Masked: Timeless, Thought-Provoking, and Spiritually Challenging

By R.A. Vukovich

Masked helps reveal what lies behind the mask, our true motives, identity, and destiny.

The heart and cry of every believer is to fulfill his or her destiny in God. Yet the path to success is paved with twists and turns, obstacles and detours.

Author R.A. Vukovich helps to understand the detours. Masked expresses the hope and insight many in the church are seeking. It will encourage and inspire those who are called to remove the mask, discard the grave clothes, and embrace the truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9781449716837

R.A. Vukovich

Rose Vukovich has been in ministry for thirty-three years. She and her husband, Joe, founded Mountain Ministries and published a Christian magazine, Gathering of the Waters. She is a Bible teacher—conference and women's retreat speaker. Rose carries an apostolic anointing and has a burden for the church. Rose received her MA degree in divinity from Shalom Ministry Bible College and Seminary in West Des Moines, Iowa. She received her BA in sociology with a minor in psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Rose loves to read nonfiction inspirational Christian books and write poetry. Rose and Joe currently reside in Horicon, Wisconsin, and have two children, Armando and Dana, and three grandchildren, Marquis, Michael, and Maya.

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Copyright © 2011 R.A. Vukovich

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Unless otherwise noted all scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scriptures taken from the Amplified version, The Lockman foundation, 1958, 1987. Used by permission.

Edited by Dave Hagen and Dana Gallegos, Cover Art by Armando P. Gallegos

ISBN: 978-1-4497-1682-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-1684-4 (dj)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-1683-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011928141

Printed in the United States of America

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/20/2011

This Book is Dedicated

To my husband, joe, my

companion and Partner in

doing god’s will.

Thank you for the support

and encouragement.

Contents

Chapter One

Bumper Sticker Faith

Our Heavenly Father wants to remove the mask His children wear.

Chapter Two

Lo-Debar

Let God wipe away your tears and whisper in your ear, Everything is going to be all right.

Chapter Three

Where’s the Sacrifice?

Have you ever trusted God and felt He failed you?

Chapter Four

When Dreams Die

When we reveal our true selves to God, we discover God’s true self.

Chapter Five

I AM that I AM

We still question God’s ability to meet our inabilities.

Chapter Six

The Wilderness

The wilderness is not a place of failure or rejection, but a place of refinement and preparation.

Chapter Seven

The Blood Covenant

In Abraham’s weakness and frailty, God shows up and speaks—as He often does in our lives.

Chapter Eight

New Covenant Fulfilled

Someone would have to walk the walk of death—but who could walk with God and not break covenant?

Chapter Nine

Are We There Yet?

We must change our mindset if we are to make a change in the world.

Chapter One

Bumper Sticker Faith

Introduction

This book is for the broken and poor in spirit. It is for the layperson who realizes he or she is more than a number; the evangelist who weeps more for the church than the lost; the pastor who realizes the church is not his or hers, but God’s; the prophet who sees the condition of the church; and the apostle who knows what the church should do. This book is for a remnant, which is rising up out of the ashes of despair and hopelessness, declaring, "We are the church. What shall this remnant do? The Bible says in Isaiah 61:4, And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations."

The purpose of writing this book is to bring healing and revelation to the body of Christ. May this book minister to the very depth of your soul, and bring you closer to your destiny.

Honking Horn

When I was a young Christian, while driving on the expressway, someone would always beep his or her car horn at me. What did I do? I wondered. These people even had the audacity to smile as they drove past me while blowing their horns. This would irritate me to no end.

One particular summer day while driving, a car filled with young adults got behind me. The driver literally laid on his car horn. I switched lanes so he could pass me. Instead of passing me, he switched lanes directly behind me. He continued to lay on his horn. I switched lanes again—this time to the far right lane. He deliberately followed me, blowing his horn mercilessly.

In an attempt to get rid of him, I took the first exit I saw. To my surprise, he veered off the same exit. My irritation had quickly turned to fear. I made a sharp turn; he followed suit. I made another turn, and he did the same while still blowing his horn. I decided to pull over and face my fear. To my amazement, he didn’t stop but slowly drove past me, smiling. The passengers’ outstretched bodies limply hung partially out the windows of his vehicle. I watched in astonishment as they waved their hands in unison, yelling in harmony, We love Jesus. I continued to watch as the vehicle drifted out of my sight.

I could feel my heart pulsating as I placed my hand over my chest, as if I could suppress the pounding. Then I heard the Lord say, See how they love me. I immediately remembered the bumper sticker—the one I had so proudly placed on the vehicle several months earlier. The bumper sticker read, If you love Jesus, honk. How often had others beeped their horns at me while I wondered in disgust what their problem was? I had quickly forgotten the words on my rear bumper.

To make matters worse, I was in the middle of nowhere. I had no clue where I was. In my haste to escape, I found myself sandwiched between two cornfields. To get back to where I should have been, I had to back track to the expressway.

Spiritual Dilemma

We often find ourselves in dilemmas. Our failures are constant reminders of our humanity, not our spirituality. We pray without ceasing, yet our prayers cease to be answered. To make matters worse, we are constantly battling with an enemy we cannot see. We wonder if we are really wrestling with the enemy or God.

