Mood Rings and Offshore Phone Calls

Do you remember mood rings? I never had one, but I had a few friends who did. The basic premise is that our body temperature changes depending on how we are feeling. The crystals in the ring are extremely sensitive to heat changes with different colors representing a higher or lower body temp. There is some correlation between stress and body temperature, so there might be some truth to the mood ring. I wish my wife had worn a mood ring before we started dating. If she had, I might have had a clue that she was interested. By her account, she waited for me to ask her out for over a year. She's even told me how irritated she would get when I would go out on dates with another girl during that year. Deep down I still believe she should have said something. Maybe she could have passed one of those notes from the third grade during Sunday School...(Circle yes or no if you'll be my boyfriend). Maybe not, I probably would have fallen off my chair if that would have happened. I bring all this up to say that I had no clue what was in this young lady's heart. God, however knows the hearts of all men. 

Omniscience is having total knowledge. If it is total then nothing is left out. Just like omnipotence and omnipresence, omniscience is not found, as a word, anywhere in the Bible. But like them, it is  implied extensively in both the Old and New Testaments. God's knowledge is described as infinite in Psalm 147:5

Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.

In Isaiah 46:9-10a His knowledge is found to be eternal, meaning it has no beginning and no end.

Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.

God's knowledge is also universal. Nothing is exempt, mainly because He created it all as seen in Hebrews 4:13.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Lastly, Psalm 139:6 tells us God's knowledge is too grand for us to comprehend.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

 These four verses show us the extent of God's knowledge. The ideas used to describe it are certain and vast...nothing is hidden, too lofty, none like me, no limit. There is nothing that God is not aware of, not even the thoughts in your head. Let's look at Psalm 139.

1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

5 You hem me in — behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Most of us are fine with the first three verses. We've talked about God's omnipresence, so it makes since that He knows our actions since He is everywhere. We can even stomach that God knows everything we are going to do as implied in verses 5 and 16 since we know He is not limited by time and space. But verse 4 gets a little more intimate; God knows your thoughts. Actually, since we've discussed that God is not limited to our time and space, He knows our thoughts before we even think them. To many of us this is terrifying because we know the stuff we think about. It's not always good stuff.  We've thought some mean and nasty things about the people we're supposed to love. We've killed people in our mind. We've shaken our fist at God internally. But the Bible doesn't stop there. In Jeremiah 17:10 we find this,

"I the LORD search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve."

Not only does God know our mind, He knows our heart. While this may seem like the same thing, let me assure you, it is not. The thoughts of the mind are often instantaneous. Something happens and thoughts just pop into our head. What we find in our heart are the things we dwell on. It's where we spend our days. The heart is definitely affected by the mind. The more often we think something the more our "heart" is bent that way. But the simple truth is while thoughts are often random, what's in the heart is a decision of intended direction. God says, "I know the crazy stuff that just pops into your head. I also know the desires of your heart. I know the things you really want in life regardless of what you try to make others believe. I know your motives and your dreams. I know who you truly are."

I'm not going to lie; it's a little scary to have your innermost thoughts and desires laid bare. But it is a good thing when someone who cares for you knows the desires of your heart. Here's the rest of the story about how my wife and I got together. First let's back up a few years. When I was in the third grade, my father became pastor of a church in South Louisiana. Many years before, my wife's mother grew up in this same church. One of her mom's long time friends and "adopted" brother, Alan, was still at this church as a deacon when my family arrived. My father was pastor at this church for about five years before taking a job working with the area churches through missions. This meant we had to change churches.

Ok, so now you have a rough picture. Let's fast forward a wee bit. I'm 20 and have been working at my wife's home church in Central Mississippi for about a year.It's Christmas Eve and I am at my parent's home in South Louisiana during Christmas break from college. We just walked in the door from a Christmas Eve Service when the phone rings. On the line is "Uncle Alan" and he wants to talk to me (I'm still convinced he was calling from an off shore drilling rig). Now it's been about 7 years since I've seen the man and first words to me are,

"There's a little girl up in Mississippi that would really like you to ask her out. You know who I'm talking about?"

"Yes Sir."

"Alright, Merry Christmas!"  *click*

Before that phone call I had no clue... for multiple reasons. I was oblivious to whatever clues my future wife was dropping. She never said anything. Regardless, it took someone outside to speak into our situation. God uses His power of omniscience to speak into our lives. He does this because He wants us to have the best life we can, one by His standards. Jeremiah 29:11 shows us this.

 

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

God has a plan for you, a plan that he has had in place since before you were born as Psalm 139:16 says above. If God did not have the power to peer inside of us, then He wouldn't be able t0 plan ahead. He wouldn't be able to tell us with certainty which way we should go, or what we should do. Our actions would dictate His response, and ultimately we could fool Him. Let's look at the story of King David's anointing as King of Israel in 1 Samuel 16.

 Chapter 16  opens up with the prophet Samuel being commanded to go anoint a new king. The current king had messed up and the Lord was no longer able to use him. God had examined his heart and is giving to the king what he deserves because of his disobedience. God sends Samuel to Bethlehem, to the house of a man named Jesse, to anoint one of his sons to be the next king. Samuel arrives in Bethlehem and invites Jesse and his sons to a sacrifice where he will anoint one of them king. Let's pick up in 1 Samuel 16:6-10

When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab  and thought, "Surely the LORD's  anointed stands here before the LORD."

