The Secret's Out

April question: Can God be reduced to a force of energy as described in The Secret?

Realizing the smallness of this voice, I am praying some honorable preacher or two will speak out against the humanistic blasphemy of The Secret, which is apparently gaining momentous acceptance among the herd. It would be a consolation to be talking about the unchurched, Bible disbelieving souls but due to the decrepit broken horrors of the fall of the House of God, there are churched “believers” who will be absorbed into this latest false religion. I have probably already lost a couple of readers because of my forceful, blunt attack! I wonder how I will talk to my friend who loaned it to me without offending her.

Why can I only think blasphemy? Why am I so haunted and troubled, days past watching The Secret? Because I know who God is. Many believe we can not know Him. He is too Big and Mysterious. God is revealed and we can spend a lifetime getting to know Him by His Spirit, in His written Word, and most of all, by observing closely the life of His Son. Few have dedicated entire lifetimes to knowing God. We can know so much more than anyone cares to admit. If we confess that He is knowable, suddenly we are accountable and our efforts are indeed pitiful.

First revealed as a plural, relational Being in the Creation chapters of Genesis, we know the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are eternally One God in Three Persons. The earliest author, Moses, knew way before First Christmas…Jesus was, is, and is to come. David Baron, in his commentary on Zechariah, a 1918 publication, wrote, “And so it is always: in all His relations and dealings with Men, both in mercy and in judgment, it is God in Christ who acts.” (p 380)

God flat out told us, man is made in His image. He thinks, feels, creates, and in our small, limited human form so do we. He is jealous of other gods that man created because He is it! In relationship with us, like a marriage, He requires that we honor that He is the One True God to be loved with our whole heart, whole mind and whole strength.
Enter Beckwith, Canfield and Vitale, etc. saying men can think and feel things into being, by law of attraction. You could categorize this passionate fantasy or vision (BTW, that’s the BIG SECRET!) as prayer, as they eventually do in the end. Truth be known, prayer does not force God into anything He does not want to do, anything outside His purpose. Thus, God says NO. And what a terrifying world we would live in if we DID run the show! I rest in the fact that it is God who has ultimate control. God is not a child spoiling Santa Claus.

Allow me to refresh you memory as mine was yesterday. Jesus did not think and feel His own human desire into being. Quite the contrary, His prayer was, “not My will, but Thine be done.” Look at the contrast. God’s will is not necessarily our own fleshly desire. Because Jesus was living the human experience—He finally could understand the conflict human beings live with every day. Will I do what I want or will I serve God’s purpose? Will following God’s will bring me pleasure as the conveyors of The Secret promise? No. Nor will following our own. So what IS the secret to happiness?

God way is not always a path of joy. Much hardship, struggle, and outright self-denial is at the core. At some point, there will be peace and joy in knowing God’s pleasure. “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” What Jesus went through for us in His last day on earth—unspeakable torture---no one could label as a JOYFUL experience. Enduring love and power brought Jesus through His toughest obedient act—for your sake and mine. For God’s sake. Certainly not the Son of Man’s sake. There was no trace of self-satisfaction, self-fulfillment, self-anything. It was the single most selfless act in history! The me-generation that is embracing the Babylonian’s well kept Secret has no idea what it means to carry your cross.
Be not assuaged.

Isaiah 52 and 53

Previously, "The Jewish Element" talked about the High Priest emerging from the Temple's Holy of Holies, the room of God's Presence. It was always a question whether the priest could survive, as in LIVE, to tell the people of God's mercy in accepting their animal sacrifice for their sins. WAS IT PERFECT ENOUGH?

Clothed in white linen, as the High Priest of Leviticus 16:3-4 was instructed, Jesus was buried and on the third day, rose from the grave to assure the world of God’s sealed approval. THE GREATEST SACRIFICE HAD BEEN PERFECT ENOUGH! Jesus Christ, the Messiah, had been led out of the city to a hill in the wilderness because He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (~John 1:29) in the very same way an animal had been taken out of Jerusalem year after year on the Day of Atonement as an act of removing the people's sins, at least for a while. This time, the Scapegoat took them away forever, if you can grasp it.

“As many were astonished at You—His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind—so shall He sprinkle many nations…

"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed…

"Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him; He was put to grief; when His soul makes an offering for sin, He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong His days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied; by His knowledge shall the Righteous One, My Servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities.” ~Isaiah 52:14-15a; 53:4-6 and 10-11 (NASB)

Ye are forgiven, only believe. Put on His robe of righteousness and strive to sin no more. Amen.

“Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

~Jesus Christ (Luke 24:39)