Working to Solve a Mystery

In 1st Timothy 3, Paul writes to Timothy about what he calls the "mystery of godliness":(15) I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

The good news is that we can come to know God - we can read about the nature and wonders of God in His Holy Word; we can acquire knowledge, and then the Holy Spirit will give us understanding of His ways.   As we accept Christ as Savior and grow in our relationship with Him, then we can mature in wisdom - applying God's truth to our lives as we continue to seek Him.

In Colossians 1, the apostle Paul discusses the plan of salvation as a "mystery" that has been revealed:
(25) I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

2 mysterious Civil War-era photographs are being circulated online today...yes, even in that time period, pictures were fairly widespread.  The photographs are of 2 girls, each of them posed on chairs, one has ringlets of hear, the other is clothed in a hoop dress.

The photograph of one girl was found between the bodies of two soldiers — one Union, one Confederate, at Port Republic, Va., 150 years ago this month.  The other was retrieved from a slain Union soldier’s shoulder bag in 1865 on a Virginia farm field just a few days prior to the end of the war.

But, there is a mystery - no one seems to know who these girls are or why their pictures appeared near Civil War soldiers.

It's no surprise that this story has caught the attention of people across the Internet...after all, a lot of us really love a good mystery...add in the war element, and the intrigue of the infancy of photography, and you have quite a bit of substance here.

And, this story reminds us of a mystery that we're all called to investigate, which turns out be less of a mystery after all as we diligent look into it.   That is the mystery of godliness, the plan of redemption, the concept of how we as finite creatures, sinful human beings, can be brought into a relationship with Almighty God.   On the surface, it seems like an improbable tale - how someone so unrighteous can experience the righteousness of God, but as we approach the Scriptures and investigate God's truth, we find that is a much more than a possibility - by faith, we accept God's work toward us as a certainty.

Back to these Civil War-era girls - the investigation is now underway.   In order to ascertain the identities of these young ladies, knowledge will be acquired through research, understanding will be gained as the information is gathered, and wisdom - the application of the data - could lead to the identification, the solution.    So it is with the Scriptures - we gain knowledge, but as the Bible says, we are to get understanding, as well - facts are great, but grasping the significance of the facts is far more productive.  And, we use wisdom so that we can apply what we've learned and solve the mystery.

God's mystery has now been revealed powerfully through His Word - He calls us to not only investigate the truth and know the Scriptures, but to seek to understand and to allow the Spirit to show us how to apply truth to our lives.