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these."

Samuel does what most of us would. He looks at the outward appearance. That's the key word...appearance. We look at what they appear to be, we see the facade that people put up. God says that Eliab is not the right one for the job. God has searched his heart and he is not suitable to be king. Does this mean thatEliab was a bad guy? No, it means that he was not suited to be king. The verse in Jeremiah said that God has plans to prosper you. Regardless of why, none of these would have prospered as king of Israel. Let's look at who was acceptable to be king. 1 Samuel 16:11-12 reads,

So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?"

"There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep."

Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."

So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.

Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."

Which one of us would pick the youngest, who was busy tending sheep, to be the next king?We see real quick why God chose David if we skip ahead a little to 1 Samuel chapter 17 and the story of David and Goliath. Long story short, the Philistines had a monster of a man on their side and was using him to scare the entire nation of Israel, including the king. Davids three oldest brothers that we met above have joined the king's army and are there as Goliath issues this challenge in 1 Samuel 17:8-11,

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other." On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

The Bible says that everyone was terrified. For forty days Goliath issued this challenge and no one took him up on it. Skip down to 1 Samuel 17:17

Now Jesse said to his son David, "Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp."

So David arrives and hears this taunt. He looks around and asks what the prize is for killing this behemoth. His older brothers actually get mad at him and tell David to leave. David eventually finds himself in front of King Saul and this is his response in 1 Samuel 17:32-37

David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."

Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.  our servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."

It seems that God chose well. Which of us could have known the steadfast faith that David had in God? Ultimately David did win by killing the giant with one stone thrown from a sling. Eventually David became king of Israel and was called a man after God's own heart. What is the condition of your heart? Have you grown it to be faithful to God in all things, or is your heart set on your own desires? Are you trying to hide from Him the things you really want? In Isaiah 29:15-16 God cautions us against trying to hide stuff from Him.  

Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the LORD,
who do their work in darkness and think,
"Who sees us? Who will know?"
You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
"He did not make me"?
Can the pot say of the potter,
"He knows nothing"?

At first glance, this passage seems troubling, but when you let it sink in you find hope. God shines a light on the things we have hidden so we can deal with them and get the junk out.  We have a chance of having ourselves mended. You can ask any counselor or psychiatrist and they will tell you that everybody lies to themselves. If God were to rely on us to come to Him on our own, then we would be in a lot of trouble. I have caught my kids with the candy in their hand...in plain sight. "What do you have in your hand?" "Nothing!" God doesn't have to ask, He knows. And as horrible as it seems to us, it's a good thing He knows our heart and our choices.

Let's visit David one more time. 2 Samuel chapter 11 tells us of one of David's biggest mess ups. David saw a woman bathing and decided that he wanted her. Never mind that he already had multiple wives and that she was married to one of his elite fighting men off at war. David brings her to the palace and they sleep together and eventually she turns up pregnant. David then calls Urriah, her husband,  home hoping that he will stay with his wife and everyone will think the baby was his. Urriah decided to stay at the palace doing his duty. When he went back David sent orders to the General to stick Urriah in the toughest fight and then let him be killed. This worked, and David brought Bathsheba to the palace and made her his wife. Everything was covered up nice and pretty. Enter in the prophet Nathan with a message from God. Nathan tells David a story of a rich man who steals the only lamb of a poor man to feed some travelers. David is enraged and says that any man who would do something like this deserves to die. Here is Nathan's response in 2 Samuel 12:7-14,

Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'

"This is what the LORD says: 'Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.'"

Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD."

Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die." 

 

Now to you and me, this seems like a horrible thing. No one wants the sins they've committed or the private thoughts they've had laid bare. But what good happened here? David had to confront his sin. It gave him a chance to fix himself. What if God hadn't done this? What would David have become? What would the nation have become after finding out years later once gossip got around? It's a fair assumption that David might have spiraled away from God for good. The entire nation could have suffered. When sin is in our lives we don't want to be reminded of it and we don't want anything to with God. Remember what we found in Jeremiah 17:10,

  

"I the LORD search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve."

God examines our heart and mind and gives to us accordingly. David sinned and their were consequences because of it; he could not hide it from God. One of his sons tried to take over the kingdom and slept with David's concubines just like the Lord said. But that's not the end. If you turn to Psalm 51 you can read a song written by David after being confronted by Nathan. One of the most famous verses from Psalm 51 is 16-17.

 

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

 

God sees everything. He knows all. We cannot hide our actions, nor even our thoughts. God is the potter and we are the clay; He knows everything about us because we are crafted by His hand. Take comfort in this fact when your sins are revealed. Even though we have sinned, even though we have been caught, there is hope. He has a plan for us. A plan to prosper us, not to harm us. Do you want to know His path for you? Turn to Him. Do you finally want to turn from your guilt you've been trying to hide? Turn to Him. As David sang, what pleases God is a not empty rituals, but a heart that is broken and has turned from sin.

All Scripture taken from the New International Version