What is Calvary's cross to you?
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(When you can spare some time, the above 2 audios by J. Piper, are excellent!)
Have you ever given thought as to how the cross relates to you and your family's lives? What of giving any thought to what you desire most for yourself...for your family...for your loved ones? Are your visions and goals according to what truly is lasting? Are you continually striving to align all things in your life with the eternal cross? Or are you just living from moment to moment, grabbing all of the world that you possibly can...as fast as you can? Were you even taught that setting goals with your eye on eternity & the cross were what matters most? I'm not talking plans...but simply understanding the yardstick of all of life against the Calvary cross & eternity. And if you were taught of the cross...what of it?
As Easter approaches, I never cease to be acutely aware of how I absolutely did not deserve this precious gift of Christ's life on the cross for my sins!...it was no slight or trivial event that happened at Calvary. Knowing what we know of the inhumane intensity, and agony Christ suffered up on that cross...can we not want our lives to truly count for Him? Or is Calvary so trivial, that it's not worth our searching our hearts...not worth our examining the true enormity of the cross being so forcefully erected upright...while God's precious son was hanging there by 3 flesh-piercing stakes? Can you imagine allowing even that reverberation through your child's flesh, as the cross is being uprighted? I can't, but God did. To me, that speaks volumes of love. What then, to me, to you, to all of us...is that cross...in practical terms?
Am I...are you...are we...really willing to pick up our cross & follow Him...or do we want to ooh & aah over His cross, while merely sitting & sipping tea in fellowship at the base of it? Is the cross of Jesus, a real hammered & splintered cross that we serve, or is it to us a mere ceramic decoration, like the one that sits upon a tabletop? Does the cross of Jesus scream out to us about the world's greatest sacrifice ever...or is it merely a jewel that dangles at the end of a gold chain around our necks?
And what of you whom have never responded to the cross that beckons your name? Are you still waiting to be perfect, before responding to His voice that keeps calling to your heart, in order to pick up your cross & follow Him? Do you think, when He calls you, that you have made too many mistakes, gotten too lost? Do you not know that He calls to those whom are sick & in need of a physician, and not those whom are whole? (Matthew 9:12) Do you not know, that as one lamb, you are important to Him, however far you might have strayed? (Matthew 18:12) If God calls you, the process of sanctification (growing into His likeness) will follow day by day, year by year, as He makes you more & more into His glory.
Or do you hear His cross calling, but you feel it's not the timing of when you would prefer to be called...you feel there's still more gusto that you want to grab, before taking up your cross and following Him? I ask then...what gusto is there? What gusto can you honestly say that the world offers, that has had any true staying power? Christ, on the other hand, says He comes to give you life and give it *more* abundantly. (John 10:10) He comes to give a joyful life, full of gusto in the sweetest and fullest forms of all.
But still you hesitate as He calls to you. I ask then, what has the world given you that cannot be lost, broken, taken away, or stood on it's nose in a second's notice? Have you found comfort in the world, to only find what you cherished is there one moment & gone the next? In contrast, Jesus offers much, while the world offers nothing. Jesus is not here and gone tomorrow. Jesus will always be the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is the only thing that remains constant in this life...that always is...that will always be...He is the great I Am of all our days. With Him, there is assurance, hope, & solace. To those whom are His, His words are as strong, embracing arms. He says: "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30) If you are finding life's burdens too heavy to carry on your own (and life will have many of them)...then let Him carry you, as He works a beautiful process for His glory. He will use all your mistakes...all your life...and all your love, vibrancy, & gusto, for His greater purpose. If you hear Him calling, but think He can't use you...or think you've messed up too much...or that the goods are just too broken...think again, as that's when He can use you most. If He's called you, He can most certainly use you.
May we each truly count the cost of the cross, so that we are used by Him for *His* glory...not just on this Easter... but each and every moment of our lives: As we awaken; as we sit by the roadside; as we go through the day; as we lay down to rest. No matter what, may His cross be our very all!
May you have an Easter that is, what it truly is.
posted by His Proverbs31 Sparrow at 11:58 AM
