It sounds like Jesus does not want His listeners to understand, but that is not the case. There are many secrets and mysteries in our Bibles, not because God wants to hide things from us, but because He wants us to pursue Him. We must spend time studying His word.

Secrets and mysteries appear all through the Bible, and reading it regularly can convince us that The Lord knows the secrets of our hearts (Psalm 44). It is sometimes surprising for all of us to find that a verse, often one read by chance, can speak to our present situation.

For believers who have already died, they will have gone straight to Heaven. Many people across the world have had experiences of visiting Heaven, some have seen relatives there and been re-assured that they made it through! Others have returned from those visions convinced that Heaven is a real place.

At the time when Paul was writing this, the Gentiles, or non jews in many parts of the world were looked down on, and in their own eyes they had no sure way of getting to Heaven! Many of them consequently were bowing down to idols, hoping for spiritual satisfaction.

How passionate you are about Jesus Christ? Is He evident in all you think and say? How many people who you know are aware that you are a believer in Jesus? Pray today for those who do not, and ask God to help you be a good witness to them.

Some people love to solve mysteries, the more complicated the better! And for many the Bible is a mystery, God is a mystery. Our reaction can be: God is a mystery, we can never understand Him. Or: I need to spend time and think about this mystery: Who is God?

Many Jews continue in their waiting for The Messiah, but there have also been thousands of Jewish converts across the world who have seen and understood this mystery. The mystery that Paul was explaining to the Roman church is that God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His Son.

This verse comes in the explanation that Jesus gave after telling His disciples the parable of the sower. He often spoke to them in parables, some were clear, others did not have obvious meanings, they were mysteries! There are many things about Jesus that remain mysteries for many of us.

The Corinthian church were being split by the fact that some of them had become Christians through the teachings of Paul others through Peter. How many churches today have similar problems? People go when their favourite preacher is there, others will not go because their favourite preacher is not there!

What a humble approach we see in Daniel! His claim was not that he was super intelligent, or knew more than anyone else. He was very sure that God had given him the necessary revelation, and answer to the mystery. In fact it was not as big as it seemed.