The Cross, Carry It With a Purpose

Matthew 26:53--NIV--Do you think I cannot call my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

Jesus was not a poor little street urchin while he walked this earth. A Roman legion was approximately 6,000 fighting men. With one look and a prayerful thought, 72,000 angels could have surrounded the rag tag army that came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

But, He didn't do it. He had a date with a cross. He wasn't going to TRY to bear up under the weight of His cross. He was going to carry it with a purpose. He know what it was going to be like and He did it anyway. He knew that it was the ONLY way to free mankind. He loved us that much that He dared NOT to even entertain one tiny thought of neglecting His promise to do His Father's will.

When we think of bearing our cross, we think of crying, heartache and tears. Truly, the things that we consider our cross are heavy enough to bring us to our knees. The problems we face seem to be on our minds more than anything else. We lose sleep, we lose our patience with our loved ones, and we despair of our own lives at times.

Jesus didn't have His mind set on these things although they were all around Him. Instead of broken lives, He was thinking about the broken chains that His blood would bring. Instead of watching people stumbling around in the dark, His mind was on the light of the Holy Spirit that was soon to come. Instead of broken families, He was thinking about the Holy Spirit guiding men and women into Godly choices. In other words, His mind was locked on to the answers instead of the problems He saw.

No, He didn't just ignore the problems that He saw. As a matter of fact, all through His three year ministry Jesus went about making broken things good again. The sick were healed, the dead were raised and demons were cast out of thousands. However, He was looking forward to the time when millions of men, women, boys and girls that were called by His name would take over His job after He ascended to His Father.

It was for us and our future that Jesus died on the cross, my friend. And now it's our turn to return the favor for the same reason. Don't do it just because you feel compelled to carry it for Jesus. Because you're not.

You are carrying the cross for your own good. As I've taught in the past several blogs, God has a plan to do you good (Jeremiah 29:11). There are some things you need to know from Him that can only be learned while bearing this burden. There are some good things He has planned for you and your children in your future.

Just like Jesus did, think of all the good things that God wants to do for you and your children. It will give you strength to get you through this time. A woman, when she's pregnant, is uncomfortable, always tired, sometimes given to crying, sometimes crabby, sometimes gives in to unusual cravings.....and in the last two months gets worse. But there is a great deal of strength and hope that she gets from knowing that this is just a temporary inconvenience. She knows that every day puts her close to delivering a sweet little baby. And that's what gives her the ability to endure it all. She will give birth to an abundance of joy.

If you want to think of it that way too, guys, your cross is a God-thing that hurts right now but will be over in the birthing of a miracle sometime in the future. Don't just stumble under the weight of your cross. Carry it with a hope and a purpose. Remember, there was a powerful resurrection not too long after Jesus finished carrying His cross. And there will be a powerful move of God for you when you're finished, too.

Luke 14:27--Bear The Cross, Wear The Crown

Luke 14:27--KJV--And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

In the last blog, I likened our hurts, angers and jealousies to a flat tire on our journey to God's Promises. There are things that you can deal with by forgiving and learning how to love in a Godly manner. However, there are somethings that we just have to live with until God comes on the scene and removes them.

These are called our cross and Jesus instructs us to carry it. You may be struggling with an unsaved spouse, children or parent. It might be your job. It might be your church. It might be your financial situation. It might be a sickness or a loved one's illness.

We struggle under the load of things that have come upon us and we seemingly have no control over. I have come to believe that the things that have come to me that I don't have control over have come to me because God has control over them. He controls them when they come and I remind myself daily that He controls them when they go.

Then why does God allow them to come our way? It certainly is NOT because He hates us for some reason. God bragged on Job to the devil one day. The devil bargained that if God would take down the hedge of protection (Job 1:10) from Job that God had put around him the devil would cause Job to curse God to his face. Even though he lost his children, his crops, animals and health, Job never cursed God. The end of the story was that God restored to Job twice as much as was taken from him because he had remained faithful.

Let's learn this lesson. When things come upon us that are not in our control, remember that they ARE in God's control. That's where you put your faith. (1 Corinthians 10:13) God creates a blessing set aside for us at the same time He gives the devil the go ahead to come after us. And that blessing is much more than the pain and agony of spirit that the trial causes.

It's hard to understand sometimes until you understand God's reason for your cross. He plainly said in Luke 14:27 that if you didn't bear your cross then you couldn't be His disciple. A disciple is a student. What Jesus is saying here is that if you don't carry your cross, you'll never learn anything from Him. Oh, yes you will learn plenty from the things that you go through every day. But, Jesus said you can't learn anything from HIM if you don't carry your cross daily.

If we are constantly whining and whimpering about what we're having to go through, the only thing we'll learn about is how to whine to get your way. God doesn't lead around a bunch of whiners. He'll just let you go whatever way you want to go and do what you want to do. However, it's ONLY in learning about Him that you'll ever be able to overcome your situation.

When we submit and pick up our cross daily we come to know Him in a more personal way. Knowing Jesus in your awkward situation will give you the wisdom and strength to be an overcomer. Jesus submitted to the cross because He knew that it was the only way to bring redemption to a fallen man. It was the only way to give man back his superiority over satan and all of his forces.

