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Showing posts with label the cross. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the cross. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Telling Truth



We must stop being so afraid to proclaim the truth!!


When we tell our testimonies, when we speak of our Christian walk, when we share with others the struggles, why are we so afraid to tell the truth?

I’ve seen it over and over, I’ve even done it myself.

We don’t want to discourage anyone, we’re afraid they won’t come to Christ if they know the truth.

So we fudge a little, we fib a little, we exaggerate a little to make it all a little nicer, a little easier to swallow.

The truth is that the walk of a true disciple of Christ is a difficult walk, fraught with danger, filled with hard circumstances, complete with persecution from without and self-doubt from within!!

The truth is that renewing your mind to His way instead of doing what you want, dying to self to live for others, humbling yourself and esteeming others more highly, taking the back seat instead of the front, denying pleasures of the flesh instead of indulging in them are really, really difficult things to do!

Jesus not only never said it would be easy, He made it clear it would be TREMENDOUSLY HARD!

That it would mean a lifetime of being hated by the world we live in, persecuted by our neighbors and even those we call friends.  Stalked by an evil spiritual being filled with darkness we can’t even begin to imagine, whose only desire is to kill and destroy us, our lives, our loved ones!

That there would be trials, but alongside them would be great triumphs.
That we can expect to be targets but the shield of faith would protect us from every weapon formed against us.

That lies would bombard us but the TRUTH would set us free.

That apart from trusting and believing in Him we would be helpless, discouraged and inept; but He would be our hope, our encouragement and that through Him only, we would be able to do everything we need to do.  Everything He asks us to do.

That to our every question He would be our answer.

Truly, Jesus is Who He told us He is.

He is the Way to our joy, peace and the love we all crave so deeply.
He is the Truth we search high and low for and yearn for in our hearts.
He is the LIFE, eternal life, we desire above all other things.

The walk as a disciple of Christ is the hardest, best, scariest, most joyful, toughest and most wonderful walk any of us will ever experience.



BE BRAVE! BE TRUTHFUL! BE LOVING!  
Tell others that Jesus loves them, died for them, was raised from the dead for their redemption and they are called to take up THEIR cross, pay the cost and follow Him to a LIFE ETERNAL that is the only rewarding ending to this physical life on earth.



His love is well worth the cost He paid so we could have it, and that is no lie!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

The CROSS

Several mornings ago, I actually woke up already singing a song - a hymn, maybe some of you know it as well.  The chorus goes like this:

At the Cross, at the Cross where I first saw the light; and the burden of my heart rolled away!  It was there by faith; I received my sight; and now I am happy all the day!

The Cross of Jesus Christ has such great and important meaning and is significant in EVERY way in our lives on a daily, moment by moment basis.  It is at the Cross that our sin was taken by Lord and we received redemption, forgiveness, a pardon from the things of which we truly were and are guilty of, yet He declared us NOT GUILTY and free indeed!

It is at the Cross that we find our HOPE and our PEACE when troubles beset us.

It is to the Cross we bring our sorrows and find comfort; we bring our tangled messes and find The Way; we bring our hurts and find healing.  Everything we need and will ever need is found at the Cross.  Christ gave Himself willingly to be crucified; to pay our penalty; to deliver us from bondage; to liberate us from the captivity of sin and satans schemes!

The CROSS is the crossroad of all Eternity.  It is there that we each, every individual, must make our Eternal choice.  There is no remaining at the corner without choice being made.  Whatever road we are traveling. our own and in some cases even already traveling a road of awareness of the Lord, there comes that POINT OF CONTACT, that central, pivoting moment when we must choose.

Surrender ourselves to the Lord and go in an upward journey of obedience into His will; or move on in our own way, following our own dictates and desires.
A horizontal journey - seemingly our own, but not truly, for it leaves us subject to the god of this world, the father of lies and darkness we call "the devil".


Or a vertical journey - living not as our own, but as children of the Living God, walking in obedience to His commands, seeking His will and receiving His mercy, grace and love.

At the CROSS; at the CROSS - is it where YOU will SEE THE LIGHT?  Isaiah spoke such eloquent prophesy in chapter 53:

 4: Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.  5: but He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed 6: all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one to his own way; AND THE LORD HAS LAID ON HIM THE INIQUITY OF US ALL.

God has taken the most complicated, chaotic mess of humanity - SIN - and He has given a straight forward and simple solution - THE CROSS. Choose - our own way - or CHOOSE OBEDIENCE TO HIS WAY. One way leads to destruction; the other to redemption.

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For sinners such as I?


Refrain 
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.

Words: Isaac Watts (1707)