Hidden History: Son of the Morning

"You were the seal of perfection,

full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden, the garden of God...

Ezekiel 28:12-13, NKJV

 

He was Lucifer, son of the morning.  He was the anointed cherub, unique among a special order of angelic beings who are always associated with the presence of God.  Of all the angels created at the very beginning of all things, he has been called the highest of all.  In him was the sum of all of God's wisdom and beauty.  He was the seal of perfection on the first order of creation.

His garments were bejeweled with every precious stone in settings of gold.  His instruments were the timbrels and pipes of high praise and worship, given to him in his origin.  His dwelling place was the garden of God, the original heavenly paradise upon which the earthly Eden was based.  He walked upon the holy mountain of God, surrounded by the fiery stones of a glorious environment.  In him was no imperfection found on the day he was brought forth.

But something happened.

Within this perfect creature, indeed within the spirits of all of God's creatures, was placed the power of choice, the exercise of free will.  Though created to worship the Almighty and service His will, he had the ability to choose otherwise.  He had the purpose of leading all heaven in perfect praise of the Most High, but he also had the potential for pride.

Rather than acquiesce to the intended will of God, he began to think for himself.  Exalted in his own beauty and splendor, he began to consider how he might rise to even greater beauty and splendor.  Regardless of how glorious he already was, he corrupted his own wisdom with the desire to be more than what God had created him to be.

He said within himself, I am not content with the high position in which God has placed me, nor with the perfection which God has given me.  I want more.

Though I abide in the presence of God, I want to ascend into the highest heights of the heavens.

Though I have a position of  highest power and greatest glory among the angels, I want more.

Though I walk on the mountain of God, I want more.

Though I dwell in the garden paradise of God, I want more.

Though I am already magnificent and glorious and foremost in all creation, I want more.

I will ascend into heaven to be higher than I am..

I will exalt my seat of power to be higher than the angels.

I will sit in the mountain of the congregation in authority to be higher than all of God's creation.

I will ascend into the heights above the clouds to be higher than heaven.

I will become like God--no, I will be higher than the Most High.

Pride led to desire, and desire gave place to sin.  He politicked the heavenly hosts, exercising his own influence with the angels and gaining what he thought were the riches of heaven.  He amassed great wealth and power.  He assembled a following--a third of the stars of God--and defiled the sanctuaries in which he had served with the multitude of his iniquities.

The Bible doesn't explicitly tell us so, but I believe God fought for the heart of Lucifer.  The all-knowing, all-seeing Sovereign certainly saw what His anointed cherub was doing.  The Almighty certainly knew what was happening in the angelic ranks.  Surely His Spirit strove to preserve their integrity, their humility, their submission to the wonderful will of God.  Surely He was longsuffering with them, willing not that any should be lost.  Surely He desired that they all stay safe within His loving presence.  Surely He offered them a chance to change, to choose differently.  Surely...

But in the end, selfishness and sin stole the heart of Lucifer, and he rebelled to his own demise.

God cast him out of the mountain, out of paradise, out of heaven.  Vain and profane, he was expelled from the presence of God, driven from his own glorious abode, and exiled to the lowest parts of the earth.  The fire of God consumed him from within, destroying his beauty and glory, reducing him to ashen cremains of his former self.  And a new habitation was prepared for him.

Now was the darkness of death and hell created to cover the one who once was a being of light.  Now were the recesses of the deepest pit dug to hold him who once dwelt in the highest of heights.  Now were the flames of eternal torment fired in the furnace of everlasting destruction to punish him who once walked among the fiery stones of the holy mountain in the glory of God.  Now began the delusion of the devil, that flight of fancy that clings desperately still to the dream of defeating the Divine, and still he exists in vain.  For his end is sure.

And thus is the end all of those whose pride and iniquity keep them from accepting the will, plan, and purpose of God.  But it doesn't have to be, for God has offered a way of escape.  God has offered salvation through Jesus Christ, and through salvation He is the giver of eternal life to all who believe.

