Secrets!

 

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

—John 1:12-13

Almighty God, to whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Book of Common Prayer 1662 (translation)

What does it mean that from God “no secrets are hid?” And, what impact does the reality of this truth have on our daily walk of obedience with our God of Love, of Mercy, and of Grace?

As a child, do you remember how you felt when someone told you a secret? Pretty early in our lives, most of us learn the power that comes from knowing something that others don’t know. In fact, quite early in our lives, most of us also learn that secrets offer a most powerful way to manipulate others.

“I know something you don’t know!” chanted that nasty little tike that lived around the corner from the home in which I grew up. Secrets have the power to hurt. Secrets, sometimes, also have the power to heal.

When a dear friend comes to you with a very serious problem and, in confidence, shares with you. Holding that information in strictest confidence, while you pray earnestly for God to help your friend deal with his or her problem, can offer a healing balm to soothe a wound of the soul.

Even in our own lives, in the deepest recesses of our hearts, we often harbor secrets that we feel we can share with no one. That’s the beauty of this declaration from The Book of Common Prayer. The same God “to whom all hearts be open, all desires known” is also the God “from whom no secrets are hid.”

When we become a child of God, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. No longer do we have the ability to harbor secrets from God. He knows us in the most intimate manner possible. He knows our thoughts, He knows our hearts, He knows our desires, and He knows our secrets.

Today, as we continue to journey along the pathway that God has laid out before us, let us take courage in knowing that the God who knows our secrets will grant us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to deal with whatever circumstances occur in our lives. The power of the indwelling Holy Spirit will enable us to face every challenge and overcome every obstacle. So, we can breathe a sigh of relief. We can rest in God’s love, joy, and peace all through this day.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Our Known Desires

 

Delight yourself in the Lord …

—from Psalm 37:4

Almighty God, to whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Book of Common Prayer 1662 (translation)

What does it mean that to God “all desires [are] known?” And, what impact does the reality of this truth have on our daily walk of obedience with our Heavenly Father?

In our increasingly secularized society, the word “desire” has taken on a lascivious twist. When most people hear this word, they immediately think of matters sexual. But, desire has a much deeper, much richer meaning in our everyday world.

King David, in writing a prayer on behalf of his people in Psalm 20, speaks these words about God:

May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

God has a decided interest in our desires. Because our hearts are open to Him, He knows our desires. One truth flows to the other. God has a complete awareness of that for which we have a “conscious impulse toward something that promises enjoyment or satisfaction in its attainment.”

As you make your way along the pathway of obedience that God has laid out before you this day, take comfort, even joy, from the reality that He knows your desires. And, be ever aware of His promise through the pen of King David, who wrote Psalm 37. Take special note of verse 4:

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

The sense of this particular verse—in an acrostic poem, where each stanza begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet—intends to have two distinct yet interwoven meanings: God will place into your heart the desires He wants you to have. Once He does that, He will then give to you that which you desire.

God has made provision for our redemption through the precious blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He then enables us to receive this gift of salvation by drawing us irresistibly into His grace, through the power of the Holy Spirit, as He convicts us of our sin and of our need of a Savior. In this same way, we can begin each day praising God that He both gives us the desires in our hearts, and then gives our hearts’ desires to us. He is, indeed, the God to whom all desires are known.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Open Our Hearts

 

… we shall know even as we are known …

—from 1 Corinthians 13:12

Almighty God, to whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Book of Common Prayer 1662 (translation)

What does it mean that to God “all hearts be open?” And, what impact does the reality of this truth have on our daily walk of obedience with our Great King Jesus?

In creating this acknowledgement, the editors of the Book of Common Prayer displayed an understanding that all human beings are known by their Creator. The One who formed each one in the womb of his or her mother most certainly stands in a state of intimate knowledge with regard to each one of His human creatures.

We are made in His image. Thus, we bear the Imago Dei—the Image of God. Therefore, God understands us as no other can or will. We, as His human creatures, stand in a state of being as “Known By God.” We are known by Him. No aspect of our being remains a mystery to Him.

