Nothing to Hide
1/4/17
As our lives pass by us each day, and troubles come our way it is always easily and too quickly blame God for our misfortunes. Yet, with almost the same amount of time this two faced atmosphere of ours revel in the blessings that we have so undeservedly received. Admit it, all of us have questioned God at one point in our lives and demanded an answer as to why the life as we know it can be so harsh and cruel. How can a God who is complete allow such actions to present themselves to the children He says He loves so much? Well, when He created us He did so in a unique manner and with a specific pattern, but after you study this message from God you will understand that the completeness of God had nothing to hide, including the things that He wished to share with us for eternity.
I have to include myself in the category of wondering why things occur the way they do. I am not excused from these disasters in life and it is easy for me to read news reports of people around the world facing harsher conditions than in another part of the world and shake my head and superficially say “thank God I am where I am”. How stupid of me for spreading such vanity towards the one being who created us in an entirely different condition and for me to glorify my own position over another human that God loves just as much as He loved me. To be honest, we have no idea what it is like to live in complete and total poverty, where every citizen in this nation must struggle to survive each day, where we have to sell ourselves to others for food, medication, or a roof over our heads. Or do we? Is it that the things we sell ourselves for just have a different face or price tag? And do we even recognize that all of us were originally created as kings and queens?
I recently watched a documentary about an indigenous Indian tribe that was living in the jungles of Peru that had no previous contact with the outside or modern world up until a few years ago. It was a remarkable documentary all around but there was one portion of the presentation that caught my attention more than the others. In an interview with the chief of the tribe he was asked about the times before the outsiders had made contact with them and how they all lived naked; in fact, when they filmed the first contact with these people they were naked and had no real objections to how they were “dressed”. The question that was asked to the chief was how they felt about wearing clothes now and would they ever consider going back to their “native” dress of being naked again.
The chief’s answer fascinated me because without any hesitation he answered the interviewer with the words of how much they enjoyed being clothed and that they would never even consider going back to being naked. I found this statement by the chief to be profound because even though these tribal people did not have any contact with the Church in any way, the articles of clothing for covering provided a new found necessity for their lives and that they would not consider going back to their original tribal dressing status. And to be honest the chief was really kind of miffed because the interviewer asked the question as if it upset him that it was even asked or that that way of living would ever be considered again. It is this specific point that we today refuse to address about the original statehood that we were created and for the majority of us, including the Church, have no desire to return either.
When a human decides to bring forth a relationship they must make decisions about how far to take the impending setting. Of course, there are many types of relationships that stretch from the personal and intimate to distant business, with countless stages in between. It is through this type of connection that humans either thrive in or ignore because of the developmental status of each relationship status and progress. Today, we are flooded with numerous types of relationships that have ended in disaster and division and it has become so common that if we gambling our bets would be better off on the breakup option rather than the making it "work" option. How difficult could a societal standard have on a person and still be considered a viable option for the stability of said relationship status? And with all of the relationship challenges of today’s society it is easy for many to stay out of a true relationship and place self in front and maintain a separated categorical lifestyle. But isn’t this type of reasoning an ideal type of hiding from what we all need?
I have to admit that relationships are tough and that they take a tremendous amount of work on both parties to succeed. It is also recognizable that if only one side of the relationship is not truthful with the other, eventually some extended difficulties with trust will arise and a tear in said relationship will appear to both sides; it does not matter what level of a relationship that this occurs either. If such disappointments continue within people who commit to a relationship it does not take too much effort to realize that eventually, these people shall stop engaging themselves in any type of relationship status in the future. It is this point that we become so fundamentally and personally divided that no one can ever come into the picture of that person again, seemingly to permanently sever the first order of our existence as human beings. It is this setting that occurred in the Garden of Eden when God created us with no strings attached and no hidden agenda present but our enemy had other plans for our lives and when we succumbed to his lies, our lives changed drastically enough to warrant such pain and agony in the future. Our lives were not initially created for this type of divisional relationship status, but if we read the first chapters of the first book of the Bible it gives us this important detail about our lives and why we now suffer so much because of our choices and not God’s.
We all can agree that in the first three chapters of Genesis there is vast amount of events take place. It can be difficult for some of us to understand exactly what transpired in that setting because of these events that took place. I am still amazed at how God reveals Himself to me through these first three chapters of Genesis and more importantly the initial relationship that He created with us immediately after He formed us from the ground. It is through this process that began our life and it was through this creative process that gave us our first indication that God held nothing back when He created us too. It must be noted and reminded that God is a complete God in all areas of His existence which means that through our perfect and holy creation God actually exposed Himself to us completely at this time, and since He is a complete God this is how He exists in heaven as well, for if He did not and kept things about His existence hidden a logical question would be this: why would Lucifer be so jealous of something that he did not know existed?
In Genesis 2:7 states that God formed us from the ground and then breathed His Spirit into our nostrils and that man became a living soul. In a previous message God showed us that there was a specific reason for this order of creation and it was through this specific order that allowed for our lives to have the divine gift of choice as well. It is through this specific formation that God deals us with a perfect start and the beginnings of a perfect relationship with our Creator. Genesis 2:25 gives us the picture of two individuals that God had created and who were in perfect formation without any sin attached to their lives. This verse states that both were naked and were not ashamed of how they were made. One can say that this physical attribute ended here, on the physical level but it actually goes a lot deeper in our creative sorting from God.
