Glory pt.2

12-4-10

The mystery is Christ. Through Him the worlds were made and by Him they hold together. He is the source of that beauty our inner selves catch glimpses of in everything. Christ is what our hearts are really longing for when we run after beautiful things. When we enjoy music or see a great painting, when we read great novels or see a sunrise, we are really taking in the glories of Christ. We only see them through a dark glass but one day our hearts will be able to eat up every delightful bit of Christ.

The mystery is Christ in you. This great God, who is the hidden object of all of our very apparent longings has chosen to reveal Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Word, is the closest we will get this side of heaven to understanding the beauty we long for. The wonderful thing is that, by dying on the cross for us, God has made a way that Christ can live in our hearts. We the redeemed possess within our hearts the answer to our soul's questioning. The end and object of all our longings has not only been made known to us, He has chosen out of love to live in our hearts. There is nothing more intimate than the indwelling Christ. That the God of the universe would choose to scrub us clean and invade our minds is the greatest mystery in history. That He would not leave us as we are but change even our desires is the greatest reversal anyone will ever know. Through it all we find Christ working in our lives to receive praise.

The mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We cannot yet say "Christ in you: glory" because we have not yet attained all of the glory our hearts long for. While He has sent the Spirit into our hearts, it is as a guarantee that better things are to come. Nothing is better than being with God, but the change we will experience in the future is equal to or greater than the change we have already experienced. Just as we look back now on our past life and find no way of comparing it with the glories of life with Christ, we will one day wonder how we ever lived outside of the physical presence of the Lord.

My heart loves great paintings, but finds no contentment there. My soul hungers after creative music, but knows no fulfillment in melodies alone. My mind longs for prose and poetry, but never comes away satisfied.

It is because these are only mediums, methods of communication. My minds eye wants a clear picture, but it doesn't know of what. When I hear stories of sacrifice and love I feel I'm getting warmer. There is a deadness in 'great novels' whose themes are the degeneracy of our stupid race. Something inside me wants not only excellence in form, but meaning in content. Futility is found in everything other than Christ. Even the wisest man knew it all was meaningless. The mystery was kept hidden in Solomon's time. If He had known mystery, Christ in us, he would have joined Paul in saying "I have counted everything as garbage compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.

Now with His blood in my veins and His mind in my brain I will reject second bests. I will no longer settle for the methods of beauty used to tell the story of futility. My heart refuses to accept this world's portrayal of emptiness and brokenness. I will continue to believe in love and forgiveness in the face of human bitterness and apathetic seclusion. I will continue to trust in the faithfulness of God as my only hope of glory.

I see a man nailed to a scaffold. Between gasps of blood and cold air He is able to say "it is finished."

Jesus Christ, the hope of glory.