A Hidden History: Sons of God

"Who laid its cornerstone,

when the morning stars sang together,

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

God to Job, Job 38:6-7, NKJV

 

In the beginning was God.  He Who has no beginning was there at the beginning.  Indeed, He was the beginning of all things.  He is and was and always will be, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existing in perfect unity throughout all eternity.

 

He brought forth wisdom as His perfect will, knowing all things that would ever be before He created anything at all.  His creation would have form and function and authority and beauty, created to reflect His image and nature in every conceivable way.  He wove Himself into the very fabric of existence, so that everything that came afterward would know Him and worship.

 

He designed the vast expanse of the heavens and planned the layers of the earth, but before He set them in place He wanted a witness.  At the dawn of time, before the foundation of the earth was laid, God brought forth the host of heaven, beings of light and majesty.  Stars of God before there were stars in the heavens, sons of God before there were sons on the earth, servants of the Most High before there was anything to do except to worship the Creator and carry out His will.

 

Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands brilliant points of light shone upon the beginning of all things, witnessing the work of God as He made the heavens and the earth, and every one of them sang together and shouted for joy!  Warriors, messengers, and worshipers filled the beginning with anthems of adoration, a single, unified, universal ovation of praise.  It was perfection, glorious and awesome, but even in perfection, there was peril.

 

As long as there was only God, all was well.  But once God brought into being creatures with free will, with minds and emotions and the ability to choose for themselves to do His will, there was always the possibility that one would choose differently.  Without the power of choice, freedom is an illusion, a phantom, a fantasy.  But God did not want mindless automatons who merely did what He said.  He wanted a creation that would love Him and worship Him and serve Him, not because it had to, but because it wanted to.

 

But what if? one might ask.  What if one perfect being chooses imperfection in pride?  What if one creature defies the Creator and denies His authority?  What if somebody messes it all up?  But remember, there are no what ifs with God.  God already knew.  And because God already knew, God had already acted.  His creation might fall, but God had already formulated forgiveness.  His creation might rebel, but God had already prepared redemption.  His creation might sin, but God had already become the all sufficient sacrifice and sovereign Savior.

 

The work of salvation was finished from the foundation of the world, but history had to unfold first to see it fulfilled.

Forever the Same

"Of old You laid the foundation of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

They will perish, but You will endure;

Yes, all of them will grow old like a garment;

like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed.

But You are the same, and Your years will have no end."

Psalm 102:25-27, NKJV

 

Of old, the Psalmist writes.  Way, way back there.  A long, long time ago.  I really don't understand why people get so bent out of shape over the age of the earth and the universe in which it sits.  I've studied both sides of the old earth-young earth debate.  Both sides have valid points, both sides have inexplicable problems.  I have no problem believing that God made all that is in six days six thousand years ago, and that when He made it, He intentionally made it to appear infinitely old, with all the mysteries of age built into it.  I also have no problem believing that God made all that we now know in six days six thousand years ago, but that the earth and it surroundings may have been here for eons before that, with lots of stuff happening before God made man.  After all, we're talking about an eternal God who doesn't tell us what happened before He begins His account of his dealings with humanity. 

 

Bottom line--regardless of when God created it all, I absolutely believe that God did indeed create it all.

 

Of old, God laid the foundations of the earth.  From nothing He formed everything and laid it out according to His divine design, founding the earth by His power and setting it in the perfect place for life to thrive.  Of old, God stretched out the heavens like a cloak upon the earth, a garment that will serve the purpose of its appointed time before He folds it up and puts it away.

 

These are the works of God's hands.  It wasn't just a matter of uttering a word in the silence and waving an omnipotent hand across the void, casting all of creation into existence.  It was all done deliberately, specifically, intentionally.  God was personally involved in the creation of the heavens and the earth.  God rolled His sleeves up, so to speak, and got His hand dirty in the making.  It was not distant oversight, and neither did He just throw it all up an walk away.  He made it all, He sustains it all, and He continues to work with it all, according to His eternal plan and purpose.

