I've got a secret, it is that....

I’ve Got A Secret: it is that!

There was a TV game show back when TV was a child, back in the late 1950’s. A guest came with a secret, an unusual job, or a sports record or had made a scientific discovery, and a panel of show biz stars asked questions in turns trying to be the one to guess the secret. It was entertaining, hilarious at times. And I think now, why do we not ask God more questions about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit?

Children get to be a certain age and they begin to ask a very, very important question: “Why?” God forbid that we as parents or adults ever quench the spirit of that question. We ought to guide and temper the spirit by the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but we ought to guard the integrity and the liveliness of the child’s curiosity. If we are skillful we will direct the child to God, who gives better answers than we do.

God is the Author of life, of your life and my life and every human life. We believe that. We know that He created man and woman in His image and then let them fall from His grace. Yes, He did. He subjected the entire creation to vanity, to futility, in hope!

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Romans 8:20

When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God they became alienated and separated from God. They were separated from the power of God, from that power of an endless life which can only be found in God. The “Second Adam”, the second “Man” (for Adam means man) came to rejoin man to God, to reconcile Man to Himself. In doing so God was also reconciling the whole world to himself.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2Corinthians 5:17-19

A most wonderful thing to know about God is that he has a plan, he has effectively for us always had a plan, He has always succeeded in His plan, and will always succeed in it until it is completely and forever finished. It is a magnificent and an amazing plan. God is a magnificent and amazing Being. We at the present moment see through a glass darkly, we live in a fallen world, a temporary condition; we are suspended for a short moment between eternity past and eternity future. What we as born again creatures would like to see and experience is the fullness of the immortality God has saved us to have. We are not quite there yet! But we are so much closer than we may now imagine!

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Romans 8:19-25

When children, and when we as grown spiritual children of any age begin to ask: “Why?” let us also always remember to ask: “Who?” The context for all our seeking must reasonably include, yes even begin with “Who?” When our children ask us: “Why?” we must direct them to “Who?”: to God. If we do not we are failing to do what the Lord commands us:

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4

Human lives, children’s lives which are presently lived out in the midst of the vanity (futility) in which all creation groans in pain must find their way out of that vanity into the liberty of God’s love and salvation. We can do no other thing except remain separated from God and die and remain eternally separated from Him. Hell is real, and the second death is real. Thank God, Thank You Lord Jesus for overcoming the world, and the grave, and death and hell!!!

Now it is very true that God’s part is to save us. He does all the heavy lifting. But when have been awakened by God to His love and to His truth, to His Authority and His Power, we simply must respond in agreement with all His plan. God will not fail to do the thing He has planned to do! When we come to know that He desires in love to include us in His Kingdom of Love we simply must not refuse His gift of redemption in Jesus Christ the crucified. Doing that might be like a baby refusing to leave its mother’s womb. Such a baby would die doing so.

Now born again parents do not have the responsibility to save their children, but they are certainly charged to educate and to edify them. A parent of God must become him/herself the child of God, asking “Why” and also now asking: “How?”

I’ve got a secret? God certainly has some secrets. Many things of God are just “above our pay grade.” We will never know, and we don’t need to know and should not want to know everything God knows. We could wish Adam and Eve never knew what a certain fruit tasted like. Yet there are things we need to know, and most importantly there are people we need to know. And God is people; He is “good people.” It has been said that “it’s not what you know but who you know.”

And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. Exodus 34:6-7

Compassionate, gracious, longsuffering (slow to anger, patient), merciful, truthful, faithful (to keep His promises) and forgiving is our Lord! This is the answer to the question: “Who?” Do I know this? Do I trust God to be as He has said? Do I know Him; the One Who has this character? He spoke those words (Exodus 34:6-7) to Moses. (He also warned us that our iniquity, our bad habits of sin, would be found in our children. The obvious need is to forsake iniquity and sin). He revealed Himself to Moses. He shared His secret with Moses and thank God He shared it with us too!!! It might well be that our greatest need as humans is simply to know our Creator “up close and personal.” Moses talked with God as a man speaks with his friend, “face to face.” Abraham is called the friend of God. Our genuine faith in God the Lord brings us into the grace, the favor of God, and that favor is that we may know God personally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit!!!

