The Mystery part 2
The coolest thing about the mystery of God... is that it has been revealed in the person of Jesus. Man got into a lot of trouble because of what he didn't know. He swallowed the lie that said, "You have to do in order to be." The lie that said, "If you eat from this tree, you will be like God." And I say lie because that's what it was. That's what it is. In the beginning we were created in the image and likeness of God. We didn't have to do anything to be like Him. We were already like Him. The problem was that we didn't know what we were like, or what He was like. I had a teacher in high school a long time ago who said, "I think God was created in man's image." Because all throughout the Old Testament--lived, and written without the benefit of the indwelling Holy Spirit--we see God acting like a human. Getting upset. Ruled by His emotions. But then when Jesus comes we see something different. We see Jesus telling Phillip, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." That was, in fact, one of the biggest reasons for Jesus's earth walk ministry. He came to show us who God is. Jesus--God in the flesh, love in a body. God in our flesh, love in our body. Because God is love. And God lives in us. That's as simple as I can make it. The mystery of God--the mystery of love--which we seem to have made into, "If I'm so horrible, how could anybody love me?" is really, "what is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of God's love for me?" It's not, "Why does God love me?" Or even (especially), "Does God love me?" It's, "How good is this love, really?" And the answer is... it's a love without end. It better than anything we could ask or even think about. It's the best thing going. So our job-- let me quote my memory verse. "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter" (Proverbs 25:2). God has concealed His love--Himself--in US. And it's our honor to search it out. To LET it out. To receive it and release it. To let God reveal Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. The mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. But the mystery is revealed when Christ--LOVE--comes out of you with every breath you take and every move you make. Breathing in the love of God and then breathing it out. Revealing the mystery to others even as it is revealed to us. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. The mystery is not getting something we haven't got. The mystery is doing something with what we have got. Letting what's inside come out. By knowing what's inside. By knowing and believing that God's love IS inside of us and CAN come out of us. Believing in God. Believing in love. And, in a very real sense, believing in ourselves. Not in prideful way. Or an, "I can do it myself way." But simply believing that we are capable of doing what we were created to do. I know I can't do everything. But I always try to do what I can do. And what I can always do, no matter what, is love people. Let God love me and then love Him back with that same love!