I have been crucified with Christ...and I no longer live.... but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body....I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.
As I did my devotions this morning I asked the Lord what does it mean to be crucified with Christ?
It’s you who walks down that street on that fateful morn. After being stripped of your dignity, you are completely shamed, you are broken, exposed to the public. No longer hiding to the world. Everything about you is seen and known. You are God’s instrument....God’s tool. Crucifixion is encompassed in the word Gethsemane, which is the garden where you were caught with the disciples. It means olive press. This was a press made of huge stones, where they would crush olives between heavy stones, squeezing them make oil. Maybe this weekend, you feel God is squeezing you.....As you are being crucified, the first stage is the beating. You are flogged. Your friends have left you....these are those from the world (and from the church) who want nothing to do with your new determination to live 100 percent for God. The road of crucifixion is a lonely one....the world does not understand.....Your family begs you not to do it citing the voice of reason.....they tell you don’t be radical for God....don’ t give all your time to the church....don’t be so fanatical...., your friends think you are crazy. Like Jesus you experience similar criticism from all and sundry.
As you walk down that lonely road of Golgotha with that heavy cross only one thing is on your mind, be faithful to your call. You are crucified with Christ.
As you walk you see people surrounding you....these are faces that you barely know, and some you recognize from this occasion or that. You pity them because they don’t know the life of a surrendered disciple. They think you have it hard....little do they know they are headed for an eternal destination that is infinitely worse than crucifixion. You begin to tear up.
As you end the 40 Day revolution you wonder if you have been really changed...Are you truly different from the world? Can your efforts, tears and prayer really make a difference?
You begin to pray the prayers of Christ for these lost ones...father forgive them....father help them...father don’t hold their sin against them....Lord bring your salvation to the world...you are gripped with the call of God... your life is no longer your own...you are now living for God.
Sin seems distance from you now. Your mind is so focused on carrying that cross that the thought of offense, anger, indiscretion, lust....is far from your mind. The weight of the world like Atlas has squarely being placed on your shoulder. You are God’s person for the hour.
Your strength begins to ebb from you....you falter....stagger....and fall...Someone picks you up, you look up and instead of seeing the person...all you see is a bright light...and you sense a warm glow in your heart....you know it’s your father, he is helping you through your darkest hour
The destination is reached. Golgotha: the place of the skull. The soldiers drape you around the cross...your clothes are stripped from you...your shame is seen by the world....but it doesn’t matter for you are doing the will of the father....The 6 inch spikes sent jolts of searing pain through your nervous systems...they remind you of hurts, fears, wounds, and let downs that you have felt all your life.....One hand after another, you are nailed to this tree. As your feet get nailed your entire body now hanging on just 3 nails is wracked with excruciating pain...Yet all that is on your mind is your father - God...how he has been good to you. Others yell at you to curse God and die....if he really loves you why would this happen to you....Yet you know better. He loves you that is why you are dying...dying to live. Dying to self...dying to sin....living a new life...Christ centred...God focused.....a new bloom of joyful life that will bring a touch of love to a hurting world.
Indeed you now understand what it means to be crucified with Christ...the life you live is exchanged for Christ....for it is he who lives on in you.........
Every day he calls you to remember your crucifixion.....he challenges you to let the vivid image of your death keep you pure, holy, and ready to live for God....daily....today....now...take up your cross....and follow him
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Pride goes before a fall.
Daniel 4, (one of our 40 Day Revolution readings) depicts a king who sought after his own gain despite the will of god, and his unappealing fate. As we explore this story together, I want you to put yourself in it. What would you do if it was you? Have you struggled with similar issues? How did you fare? How does God call us to handle things?