As Bob Mumford notes God is self revealed. If God did not reveal Himself to us, we could not discover Him. It must be this that makes the prayer: “God if you are there, show me yourself to me” a prayer God has delighted to answer for so many people. Can it be that God does have a secret but that He is just dying to share it with the world? Or is it that He actually did die to share it with the world? Since Jesus died on that Judean hillside two centuries ago, the secret has been revealed in a way that cannot be denied by those who will ask “Why?” and “Who?” and “How?” For those of us to whom God has revealed Himself, our greatest need is to ask God now: “What is it that you have planned for me to be and to do in life.” To discover this will bring our faith into the full, real, and true context of His great plan of Life.

If Paul, the mighty man of God, the apostle of Christ, the student of the risen Savior could write from his Roman prison the following words, how much more ought we in our freedom embrace them as the greatest response of gratefulness to our God and Savior?

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14


“…that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus…”

As Mumford teaches, “that” is the very thing, the very secret which God desires us to seek. If we will ask Him what that is, he will tell us, and we should then move toward the fullness of life in which He has always intended for us to live. It (that) will be pleasant to us and to Him. Jesus came to do “that.” For Jesus that was summed up in this word:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. Luke 4:16-21

That also included:

Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end (that) was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
John 18:37

And that included His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Hebrews 12:2-3

Sacrifices and grain offerings you don't want; burnt offerings and sin offerings you don't demand. Instead, you have given me open ears; so then I said, "Here I am! I'm coming! In the scroll of a book it is written about me. Doing your will, my God, is my joy; your Torah is in my inmost being. Psalm 40:6-8 [Complete Jewish Bible]

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come (that): (as) in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. Psalm 40:6-8 [KJV]

The will of God seems to be a “secret” and not known to so many today who name the name of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Apart from a calling to “five-fold” ministry there are callings we are all called to as believers. We are called to be obedient to God’s commandments. Whenever we introduce obedience into the mix we encounter resistance to that. There is something about our natures as sinners that resists being told what to do. We have all gone our own way like sheep astray from the Shepherd. The really surprising thing seems to be also a secret: that it is actually, truly a joy to do that, the will of God. “Doing your will, my God, is my joy.” Psalm 40:8

It is not so much that we must stop sinning as it is that we start doing God’s will. Experience should have taught us that though pleasant at the first, sinning always ends in pain and sorrow. That pain and sorrow can be very, very deep, bitter and full of regrets. Yet if we simply stop sinning something else must be done, and “nothing” is not a viable option. Sin will leap back into nothing (idleness) quicker than you can say “Jack be nimble.” It will be difficult, near impossible to find that until we begin to stop sinning, that is: until we begin to change our thinking and acting. It will be difficult to repent until we learn what that which we are all called to do is. It seems as if we are trapped on a circular track just going around and around, and as Bro. Mumford teaches this is exactly how our lives play out in part. The habits of sin lead us in a circle so that we come back to our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chances to change how we behave. I regret to say that it has been the 15933rd chance on some sins that seems perhaps to have wearied me enough to begin to change.

Bro. Mumford also teaches of the “eros prison.” The eros prison is the place we may find ourselves in when our “self referential”, self absorbed, autonomous desires lead us off the path with God and onto a sidetrack, a rabbit trail in search of what is false. “…narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life," Matthew 7:14 When we go after that which is of the world, flesh or devil God continues to love us, and loves us enough to resist us: he send us in circles. Here we need to hear a word from God to bring us out of ourselves, out of the falsehood, away from the deceptions back into that which He has called us to. He does so by speaking a word to us. I pray I will have a keener ear for there is a need for sharp hearing in this present life.

Certainly a good and very edifying part of that which we are all called to is what are called the means of grace. Among them are prayer, worship, bible study, fellowship and outreach. In my estimation bible study is very important. God loved us while we were still sinners and had a book written to reveal Himself to those who will read it and believe in Him. It seems to me that in the year 2010 the virtues of the Holy Bible ought to be the subject of more preachers and sermons than ever before. Everyone who has a Bible has a treasure that is (figuratively?) written in the blood of the Savior and His prophets. It cost many men of God the revelation of their lives in a public manner, a manner we might not want to be applied to our lives (I can hear the amens rolling in!). How would you like to be Samson and have your sins recorded for all to read about? Or Jonah, or Judah or Jacob? But if we are to stay on the path Bro. Mumford calls the Agape Road, we will help ourselves greatly by knowing and understanding God’s book. I think Bible Study is certainly a part of that for everyone. Today’s bible software programs are awesome tools which the average person can use to read, and study the Word.

