you should watch", I suggested.
"But I want to watch Ninja Turtles Dad", he answered.
"Do you know for sure what is going to happen in your day today?", I asked.
He thought for a minute and said, "No, I guess not."
"Well God does son, and I believe that if you ask Him what you should watch that He will tell you and if He tells you, you can be sure that it will be just what you need."

He walked back out into the living room a short time later holding the vegi-tales DVD "The League of Extraordinary Vegetables".

"This is really weird dad", Clark exclaimed. "It was like He said for me to pick this one, but I have seen it like a jazillion times".

I asked him what it was about and what he said floored me because I saw where it came from!
"It is about fear and how if you let it, it can freeze you. God did not give us the spirit of fear dad, but one of power, love and a sound mind. If God gives you the mission, then there is no need to operate in fear or be scared."

My mouth must have dropped wide open. This kid was speaking a messaged answer to the question that only God heard!
"Dad", He continued, "God sees me and He sees you...He is with us y'know?"

I sat him down on the couch and explained to Him why God gave him that movie choice. "Buddy, He knew that Daddy was a little scared about change and He used you to speak to me about that fear!"

I will never forget the look on Clark's face.
"That is so cool Dad!!!! I can't wait to hear how your day went when you get home!!!!"

So if there was not a Spirit of fear given at our new birth, what Spirit was I given to operate in?

"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.  And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." ~Galatians 4:4-7 

"Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:" ~ Colossians 1:25-28

If you are a child of God you have Christ in you!

It is a tremendous servant of God and am mentor of mine by the name of Walt Shankle that I heard say, "Where God guides, God provides!"
My Pastor, Bro. Fred Wolfe has said it this way, "If God ain't seein it, then you ain't needin it!"

God sees the things that we go through and God hears the conversations that we have with our bathroom mirror!

You have His Spirit if you are His child!

"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." ~Philippians 4:11-13

 Climbing with you,
~Dan

What a dying child discovered

She collapsed beneath the ugly and twisted branches of the sun bleached shrub.

It stood out against the barren landscape like a withered hand straining its bare limbs like twisted fingers in surrender to the dark forms of the vultures that now began their ominous circle of the impending death that they now sensed.

Her eyes stung with tears and her gaze followed the scavengers sweeping shadows as they arced across the ground. Hot anger boiled up within her while watching the shadow of death tighten its circle of its descending pattern to caress the body of her son.

His breathing was slow and his lips cracked with severe dehydration.

It would only be a matter of time now. Soon she would lack the strength to drive away the hideous carcass feeders and they both would succumb to deaths certain call.

She had distanced herself from the fading life of her son. She could not save him and if he was going to slip away from her, she had no intention of watching it happen. 

"And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept." ~Genesis 21:14-16

As I read the text in Genesis 21, I cannot help but feel as though you and I are in the background of this event and we are unseen by Hagar. We stand together to watch and bear witness of the truly spectacular!

God is about to show up!

Hagar screamed and wailed as she clawed into the dry dirt at the base of that shrub. What was in the cry that she made?

Possibly it was similar to the cries that you and I make when we run head long into the walls on our path.

"I did what I was told, and now this?"

"All I did was submit to the authority that you allowed in my life and I have been severly mistreated by those authorities"

"What is going on here? All I wanted to do was to do what was asked of me?"

"I was not the one asking my masters to do God's work instead of letting God do His work through them."

"God, I did not make them doubt you, your ability and your power. Now my son and I are collateral damage to their unbelief?"

Any of these sound familiar?

This was a wall.



It was in the blog post, "God's Microwave", that I introduced a statement that I would like to repeat today.

"God’s purpose not his fairness settles the circumstances of our lives!"

Then the truly spectacular happens. I love this fresco above because it captures the event perfectly.

The child begins to cry, and God hears with the intention to do something about what He has heard.

"And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is." ~Genesis 21:17"And God heard..." WOW!!! This passage is so strong because the word God used here is the Hebrew word "El-o-heem". This is a name of God. The name is the definition of the character of the person named. "El-o-heem" means "The Righteous Judge".
 God reveals Himself to be seen in the nature He is needed to be seen!

