Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
4 7 2025

Audio Version

If You Will Do This Child of God…You Will Know Me.
You will have to do something more profound to discover something more profound.

A. W. Tozer  said:
“May not the inadequacy of much of our spiritual experience be traced back to our habit of skipping through the corridors of the kingdom, like children in the marketplace, chattering about everything
but pausing to learn the value of nothing”.

I am reading a book that my daughter Danielle read along with a group of her college SEU friends.
By Charles Swindall. “So, you want to be like Christ”.  
I take much of his thoughts to share this piece with you.  I had taught Danielle when she was very young to highlight the different chapters that she wrote, so she could capture what stood out to her or the questions that she didn’t understand. This way, at the exam, she could review the book by going back to her highlights. She read it when she was 20, and I’m stunned that she had different-colored tabs:
Blue for Bible verses, yellow for things that stood out, and green for questions. I was amazed that she had taken my lesson to another level, and really dug into the material, perhaps that explains why she finished college in three years instead of four.

Do you see anything?

Someone asked Dr. Howard Carter, the renowned British archaeologist as he poked his head through an opening he had made in an ancient Egyptian tomb.  They were at the end of six years of digging, finding only a maze of trenches, tons of sand, and rock. Nothing! That was until that historic day in November 1922.

Everyone else had dug through that valley and discovered that there was nothing left to be found. But peering into the silent darkness, he saw wooden animals, statues, chests, gilded chariots, a throne, and a hand-carved coffin of a teenage king. It was the priceless tomb and treasures of King Tutankhamun, The most exciting archaeological discovery up to that time. More than 3000 objects took over 10 years to remove, catalog, and restore.

Exquisite, incredible, elegant, magnificent. Those must’ve been the words uttered, who had just a short time earlier asked,  “Do you see anything?”

Can I dig a little into a deeper reality, an eternal truth?  Those riches cannot compare to what was left by a living king. One who left his fingerprint on all of nature and the universe, and beyond that, He lies waiting to be found in God’s word. Look at the inspired words of Proverbs 2: 1-5. They were given to Solomon to pass on to his son a wisdom that could make him and all of us rich:

Moral Benefits of Wisdom

2 My son, IF you accept my words
    and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
    and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, IF you call out for insight
    and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and IF you look for it as for silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.

The Moffat translation of Proverbs 2:5 puts it this way: “Then you shall see what reverence for the eternal is, and find out what the knowledge of God means.”

But would you pay special attention to those five verses?
Verse 1, my son, IF.
Verse 3: for IF
Verse four: IF

All of these conditions point to our responsibility, IF you will do this, child of God; IF you will do that, woman of God, man of God; IF you will pay the price, IF you will go to the hard work of digging and digging, and digging even more, then….”

Vs. 5 “Promises you will make some magnificent discoveries, THEN you will come to see with the knowledge of God means” “THEN you will understand what it means to know God.”

“Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine,” is found in Matthew 7:6, and it’s a warning against wasting valuable things on those who will not appreciate or value them. “Holy” and “Pearls” represent valuable things…wisdom, truth or the Gospel message.  He uses strong language of dogs and swine…symbolic of those unappreciative, hostile  or who misuse or don’t use what He has offered to them. Isn’t it a call to discernment and wisdom in SHARING valuable treasures with those who don’t respect them? Please don’t misunderstand me.  It’s not a call to avoid sharing the Gospel with everyone but to be discerning about who is receptive versus wasting this truly great prize with those who won’t appreciate them or be angered by your presentation.

Every Christian should be engaged in an excavation of their own, digging for secrets and searching for treasures that will deepen their intimacy with God. But, IF, we are to search with integrity and diligence,
we must be ready to see what others miss, as they dig through the sand, rocks, and rubble of the familiar into places where many others would say, “There’s nothing left to be Found”

Let’s be honest: Church can be a lot like that… Bible study can be drier than the desert sands of Egypt when we forget what we’re pursuing.  I think that is why so many of us have dabbled in our Biblical walk through the Bible and NOT progressed more deeply or become more intimately acquainted with Jesus.

Phil 3_10 AMP puts it this way:  “ And this, so that I may know Him [experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His Person more completely] and [in that same way experience] the power of His resurrection [which overflows and is active in believers], and [that I may share] the fellowship of His sufferings, by being continually conformed [inwardly into His likeness even] to His death [dying as He did];”

Oh, to be less religious and more like Christ.  The journey toward deeper intimacy with the Almighty begins with a decision to reorder our lives according to a different set of priorities. And just like an archaeological dig, the process is not easy.  It’s hard work, but you will find the treasure worth the hunt and I promise it will be Life-altering.

Our Days to Easter are short.  How have you prepared yourself as an offering to Jesus?

If you would like to pass this lesson and future devotions to someone, send them this Signup link: http://eepurl.com/i_nlb2  My website to view past devotions is https://fearlesslycourageous.com

You Raise me Up Phil Driscoll

Excerpts are taken heavily from Charles Swindolls Book  : “So You Want to Be Like Jesus.  Pages 52-56