What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day?
What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths? Would you believe me?
Welcome back to season 6 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. In our next few moments together, we hope to learn some of the most important lessons from some of the simplest things in life. Thank you for taking this journey with me.
Thank you all so much for your patience with the unexpected break in the podcast. If you follow my personal pages, you likely are up to date on what has been taking place in our immediate family. For those of you who don’t know, allow me to take a moment to get you caught up to speed. We received a call that no one wants to get last week on Tuesday, June 2nd. Our sister-in-law, Miranda Vaughan, was in a serious automobile accident in North Carolina. A negligent driver attempted to pass another vehicle on a double yellow, plowing head on into Miranda while both were traveling at 55 miles an hour. Initially, all we knew was that Miranda was pinned and trapped inside the vehicle, needing to be cut out and extracted and then life flighted by chopper to Johnson City, TN. Within the hour, my wife was packed and on the road heading for Johnson City to meet them at the hospital. The kids and I followed the next Sunday after her release from the hospital and went on into North Carolina to help with the cousins. Miranda spent nearly an entire week in the trauma center, with an extensive five-hour surgery to try and reconstruct her foot that was crushed with multiple compound fractures. She has a long road of recovery ahead of her, with half a dozen broken ribs, a broken tailbone, bruised lungs, and an inability to walk for three months. There will be more spinal and other testing going forward, but it is by God’s grace alone is Miranda even alive and here with us today. I would ask that you please continue to keep Kirk, Miranda, and their children in your prayers – they are in desperate need of them.
I don’t have the emotional capacity to draw lessons from this event quite yet, but I do have a cute story to share with you all that happened over the past week. Once Kylie dropped everything and took off, I was left to watch the kids all to myself for a week before we took off to join her. Naturally, when things are out of routine and you’re down to one parent, the kids will start to push a few boundaries and see exactly what they could get away with having just Dad around. They soon found out the answer to that question was not much. It was about halfway through the week at one point that our three-year-old Finley had asked if she could have a snack. Well, she hadn’t eaten her lunch, and I had told her that if she was hungry, she can finish her lunch first – no snacks. She didn’t like that answer and wandered off, not knowing that Dad was listening close despite being in the other room. Sure enough, soon I hear the pantry door slowly start to open. “Finley…I said no,” I called out. She comes tottering in – “Daddy, how did you know?” I chucked to myself and told her, “Finely, I’m a daddy. I’ve got eyes in the back of my head.” Upon hearing this, my little toddler turned around, lifting her hair up from the back, and asked me, “Do I have eyes in the back of my head too?” I cracked up! Scooping her up into my arms I told her, “No, honey. But maybe one day if you get to be a mommy, you’ll get some too.”
While mommy’s and daddy’s work their hardest to use the eyes in the back of their heads, there are times though that our kids can still pull a fast one on us. However, the same cannot be said for us as children of God towards our eternal Father. In this podcast, we will see how God is omniscient, and as such will reveal every secret thing.
When we say that God is omniscient, that is to say that God possesses all knowledge of all things for all time. There is nothing that is beyond him, hidden from him, or unknown to him. We read in Isaiah 46:9-10 the following, “Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and no one is like me. I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will.” God possesses all knowledge, from the things that were done from the beginning even to things yet to come. There is nothing beyond the grasp of his mind, no mystery, no quantity, no secret, and no event. Scripture will go on to tell us many detailed things regarding his omniscience: how he even knows the number of hairs on our heads in Matthew 10:29-30; or how he knows our thoughts and our words before we speak them in Psalm 139:1-4; or even how God knows the very hearts of men in passages like Acts 1:24 & 1 Kings 8:39. My personal favorite, however, is found in Proverbs 15:3, where we read, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” Talk about having eyes in the back of your head! In short, there is absolutely nothing that is hidden from the Lord – he possesses all knowledge of all things for all time.
As such, there are no secrets that can be hidden from God. There is no “pulling a fast one” on God, so to speak. David would state in Psalm 139:7-12, “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night”— even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you.” Jeremiah will similarly record in Jeremiah 23:24, “‘Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord.” There is no hiding place from the Lord, no secret place, no thought or action that we could do in darkness that we could keep from him. There are times in this life that we can keep secrets from our fellow man, even our own families and those that know us best. Yet from the Lord, there is no hidden thing – he sees us and knows us exactly as we are and as we have done and will do. Solomon would remind us in Ecclesiastes 12:14, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
Knowing such things, my friends, it begs the questions: what sort of lives ought we to live now? If every secret thing will one day be revealed, and we know that all of us will stand in judgment before God…should we not walk and live in obedience now? This is the mindset of Paul in his conclusion to the Galatian church, as we read in chapter 6:7-10, “Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.”
Let us be devoted to what is good in all things, brothers and sisters. In every secret thing, in heart, in thought, in word, and in deed – may our lives bring glory to God. And when we do, we can take comfort from the words of 2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the LORD roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him.”
This has been season 6 episode 18 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast – and I’m so thankful that we had this time to grow together! A new episode is dropped each Friday of the week. If you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast, give us a good rating, and tune in next week. Even more important, share the spiritual truths that we learned today with someone else. And more than anything my friends, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.