Nebuchadnezzar the powerful king of the Babylonians and the Chaldeans in the 6th century BC was laying on his bed, apparently unable to sleep when he began to have visions. These were not ordinary visions. They were messages from the almighty God. The first thing to note here is that God speaks to his creation. Here was an ungodly king who was privy to hearing from God. The content of these visions were alarming. After much search, the king found an interpreter in the person of Daniel, who essentially spells impending divine judgement upon the king for his prideful ways. The king is given about 12 months to repent, and avoid judgement, but chooses not to do so. Thus he is expelled from his royal seat, and finds himself an outcast, living amongst the wild in the forest.
One thing separated Nebuchadnezzar from success, it was his pride. The saying pride goes before a fall describes humanity to a tee. How many of us would say that we have been in situations where we knew God’s word, but chose to ignore it or procrastinate, and eventually found ourselves in hot water? For the king, his pride stopped him from repenting. After all things were going well. As he overlooked the city from his palatial roof top, the magnificent cityscape surely evidenced his greatness, and thus lured him into self deception.
Daniel in this story serves as God’s oracle to the king, and also to you and I. As God speaks to us constantly through his word, visions, other people, etc.,do we truly pay heed? What message of God are you currently ignoring? Don’t repeat the cyclical pattern of ancient Israel sojourning in the dessert aimlessly for decades. Is the Daniel in your life currently advising you on what to do, and are you taking it seriously.
Nebuchadnezzar eventually repented, and glorified God, but it was at great expense and much personal sacrifice. In today’s society, many are looking for rapid ways to attain fame, and gain public acclaim. While it might be tempting to follow the broad way of the masses, can I challenge you to look a different way. Jesus calls you and I to the narrow road. This road is travelled much less by many, but it leads to certain blessings and respite from the many pitfalls this life throws our way. Christ mantra was self sacrificing humility. He lived a revolutionary life of loving others until the end. God is calling you and I to destroy pride in our lives and defer to our friend, neighbour, spouse, leader and so forth. Challenge yourself to put other first, serve people, defer to them, give till it hurts, and I promise you, according to God’s word, in your humility you will be exalted.
Nebuchadnezzar the powerful king of the Babylonians and the Chaldeans in the 6th century BC was laying on his bed, apparently unable to sleep when he began to have visions. These were not ordinary visions. They were messages from the almighty God. The first thing to note here is that God speaks to his creation. Here was an ungodly king who was privy to hearing from God. The content of these visions were alarming. After much search, the king found an interpreter in the person of Daniel, who essentially spells impending divine judgement upon the king for his prideful ways. The king is given about 12 months to repent, and avoid judgement, but chooses not to do so. Thus he is expelled from his royal seat, and finds himself an outcast, living amongst the wild in the forest.
One thing separated Nebuchadnezzar from success, it was his pride. The saying pride goes before a fall describes humanity to a tee. How many of us would say that we have been in situations where we knew God’s word, but chose to ignore it or procrastinate, and eventually found ourselves in hot water? For the king, his pride stopped him from repenting. After all things were going well. As he overlooked the city from his palatial roof top, the magnificent cityscape surely evidenced his greatness, and thus lured him into self deception.
Daniel in this story serves as God’s oracle to the king, and also to you and I. As God speaks to us constantly through his word, visions, other people, etc.,do we truly pay heed? What message of God are you currently ignoring? Don’t repeat the cyclical pattern of ancient Israel sojourning in the dessert aimlessly for decades. Is the Daniel in your life currently advising you on what to do, and are you taking it seriously.
Nebuchadnezzar eventually repented, and glorified God, but it was at great expense and much personal sacrifice. In today’s society, many are looking for rapid ways to attain fame, and gain public acclaim. While it might be tempting to follow the broad way of the masses, can I challenge you to look a different way. Jesus calls you and I to the narrow road. This road is travelled much less by many, but it leads to certain blessings and respite from the many pitfalls this life throws our way. Christ mantra was self sacrificing humility. He lived a revolutionary life of loving others until the end. God is calling you and I to destroy pride in our lives and defer to our friend, neighbour, spouse, leader and so forth. Challenge yourself to put other first, serve people, defer to them, give till it hurts, and I promise you, according to God’s word, in your humility you will be exalted.
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