 

Like all things with a beginning, the heavens and the earth also have an appointed end, directed by the sovereignty of God.  They will perish and vanish away.  Like a garment that is worn out with age and use, the earth and heavens that we now know will one day be no more.  God will fold them up and put them away, exchanging them for something even more glorious.

 

But through it all, God will remain, and He will never change.  As He was before it all began, He will be after it all ends.  He who had no beginning will have no end, and He will always be the same.  Which means I can always depend upon Him.  I may change, but He never will.

 

 

 

 

 



Wait

Why do you say..."My way is hidden from the LORD,

and my just claim is passed over by my God"?

Have you not known?  Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth,

neither faints nor is weary.

There is no searching of His understanding.

Isaiah 40:27-28, NKJV

 

Ever wonder if God really knows where you are, if He even cares about your need?  Even those of greatest faith reach places of despair and doubt sometimes.  Job at the height of his troubles.  Moses in the wilderness with wayward rebels.  Elijah on the run from Jezebel.  Jonah in the whale.  John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul in prison.  They all questioned, "God, are you even there?!?  Can't you do something about my situation?"

 

I'm no giant of the faith, but I've served God faithfully for forty years, and there have been a few times, some even recently, where I have turned a heavy heart toward heaven and wondered, "Does God really care about me?"

 

During a heartbreaking season in my life, I sat in the dark, surrounded by a crowd and feeling absolutely alone.  My world was being turned upside down, my life was never going to be the same, and I believed there was no one to stand by my side.  That very night, God brought a brother into my life and has never left me alone.

 

During a time of desperate need, I cried out to God and asked, "Will you really provide my daily bread?"  Prompted by the Lord down the sidewalk to my mailbox and expecting a check that would solve all of my financial problems, I found a ham and cheese sandwich made just the way I like it, wrapped in a sandwich bag and flattened like it had been in the bottom of an angel's backpack.  But that day God showed me that He really would provide, and every time I start to worry about money, I simply remember the sandwich, and all the other things God has blessed me with.

 

During a period of change, I made a life-altering decision that resulted in a major reversal of what I thought was the plan of God.  Turns out THAT decision and THAT reversal were the keys to receiving everything I had been praying for, and I could almost hear God laughing in pleasure at my surprise.  I wish I had trusted Him enough to make that same decision twelve months earlier the first time He put it in front of me.

 

And now here we are.  A life with many needs and few resources.  Unprecedented (for us) challenges in child-rearing.  The daily burden of arduous labor in the fields of the Lord.  Sheep who aren't always easy to lead.  A world that is spinning increasingly toward catastrophe.  Threats of war, economic disaster, political upheaval, cultural chaos.  And some days I find myself on the edge of fear, wondering, "Am I hidden from God's sight?  Is He even hearing my prayers?"

 

But I am reassured by His Word and the presence of His Spirit in my life.  The everlasting almighty Creator of the ends of the earth neither faints nor grows weary, and I don't have to question His understanding.  He has brought me this far and never let me down; He will not start today.  I just need to wait and keep on walking.

 

He gives power to the weak,

and to those who have no might He increases strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

and the young men shall utterly fall,

but those who wait on the LORD

shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary,

they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:29-31, NKJV

 

Wisdom

"The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way,

before His works of old.

I have been established from everlasting,

from the beginning, before there was ever an earth.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no fountains abounding with water,

before the mountains were settled,

before the hills, I was brought forth;

While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields,

or the primeval dust of the world.

When He prepared the heavens, I was there,

when He drew a circle on the face of the deep,

When He established the clouds above,

When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,

When He assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters would not transgress His command,

When He marked out the foundations of the earth,

Then I was beside Him, as a master craftsman;

And I was daily His delight,

Rejoicing always before Him,

Rejoicing in His inhabited world,

and my delight was with the sons of men."

The words of Wisdom, from Proverbs 8:22-31, NKJV

 

Wisdom is skill, especially in regards to warfare.  It is administrative knowledge.  It is shrewdness.  It is religious prudence, ethics, and understanding.  Wisdom is a way of thinking, of deciding, of doing.  Wisdom is something that is pursued, possessed, and practiced as a way of life.  We mostly think of it in the abstract, as something gained by experience and education, a tool designed to assist us to success.  But the Bible tells us that wisdom is so much more than that.