We convince ourselves of Romans 8:28, All things work together for good to them that love God (KJV). Then we question ourselves: Do I really love the Lord? Better yet, does he really love me? Though teary eyes, we look at the fragmented pieces of our lives and wonder why—Why aren’t the pieces of the puzzle coming together? Could it be because we are trying to fit pieces to a puzzle that doesn’t fit? Why isn’t God’s Word working in my life? I have faith. Yet we forgot about the rest of the puzzle pieces. There is more to that verse: All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. According to whose purpose? It should be His, not ours.

What child does not ask his or her parents Why? It is an innate characteristic in every child to ask, Why? Thank goodness when we ask our heavenly Father why, He doesn’t reply with a resounding, Because I said so. It made no sense to me that people beeped their horns at me until I knew why. I jumped to the wrong conclusion and veered off the right path to escape.

John 8:32 says, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (KJV). I’m convinced that God’s people are the most knowledgeable people on the face of the earth. We have been taught the truth. We have read about the truth. The truth has been preached and prophesied to us. We know the truth. However, it is one thing to know the truth and another to receive it. Why wouldn’t anyone want to receive the truth? It is not that we don’t want to receive the truth—it’s that we can’t. We can’t receive the truth because we focus on where we are instead of where God wants us to be.

We find ourselves spiraling in a different direction because the path we are on makes no sense to us—so we take an alternative path. Desperate to fit in, we conform to—rather than reform—ideology and doctrine that no longer works for us. To speak out is rebellion, but to remain silent is death. We think this is what our heavenly Father wants for us. The truth is that He wants us to be set free. He wants to remove the mask and take away the restraints. We instead wipe away our tears and build walls around ourselves. We convince ourselves that we are fine; we are invincible, because we are Christians. We are the apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, evangelists, and the laypeople. We are the Church. In the interior of our souls, we are in pain and fragile.

The Mask

We feel that we are holding onto God by a thread—yet our heavenly Father has His hand outstretched under us, waiting for us to let go so He can catch us. Instead of letting go, we put on a facade—a mask. This mask is symbolic of our faith. It represents everything we want to be, but nothing that we really are.

We wear our Christian jewelry—earrings and necklaces that intricately and artistically display the cross we bear. Our worn wristband states, What Would Jesus Do? Our embroidered t-shirt declares that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord.

These Christian articles are not wrong to wear. Think about where we wear these items. We wear them at church services and Christian functions. Who are we trying to convince of our faith—ourselves or other believers? Who is trying to convince the unbelievers? We should be—but who are the unbelievers? We know them to be the ungodly. Sadly, many of our spiritual brothers and sisters are unbelievers.

Backtracking

We need to backtrack to the path we veered off. You know the path—the one that made no sense to us, the path where we were hurt and disappointed for the very last time. We need to backtrack—but not to the employer that wouldn’t promote us, the church that wouldn’t use us, but that spiritual and emotional place where we gave up believing, trusting, and receiving from God, and one another. We need to backtrack to that place where we put on a mask and unknowingly walked away from the will of God, before we veered off into a spiritual cornfield sandwiched between why and what if.

We Believed

As a child, many of us believed in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. These characters fueled our imagination, inquisitive questions could be avoided and the truth momentarily delayed. As we reached a certain age, the truth was eventually told to us. The Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny are all myths. As a child we had faith to believe what we couldn’t see, but were convinced because of the evidence left behind; whether it was carefully wrapped gifts under a tree, a crinkled dollar bill under a pillow or a colorful basket filled with candy, we believed.

Do you remember as a baby Christian having faith to believe all things were possible? Your zeal and passion for God matched your faith. You knew you were a new creature in Christ. You would kick the devil and he couldn’t touch you, as you ran into the loving arms of Abba Father. Soon the edge came down, and your boundaries increased and so did the trials. Life threw unexpected curve balls and blows, after falling down one too many times our faith dwindled instead of increasing. Why don’t we still believe, the evidence of God’s love, mercy and grace is there? Yes, there is no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy, but there is God even if we can’t see or hear him. We acknowledge Jesus as Savior in our lives—but He wants to be so much more. We know He is healer and redeemer—but will we allow Him to be that? This is not the time to give up, but to give into the will and purpose of God.

If you are a part of that remnant mentioned in the first paragraph of this book, God’s Word says in Isaiah 62:4, Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate but thou shalt be called Heph’-zi-bah, and thy land Beu’-lah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.

Let Go

First we must let go so God can catch us. We must let go of all the pain, hurt, and disappointment; let go of the instant replays of all the wrongs done to us; and let go of the mask. Our heavenly Father wants to take us where we have never been—but where we always wanted to be.

As you read this book, may the Lord illuminate your path. Let Him reveal to you why you went through the things you went through. It is time to leave Lo-debar (2 Samuel 9:4). In the next chapter, we will take a closer look at Lo-debar. I believe there is insight about Lo-debar and Mephiboseth that is relevant to us.

Bumper Sticker Faith

I removed the bumper sticker from my vehicle—not because I didn’t love Jesus, but because I did. I made up my mind that if I could not live the life I preached, I was not going to preach the life I lived. I realized it wasn’t the words on a piece of laminated paper that identified me with Christ, but the living Word manifested in my life. Our heavenly Father wants to remove the mask His children wear. We have been masquerading long enough with the pretense of being His church.

Chapter Two

Lo-Debar

Perspective

I remember a commercial in which a boy of about ten years of age walked onto a baseball diamond carrying a bucket filled with baseballs. He placed the bucket down by his side at home plate and took one ball out of the bucket.

The boy gazed out onto the field, deciding where he was going to hit the ball, as if he could visualize where each ballplayer was positioned in the field. He yelled, "I’m