I finally took the time to look at the passages in Colossians and Ephesians where Paul talks about a mystery he is telling everyone.

It's found in Ephesians 3:6,5:32,6:19 and Colossians 1:25-27,2:2-3.

Whenever I hear the word "mystery", I always think "whatever you're really missing" or "what you're really looking for". I love seeing Paul use "mystery" in his letter to Ephesus, the place where they had a giant idol-making guild to Artemis and where the Christians burned their priceless magic books. Or as Paul uses "mystery" in his letter to the Colosse, where legalist, overly spiritual religious snobs are trying to say there is more to Christianity than Christ.

The mystery is ... Christ. The treasure chest of all knowledge and wisdom. I love it. They're looking to their magic, to their angels, to their late-night visions, to their intricate cool rules, to their high-fallootin' philosophies, to their goddess - and Paul says that what they are really looking for in all that stuff is Jesus.

The mystery is ... Christ in you guys (you plural). It's not just an indwelling of the fullness of almighty God in the individual. It's about Christ being in all the brothers and sisters who have given themselves to the King.

The mystery is ... the Gentiles are co-heirs with the Jews. Following this line there is a beautiful picture of Jesus recreating humanity. Out of the Gentiles and Jews he makes a new human - those who are part of His Church. So, not only is the disunity destroyed, but a new, better humanity rises without the old distinctions. The unity is in Christ alone, though.

The mystery is ... when two become one - and Paul says he's talking about Christ and his Church. In the middle of a mutual submission speech, wives, husbands, Church and Christ get all tangled up in Paul's excitement. But the mystery is quite beautiful; through this powerful love and submission, we the Church will become one with our groom Jesus. It really sounds like Hosea 2:14-23 to me. God is our Husband.

The purpose of the mystery ... Ephesians 1:9-10 "And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. " I can't really add anything to that.

The mystery is ... the Word (logos) of God in its fullness that's been an ancient, hidden mystery until now. The Living Word, the Word from John 1. The co-creator with the Father. The one who was a mystery is now everything you've been looking for. In Colossians Paul talks about how the law and the codes were all just shadows - but Christ is the reality, and the reality is in Christ. It's like, if you were confused from the OT about who God was - if you didn't get it through the shadows - here's Jesus to look at and see, the reality, the image of God. This is God in His fullness. This is who God really is.

All the while he's proclaiming the mystery, He's talking about how Christ is holding everything together; He's the fullness, the completion, the everything. While everything we try to do to get forward in life, especially the things we try to do to get to God by building our spiritual towers of Bable - they are all incomplete shadows. I love how Don Richarson, a missionary to Irian Jaya, says that Christ is the completion of every religion - he has been prophesied in every place, but Jesus is the One who they are really looking for. Isn't that a nice, positive way to say that Jesus is the exclusive King of the universe?

I don't know why, but I never cared about this high theology before. Yet this is the grand purpose and reality which we should be a part of. This grand mystery - it'll blow your mind. It's everything we've been waiting for. 

The mystery: Jesus Christ, the reality, fullness, wisdom of the Living God, in us, the unified new people and Bride of Jesus all under the headship of the crucified and risen Lord. In Him, through Him, by Him, for Him, on Him, into Him, about Him...

So, I think we are slowly learning, little by little about helping the poor. Hopefully we are learning from God and not from the basic principles of this world.

#1 I think if you want to effectively help the poor and want to keep your sanity - I think you should do it as a group. A group can divide their time better. A group can help with finances better. A group can provide the emotional support you need - and you will need it. Of course, I think it should be a community of relentless believers and lovers of Jesus Christ, not just some group.

#2 I think if you want to effectively help the poor, you should stop acting as though you are a savior. Stop acting like you're "helping" him/her. They are just people. Talk. Eat. Share your stories in life. If you don't know the person or you don't feel comfortable sharing cash, share a meal. Keep some non-perishable food in your car that you can eat with him/her. Don't forget the utensils!

#3 Try to do things secretly. It will keep you from looking good. It will keep you from looking like a savior. It will also keep you from looking like a chump and a pushover. More importantly than all of that - Jesus said so. Do your good deeds in secret so that God will see it, not so that men will see it. (And I have a pride problem - I love saying the good I've done) That might mean leaving cash in an unmarked envelope... Be creative. It's kind of fun to see how you can do something random and kind and secret.

So, our group is on a journey to see what it means to help the poor as God would have us help. Is it really "helping them" or is it simply to talk with them, touch them, hear their stories, become friends so there no longer is a "them"?

Check out the journey from an exerpt from one of my friends:

I think I was too hard on myself about the blind guy. After reading Jesus, I realized he actually healed people, told 'em to get better, and ... went away. He actually got away from crowds wanting nothing but healing who didn't really want to hear the message of the Kingdom of God.

There's some strange disconnect between Kingdom of God and helping the poor in my brain now. Is helping the poor really what the Kingdom is? I'm learning that it's not. Strangely, I'm learning that Jesus is more important, even than the poor. Wonder how long I've thought of the poor as better than me and better than my Lord?