 

Wisdom--the true wisdom that gives birth to knowledge, understanding, and skill--is the very mind and will and heart of God. It was possessed by God at the origin of everything, when He stepped out to start all that is.  It was His before the works of old, before there was an earth, before there were mountains and hills, before there was earth and sky and sea.  When there was yet nothing, Wisdom was brought forth, delivered as a writhing, vigorous babe from the womb of its mother, and given life as the processes of God.  From everlasting, from before, from the eternally existent source came their sovereign force and choice and ability and desire.  From the beginning, God established Wisdom as His rule over all creation.

 

Wisdom was the master craftsman to God's designer, architect, and engineer.  What God wanted, wisdom did.  When God prepared the heavens, Wisdom was there.  When He established the clouds above and the seas beneath, when He laid the foundations of the earth, when He assigned limits to the waters and marked the borders of the earth, Wisdom was at His side.

 

Wisdom delighted the Lord, rejoicing in His presence and over His creation.  Wisdom is the way of God, the will of God, the want of God for humanity--made in His image and after His likeness--to  enjoy God and all of His creation.  Wisdom is the great gift of God to mankind, given ultimate expression and personification in the person of Jesus Christ.  And it is through Jesus Christ, through knowing Him and finding understanding in Him, through experiencing Him and learning from Him, that we fulfill the plan, purpose, and pleasure of God.

 

I Need a Hero

 

My candidate for president, mine only because I felt like I could not in good conscience vote for anyone else running in the Primary, dropped out last night.  I can't really say I disliked Ted Cruz;  I don't know him.  But I wasn't inspired by his run for the presidency.  I was voting for him as my only option in a far-from-perfect race.  So now faced with what some have called a choice between Herod and Jezebel, I am in a quandary.  I can't tell you what I'm going to do yet, except that I'm going to be in serious prayer before the convention this summer, and the election in November, and whatever I do will be a result of trying to follow the leading of the Lord, whom I believe is in control anyway, no matter what.

 

I am also taking a few moments to reflect on what I've learned in the nine election cycles leading up to this one.

   

As Christian believers, my parents voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Ronald Reagan in 1984, believing at the time that those two each represented the values my parents held and lived by.  Three and a half decades after the fact, we know that while Jimmy claimed to be a conservative Christian believer, he never really held conservative Christian beliefs, and while Regaan's credentials as Christian appeared questionable at best, his legacy as a Conservative president is still the standard for conservative Republicans. 

 

I became very interested in politics in 1988, championing first Pat Robertson because of his Christianity, then Bob Dole for his conservatism and war-hero status, and finally George HW Bush for the simple reason that he was the only candidate left.  I knew nothing about him personally, nothing about his faith or his policies, but he was running against Dukakis and Jesse Jackson.  If I had been old enough to vote, my choice would have been clear.

 

I will admit that I was briefly attracted to Bill Clinton's campaign in 1992, but when his character was exposed on the national stage, I voted for Bush instead. Thanks to a third-party bid by the ridiculous Ross Perot, Bush lost and we got eight years of wishy-washy, poll-driven, immoral leadership that did little more than weaken America in the world's eyes, and weaken the moral standards of what until that point had been a Christian-leaning nation.  

 

I voted for Dole in 1996 (I was always a fan, and wish his wife had run at some point). My Dad, a Pastor and Christian conservative, voted for Bill Clinton that year.  His reasoning? He prayed, believed God had shown him Clinton would be the president, so he voted that way. I didn't necessarily agree with his decision, but it was his to make. 