The Righteous Judge shows up to hear the cries of Hagar and her son. He is perfect and His judgments are Perfect! As you read this text, feel free to implant God's name used here in the passage!

Remember the fresco style picture printed above? Scroll back to it for a moment and notice something powerful yet so simple. Abraham and Sarah are scolding and distant. Hagar is no longer focused on the injustice done to her and her child. Her gaze is completely focused on what she had not been able to see before this moment.

When the cry is made to God and He is given the right to judge the circumstance and you will allow Him and Him alone to pass the verdict, God can reveal to you a sustaining and a nourishment that you have overlooked.



"Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.  And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer." ~Genesis 21:18-20 

God opened her eyes to something that was there all the time. God did not allow her to be thrown out of protection and care. He was her protection, provision, and care!

Was Abraham and Sarah wrong? Absolutely!!!

Do good people do bad things to others? Absolutely!!!

When we focus on the injustice of others and on how our life is now in tatters because of those injustices we are missing an opportunity. God IS "EL-O-HEEM"!

He is The Righteous Judge that wants to rule on our behalf with a perfect justice! He wants to divert our gaze away from the wrongdoing and focus it on where it should have been all along! On HIM!

He is our provider!



I love art.

I have always had a fascination with the ability to express thought and mood through an image.
The Creation of Adam is arguably the most famous section of Michelangelo's fresco Sistine Chapel ceiling. Painted circa 1511–1512. It is traditionally thought to illustrate the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God breathes life into Adam, the first man.

God is depicted as an elderly white-bearded man wrapped in a swirling cloak while Adam, on the lower left, is completely nude. God's right arm is outstretched to impart the spark of life from his own finger into that of Adam, whose left arm is extended in a pose mirroring God's, a reminder that man is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26). Another point is that Adam's finger and God's finger are not touching. It gives the impression that God, the giver of life, is reaching out to Adam who receives it; they are not on "the same level" as would be two humans shaking hands, for instance.
What I see is one hand, the hand of God, reaching for His creation. Every tone of muscle on the arm of God is strained to reach a casual effortless raise of a finger.

What Michelangelo depicted was a powerful image of the relationship that we have with God. He is straining to touch us and we casually acknowledge, when convenient, His presence.

If you will take the injustices of life to God, what you will ALWAYS have your eyes opened to find is that God is and has always been straining to touch you! He is EL-O-HEEM!

As that child grew he was very much aware of the promise that The Righteous Judge had given him the day that God was allowed to be seen as The Righteous Judge!



I am not sure who this post is for today but I will say this, Hidden streams are only hidden if your gaze is set on something other than the stream.

Do people do bad things to other people? Absolutely!

Do good people do bad things to others? Absolutely!!!

Is God able to render The Perfect verdict?

A dying child discovered... "And God heard..."


The same God is still listening if you are willing to talk.


Climbing with you,
~Dan

The two best words ! (Part 2)

This past Wednesday in the post "The Two Best Words" ,we began what would appear to have been an impossible search. The quest was to look through the entire Bible and find two words that were the absolute best, which two words would they be?

I mean if you were to look in your Bible, and choose two words from the 66 books that make up the bible, if you could look in the 1,189 chapters that make up your Bible, if you could choose from the 31,173 verses…If you could somehow spread out all 773,692 words that are in your Bible on the floor, smooth them all out to get an idea as to what you had and choose two that would sum up the collection, which two words would you choose?

Two words that would sum up every story told in the Old Testament, and at the same time give reason to every miracle in the New Testament. Those two words would also sum up the attributes of God, and give reason for the Bible; they would also sum up everything from creation to salvation, and also cover the future of the believer.

Not just that, but wait, there’s more, they would also be two words that if you could ever fully wrap your mind around them, they would change your walk with God, and the way you talk with God, and the way that you treat God, and the way that you would serve God…

The two best words… Which would you choose?

I showed you my choice. They would be the first two words found in Romans 5:8

"BUT GOD..."

We looked at the phrase, "I was unloved, But God loved me!"

I want to continue with this three part reason why these are my favorite two words.

2. I was lost, but God saved me.

I do not pretend to understand why God loved you and I so much that he would give his son for us…

I can certainly identify with the apostle Paul when he exclaimed in Galatians 2:20 that "He loved me and gave himself for me!" 

