{"id":1978,"date":"2012-01-27T06:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T06:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/"},"modified":"2012-01-27T06:00:01","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T06:00:01","slug":"mystery-is-to-be-sought-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery is to be Sought Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Weekly Overview:<\/h2>\n<p>One of the most scandalous truths of the gospel is that our Creator longs to be encountered by his creation. God longs to meet with us. His greatest desire is for relationship with us. I can\u2019t fathom why God in all his holiness and goodness makes himself available to us, but it is the powerful truth of Scripture. God is pursuing each of us with his relentless love, seeking out those who might respond to his open invitation by opening the door of their hearts to him. My prayer is that in response to God\u2019s desire to meet with his people we would be those who say yes to centering our lives around his nearness. May your week be marked by the reality of God\u2019s presence and love.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Scripture:<\/h2>\n<p><em>\u201cIt is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.&#8221;<\/em> Proverbs 25:2<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"worship\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Worship:<\/h2>\n<h3>One Thirst and Hunger by Bethel Live<\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"display: block; margin: auto auto 30px auto; width: 100%; float:left;\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: block; margin: auto; float: left; border: 1px solid #000000; background-color: #484846; padding: 2px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; -khtml-border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px;\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AjpXDsd4zzk?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<h2>Devotional:<\/h2>\n<p>The fact that God conceals things in mystery for his children to search out is one of the most curious and wonderful truths of Scripture. Proverbs 25:2 says, <em>\u201cIt is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.&#8221;<\/em> We who have been made kings and queens by the blood of Jesus have been granted access to the mysteries of God. God in his grace has given us the right to know the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).<\/p>\n<p>What would relationship with the God of the universe be without mystery? What would it be like to know the God who has formed galaxies and planets beyond anything we will ever discover without that which remains unknown? We are made to be enthralled by the mysteries of our heavenly Father. We are created to search out that which is not made plain to us. God is inviting us to ask, question, seek, and find that which transcends the natural and stretches into the unknown: the eternal.<\/p>\n<p>Colossians 2:1-3 says,<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God\u2019s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.<\/em><\/div>\n<p>All mystery finds its resolve in the person of Jesus Christ. Within him dwells <em>\u201call the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.&#8221;<\/em> And the more we get to know the living, active person of Jesus through his Spirit, the more we receive important, transformative revelation. You see, even something as foundational to the Christian faith as grace is laden with mystery. The powerful effects of Jesus\u2019 grace-filled sacrifice baffle the mind. How could one man in laying down his life make righteousness and salvation available to all? But in God\u2019s grace this is wholly possible. And only when we truly seek out the mysteries laden within grace will we begin to experience all the powerful effects it has to offer us.<\/p>\n<p>May we as God\u2019s children grow to love the mysteries laid open for us by our loving heavenly Father. May we enjoy the process of searching out the deeper things within God\u2019s heart with the help of the Holy Spirit. And may that which is unseen, heavenly, and eternal begin to have a profound impact on our perspectives, emotions, thoughts, and actions. Search out the mysteries of your faith today and discover just how vast and available the love of your heavenly Father is for you.<\/p>\n<h2>Guided Prayer:<\/h2>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<p><strong>1. Meditate on the call before you to search out the deeper things of God.<\/strong> Allow Scripture to stir up your desire for the mysteries of your faith.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.&#8221;<\/em> Proverbs 25:2<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIn my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ\u2019s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed 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.&#8221;<\/em> Colossians 1:24-27<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. What parts of your faith have you yet to fully search out?<\/strong> Ask God to reveal what mysteries he\u2019s laying open before you that you might walk in a deeper revelation of who he is and what he\u2019s done.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Take time to search out an aspect of your relationship with God.<\/strong> It might be something about his creation or an aspect like grace, forgiveness or love.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYou have said, \u2018Seek my face.\u2019 My heart says to you, \u2018Your face, Lord, do I seek.'&#8221;<\/em> Psalm 27:8<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cFor I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God\u2019s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.&#8221;<\/em> Colossians 2:1-3<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>Coupled with God\u2019s desire for us to seek out mystery is the truth that we are not meant to fully grasp every part of God and Christianity. Part of the beauty of our relationship with an omnipotent, omnipresent, and eternal God is that there will always be parts of him that are a mystery to us. How God has always existed and is both three and one are paradoxes too great for comprehension. We must simply trust the truth of Scripture for what it is at times and not dwell on that which we cannot attain. We must reconcile only that which is intended to be reconciled. May you search out all the mysteries opened to you by the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit who dwells within you, while at the same time enjoying all the unknowables meant to stir up awe and wonder within you.<\/div>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<strong>Extended Reading:<\/strong> <a title=\"Colossians 1\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Colossians+1&#038;version=ESV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"alternate noopener noreferrer\">Colossians 1<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weekly Overview: One of the most scandalous truths of the gospel is that our Creator longs to be encountered by his creation. God longs to meet with us. His greatest desire is for relationship with us. I can&#8217;t fathom why God in all his holiness and goodness makes himself available to us, but it is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":636,"featured_media":1981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first15"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mystery is to be Sought Out<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Weekly Overview: One of the most scandalous truths of the gospel is that our Creator longs to be encountered by his creation. God longs to meet with us. His greatest desire is for relationship with us. I can&#8217;t fathom why God in all his holiness and goodness makes himself available to us, but it is&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mystery is to be Sought Out\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Weekly Overview: One of the most scandalous truths of the gospel is that our Creator longs to be encountered by his creation. God longs to meet with us. His greatest desire is for relationship with us. I can&#8217;t fathom why God in all his holiness and goodness makes himself available to us, but it is&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"First15 Daily Devotional\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-27T06:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/450\/2022\/01\/11.03-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1922\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cdenison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mystery is to be Sought Out","description":"Weekly Overview: One of the most scandalous truths of the gospel is that our Creator longs to be encountered by his creation. God longs to meet with us. His greatest desire is for relationship with us. I can&#8217;t fathom why God in all his holiness and goodness makes himself available to us, but it is&hellip;","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mystery is to be Sought Out","og_description":"Weekly Overview: One of the most scandalous truths of the gospel is that our Creator longs to be encountered by his creation. God longs to meet with us. His greatest desire is for relationship with us. I can&#8217;t fathom why God in all his holiness and goodness makes himself available to us, but it is&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/","og_site_name":"First15 Daily Devotional","article_published_time":"2012-01-27T06:00:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1922,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/450\/2022\/01\/11.03-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cdenison","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/","name":"Mystery is to be Sought Out","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/450\/2022\/01\/11.03-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2012-01-27T06:00:01+00:00","dateModified":"2012-01-27T06:00:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/#\/schema\/person\/ab397c9ca5ade37b7fc66fefa43eb0cf"},"description":"Weekly Overview: One of the most scandalous truths of the gospel is that our Creator longs to be encountered by his creation. God longs to meet with us. His greatest desire is for relationship with us. I can&#8217;t fathom why God in all his holiness and goodness makes himself available to us, but it is&hellip;","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/450\/2022\/01\/11.03-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/450\/2022\/01\/11.03-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1922},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/01\/mystery-is-to-be-sought-out\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mystery is to be Sought Out"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/","name":"First15 Daily Devotional","description":"Scripture, reflection, prayer and more","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/#\/schema\/person\/ab397c9ca5ade37b7fc66fefa43eb0cf","name":"cdenison","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/author\/cdenison\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/636"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}