I was beginning to think that all poverty was caused by systemic injustice from "the man" and "the empire". Jesus knew better. He told people they were forgiven, to sin no more, and he healed them. Why so much about the sins? Poverty is caused by sin as well as the empire....

That doesn't mean I get to sit on my butt and not do anything, just because my background enabled me to not be poor, but it does mean that I shouldn't treat poor people like they are better than me or anyone else. They sin, and sometimes they are in their situations because of that dirty sin word. Is it weird that I'm almost ashamed of saying that?

Anyways, just sharing that I'm still learning.

My wife and I have been reading through Acts, and we finally finished two nights ago. Man, Paul goes through some tough stuff. He's set free by Agrippa and Festus, but because Paul purposely appeals to Caesar, they can't set him free.

Because of his choice, he gets shipwrecked, snake-bitten, and taken to Rome. All the while, he's caring for prisoners, strange islanders and Roman soldiers. This man is something else with the Spirit of God in Him. I think he appealed to Caesar, not out of just something to do with the Jews, but because he was bold enough to evangelize the "most powerful" man on Earth at that time. He was resolute on going for the throat, declaring that Jesus is King and Lord to a man who accepted no other but himself as king and god.

How will I live with that resolve?

I remember going to a class that taught about Islam and how there is such a high regard to the holy book of that religion that it could be called idolatry of a book. Well, that happens today in Christianity. How many people lift the Bible up higher than God or Jesus? Yikes, I even capitalized it, as if it's a person.

John 1 tells us that the Word (Logos in the Greek) is Jesus. He is the Word of God. I believe the bible is inerrant and all, but I'm not. I can read whatever I want into it. I'm trained in bible, so I can make it say what I want it to and convince others of it. The bible is dead without the living Word (Jesus).

We're in a community group for newlyweds, and we're going through a study that requires homework. So part of it goes on to say how the bible can fix your life and guide you into understanding and all - and yes, within the guidance of the Holy Spirit, yes. As words on a page, a little harder through my human manipulation. My wife and I are somewhat crazy. We started looking at the greek for all of the verses they gave us that lifted up the word of God to deity status - and they all had "Logos" as the word. It's the Word! It's Jesus! The bible lifts up the Word with a capital "W", not itself.

I love it. Maybe my greek syntax is off, and my understanding of language is horrible - but I see that the bible lifts Jesus up as the Word, the true and living revelation of Jesus Christ.

Of course, you could swing the other way and make Jesus into what you want. But it's the Jesus of the scriptures, the Messiah, the One foretold, the profesied One - that's the real Jesus.

A Jesus outside of the scriptural Jesus - not really Jesus. The bible exalted to Jesus' status - not a proper perspective.

So I was reading "Bethany" by Frank Viola yesterday about how in the story of Martha and Mary, Jesus exposes everyone's true motives when they are around Him.

And yesterday I went to be a saviour to a legally blind man who got robbed and now is facing eviction. I went to see him and meet him and eat with him. Instead, I was an actor trying to protect myself from another needy, messed up person. He wanted a long friendship, and I gave him a check for his water bill, a meal, a little cash to cover what he lost in his billfold and a conversation instead. Jesus exposed my evil heart to myself as I fumbled in trying to do something only He could do. Ugh, I'm no saviour. I don't know what to do about this guy. I've never had someone straight up tell me to my face, "I don't want to be another charity case. I want friendship." All the while I'm telling myself that I don't have time for another person in my life. And really, I don't. I'm human, eh?

Man it's so much easier to send money to an organization instead of touching the poor yourself. The poor will turn you upsidedown, and you'll be exposed in your state of self-preservation with all of your greed, pride, lust.

This was a very dark day for me. I pray for resurrection in my life after the horrible death I felt today. Jesus save me. I'm not the saviour.

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P.S. After this post I continued to think that the blind guy had stolen my sunglasses (he's legally blind, not completely blind - so i figured he could see and grab my glasses). I found them lying in the back of my car. Ugh. As we say in the South of the USA, "I'm eating crow."

Sometimes I feel as though my job is pointless. As a bank teller, I am a cog in the wheels of a greed machine. I don't actually produce anything. I don't actually make anything with my hands. I don't grow anything I or others can eat. I count money and prevent theft. What point is there in that? It's makes me sick to think that we've distanced ourselves so much from the good earth. Maybe that's why so many of us can't see God - we've become machines that don't even touch the dirt He made us from.

I know I'm here in this job temporarily, but what next? Farming? Manufacturing? Making clothing? I want to make something useful.

One thing that my wife and I tried this year was to grow a little patio garden. We planted the tomatoes too late, and we didn't have the sunlight for growing them. We have no tomatoes. Our lettuce is growing, though. It's funny that all I really have to show for production in the entire year is about six lettuce leaves.

Didn't God make me a gardener? Wasn't that the first and only profession in the perfect world?