THE GREAT MYSTERY – Chapter 1

 

WARNING: Enter at your own risk. If you will, read, pray and meditate on the words of Jesus from the book of Matthew, chapter five, and absorb them into your mind, soul and spirit, then you may begin to experience a transformation, which at times will be exhilarating and at other times may be some of the most bewildering and difficult days of your life.

This experience has been, inadequately called, by many theologians and Bible teachers, ‘the process of sanctification’. (The process of making or becoming holy, set apart, sanctification, holiness, consecration; the believer being progressively transformed by the Lord into His likeness, and the similarity of His nature.) And, indeed, it is. But when you make this personal, it becomes much more.

Yet, herein lies the source of this great mystery. It requires we take a great journey which will take us back in time. We will travel back over 2,700 years to find the first words written about this greatest of mysteries. But the Bible says it existed long before that time. That it has always existed.

It is good to know about this oracle, but even better if you can discover it for yourself. Just knowing about it, however, can be of little use unless you know what to do with it – and then only if you actually do something.

One of the central obstacles to finding and deciphering this mystery is that it is indeed a mystery!. Its secrets are only revealed by God and only to those who are His own and who are spiritually minded. It has been stumbled across by many people, but understanding and applying this mystery to one’s life is the most difficult undertaking. This mystery and its power, with a few exceptions, have been almost universally misinterpreted, misunderstood, and misapplied.

Many people have tried to make sense of this mystery throughout the centuries, but by way of their own contemporary lens or paradigm. So, using their humanist viewpoint, many have come close, but most have failed.

Undeterred however, religious people have endeavored to codify this mystery into their own theologies, (studies of God), with their own doctrines, confessions, creeds, catechisms and liturgies. They have reformulated the Words contained in this Mystery, and restated them to fit their particular views. They have argued among themselves about it all and have started wars over its meaning. And there have been divisions and splits or schisms resulting in the creation of over 45,000 different Christian denominations, (see Wikipedia.com), each with their own set of values and practices ranging from those which are similar to those that hold weird and vastly opposing views.

Jesus, however, clearly taught and demonstrated the way to correctly appropriate, and to be appropriated by, this mysterious transforming power. He personally trained, equipped and sent eleven men into the world to propagate this message, to teach its mysteries and to submit themselves to its amazing powers. But almost from the beginning of this great commission to take this message to the world, it was being blurred and then was muddled into man’s view of what Jesus must have really meant.

Please know that I am certain that the efforts of many good people to understand and to spread this message of Good News were, and are, sincere and well-intentioned.

But the sad results we are dealing with are that people who are claiming the name of Christ are more divided than ever in their biases and their prejudices. They have become what the Bible describes as lawless and cold toward one another, lovers of self, greedy lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. And this is within the Church!

The only distinction from many churches and any other social event is that in some churches, you might hear a sermon or see bulletins lying around which reference upcoming religious activities.

It seems to have come to the point that Christians are little different from the pagans of the world! So what chance is there of transforming the world around us?

Yet, despite these things, there is Good News. Hidden within the clamor of pseudo-religious beliefs and practices, there still lies this mystery. One could say it remains hidden in plain sight. It is ever-present, waiting to be discovered or re-discovered. And, when you encounter this mystery, there will be no doubt that you have found “the treasure hidden within the field”, “the pearl of great price”. Its radiance is greater than the brightest star, and its difference is that of the day from the night. You will have found the source of the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control you have been seeking.

So, how do you begin your search for this mysterious and wonderful power? Jesus put it best when He said you must first “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is now at hand”.

If your life is absent the permanent and continuous flow of the fruit of the Spirit, you must repent, for the kingdom of heaven is now at hand.

If your life is missing out on the works that Jesus did, and even greater works of teaching and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, healing all kinds of sickness and diseases, you must repent, for the kingdom of heaven is now at hand.

If you are living in loneliness, fear, doubt, lack and want, then you must repent, for the kingdom of heaven is now at hand.

If you and your behaviors are “friendly” with the world but at odds with the Words and Teachings of Jesus, you must repent, for the kingdom of heaven is now at hand.

Jesus is saying that you must begin by willingly and purposefully turning away from your current and closely held opinions and “religious belief systems” that do not align with those of Jesus the Christ. You must be able to honestly admit that what you have thought and practiced to this point is a failure. You must ‘deny yourself of your worldly attitude and dispose of your current ways of thinking and acting’, and start anew. This, however, is the reason most people who are being held by a religious spirit will not be able to discover this mystery nor can they understand it.

Additionally, you must know that you will find It only when you search for It with all your heart. You must search ‘like a deer, when it is dying of thirst, will search for water’.