Just as Jesus acknowledged, in Mark 12:28-31, that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, so God knows each of our four human modalities with the surety and thoroughness of His divine knowledge. He knows our emotional being, our spiritual being, our intellectual being, and our physical being. He knows us deeply and thoroughly.

Should this frighten us? By no means. We should draw great comfort from the fact that the very God of the universe knows each of us. “God knows me! He really knows me!” You may speak these words with certainty.

Because God knows each one of us, we can rest in the welcoming arms that He holds open to us. No matter what our circumstances may be at any moment in time, we are not alone. Instead, we are known. We are known by God. And, in that great day when we pass from this life to eternal life in His Presence, we will also know with the same surety.

1 Corinthians 13:12 explains that in that day:

… we shall know even as we are known …

So, when we begin each new day as a follower of God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, be assured that the Holy Spirit, who comes along side us to lead us and guide us through every moment, has an intimate knowledge of who we really are.

Let us put our trust in the reality of this truth and we will come to rest in the fact: “The One who knows us the best, loves us the most!”

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

What's on Our Agenda Today?

 

Come, let us bow down in worship …

—from Psalm 95:6

“So, what’s on your agenda today? What are you up to?”

Has anyone ever confronted you at the beginning of a new day with words like those? It’s quite reasonable for one dear friend to inquire of another what plans he or she has made for the day. Usually, if you’re asked such a question, you have a ready response. Right?

“Today, I’m gonna tackle thus and such.” Or, “I have four phone calls to return and a bunch of reports to review.” Or, “Once the kids are off to school, I’ve got several loads of laundry to do, the house to clean, and a bunch of errands to run. And, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to the gym to try to stay ahead on my weight loss program.”

The Psalmist answered this way in Psalm 95:6-8:

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert …

Well, I don’t know about you, but I think I have my marching orders for the day:

• Do not harden my heart
  
  
• Seek God’s cleansing for my heart by the power of the Holy Spirit
  
  
• Focus on perfectly loving God through the power of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ
  
  
• Worthily magnify God’s Holy Name
  
  

If I truly set my mind and heart to accomplishing what the Psalmists suggests, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a busy day—but a most excellent one!

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

A Web of Lies

 

Then you will know the truth …

—from John 8:32

About two-thirds of the way through my 30-year career in the Highly Protected Risk (HPR) property insurance industry, some member insurance companies began to downsize. As a result of one particular force reduction, the company for which I worked ended up with a castoff management-level employee. The individual had no background whatsoever in HPR property insurance. But, as a favor to some highly placed exective in a member company, he was hired to advise on matters relating to employee morale and development. After managing an employee morale campaign that utterly failed to meet it’s objectives, he was tasked to oversee the Human Resources Department. This assignment was utterly ridiculous. This man had no training in Human Resources. Furthermore, he had a mean spirit and no sense of collegiality about him.

As he got to know the various departments in the company, he seemed particularly annoyed with the Loss Prevention Training Department that I managed. In the survey of employee morale, most departments scored 20 out of 100, indicating rather low morale. However, the department that reported to me scored 97 out of 100.

Instead of rewarding my colleagues and me for our cohesive and company-supportive efforts, we became suspects. What could we possibly be doing that would create such a climate of satisfaction. We must be “giving away the store” in order to have fostered such high morale. Why did we stand out in comparison to other departments? Why did we have such a high morale? Why did we seem to have such a positive impact on all those with whom we came into contact?

Once this new department head began to focus his attention on “bringing us down,” we turned our attention to him. On our own time, we carefully and thoroughly researched his background. We interviewed colleagues from his previous employer. One of my co-workers even interviewed his college roommate. Now this may seem unusual to you. But, when someone would go out of his or her way to make himself or herself our enemy, we felt we had a responsibility to “know the enemy.” We did everything we could to learn as much about this individual who had chosen, for no good reason, to make himself our enemy. Notice I stated that he chose to make us his enemy. We did not make him an enemy. He purposefully chose to make himself our enemy.

We also began to pay particular attention to his management style. We observed the way he interacted with those he supervised. We soon realized that, quite subtly, he displayed many of the traits of a sociopath. He had virtually no empathy. He operated with a notable glibness and superficial charm. He was manipulative and conning. He never recognized the rights of others. He had a grandiose sense of self. He was a pathological liar. He lacked remorse, shame, or guilt. He had very shallow emotions. He seemed to have no capacity to love.

