Secrets; We've All Got 'Em

Secrets, we've all got them don't we?  And yet when you meet and talk to people you would think you are the only person on the planet who has any secrets to be kept.  People as a whole are pretty good actors, because we've all got a few skeletons in our closets; you know things we don't want anyone to ever find out about us, but you would never know it to talk to them.

It's pretty crazy too, how we think we can stash these secrets away, figuring they will never be found out.  But in the end, secrets have a way of escaping from the behind the closet doors in our lives, often to our embarrassment and shame.  

One of my favorite stories found in the Bible is about King David and the time he watched a young lady taking a bath.  You can find it in 2 Samuel 11, but here is the "Dave" version. There was a time when kings were supposed to go to war, but King David stayed behind and sent his men on to the battle. One night he went for a walk on the roof of his palace, and happened to notice a lady bathing.  Immediately, he sent men to find out who she was, and she ends up coming to see the king, and they have sex producing a child.

This woman belonged to another man; one of David's own bodyguards, and this didn't even stop him from doing what he did.  Ultimately it ended in the death of Uriah, David's man. This secret came out, and David was humiliated by it, losing the respect of his men, and the people he ruled not to mention the son Bathsheba had given birth to.

We tend to hide our secrets because we are trying desperately to not look bad in the eyes of others. We are so concerned with our image, we let our integrity go by the wayside. While in the end, most secrets come to the light of day, embarrassing us anyway.  And this isn't just in Bible stories, it doesn't end there, every day we hear some story about someone who turns out to be someone different than we all thought.  

We see it on the news, or read it in an article and think to ourselves, "Oh my, how can this be?  I thought they were such a good person."  But the truth is, we start running through the Rolodex in our brain searching for our own skeletons making sure they are still hidden from view, with the thought, "If they can get to him, they can get me too."  

It's a horrible place to live as I'm sure you are well aware, I know this has been my address before.  What really makes this bad, is we were never meant to live like this. Adam and Eve started us on this path so many, many years ago, hiding from God after partaking of the fruit they were told not to eat. And to this day, we are all still trying to hide who we are too. We are bound by the secrets in our lives, because they keep us from living full lives they way we were intended to.

Maybe what we need to do, is offer a little bit of grace to those around us, realizing they, just like us have secrets which are keeping them bound and they need to be free from. What if we all worked at not having secrets? What if we brought those skeletons out of the closet into the light of day, and set them free? I'm pretty sure we would all be better people for it too. No more secrets to keep hidden from view, no more watching what we say, trying to keep people from knowing the truth about us; which is we are all imperfect, there is no one perfect, except Jesus.

Let's open the closet doors, release the skeletons and find the full life we are supposed to live; free of guilt and shame. Until next time, strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King.

The Kingdom of Heaven Is At Hand and Heaven, Are They Different?

Jesus made the following statement while He was on the Earth, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Now I think that anytime you see Jesus say something, then it probably is something that we should take note of. But I think this statement gets caught up in the religiosity of the Christian community and takes on something other than what Jesus perhaps meant.

Here is what I mean, Jesus says, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." and we hear, "Everything you will ever need you will have in Heaven." You've heard it said, and maybe even said it yourself to friends, family members and co-workers that are not born again, "Don't you want to get saved so you can go to Heaven?" (And yes, I too have used that lame line to try and win someone to the Lord. Father forgive me for misrepresenting You in that way.)

Yes I believe that if you die, and have been born again you will go to Heaven, but I don't believe for a minute anymore that that is the end all of what Jesus purchased for us with His death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Everything that Jesus did, He did for us here on Earth. He came to return us to the original design. (That would be Adam & Eve in the Garden with a personal relationship with God the Father.) Yet, we cheapen it for so many people when all we try and do is get them saved without telling them what the real purpose is for that.

We were designed to have fellowship with the Father, Son & Holy Spirit, that is God's original idea. But because of the sin of Adam and Eve we fell, and that relationship was cut off. God sent Jesus to die for us, in our place, for the punishment of that sin so that we could return to the fellowship that God had desired in the first place. But until we actually accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we cannot be a part of that.

Look at Luke 4:17 -1 9: And there was delivered to Jesus 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 has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has 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 then He sat down and said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears."

Jesus told the people there that this is why He had come, to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. We have everything that we need right now, are you poor, the Kingdom can make you rich; are you brokenhearted? Jesus was sent to heal your broken heart. Are you bound, then deliverance is yours. Can you not see (Either for real or spiritually?), then you can recover your sight. He has brought us liberty, and the year of jubilee, which when it happened meant you get all your stuff back! Hallelujah! That's good news.

So this whole thing is for the here and now, not in the by and by. We can have all of our needs met, whatever they are in the here and now, if we will just believe and act in faith. I don't know about you, but that makes me want to do a little happy dance. (Something I took time to do just now.) I am getting excited about my future, it is a bright one, and I will be operating in the Kingdom of God today, not when I get to Heaven, how about you?

Get 'em up folks, let's go out and whip something for the Kingdom of God today!