Even then, it usually takes a crisis of some sort to bring a person to the point of surrendering to this process of discovery. So don’t be surprised or dismayed if that crisis occurs during your search. In fact, this anticipated crisis is actually part of God’s preparing you and enabling you to submit yourself to God and to receive.  Please see “The Sermon On The Mount”.)

You must come to realize that this greatest of mysteries is only to be found within the person of Jesus Christ. And, the one who comes to Him must believe that He exists, and it is only then that He will prove to be the One Who rewards those who seek Him. (see Jeremiah 29:12-13 and Hebrew 11:6).

Once again, I tell you that this will be especially difficult for the person who has been inculcated with a contemporary, modern or postmodern view of Christianity. So, don’t lose heart as God strips away these layers of old religious varnish.

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young.

NEXT: It Is (coming soon). All Good News – Chapter 2 – THE WILDERNESS

PREVIOUS: IT’S ALL GOOD NEWS – An Introduction.

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IT IS ALL

INTRODUCTION

Ofttimes, people are ‘secretly’ reminded of their past sins and failures by circumstances they encounter. And this may cause many people to harbor a privately held low self-image and plagues them, at some level, with a low self-esteem. And if that isn’t enough, there are those around us that will remind you of your past or present inadequacies. Sometimes out of spite or in order to elevate their own image. That is bad news.

Here is the Good News. You don’t have to live in that cage. You do not have to be chained to that rock of humiliation any longer. There is a way to free yourself and to erase that past from the annals of shame, guilt and self-incrimination.

Let me repeat and restate a quote from a book I will leave unknown:

Here is a Mystery: 

Believe it or not, and as strange as it may seem, there is a Power which exists that is able to transform your life, so radically, so completely, so thoroughly, that those who knew you beforehand, would hardly recognize you afterwards.  In fact, you would hardly be able to recognize yourself when the process is complete.

You might even have to ask yourself, “Can I really be that man or that woman who went about under my name before?”

You are, in one sense the same person, but in another sense, you will have become someone utterly different.

This intensely real power, can pick you up today – right now – from the midst of loneliness, failure, ruin, misery, despair or any difficulty, and in the twinkling of an eye, as Paul said, begin to solve your problems, smooth out your difficulties, cut you free from entanglements and place you clear, safe and happy upon the highroad of freedom and opportunity.

It can lift you out of a socially, spiritually or morally invalid bed and make you sound and well.
It can free you to go and shape your life as it should be.
It can throw open the prison door and liberate the captive.

It has a healing balm for the bruised and broken heart.

This Power can teach you all things you need to know, if only you are receptive and teachable.

It can inspire you with new thoughts and ideas, so that your life’s work may be truly original, meaningful and lasting.

It can impart new and wonderful kinds of knowledge, as soon as you really want such knowledge – glorious knowledge – strange things not taught in schools or written in books.

It can find your true place in life, and put you into it, too.

It can find the right friends for you, kindred spirits who are interested in the same ideas and want the same things that you do.

It can provide you with an ideal home.

It can provide you the type of  prosperity that means freedom.  Not as the world knows prosperity.  But the type of prosperity that means true Freedom.  Free to be and to do and to go as your soul calls.

This transformation, for some people can begin as soon as they discover it and embrace it. For others, it may take time, as they unpack or relieve themselves of “the old person” and embrace the “new”.

What is this Power? This power, as I put it, is actually a Person. He is the Person of Jesus Christ. And you must possess this Person and you must allow Him to possess you, before this Power can transform you and your life as I have described..

Actually, it is not me saying these things. It is Jesus saying these things. And He says that this can only happen, “If you abide (live and find your being in) Him and His Words abide in you”. You must mentally and emotionally leave everything of this world, all that you possess and everything that possesses you. You must leave them behind, and follow Jesus – adapt and follow His teachings and His life –  in order to experience this Transformative Power.

Jesus said you must deny yourself of your personal “fleshly desires”, that is things that you lust after, the frivolous wants, likes and desires that only satisfy the ego. You must deny yourself earthly relations and pursuits and seek Him for this Power to be at work in you. Forget what this world has to offer, and spend all of yourself on Him and His Calling. Then, and only then, can His Promises be yours.

Once you have truly encountered and embraced this power a transformation will take place. The Bible says you will become a new creature, It is then that you might ask yourself, “Can I really be the man or woman who went about under my name six months or six years ago?  Was I really that person?  Could that person have possibly been me?”

And the truth is that while in one sense you are indeed the same person, yet in another sense you will be someone utterly different.

I had been a practicing, sold-out, surrendered-to-Christ, Christian for about 15 years when I read the aforementioned excerpt. It so happens that I had become disappointed with my experience of church, and with Christians.

