Would you like the top of your head taken off? It's worth it, really.
The gospel holds a mystery that the wisest men have yet to completely understand. It is astonishing every time I really look at it. Paul writes about it often. Colossians is where I found it this time.
Paul writes that it is Christ in us, giving us our only hope of glory. I could lean on that word "only" for my own sake. There is no other way to find glory. No other way to inherit light and escape darkness.
"giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." 1:12-14
All that is our only reason to hope for glory. He has qualified us by putting himself in us, Christ in us.
"of which I became a minister according to the divine office which was given me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now made manifest to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." 1:25-27
This is of the kind of thing that takes the top of my head off and leaves my mind unprotected from the stars. God must have a whole garden of head-tops by now, and wishes we would stop growing them back and hiding from him. I wonder what kind of flowers or plants they would produce. If faith could be a plant, what would it be? Anyway.
It's a mystery that's been hidden before the world began, and now it's BEING MADE REAL IN US. Sit back. Drink some tea. Think about eternity, and the riches of the glory of a mystery we are permitted to live in. It's rich. It's overflowing with grace. It makes you ready to experience and live in and become glory. Christ, the King of the Universe, in you. In you! Making you perfect.
I need more tea.
Do not dare to take away the richness of this grace by trying to do it yourself.
"The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Psalm 51:17
Let your spirit break. It's all right. The Almighty God will not despise you, so you need not despise yourself. He is offering his own Spirit, but yours must break first.
My spirit seems to take me far, at times. But Inevitably, I fall. This is Inevitable Reality. This is Brokenness. Broken wings cannot fly. I have no hope of glory. I can't reach it.
But God opens my eyes to these words, this Christ in me. It is so simple, and yet pervasive. Christ in me means me broken open and surrendered every day and in every part of who I am. All I am, given to Him. I'm not pulled in a hundred directions, though. Just one, and that is how it's simple. I know which way to go because of his gracious hand around mine. My flesh wants to go back, but my spirit wants to go forward. With the strength of Christ in me, I overcome my flesh. That simple, that difficult to surrender to leaning on his strength. Every day I have to remember that I CANNOT DO IT. Not at all. The more I lean on him, the more I realize that I have less, so much less, than I thought.
Thank you, Jesus, for your sure guidance. Because of you, I know where I am going, and I can go there with you.
Colossians is full of beautiful things about growing, maturing in Christ, strangling-slaughtering-hating-destroying the flesh(really, that's the only way to go about it). The frustrating part is that the flesh hides so well among the good things I do. I wish I had a bloodhound's nose when it comes to sniffing it out. I have to kill it right away, no mercy, no pity.
Oh, I am looking for that blessed hope, the glory that is the answer to the mystery, when I will be pure spirit and have no flesh to persecute.
Keep your eyes open for the works of this glorious mystery. I promise they will astonish you.
By the way, I have a possible lead to publish the first book, which I might call Seal up the Stars, which would be very exciting and glorious indeed. :) So, you may pray about that. God really took that thing in his hands because I barely had to do anything except have a wonderful relative named Amy Gingerich that works at Herald Press. She is definitely getting treasures in heaven.