By examining this new person quite thoroughly and carefully, we learned some valuable lessons. Please let me share one of them.

When an incompetent individual rises to a management role within an organization, he or she will sometimes intentionally create a climate of chaos. The reason for this climate of chaos: it offers one way of exercising control over people and events.

By keeping the daily flow of information and activities swirling in chaos, the erstwhile manager can let the unpredictability of the work environment consistently move his or her role into the center of the storm. The manager can retain a position at the center of the chaos through procrastination in making decisions, through absence—seldom actually present in his or her office—through a systematic discarding of long term processes and procedures by replacing them with new, less well-defined processes and procedures, and by juggling job responsibilities among team members to keep them unsure of exactly what they are supposed to do; to name just a few of these terrible and destructive techniques.

He or she may also create a climate of distrust, secretiveness, and disdain among team members, and between team members and the next upward level of management, by a creating a web of lies. Even the most simple, factual information is often clouded by a surrounding fabric of lies. This keeps subordinates from clearly understanding what is going on within the work groups and department.

Think of a spider sitting in the center of its web. Upon close examination, you will discover that the elements of the web have a similar, but not precisely identical, geometry. Scientists have discovered that these dissimilar elements of the spider’s web appear to occur through some inner programming within the spider’s brain. Part of the strength of the web comes from these dissimilar, or off-balanced, elements.

In like fashion, the incompetent manager, who rules by creating a chaotic environment, often keeps team members off balance through a web of lies and distortion. In the midst of chaos, the manager begins to breed distrust between team members by telling each team member a slightly different version of the same story. Usually couched as “inside information,” and often told with an insistence that the team member hearing the story vow to remain silent about it, the manager plants specifically unique misinformation in the minds of those he manages. Many times this misinformation will include negative information that one team member has supposedly spoken about another team member.

The incompetent manager will also employ this same technique when dealing with those to whom he or she reports. He or she will convey information to the bosses that includes carefully crafted lies about what his or her team members have said or done. These lies give the bosses an inaccurate and prejudicial view of the individual team members. Because the manager gives these reports in the confidentiality of the meetings with his or her bosses, the team members never have the opportunity to hear about, or correct, the lies the manager has told about them.

By weaving a careful web of lies, the manager creates an ineffective work environment that helps assure that he or she will remain in a position of absolute control. He or she will likely also create scenarios, framed from the lies, that will help shield the manager’s plot from discovery. And, when operations at the workplace begin to fail and customers, or constituents, begin to complain, the lies he or she has told the bosses can often create scapegoats from his or her team members on which to blame the failure.

Over the course of my nearly 62 years in the business world, I have observed very crafty, incompetent managers weave such webs of lies and sustain the lies for significant periods of time. The good news: the truth is always ultimately revealed. Let me say that again. The truth is always ultimately revealed.

The Apostle John reports Jesus’ words in John 8:32:

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Over the passage of time, we observed this new department head radically change the character of his portion of the organization. He systematically moved people out until he had brought in a whole new crew of team members. Some employees transferred to other departments. Others simply left the company entirely. At one point we determined that his incompetent management techniques had cost the company dearly in terms of the intellectual capital represented by lost or unnecessarily transferred employees.

Surely, we thought, once he has all new people he will alter his techniques. But no, he repeated the same evil process with the new batch of employees until most of them had also left the company, as well. In some ways, that department never recovered. Eventually, the extreme property losses brought about by the attack on September 11, 2001, brought the company down. Part of its inability to sustain those losses came about because of the damage to the structure of the company—the rupture of the core—this ineffectual manager had caused over time.

Webs of lies are toxic and destructive. But, the truth always brings freedom. Every web of lies gets wiped away. So, if you labor under a manager who has chosen this way of gaining and keeping absolute control, don’t despair. God has a way of bringing light into every dark corner.

Don’t fall prey to the temptation to weave your own web of lies. Just patiently wait for the truth to rise to the surface. It always does.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Truth or Lies?