It was not about him dying for the world, that price would seem to be worth it.

It was not about him dying for everyone in America, that price would seem to be worth it.

It wasn’t about him dying for everybody in the state of Alabama, because I can find the answer behind the equal sign, but when I think about Jesus and what he did for me. That is incredible!!!

I was the lost sheep! You were the one that prompted the shepherd to leave the fold and go looking.

There are two types of people in the world today. There are repaired people and there are broken people. If you are repaired by Christ than it tells me that there was a time when you were broken. If you are reading this and you are broken then that tells me that you can be repaired!

We can all echo what the apostle Paul said:

 

"O wretched Man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" ~Romans 7:24

 

We find in Romans 5:12

 

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" ~Romans 5:12

 

By our very nature we were sinners, and by our very nature we rejected a Holy God.

 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." ~Romans 5:19

While you and I were rejecting God and while we were entrenched in sin, God was commending his love to us.

 

“Oh the love that drew salvations plan, oh the grace that brought it down to man…”

 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." ~Romans 5:8

The word "Commendeth" is powerful. It is the word Soon-Is-Tah-O

SOON-IS-TAH-O = To recommend, or to approve of

You and I can stand at this moment, fully forgiven for Christ’s sake.

 I was searving as a Youth Pastor in Illinois when a friend of mine recommended I read a book called "Fly-boys" by James Bradley. It was the stories of eight airmen who were shot down in World War two in the pacific theater of operations. There is a statement at the end of that book that I have never forgotten.

“If you ever wonder if Americans love their freedom, ask any mamma who hung that gold star in the window. Their sons buried  on the fields of Iwo Jima,Hawaii, and the Philipines. They are buried in New Mexico, Arlington, and Normandy.Some are buried in unmarked, even forgotten graves… Do American love freedom? Never doubt the love, look at the price that was paid for it!"

 

Whenever I wonder if God knew what he was getting when he saved me, when ever I wonder if he wanted to save me, all I have to do is look...

“On that hill far away, where stood an old rugged cross, the very emblem of suffering and shame”

"Did I want to save you Dan? Look at the price that I paid because I love you and you never have need to ever doubt my love”

I do not fully understand why he would pay that kind of price for us… But aren’t you grateful for it.

 

These two words are the best words because they tell me, that:

 

I was Unloved, But God loved me…And because God loved me:

I was lost, but God saved me… And because God saved me:

 

  

3. I was unusable, but God can Use me

I know me, and this thought always shakes me up inside…"God can use me."

God can use you!

God wants to use you, and God wants to use me.

When I read of all the people in the Bible that would have ended up doing something for themselves, but God wanted to use them.

 The great commission was given to everyone of us, and it was given because God wants you and I, through Him, to perform it.

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" ~Ephesians 2:10

 

God can use anybody, who is willing to be used.

 

You are His vessel, even if you are a Crackpot!

If you were to look in your Bible, and choose two words from the 66 books that make up the bible, if you could look in the 1,189 chapters that make up your Bible, if you could choose from the 31,173 verses…If you could somehow spread out all 773,692 words that are in your Bible on the floor, and choose two that would sum up the collection, which two words would you choose?

Two words that would sum up every story told in the Old Testament, and at the same time give reason to every miracle in the New Testament. Those two words would also sum up the attributes of God, and give reason for the Bible; they would also sum up everything from creation to salvation, and also cover the future of the believer.

Not just that, but wait, there’s more, they would also be two words that if you could ever fully wrap your mind around them, they would change your walk with God, and the way you talk with God, and the way that you treat God, and the way that you would serve God…

The two best words… Which would you choose?

 "But God..." ~Romans 5:8

These two words would be my choice!

They tell me that:

I was Unloved, But God loved me…And because God loved me:

I was lost, but God saved me… And because God saved me:

I was unusable, but God can use me!

(Now that we have spread out all the words all over the floor and made a colossal mess, I need to go run an errand and you are crazy if you think I am going to help you pick all these up!)

Climbing with you,
~Dan

The two best words

 

This blog post did not come into being the way that a blog post does for me. I have a set process that I go through when I prepare a post, and this post came as a result of a conversation that I had with my (at the time) two and a half year old son.

