The Real Secret
A commentary by Howard Davis
United Church of God elder, Portland, Oregon
The Secret, a Web released movie based on the book The Science of Getting Rich, is the latest pop recipe for acquiring riches, recognition and happiness. Executive producer Rhonda Byrne was thrilled that her video was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show on February 8, 2007.
With background music from a dramatic orchestra the video featured a deep male voice claiming that The Secret will give you everything you want: health, wealth and happiness. Supposedly, The Secret is the answer to all that has been, all that is, and all that will ever be.
The promoter says there is a law of attraction that is the one great power or law of life and that we attract to us the people, circumstances, the realities that we think about here and now.
But this idea is not new. Three thousand years ago—long before the rise of the Babylonian Empire referred to in this video—Solomon wrote: "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23).
Once Oprah saw the video, she said there was nothing new about it. She said she had practiced its basic ideas all her life. Who else knew what supposedly nobody knew until these promoters revealed The Secret through (at least to them) a very profitable global marketing scheme? The promoters claimed that Jesus knew it, but Buddha knew it first.
Again, there is nothing really new in The Secret. And even though some of its ideas are true, others mask the truth. Not everyone is in his present condition because of negative thoughts.
An African woman with AIDS, a child trapped in an abusive home, a terminal cancer patient may all do everything possible to think positive thoughts. But such thoughts will not automatically release them from their immediate trials or make them rich or enable them to survive.
Positive thinking is great. It is beneficial. And it works, up to a point. But it doesn't solve the problem of human greed. The Bible explains that the rich often oppress the poor by not giving them adequate wages. "Look!" it says to the rich, "The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty" (James 5:4, New International Version).
A consistent outgoing concern for others is what is really missing in human relationships. It is the real answer to greed and oppression.
Most people don't understand that Jesus Christ came as the Announcer of the real secret to human success, happiness, health, prosperity, peace and progress for all. This secret is the Kingdom of God.
Jesus called His message—the gospel of the Kingdom of God—a mystery (Mark 4:11). By this He meant a secret revealed in the Bible that most of humanity does not yet understand. This message includes the laws of the government of God which will ultimately lead those who practice them to happiness, health, wealth, power, glory, and eternal life forever
These laws are based on first learning the "give" way of life, the way of putting the needs of others ahead of ambition for the self. As the apostle Paul advises, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited" (Philippians 2:3-6).
Jesus Christ promised, "Give, and it will be given to you ... For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you" (Luke 6:38).
  To learn more about the real secret to living the successful life that Jesus Christ described, just request or download our informative free booklets: Making Life Work and What Is Your Destiny?
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