 

“It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.”

—2 John 1:4

I have enjoyed mystery novels for a long, long time. For me, a good mystery novel has a plot that grabs me and holds my attention. Similarly, if a mystery novel can truly engage me, motivate me to think ahead and try to predict the outcome, but then, surprise me with some unique twist in the plot, that’s when a good mystery novel becomes a great mystery novel.

I particularly enjoy mystery novels that challenge me to discover which of the characters represent the “good guys” and which represent the “bad guys.” It’s not always easy to tell, at first.

However, as the plot unfolds and we see the characters in different situations, it sometimes becomes apparent which ones represent good and which ones represent evil. Occasionally, a character that I at first thought was good, turns out to be really bad. When this happens I always feel disappointed. But, I also recognize that the goodness of the good characters becomes heightened by the evil of the evil characters.

I also find it particularly fascinating when the situation in which a character finds himself or herself gives that character a chance to turn from lies and move toward and into a pathway of truth. Sometimes, the character will make that choice. Other times, the character will double-down on the pathway of lies. Each choice offers consequences. On the pathway of truth, the character will find redemption. On the pathway of lies, the character will find damnation.

The statement that the Apostle John writes in his second epistle—that’s the passage at the beginning of this blog post—has always intrigued me. John celebrates that he has found some of the Elder’s children following the truth. I have always wondered what happened to the other children.

You see, if some children walk in the truth, it goes without saying that other children must walk in lies. There’s no middle ground, no shade of gray, no compromize position. Either the children walk in the truth of God’s revelation, in and through His written Word, or they walk in a pattern governed by lies.

I wonder what turned them away from truth. They were children of the same mother. They belonged to the same family. They had the same instruction. They had the same opportunity. They had the same wealth of positive experiences. They had seen where following the truth would lead, yet they chose lies over the truth.

I suspect that, at first, they began to turn from the truth in small ways. A little lie here. Another little lie there. Instead of holding firmly to the truth, they began to cut corners, to compromize, to convince themselves that their own motives held more importance than faithfulness to the truth.

Little by little, small act by small act, they started down the pathway of lies. Soon, the truth was left far behind. The bright, shining glory of the truth became clouded in a mist of lies. Where once the truth shed strong light on their pathway, now the lies they chose blotted out that light. So, they wandered—stumbled really—along a pathway that they could no longer see clearly.

That’s how Satan works, you know. A little nudge here, a poke there, and soon the Evil One has manipulated you to leave the pathway of the truth and turn onto a pathway of lies. The darkness begins to set in and you soon do not even remember what the bright light of the day of truth even looked like.

I grieve for these other children. I long to read an account of how they came to their senses, confessed their sins, repented of their sins, made restitution for their sins, and received the reconciliation with God and man that would fully restore them and set them firmly back on the pathway of truth.

Sadly, John’s letter gives us no such end to the story. We don’t know what happens to the other children. John leaves their fate up to our imagination, at least insofar as this particular letter of his is concerned.

Fortunately in our own lives, we can rest with surety on the fact that God longs to help keep us firmly on the pathway of truth. That’s why God has given every person who truly believes in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes alongside us to guide us. He lives within our hearts to prompt us to follow the truth. If we will allow Him to do so, He will captivate our minds and make clear, truthful thinking a normality for us.

What about you, dear one? Will you consciously choose to stay on the pathway of truth? As you examine your mind and heart, consider whether your fellow believers might someday ask, “But, what about the others?” Instead, may you be one of whom the Apostle can write, “It gives me great joy to find you walking in the truth.”

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

The Circle of Forgiveness - Part 4: Restoration

 

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

—Psalm 51:10-12

In my three previous blog posts, I laid out a new series of posts using these words:

From time to time on this blog site, I’ve written about Confession, Repentance, Restitution, and Reconciliation. These four individual elements form an interdependent, interlocking, life-sustaining process that some have called “The Circle of Forgiveness.” This process becomes a very important part of the pathway for a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ—that is to say a “Christian” or “Christ’s-one”—to develop into a fully obedient citizen of the Kingdom of God.

