The Cross

Sunday, our pastor shared the following written by his wife.  He said he wanted her to give testimony to the “power and preciousness of the cross”.  This is what she wrote:

“The power of the cross…to speak of it in detail would be an endeavor into eternity, I couldn’t do it.  If I were to talk about the preciousness of the cross, well I’m incapable of putting words together to do the slightest bit of justice worthy of the One Who declared me just before God, because of His work on my behalf.  The power of the cross enables our escape from hell and the preciousness of it escorts us into the presence of God.  The power of the cross gives us life and the preciousness of the cross allows us to live life abundantly.  The power of the cross is what the cross does: it destroys the destroyer; it cancels our unpayable debt; it robs the grave and gives life to the dead.  Through the power of the cross, what should be incinerated is instead redeemed.  The power of the cross is undeniable, it is unstoppable and it is irreversible.  The preciousness of the cross is the humiliation of the One for the exaltation of the many.  The preciousness of the cross is in its single, sinless sacrifice for the guilt-ridden masses.  The preciousness of the cross is in its success.  The preciousness of the cross is its effective result for all the defective alternatives.  The power of the cross is that it is God’s answer to our biggest problem.  The power and the preciousness of the cross enables me to share in, both with Him and for His cross the ability to take it up and die daily to myself so that I can live for Him and for them.”

Worry

This is pretty simple:  "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."  Great passage!  Why is it so hard for us to do it?  I'd say maybe we have too low a view of how awesome and powerful is our God!!

A special friend sent this to me today.  She had studied the passage and needed a visual so she doodled herself one!   Channel 1 - Reruns (past); Channel 2 - Up to the minute (present); Channel 3 - fuzzy (future)  We go from channel 1 to channel 2 to channel 3 and it divides the mind with anxiety, worry, and fear.  We weren't made to tune our minds to channel 1 or channel 3.  God deals with the day.  Our work is to pray!

Love

The Love Chapter!  Most Christians know this well!  But I will say for me...it's not a chapter I go to often.  I'm ashamed to say that every single time I go, I get sick at my stomach!!!  Do you ever go at something willingly that is going to make you sick??  But since my husband is teaching 1 Corinthians in a Bible Study on Fridays and that's where we are right now, read I must.  I want to be prepared.  So I am prepared and down-trodded!

I know I haven't arrived!  I am well aware of that fact.  But that passage gets to me every time!  I fall so incredibly short of "true love" and in every point!  But praise God, He is not without power to deal with this in me and I press on toward the mark!   And I "rejoice with the truth".  And I in "ALL THINGS, bear, believe, hope and endure"!!!

Eternal Life

John Riddle, a Bible teacher of a class I was in recently, said, "Eternity and death are the kings of terror."  Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God put eternity in our hearts.  Jesus Christ said in John 17:3, "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."  John 1:12 says, "but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name."  And Matthew 7:24 says, Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them..."

There's hope for those who are hopeless in regard to the terror of eternity and death.  That's eternity and life.  Jesus said it as simply as it gets:  "know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ".  Throw off your very foolish pride and bow down to the sovereignty of a holy God.  Man bases his conclusions on reason, however, the conclusion of eternity and death is in the hands of that God with Whom one day, you will have to give account!!  Bow down NOW to His mercy and grace while the breath of life still flows.

This calls for the "action" of Matthew 7:24.  Jesus in talking to God about His disciples in John 17, comments on the actions they manifested in verses 6-8: "kept, come to know, received, understood, and believed".  Yes, all by grace but doesn't it make sense that something as vital as "eternal life" should be sought with every ounce of your being?!!

Joy Full Work

I’ve been WAY busy lately.  Sometimes, I get frustrated and confused as to how I got to this point.  Every moment is full.  There’s barely any down time, even on Sunday.  But, it’s also energizing.  The goals are short and reactions encouraging so I plug away.  And I’m finally learning a very important lesson.  Pray!  Give it to God.  Watch what He does with you once you’ve turned into a bundle of over-anxious nerves.  (Actually, if we’d start with Him, we would not get to that point.)

As I contemplated all the busyness this week (and after I had to survive yet another question of  “what do you do all day?”), I began to dissect each activity and why I was doing them.  As it turned out, if I wasn’t a Christian, I wouldn’t be doing any of the things I was doing.  Now, this is not a brag!!  I’ll have to say, I was in utter amazement at that realization.  It excited me that God in His grace has taught me “great and mighty things I did not know” and has brought me to the place where, these things are second nature.  I need you to know that I do not mean that I’ve arrived.  To the contrary, I believe I have just begun.  He continues to show me sin in my life, people who need Him, and work that needs doing.  And isn’t that what it’s all about for believers?

In studying Jesus prayer in John 17, one of the first things He says is, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.”  What my prayer needs to be is, “God give me the discernment to know which work to do and give me the power to do it.”  And then in John 16:24 and 17:13, He says, “…ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”  “…these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”   That’s definitely energizing!  To have Jesus’ joy made full in us!  Joy full work!  “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”  Colossians 1:29  AMEN!!

Morning by Morning

There are a few books of compiled devotions by Charles Spurgeon that I love and have quoted here on occasion.   One is called "Morning by Morning" and the other "Morning and Evening".  He uses Isaiah 1:4 and Psalm 63:5 & 6 as his references for the books.  However, as I read Ezekiel recently, I came upon this: "And you shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the LORD daily; morning by morning you shall provide it.  Also you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour, a grain offering to the LORD continually by a perpetual ordinance.  Thus they shall provide the lamb, the grain offering and the oil, morning by morning, for a continual burnt offering."  Ezekiel 46:13-15

Spurgeon's premise for his devotions is our need to seek, listen, meditate and be satisfied with God daily.  God is worthy to be worshipped!  Daily, moment by moment, morning by morning we must be about the business of seeking Him and adoring Him!  It is our "offering" and must be a "perpetual ordinance".  And the Lamb has been provided.  He provided Himself.  Let us offer Him the praise He deserves thus making out of us the man to be used for the work ahead:  changing the world.

Filthy Rags

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”   This came to me this morning as I contemplated a verse in Ezekiel.  In chapter forty-five, God continues to walk Ezekiel through all that is to come in the millennial kingdom.  In verse eighteen, it states: “Thus says the Lord GOD” and continues with the details of a sacrifice and specifies what to do with the blood.  And in verse twenty, it says, “Thus you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who goes astray or is naïve”.    I looked up the adjective, naïve: showing lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment; innocent.

Our going astray, whatever that means for each of us, should be confessed each day and brought up each morning that God will give us the power to avoid.  But naïve…well, that’s more abstract.  I remember as a kid when men in the church prayed aloud, “Lord forgive our sins of omission and commission.” Naïve would be the “omission”, something that has been left out or failure to do.   They are also those sins we do that we don’t realize are sins.  And I’ll not try to go any further giving examples…not enough room here!   Naïve sins are still sins whether we think about it or not. 

Let us not be judgmental and appalled at the sins of the world!  You know what I mean: “What’s this world coming to?”  Let us be aware of our own “naïve sins”.  They are there and we may not know the specific but we can still be repentant.  God is serious about all sin.  And we may think our works are righteous, but only God gives the righteousness and empowers it!  Let us throw ourselves at the Feet of His wonderful mercy!!