When we take a look at our physical bodies we have no choice but to recognize it for what it brings to our eyes. It is no secret that the majority of us wish to improve on its appearance in some sort of fashion and that if we had the opportunity would take advantage of these changes as soon as possible. But what good would it do us to reverse our creative status in order to personally feel good about our physical status and to whose benefit would it mind if we stayed as is? This is a question that can be most troubling if we do not understand exactly why we were made in the forms that we were so long ago. All of us recognize that once Adam and Eve made the choice to disobey, their eyes were opened and they realized that they were not in right standing with the world. Just a quick thought, have you ever witnessed an animal trying to completely change their skin, coat, fur, etc? No, they may scratch a bit but they know that their birth condition is their natural and true composition, in their own manner just as they were created.
We understand the huge change that mankind leveled on ourselves, but we need to also recognize that when God formed us from the dust of the ground He did so in such a manner which did not require any covering of our bodies. The ground was natural and created by God before mankind was and therefore complete in its composition thus solidifying our existence as one who had nothing to hide as well; in like manner. This is the way God creates, pure, holy and unadulterated in all aspects for this is the only way He can make things for this is the way He is as well; in His own manner. It is this huge event of our creation that matters and it was through this perfect formation that was the target of our enemy. Yes, Satan recognized how we were created and he understood the manner in which we were created and the order of which God made us as well.
Our bodies on our creation could not hide anything because we did not need clothing or any covering because of where Adam and Eve were located. God did not have to hide anything from them because He was their covering while they were still inside the Garden of Eden. This meant that as long as Adam and Eve functioned within their original state they had no worries to contend with but as God being God and having nothing to hide from He allowed those individuals to have the gift of choice and it was through this gift from God that our lives drastically changed a short time later. It is no coincidence that the first thing Adam and Eve did when they disobeyed was that they recognized they were naked and that they had to cover themselves. It must have been a huge shock to them when they figured out that God’s covering was no longer intact over them and that their lives had totally changed.
An important detail here that God gives us occurs just a few verses later in Genesis Chapter 3:7 when it states that after Adam and Eve understood they were naked, they sewed fig leaves together in order to cover their bodies. The ones who were created as God’s special examples were now trying desperately to cover themselves with another one of God’s unadulterated creations; this was not going to work since they were no longer perfect in physical status and therefore could no longer be justified under God’s covering. See, God created everything perfectly and as long as we lived under this condition our protection came from the holy One who could not do and still cannot do anything wrong. But once we chose to cross that line, our physical status could no longer be equal, we were now sinners and God could not have any part with us according to His Word and Life.
God had nothing to hide when mankind asked Him questions about life, the trees, the Garden, the spirit realm, His enemy and anything else man could think of during those daily walks with God. We had direct access to God which meant that God could not hide anything from us because our eyes, ears, and bodies once were able to gaze on God Himself; God had no shame or blemishes and that was the exact way He created us as well. Adam and Eve’s physical bodies were not responsive to the changing environment around them, for at that time the environment around them had no reason to change. It probably never crossed Adam and Eve’s minds that they had to worry about having any type of communication with God until they heard His voice and hid. Wow, they had to hide from the One who created them who still did not hide anything, this must have been a tragedy.
God once again demonstrated that it was His covering that could only suffice for our lives, whether perfect in status or not. God proved this to Adam and Eve before they were forced to leave the Garden of Eden when God performed the first sacrifice and gave them skins to cover their bodies, once again reinforcing the truth that man’s way of trying to cover themselves and making their sins right cannot work, only God’s way is justified. Adam and Eve’s sin also concludes that we sin to satisfy our flesh and our wants and fail to recognize that our inner being is the spiritual conscious and spiritual communication to God that directs obedience. You want proof? Lucifer is an angel and he is a spirit being in total and that means that since he disobeyed God by wanting to be just as powerful as God and even greater than God that this choice came from the spiritual realm and not the physical. If you want to understand more about the description of Lucifer find the scriptures which describe his appearance and his heart and there will be no doubt about where this evil nature arose.
Now God asks us where our hearts lay when it comes to His Church. Do we realize that all of us are still born naked for a reason or do we skip over that origin and immediately clothe our bodies and go on our way? Hope is not lost if we turn our lives back to God and allow Him to restore us back to the manner of direct contact and relationship with Him. AS it was our choice to choose to disobey it is still our choice to drop the world and return to the perfect covering of His Son’s blood. It is not a difficult choice to make but it is a battle that must be fought every day because our enemy hates you so much that he will spend all of his time and bring his demonic friends around your life in order to influence you to stay put in the world. It is through this battle that shows us just how important we are and how important it is for us to understand the truth that there is a way that we can escape the death trap that our enemy so beautifully displays before our blinded eyes.
It is impossible for us to grab our eternal status back on the physical side of our existence but each and every one of us still has the opportunity to right the wrong that our ancestors placed in front of us. We as a species tend to rely on our own kind for trust and dependence but God wants us to have trust, faith and dependence in Him for our daily needs. He does not want us to reject this eternal truth but to come under His Son’s blood covenant and covering so that we may be restored eternally to our original spiritual condition. The only way to receive this condition is to completely turn our lives over to God and allow Him to complete this process. He will find every bit of sin that is harbored within us and remove it according to His perfect ways. God shall not hide anything from us when it comes to Him or His Ways and all He asks in return is that we give Him our entire heart so that we may once again present ourselves in His eyes as naked and unashamed.
DLB
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