I usually go for weeks at a time with one thought that weighs so heavy on my mind and in my prayers as lay in bed awake. Here recently it has been the cross...what it is, what it was, what it meant.. of course many of us know what it is and what it meant, but have we ever looked beyond the scripture that portrays the passions to what truly took place...some of my favorite scripture precedes those events that took place, like in John 12 when the greeks came to see Jesus. They were not just casually wanting to get a glance of him, otherwise Philip and Andrew would not have thought it important enough to tell Jesus. These greeks wanted to sit with, speak with him..this was a very important sign. A sign that it was "time"..time for the gentiles to recieve the gospel...time for that cup referred to in Matt. 26 to be consumed.
Which brings me to where I am at today....
In Matt. 26: 36-46 Jesus prays so hard that blood pours from His head over the penalty that He is about to recieve. That Cup...so often overlooked by many...even more unappreciated. The cup that contained the almighty wrath of His loving Father. As Jesus sweats blood over His prayer something very interesting is also taking place among His select disciples...they are sleeping...
Sleeping?!?! Now?!?! And in v. 45 Jesus says exactly that "sleep on now and take your rest." He is not simply telling them to sleep, He is not making a statement...He is exclaiming, "Your are sleeping now! You are resting now! Can't you see that the time has come!
I wonder how many of us are asleep...
Why can't we see that the time is now..its here..its the time for salvation. So many of us wasting our lives away sleeping in our salvation. Never telling others about the gospel, never even putting our heart into studying the gospel. Worried too much about this world and the wasteful things it has to offer...
Christ said, "take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow me"...Are we taking up our cross? Are we denying ourselves? Are we following Him? And I'll add, are we suffering? We haven't been called to the cross, to salvation, in order to live a worldy life of fancy cars, new homes, and good jobs...we have been called to suffer for His names sake. They hated Him, are they hating you? Have you been persecuted lately for your belief in Christ? Why not? Wake Up! Suffer! Or maybe our world has gotten so far into this attitude that everybody deserves the best that we have lost the definition of "suffer". Do you actually believe you deserve the best? Before or without Christ all we ever deserved was to be cursed with the dregs of that Cup (dregs: the filthiness at the bottom of wine, which would refer to the worst of God's wrath). We forget that...we forget just how depraved we were without Him. Every blessing that we have recieved is only because of the curse that was put on the shoulders of Christ when He cried out from cross. That lonely cross...the whole world had beat him, spit in His face, and left Him alone...but that wasn't so bad. What was so bad and so terrible was the moment He was seperated from His Father...the moment that your punishment, my curse was poured upon Him..the taste of the total seperation from God.
So why are we sleeping? Why are we sleeping when the harvest is ready? Wake up and quit telling yourself your a christian and tell somebody else...tell them of His suffering, tell them of His love. Sacrifice yourself before Him and follow His will...
Just simply wake up....
THE CROSS
I heard a man say once, "people want to understand the 2nd coming, they want to understand what the book of Revelations is all about...and on the day that Christ takes the Church, they will fully understand all of it, but we will spend eternity and never understand the Cross.."
This spoken word grabbed me like no other phrase has grabbed me in a very, very long time. "Never understand the cross"...what could that mean!?! I sat with this for hours to get a grip on what this pastor was saying, I sat with this for days and could only fully comprehend the cross for moment before it became too much to bare...and when i say fully comprehend, i mean on earthly terms, because i do not believe we can fully understand the cross on heavenly terms..
If I asked you the question, what is the meaning of the cross, what would your answer be?
Or how about this, "what happened on the cross?"
Is it possible for us to understand the almighty, soveriegn wrath of God? No, it is not. If you say that it is then i challenge you to give that answer...i don't believe you can. I know you can find scripture where it is spoken, even i can do that. I can quote scripture, find passages, repeat the word of Jesus...but that is far from understanding.
I'm tempted to write more, but God is leading to end this here....so ask yourself, "what happened on the cross?" Don't give yourself a generic answer..search for the deepest truth you can, but remember there is more...
-I am blessed because He was cursed
This spoken word grabbed me like no other phrase has grabbed me in a very, very long time. "Never understand the cross"...what could that mean!?! I sat with this for hours to get a grip on what this pastor was saying, I sat with this for days and could only fully comprehend the cross for moment before it became too much to bare...and when i say fully comprehend, i mean on earthly terms, because i do not believe we can fully understand the cross on heavenly terms..
If I asked you the question, what is the meaning of the cross, what would your answer be?
Or how about this, "what happened on the cross?"
Is it possible for us to understand the almighty, soveriegn wrath of God? No, it is not. If you say that it is then i challenge you to give that answer...i don't believe you can. I know you can find scripture where it is spoken, even i can do that. I can quote scripture, find passages, repeat the word of Jesus...but that is far from understanding.
I'm tempted to write more, but God is leading to end this here....so ask yourself, "what happened on the cross?" Don't give yourself a generic answer..search for the deepest truth you can, but remember there is more...
-I am blessed because He was cursed