It seemed that the Christianity I had found was little more than a religious exercise of unrealized expectations.

Sure, the Christians I met acted differently than people who did not believe or follow Jesus. But just under the surface, their “old selves” were lurking.  And too often, the “old selves” of these Christians could be lured out into the open with just a slip of the tongue or an inadvertent act.

And, I was tired of the high cost of this Westernized style of Christianity which gave a very low return.  I was tired of the excuses offered when the behavior of the “Hope” talked about did not match the promised demonstration of faith.  The miraculous I heard about had been evasive. In other words, what I was seeing within Christianity was not what I was reading in the Bible. Not even close!

Still, there was that quote, and that quote haunted me.  It was as if someone or something continued to whisper it into my mind.  It whispered the Christianity I longed for, the Christianity I so desperately needed. This haunting would not leave me.

I reasoned that I was a changed person.  I had decided to stop certain behaviors and start others.  But, I still struggled with hidden thoughts and desires.  I still had few friends outside of family.  I continued to struggle financially.  I had no confidence or courage.  My past was a constant reminder of my failures.  My future was full of uncertainty.  I clung to the promise of becoming a ‘new creature’ and the promise of heaven, but my grip was growing weak.

I was certain I had not experienced a real “deliverance”.  It was still me doing the work.

It was not that I was “looking for more” in my walk with God or from the Church. I was looking for “THE WALK” found in the Bible. I reasoned that the problem was not God or the Bible nor was it other Christians or the Church. I reasoned that the problem was with me and my understanding. I struggled to imagine that I had misunderstood the truth of the Bible, the truth about Jesus, salvation and just about everything else concerning God. I knew I could not go on playing this façade. I had to find the truth or I would give it all up. Wretched man that I had become.

I thought, “If God cannot get out of heaven and be real to me, help me, and change me right now, what earthly good was this to me?”  And, yes, I know what you must think of me by now.  But, this is how quickly I was sinking in despair.

I needed help and the Church would not or could not throw me the life ring I needed.

So, with caution and trepidation, I read this little book my wife had found in a discarded pile of books at a local church.

I could not agree with everything written in this book.  My religious training would not allow me to agree.

But as I read this excerpt and quote from a little book, and I found a staggering and life changing Truth:

The Bible is not just a book of “stories” about God, Jesus, Satan, some garden someplace named Eden, endless genealogies, the despair of sin, death and misery. Then there are the rules of “do and don’t”, hundreds upon hundreds of seemingly unrelated events, culminating with a hope of a future promise to escape God’s judgements and to live with Jesus, forever in heaven. Was I expected to know all of this and somehow conform my thinking and my life to the 1,189 chapters, 31,103 verses and 807,361 words in the Bible?

No. A thousand times no! The Bible is a love letter breathed out by God, addressed to and for every man, woman, boy and girl ever born.  It is written in a language and a style that anyone can understand if taken at face value. This is why Jesus is called the Living Word of God. He is the Logos. He is the translation we need to know and understand. And, once you understand This Hidden Truth of the Bible and learn how to apply this Truth every day, NOTHING WOULD EVER BE THE SAME.

Finally, a simple and plain language that penetrated my mind, my will and emotions and seeped deep into my soul and spirit. And everything in my life changed in amazing and wonderful ways. If fact, upon reading and absorbing the truth presented to me, I realized that this Power had been working in and around me for years, and it was only at the right time that I became aware of His presence.

My life to that point, was a life of tragedy. As a child I lived in a violent and broken home. I was passed around to family members. Once an adult, I replicated these same failures. No children of my own. A broken marriage. Poverty, sickness and failure. Then, all of that change in what seems what was a “twinkling of the eye”.

I became healthier, body, soul, mind and spirit. Our marriage was restored. I became part of a family. We had children. I found amazing success in business. I had found my greatest joy and purpose in life from My walk with God. (Please understand that all problems did not just go away. I was still living in a broken world and as Psalm 34:17-19 says, “The righteous cry out and the Lord hears and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the broken hearted, and He saves those who are crushed in spirit. The afflictions of the righteous are numerous, but the Lord rescues us from them all”.  You do not need to live chained to that rock of human suffering any longer!

I want to share this great discovery with you.  I want to share it with everyone and anyone who is willing to hear. And for those who are hearing this for the first time, you are the fortunate ones. You have no religious clutter that must be removed before you can hear and accept what I am about to reveal. For those who have are already religious or have been in a Church for any time, you will have some extra work to do.

I will attempt to keep this simple and straight forward. So, to begin, (Please click on the link to Chapter 1, below).

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young.

NEXT: It Is All Good News – The Great Mystery – Chapter 1.

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