In On The Secret?

Don’t we love being an ‘’insider?”  Getting the scoop, owning privileged information, is something that started when we were kids in school.  That ‘secret’ that is whispered on the playground does not stay a secret for very long, however.  Everybody needs to tell at least one person what they know.  How many times have you said or heard another say, “This is just between us,” only to repeat words that someone else shared with them with the same prefacing statement?

There is an open secret (can you say oxymoron?) that we need to share! See if you can find it in this passage from Colossians. “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)  The key to understanding life, the solution to the riddle, the answer to the question is found in Christ Jesus.  He is theopen secret that we know because God has chosen to reveal Him to us!

There are thousands of competing ideas offered to us that promise us a better life. Prophets and philosophers claim to know the secret that we can know, too – often for a price!  Even among Christians there are all kinds of sects with some private interpretation, some esoteric practice, that claim to know a ‘higher’ revelation, an insider’s secret.  My own tribe (Pentecostal Christians) can sometimes imply that theirs is a superior experience, that ‘we’ own ‘all the Gospel’ because of our understanding of the ministry of the Spirit. While I love the experience of worship, the expectation of the Spirit’s move, and the intimacy of praying ‘in the Spirit,’ I also realize how very divisive this sense of being an ‘insider’ can be.

In the passage you read a moment ago, Paul warned about being led off on a chase for ‘the Secret.’  If you know Christ Jesus as Lord, you are already in possession of the mystery of life, more life, and eternal life! You do not have to go to some special location, find some eloquent teacher, or engage in some painful ritual! “This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ.”(Colossians 1:26-28  The Message)

Believe! Receive! Live!  
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. 

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

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  So,  “see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8, NIV) “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” (Colossians 2:16-19, 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

© 1993 Make Way Music (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.)

CCLI License # 810055