So I can assure you that this post will not be hard to follow.

My son Clark loves Hot Wheels cars. He was almost three, but already he was quite an authority on them. He loved to play with his hot wheels cars.

Whenever he and I would play cars together, he would drag out his 9 lb. "car bucket" and we would dump them all out into a big pile in the middle of the floor, and then we would smooth them all out so that you could see what it is that you were dealing with.

Then like clockwork he would ask me, “Which car do you want daddy?”

This was a very big question for him, so I would get the most serious look on my face that I could and I rub would my chin, as if I were making the most important decision in my life, and I would always ask him, “Which car is the best car?”

 

He then would begin to sort and sift through that pile of cars looking for the car that was the best car of his collection. He was looking for the one car that would sum up the pile. The best one of them all, the representative car if you will

One night while I was tucking him in bed, we were going over his memory verse. The one verse that you don’t fully appreciate until you are a parent… Ephesians 6:1

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”~ Ephesians 6:1

I had told him that he was doing very well with his verse, and that someday he would be able to read God’s words all by himself.

“Those words are God’s words?”, He asked.

I said, “Yeah buddy, all these words are God’s words, and they are all for you.”

He then surprised me when he got a very serious look on his face, and began to rub his chin, he very thoughtfully and slowly asked me…

“Daddy, Which words are the best words?”

That got me thinking…

???Which words are the best words???

I mean if you were to look in your Bible, and choose two words from the 66 books that make up the bible, if you could look in the 1,189 chapters that make up your Bible, if you could choose from the 31,173 verses…If you could somehow spread out all 773,692 words that are in your Bible on the floor, smooth them all out to get an idea as to what you had and choose two that would sum up the collection, which two words would you choose?

Two words that would sum up every story told in the Old Testament, and at the same time give reason to every miracle in the New Testament. Those two words would also sum up the attributes of God, and give reason for the Bible; they would also sum up everything from creation to salvation, and also cover the future of the believer.

Not just that, but wait, there’s more, they would also be two words that if you could ever fully wrap your mind around them, they would change your walk with God, and the way you talk with God, and the way that you treat God, and the way that you would serve God…

The two best words… Which would you choose?

I began to pursue this, and I began to look to find them, and we are about to read them in this very post!

 I am pretty sure that if I were to spread out my collection of all 773,692 words, I have found the ones that I would lift up as the response to that question.

 

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received atonement" ~Romans 5:1-11.

These eleven verses contain so much, however I would like to draw your attention back to verse number 8.

 

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" ~Romans 5:8

This is an incredibly beautiful verse in its entirety, but  I would like to bring by way of this verse my reason for choosing two words from this verse to be the best words in the Bible.

Two words that tell me so much about my Savior, two words that tell me about what God has in store for me, and two words that reveal to us the very essence of God.

I would ask you to notice the first two words of this verse.

“But God”

Just think about that for a minute.

“But God”

Where would you be right at this moment, but God?

What kind of life would you have right at this moment, but God?
What direction would you be headed, But God?

What kind of home would you have, what kind of Children would you be raising, what kind of parents would you have…but God?

We could take a trip through our Bibles and see what things would be like, But God!

I would start in Genesis 1:1 with creation.

“In the beginning (There would be nothing, But) God created the heaven and the earth.”~ Genesis 1:1

Even then, verse two lets us know,

That the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, (But God in his spirit moved upon the face of the waters)

The Children of Israel would have remained in Egyptian bondage, But God!!!

They could have said, “We were trapped by the Red Sea, with the Pharaohs army bearing down on us, But God!

The walls of Jericho would have stood as a monument of man’s strength, But God!

A Shepherd boy named David would have been stepped on by Goliath, But God!

The middinaites would have destroyed Gideon’s people, But God!

Elijah could have said, There were 450 false prophets of Baal on top of a mountain trying to prove to a fickle nation that Baal was was the true god, But God!!!

There was a Great general by the name of Namaan who could have said, “There was no cure for me, but God!!!

A shunemite womans son that had died, But God!

Three Hebrew captives guilty only of having the Faith to stand when those around them bowed would have been burned alive, but God!

The Old Testament is overflowing with situations, and circumstances that testify that the only reason they turned out the way they did was, “But God!”

