SEE COMPLETE LIST OF ARTICLES ON HOME PAGE
From The Upcoming New Book:
Treasures of Darkness
CHAPTER 1
God Plays
"Hide-and-Seek"
by Ken Raggio
Baba Ram Dass was a personal friend and fellow academic of Timothy Leary. The two of them gave the world the hallucinogenic drug, LSD. Leary became a father-figure to the psychedelic, hippy, flower-power movement of the 1960s. Ram Dass, a Jew, became a drug-using Hindu philosopher. He is quoted as saying,
“It is difficult to know why God reveals Himself to some
and plays the game of hide-and-seek with others.”
Actually, God plays hide-and-seek with everybody. The difference is that some seek Him until they find Him, while others abandon the search.
It is all a matter of personal priorities. If you spend your time in pursuit of psychedelic experiences, that is what you will become an expert about, and that is what the world will remember you for. If you pursue sports, or fashion, or entertainment, or wealth, then that is what your heart and soul will know and love.
But if, on the other hand, you spend your life in pursuit of God, you will discover God, and the world will discover something of Him through you.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be filled,” Matthew 5:6.
Lee Trevino said, “A hungry dog hunts best.” Those of us who are hungry for God are the most likely to hunt for Him. And those who seek for God the most diligently are the ones who will find the most of Him.
Does God REALLY play hide-and-seek with us?
Absolutely!
“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing,
but it is the honor of kings to search it out,”
Proverbs 25:22.
Why is it glorious for God to conceal things from us?
As I write this, the price of one ounce of gold is about $1137 US. Why is the price of gold so high? Gold is a rare and precious commodity.
If you could take a shovel, and go outside into your back yard, and dig up a dozen wheel-barrows-full of gold, you certainly would not pay a thousand dollars for an ounce of it. If gold was as common as dirt, it would have the same value as dirt.
If the knowledge of God was as common as the knowledge of college football, you could pick up the Sports Section of your newspaper and discover all the mysteries of God for about fifty cents.
But you will never know the mysteries of God without a diligent search. The knowledge of God will never be as common as dirt.
“I don’t have time to read the Bible.” “I don’t have time to pray.” “I don’t have time to go to Church.”
“I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don't want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please.”
(By Wilbur Rees)
Sorry, Sir. You can’t have the glory of the Eternal for three dollars.
Yes, I know. Mercy and grace are free. I know that Jesus paid it all. I am not going to argue with you about that. But if you really want to know God, you are going to have to pay a price. You know what I mean.
God simply does not give Himself away like dirt. He conceals His best because it is more priceless than gold.
“The honor of kings is to search it out,” Proverbs 25:22. Honor comes to the king who searches out and finds the hidden treasures of God. Any man or woman can attain to that honor if their heart is hungry enough.
God conceals His treasures in DARKNESS.
We tend to think of God in terms of LIGHT. We know that Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12). We know that God dwells in the light that no man can approach unto (I Timothy 6:16). He is called “the father of lights,” (James 1:17).
So it catches us a little bit by surprise when David says, “HE MADE DARKNESS PAVILIONS round about Him,” (2 Samuel 22:12). A pavilion is a shelter. God literally shelters Himself in darkness. God preserves His own holiness by putting a space between Himself and all that is worldly and profane.
Anyone who will find His treasures will have to learn how to penetrate that darkness. Anyone who wants to enter into His Holy Presence will have to learn how to traverse that darkness.
One of the most astonishing prophecies in the Bible occurs in Isaiah 45:3. In it, God says to King Cyrus of Persia, “I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”
What is so astonishing about that prophecy? The great historian, Josephus, wrote that Cyrus read and obeyed that prophecy which had been addressed to him SPECIFICALLY BY NAME – 200 years AFTER it was written!!
This story of Cyrus had to do with the return of the children of Israel from seventy years of captivity in Babylon.
Cyrus was born after the story began. He was not a Jew. He did not know the God of Israel. He was not raised under the teachings of Moses. He did not know or understand the prophetic destiny of Israel. He was a pagan who worshipped false gods.
But the true and living God sent a message to Cyrus 200 years in advance, saying, “I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”
This is one of the most rare and unusual acts of God. Almighty God chose Cyrus to serve a divine and prophetic role in the saga of the nation of Israel.
The ancient country of Persia is known in modern times as IRAN. Cyrus was the king of the forefathers of modern Iran. Now, Iran is an Arab-Muslim nation that is one of the worst enemies Israel has on planet earth.
King Cyrus’ modern successor is a man named Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies that the Kingdom of Israel ever existed, and who has often declared, in the international spotlight, that he will wipe Israel off the face of the map.
So it is immensely noteworthy that God chose to reveal some of His most precious secrets – “the treasures of darkness” - to King Cyrus, Ahmadinejad’s predecessor. Why did God reveal His secrets to Cyrus? “That thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”
You see, God alone has the power to reveal His secrets to whosoever He will.
That is just as true today as it ever was. As the world stands aghast while Iran and Israel bristle with nuclear threatenings against each other, remember that 2500 years ago, God Himself opened His treasures of darkness to Iran’s then King as a witness for all of time “that thou mayest know that I, …am the God of Israel.”
After pagan Cyrus received the word of the LORD, he became an enthusiastic friend of Israel and the principal benefactor for the reconstruction of Jerusalem. But most significantly, Cyrus became a true believer. He announced, “The Lord God of Heaven …hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem… (He is the God)." Ezra 1:2.
What is it worth to see the secret and hidden treasures of darkness? In Cyrus’ case, seeing the treasures of darkness changed not only HIS life, but also the course of nations.
Seeing the treasures of darkness will convince you once and for all that the God of Israel is THE GOD of heaven and earth.
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
2 Corinthians 4:6
Men like Mr. Ahmadinejad will someday wish they had earned the honor of kings (like his own predecessor) whose eyes beheld God's treasures of darkness.
Someday soon, Jesus Christ will come back to earth, and “will bring to light the hidden things of darkness,” 1 Corinthians 4:5. Then, we will know, even as we are known by Him.
But until that time, each of us must seek Him until we find Him. The greatest proofs of God are hidden in darkness. So if God offers to show you the treasures of darkness, SEEK THEM.
And, believe it or not, you are going to find the best of Him in the darkness of your life. Are you facing a dark place in your life today? You may be on the verge of the greatest discovery of God you have ever seen.
I am continually writing new content for this site.
Please return often for more material,
and tell your friends about
www.kenraggio.com
, too!
THANKS!
And God bless you!
Ken Raggio
|
|
