Insider Trading

In the financial world, insider trading is illegal. Those who have access information that will increase or diminish the worth of a stock are forbidden from using that information to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.  But, in other areas, who doesn’t enjoy having the inside track, gaining privileged information?  Sometimes being an ‘insider’ causes us to feel some pride, even superiority.  I hope this is NOT true of your Christianity.  In Christ, we are made ‘insiders’ but we are in on an open secret (can you say oxymoron?) that we need to share!

Paul says, "You’re not in this alone. I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or “the Secret.”  (Colossians 2:1-4, The Message)  In Christ, we are given the key to understanding life.  He is the open secret that we know because God has chosen to reveal Him to us!

Thousands of competing ideas offer us that promise of a better life.  Often, for a price, there will be preachers or philosophers, gurus or shamans, who will claim to know the secret that we can know. The ‘open secret’ of eternal life through Christ is not available for any price, fully paid for by Him. It is not reserved for a special group, a certain race, only those who meet some social litmus test. 

That we can be restored to the image of our Creator, that we can gain access to the court of Heaven, that we can be fully alive now and for eternity, is His promise to those who will believe, receive by faith this profound truth -  

Christ entered the world. 
Christ died to save this world enslaved to evil.
Christ rose again to make it clear HE defeated sin and death.
Christ will come again to announce the full revelation of His kingdom. 

There it is, God’s open secret, entrusted to His Church, to you and me, called out of the world and into His Body.

Are you a messenger of that great news, sharing it both in your life and your words?

Here is the word from the Word.  It’s the secret that is open to all, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that He is our hope, that He has given us the promise of more and better and eternal life. "Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”" (Matthew 28:18-20, NIV)

Father, I am so very thankful that You chose to make
the secret known to children, to the simple,
to those regarded as being of ‘no account.’

Thank you for the good news of Jesus, Your Son,

Who came to show us Who You are,
to open us the Way to Heaven to us, and
to secure us in hope.

When I am struggling, confused, or afraid,

keep me, by the work of the Holy Spirit, centered on Christ Jesus.
Strip away the pretensions of religiosity. 
Make plain, again, to me the emptiness of so-called “higher truth.”

Rather may I stand, by faith, in Christ alone;
full of the assurance that comes from knowing Him.

Amen.

____________

Knowing You

All I once held dear, built my life upon,

All this world reveres and wars to own;

All I once thought gain, I have counted loss,

Spent and worthless now compared to this…

Now my heart's desire is to know You more,

To be found in You and known as Yours;

To possess by faith what I could not earn,

All surpassing gift of righteousness…

Oh to know the pow'r of Your risen life,

And to know You in Your sufferings;

To become like You in Your death, my Lord,

So with You to live and never die.

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You;

There is no greater thing!

You're my all, You're the best,

You're my joy, my righteousness,

And I love You, Lord, love You, Lord!

Graham Kendrick

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