At the same time, each of these elements offers its own set of challenges to our normal understanding. While the basis for the fundamental morality of the United States has deep roots into the soil of Judeo-Christian values, time has tended to soften, or distort, some of the concreteness of certain of those values. As a result, people end up with a skewed, or distorted, view of what these values really mean. “Confession” is one such value.

“Restoration” is the final such value. It marks the end of the journey through the “Circle of Forgiveness.” Yet, in a very real sense for most of us, coming to this last value also very likely marks the beginning of another new journey through the Circle. Our sin nature will always bring us to the need for yet another cycle of Confession, Repentance, Restitution, and Restoration. Praise God that—in His mercy and grace through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ—He has made provision for us to continually keep short accounts with Him.

When one party in a relationship sins against another, the Holy Spirit begins a process of conviction. Unless the one who sinned has hardened his or her heart to the point that he or she rejects the urging of the Holy Spirit, that process of conviction will lead the one who sinned to embark on a journey along the Circle of Forgiveness.

The one who has been sinned against plays a key role in the last element of this Circle of Forgiveness—“…forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors…” By cheefully extending forgiveness to the one who has sinned, the harmed party may now lovingly assist the sinner to receive mercy, grace, and love. Once mercy and grace begin to act on the matter, the bond of Christian love will again bloom between the parties.

“If what you describe is so, why do so many in the body of believers remain estranged from each other?”

That’s an excellent question. For each individual situation, the answer comes from conducting a very careful examination to make certain every one of the four steps of the Circle of Forgiveness has been successfully completed. In any situation where you find lingering difficulty, you will find that the estranged parties have missed one of the steps, or not implemented one of them fully.

As I have suggested in several related blog posts over the last fourteen years or so, you can “paint over” the bad spot of sin in a relationship and try to pretend nothing has really happened. However, if the underlying sin does not become exposed and dealt with using the Circle of Forgiveness, that sin stain will always eventually reveal itself to the determent of the relationship.

Let me offer a concrete example:

Due to a bankruptcy on the part of a builder, one adult sibling in a family has an opportunity to purchase a new house at a drastic discount. This is the dream house that the sibling has longed for over many years. However, he does not have the money to purchase the house. He turns to his brother and asks the brother—who is a good deal better off financially— to loan the money in order to purchase the house until the first brother can raise the money to pay back this personal loan between brothers.

The second brother gladly complies with the first brother’s request. However, six months later when the first brother has raised the capital to settle the loan that he obtained from his brother, the second brother suddenly informs the first that he will have to pay interest on the loaned money. In fact, rather than charging a modest interest, the second brother decides to seek more interest than the current market would require, had the first brother been able to borrow the money from a bank or other financial institution.

The first brother, in shock and with a very heavy heart, grudgingly complies. But now, the relationship between brothers has been breached. Yes, the first brother remains grateful for his brother’s help in the matter—for without that help he could never have purchased the house. And, it may seem as if the incident is settled.

However, the truth is, the second brother sinned against the first. He did so by not disclosing the terms of the arrangement that he had in mind at the beginning. He further sinned by charging his brother an exorbitant rate of interest.

For many months, even years, the second brother insists that he did no wrong. He still sees his brother at family social gatherings. He even thinks that all is well between them. But, whenever he drives by his brother’s house, he remembers what he did. On the one hand, he is satisfied with himself that he made out quite well in the matter. Still, deep within his soul, the second brother realizes that he truly did harm his brother in the way he manipulated the situation to his own advantage.

You see, the second brother is being convicted by the Holy Spirit. But, the second brother does not follow the Circle of Forgiveness.

Even though the matter seems settled, every once in a while over the next twenty years, the matter pokes its head above the surface of the normally calm waters of the relationship between the brothers. And, it will continue to fester, just beneath the surface, until the second brother responds to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and employs Confession for his sin against his brother, determines to move on to Repentance for that sin—determining to never commit such a sin again—make Restitution for his sin by repaying the interest that he charged his brother, and finally receives full Restoration.

I urge you, if you have sinned against a brother or sister in Christ, to prayerfully and carefully make your way through the four steps of the Circle of Forgiveness. If you do, God will restore your relationship and restore your joy.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}