The blind man in the book of mark, could say, “I would have died beside that road a blind beggar, but God!!!

There was a woman with an issue of blood, Who had spent all that she had, But God!

There was a centurion named Jarius with an only daughter that died of a sickness, But GOD!

A man named Lazarus who had been buried four days, But God!

A lost religious leader named Nicodemus, But God!

A fisherman named Peter, But God!

A persecutor named Saul going from house to house turning converts into prisoners, But God!

A maniac in a cemetery, But God!

A woman at the well lost in her sin, But God!

 

A man sick of the palsy lowered through a roof, paralyzed, But God!

 

A woman taken in Adultery, But God!

 

A man Crippled beside the pool of Bethesda, But God!

 

And the list goes on and on, ultimately ending with two words…But God!

Then we come to Romans 5 and verse 8, and the greatest use of these two words is found.

 "But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" ~Romans 5:8

I would like to make three simple observations as to why, to me, these two words are the best words of the collection.

1. I was unloved, but God loved me.

Did you know that God loves you?

So many times we generalize John 3:16, Oh yes, the World, but God loves you.

It would change the way we talk to him, if we would take the time to think about that fact.

It is an all consuming love.

“God loves you, not because of who you are, but because of whose you are.”

You cannot get away from God’s love.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~Romans 8:35-39

We are more than conquerors because of his love.

 The way to survive any heartache, is to know how much God loves you.

We could get through anything if we would just stop and look up and realize that the God of the universe is not holding it against us!!! He loves us. He loves you!

We tend to apply our human understanding of love to an infinite God.

We say "I’LL LOVE YOU, IF YOU LOVE ME" or some people are even more mature than this and they would go as far as to say, "I LOVE YOU, THEN YOU LOVE ME".

God’s love is so much greater than that and it is so much beyond a human level. God says,
"I LOVE YOU, EVEN IF YOU DON’T LOVE ME"

"There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."
                                                                                 ~Romans 3:11

 

God said, I LOVE YOU, KNOWING THAT YOU WON’T LOVE ME!!!

I do not understand his love, but I sure am grateful for it!

I do not encourage anyone to turn away from God, but if you do, you have the perfect opportunity to see the depth of his love.

Someone once said, That God needed sin to prove his love for man, I don’t know, if anyone needed sin it would me man, so that he could wake up and see the love that God had always had for man.

"God does not love us because of our perfection; God loves us because of his perfection."

 

"Charity never faileth:.." ~ ! Corinthians 13:8

You do not have to fail, because you have a God that loves you.

You know, God loves you even if you can’t seem to love yourself.

There are Christians that hate themselves…What right do you have? If anyone has the right to hate you because of sin, it is the Holy God of the universe, and he chooses to love you…

Our sin is no surprise to God, he already decided how he felt about you, and he decided that he loves you. I remember reading a story some time back that I would like to share with you.

 

Some years ago, on a hot summer day in south Florida, a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his house. In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming toward the shore.

His father, working in the yard, saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, he ran toward the water, yelling to his son as loudly as he could. Hearing his voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his father. It was too late. Just as he reached his father, the alligator reached him.

From the dock, the father grabbed his little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war between the two. The alligator was much stronger than the father, but the father was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard his screams, raced from his truck, took aim and shot the alligator.

Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the vicious attack of the animal. And, on his arms, were deep scratches where his father's fingernails dug into his flesh in his effort to hang on to the son he loved.

The newspaper reporter who interviewed the boy after the trauma asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, "But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. I have them because my Dad wouldn't let me go!"

 

Maybe you are reading this blog and even now you bear the physical scars, or the emotional scars of a painful past where the devil had you, and some of those scars may cause some deep regret…the Devil wanted you, but the scars you may have can remind you that God your father wanted you more, and he was not going to let go.

“Though I forget him, and wander away, still he doth love me wherever I stray, back to his dear loving arms would I flee, when I remember that Jesus loves ME!

These two words to me are the best words in the Bible because they tell me, that I was unloved but God loved me, and because God loved me…

 I cannot wait till this Saturday when you and I can look at the collection of words that sum up God and see the other two reasons why the words "BUT GOD" are my two favorite words!

 

Climbing with you,

~Dan