Jesus didn't submit to the cross as an act of weakness, he submitted due to an act of strength and character. The same thing happens to us when we submit to our cross and follow Jesus. We find a strength and a wisdom that we never thought we had. As our relationship to Jesus grows, the cross gets lighter. A happy anticipation of good things to come begins to rise in us.

Pretty soon we begin to look forward to living a resurrected life like Paul did. In Philippians 3:10, he said he wanted to know Jesus in the power of His resurrection. That's what gave Paul the fortitude to go through the hardships that God put him through. Paul kept expecting more of God and more of God and more of God to show up. As he carried his cross daily God kept manifesting Himself in Paul's life daily.

Bear your cross. Learn about Jesus. Become more than a conqueror.

Don't Fix The Flat, Put On A New Tire

There's nothing more discouraging on a trip than to have a flat tire somewhere along the way. It's the same way in our journey by faith. We start believing God for something and we trust Him that He's guiding us in that direction. Then something comes along that stops all of our progress.

But, on our faith journey, it's not really a flat tire. It could be something much worse. Hurt, anger, distrust and jealousy can be far more devastating than any flat tire. Even though we're limping along through our daily life, our spiritual progress comes to a screeching halt.

Here's where we go dangerously wrong. Of course, we change the tire to get back on our journey. To keep from being stranded without a spare, we look for somewhere to fix the tire. Now, we're at the point hinted at by the title of this blog. Don't just patch the hole in that tire. Get a brand new one.

I know, I know it is best to get two new tires than to run an old one and a new one. Let's skip that analogy of driving and tires. Let's get on to the things that hinder us from getting to God's promised blessings.

Hurt is a big stopper. When someone purposely does something to offend us it almost stops us dead in our tracks like a flat tire will. We often lose the desire to continue our Christian journey. Our joy level drops. We become more concerned about the hurt than we do our love for Jesus Christ. The pain takes control of our thoughts. It's hard to concentrate our faith on God's Word. Every time we get down to pray, our prayers are hindered by what someone said or did to us. When that happens our journey to the blessings of God comes to a halt.

Here's why you don't try to patch that flat tire. We sometimes waste precious time on our journey trying to 'fix' something that won't fix. People's opinions of us won't change without the conviction of God. Most of the time they certainly won't change by trying to reason with the person. If they have purposely done something to hurt you, they will never see the error of their ways if you confront them. More than likely they will just look for another way to hurt you.

Don't waste your time 'fixing' the flat. Get a brand new tire. In Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus said that if you don't forgive people of their sins your Heavenly Father won't forgive you. When you harbor hurt, anger and jealousy toward someone you're not hurting them, you're hurting yourself. You are stopping your forward progress towards God's blessings in your life. Get over it. Don't try to 'fix' the flat. Forgive that person from your heart. Go to God and tank up on His love so you can love them, then put the pedal to the metal.

God has a lifetime supply of joy and blessings that He wants you to enjoy. However, when we encounter these 'hurts' we sometimes stop our Godly journey toward those blessings. Many times we start building our homes and our lives on the pain that we feel like we 'have' to endure because of what has happened to us.

God NEVER intended for you to live in the slow lane or be forced to pitch a tent by the side of the interstate and live with a flat tire the rest of your life. He intended for you to get past that little 'hittybump' and keep on trucking. He intended for you to have a life free from sin, sickness and poverty. He intended for you and has payed the way for you to live victoriously all of your life.

You may ask, "Well, why doesn't He just move this flat and carry me on this journey?" But, hey, it's not God's flat. It's yours. 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that everybody on the face of this earth has 'hittybumps' just like you. It's normal for these things to happen. God's not picking on you.

This verse tells us that God actually allows these things to happen to you. Why? Well it certainly wasn't because He didn't want to bless you. After purchasing these blessings with the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ there is no way that God has any desire to keep them from you.

What God is wanting to do is make you strong. He wants to do greater things in your life than you can ever imagine. Let me use the Apostle Paul as a shining example. Paul prayed three times that God would remove the 'thorn in his flesh'. But, God told him in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that His grace, His unmerited favor, would be enough for Paul.

What is unmerited favor anyway? It is the blessing of God that you don't deserve to get. Now think about it. After all the praying and studying Paul did, he deserved the power of God to come down and save and heal people. BUT, God didn't just want to give Paul the things that he deserved. He wanted to bless Paul (Ephesians 3:20) exceedingly abundantly above all that he could ask or think. Sure Paul went through more 'junk' than any other Apostle. BUT, right now, even today, Paul is reaching more and more people through the letters that he wrote and by his testimony which lives in the New Testament. And let me add this. What are the names of the people who tried to destroy Paul? Are they written down in the history books somewhere? Absolutely not.

God's trying to get you somewhere. He's trying to get you somewhere good. He's trying to get you to the blessings that you deserve because of the blood of Jesus and God's agape love for you. He wants to pour out His unmerited favor on you in a manner that you can't even comprehend.

BUT, you're stuck beside the road to your blessings and crying over what somebody said or did. You've got a blessing waiting for you that you haven't gotten to yet. Tear up your 'pity party' costume and throw away the 'pity party' decorations. Leave them beside the road. Put on the new tire of forgiveness and truck on down the highway. Leave your sorrows behind you. Head for the unmerited favor of God and shout on your journey.