We need to act on what we are shown by God (the Bible is a means by which God’s shows us that), and we can do this confidently knowing He is motivated by His love to do us only good. We can trust God. We need desperately to admit that God’s ways are not our ways. God’s love is different than a sinner’s love. Yet by the efforts of our faith and by placing our confidence in God’s loving gift of salvation we can begin to think, act and love as God loves! God cannot sin against us; He cannot harm us, for He cannot sin at all, ever! What He can do is manage the mess of sins we and our fellow men do commit in such a way as to move us toward Him. He would prefer we not persist in sins, but when we do He knows how to move the chess pieces on our board (in our neighborhood) in a way that humbles us and brings our willing change of mind and deeds. Eventually by God’s providence of our circular experiences in life we learn that His ways are far better than ours.


Now obedience to God’s commandments is by the grace of God and by the power of God no longer a burden. But it cannot be emphasized strongly enough that the joy of obedience cannot be appreciated well apart from knowing God intimately. Compassionate, gracious, longsuffering (slow to anger, patient), merciful, truthful, faithful (to keep His promises) and forgiving is our Lord! Do I really know this? I have not yet had a face to face with Jesus. Peter did, and John did, and Paul did. Oh, I want one!!! Notwithstanding it is by faith not by sight we now walk out the life we live. And the Holy Spirit is also God "compassionate, gracious, longsuffering (slow to anger, patient), merciful, truthful, faithful (to keep His promises) and forgiving." When we really see the Father, our Father in Heaven as He is, and we see Him in Jesus, then we can walk on the water, that is we can obey God even and especially when what we are commanded seems so opposite to all we were taught by the world and the devil. God’s righteousness is a gift we are to receive, unwrap, discover, trust, internalize, experience, depend on and behave in. It is brought to us by Jesus in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells.

Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? John 14:9

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:1-2

We are being transformed from sin and from sinning into that.

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. Colossians 1:9-20

I think if the Catholics are right about praying to the saints I would pray to Saint Paul, Saint John, and Saint Peter.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 1John 5:3-5

It is a simple and obedient act to believe God, to trust Him, to have faith that He will keep His promises, all of them. That it is!

...seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all (that)these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:28-29

Believing God is a work of God!!! That it is! It is the will of God.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13

By believing God, and receiving God gives us His authority (power) to become His own sons and daughters.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. John 14:1

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:20-23

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. John 20:29-31

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 1John 5:1-15

Believing God is obeying God. Believing God actively leads to life in God. From faith to faith and glory to glory...

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another. John 15:1-17

Abraham is called the father of our faith, for He believed God and did not stagger in his belief. He obeyed God from the platform of faith in God. God is gracious to love even the ignorant unsaved sinner, but requires faith to unlock to door to His promises of salvation. Moses and Abraham were friends of God, and the proof of it was that they did as He commanded them. It is amazing to me that they were so very close to God. It is just beyond my present experience to have God say to me such things as He said to them. But they were charged with things that we know were done so that all who came after them might know God more intimately by there doing! No one will again be called to go down into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel. No one will again be called to return from Babylon and build the second temple. There are yet “heros” of the faith to come, and there are even heroes in the earth today. The question remains for me and for you is:

What is “that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus…?”

For I was so happy when some brothers came and testified how faithful you are to the truth, as you continue living in the truth. Nothing gives me greater joy than hearing that my children are living in the truth. Dear friend, you are faithful in all the work you are doing for the brothers, even when they are strangers to you. They have testified to your love in front of the congregation. You will be doing well if you send them on their way in a manner worthy of God, 3John 1:3-6 Complete Jewish Bible

This scripture certainly gives a fuller view of the simple things we can do to accomplish that. God shows us that that has everything to do with how we receive and assist brothers who are also doing that.

Are there some things of which God seems to yet be saying: “I’ve got a secret.” ????? His secrets are to be revealed for we who love Him and are called according to (that) His purpose!

May we gain and exercise the heart, mind, soul and strength to love God enough to ask Him what that is and to do just that. Amen