 

By the time 2000 came around, I knew I could never vote for a Democrat on a national level; I will not cast my vote for the party that supports abortion and perversion, that is anti-God, anti-church, anti-righteousness, and anti-Christ. Frankly, I think the Democratic Party is anti-America, too, but that's a different issue altogether; I'm not convinced the Republican party is pro-America any more either. They are all out for their party and themselves. From the day he announced his candidacy, George W. Bush was my candidate in 2000, and I voted for him again in 2004. I didn't agree with everything that he did, but I believe he was a man of integrity who saw our nation through a very dark and difficult time. 

 

John McCain was not my choice in 2008; in fact, I didn't really like any of the candidates who ran that year. My guy didn't run. As I keep saying, I don't know who my guy is, but he didn't run. Faced with a choice between a weak republican and his charismatic Veep pick, and B. Hussein Obama and Big Mouth Joe, I voted for Sarah Palin. 2012 was 2008, second verse same as the first, but my personal opinion is that Mitt Romney was closer to me in both faith and practice than the undercover Islamist in the White House. 

 

Now here we are, looking at another election cycle, and for the first time in my life, I simply don't have a candidate that I can either endorse or vote for. We KNOW who and what Hillary Clinton is, and I cannot vote for her. But we also KNOW who and what Donald Trump is, and I cannot vote for him either. These two are both unGodly and unChristian in their beliefs and lifestyles. Neither of them stand for my values and the things I hold most dear.  Neither of them is someone I want running this country.

 

What's even stranger for me is the thought that at least Hillary Clinton is who she says she is, and will do what she says she will do.  Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a political chameleon who changes color with the crowd he's with.  He says what he believes the people want to hear, promises whatever he thinks will garner him the most votes, and if he wins, I think it could be a horror show such as we have never seen in the 230 years of our Republic.  So who do I vote for--the devil I know, or the devil I don't know?

 

This is the time for the believers in Babylon to pray for a deliverer.  And if God sees fit to do something different, this is really the time for believers to double down on their faith and hold on to the unchanging hand of God.  Because no matter who gets elected, change is gonna come.

Possible

"'Ah, Lord God!

Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth

by Your great power and outstretched arm.

There is nothing too hard for You.'"

Jeremiah 32:17, NKJV

 

The Almighty made it all.  He created everything out of nothing in the tick that started time, a moment before which was nothing except Himself, and after which was everything that came from Him.  In one single omnipotent act, generated by His sovereign will and carried out by His omnipotent power, the Lord God swept through eternity past with an outstretched arm and brought all creation into existence.

 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

 

David says He set the stars in place, numbered them, and called them all by name.  Isaiah says He did it by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, and not one is missing.  Amos says He layered the heavens and the earth, from outer space to atmosphere to terrestrial sphere, from surface to geological strata to core.  David says that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork, that the sun and moon and stars do what He has told them to do.

 

If God did all that, don't think for one moment that He doesn't also know who you are, where you are, or what you need.  You, whom He made in His own image and after His own likeness, are the pinnacle of all creation, and God cares about you.  He is more than able and certainly willing to be your help and your hope.  There is nothing that is too hard for God.  With man, things are impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

 

He simply asks that we put our faith and our trust in Him.

 

If I can believe that the Almighty made it all, then I know I can believe He will take care of me.

 

 

The Answers are There

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1, NKJV

 

When I studied journalism, Darlene Birkes impressed upon me the importance of asking the most vital questions first.  For any news story, no matter what the subject, six questions needed to be asked:  Who?  What?  Where?  When?  Why?  and How?  These are tools that continue to serve me to this day whenever I want to report something accurately, and I love the fact that God's truth reveals the answers to those questions in the greatest account ever right up front.

 

Something happened, and the Bible explains it all.

 

Who did it?  God, the Almighty, first among equals in the Godhead.

 

What did He do?  God created everything that is, the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.

 

Where did He do it?  God brought the universe into existence and set in place its confines and limitations within His own limitless infinity.  In other words, here.

 

When did He do it?  God made it in the beginning, at the start of all things.

 

Why did He do it?  God did all this because He wanted to, because it pleased Him to do so, which is why He looks at it and approves.

 

How did He do it?  God created everything that is out of nothing that was, by His own power and authority, through the Word, which is Christ.

 

Everything else is just details.