GREENE STREET LETTERS: Cross Talk

Friday, January 30, 2009

Cross Talk

Luke 9:23

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

It would be so totally easy to read into these verses what ever we wanted to. In fact, let me make a confession to you. I have often thought myself as quiet a martyr in that I take up a cross daily. How sick is that? Well, maybe not much more than you. It is hard to be hidden all the time. To remain in the shadows so to speak. For it is in these hidden places of following Jesus that my old nature wants to come out. It craves attention. It wants to scream and say, "Look at me!" Taking up a cross is a lonely business that comes with the call to follow Jesus. Seems to me that in this day and time we have a lot of people exploting their own "cross carrying" in order to gain attention. I don't think Jesus intended it to be this way.

We humans have a tendency to want to garner the spotlight, even when it comes to serving Jesus. We want others to see the sacrifice we make for His name. We want others to see what we have given up for Him. In fact, the truth is we haven't given up near enough. We still have a boatload of misplaced pride to surrender. If I am looking for the praise of men to be heaped upon me for something I am expected to do, then I am getting my reward here on earth.

I don't think we fully understand the function of a cross. To us it is a symbol. Something to be formed and shaped into jewelry......shiny and pretty. The cross was a judgement that was being carried out on an individual. As Leonard Ravenhill put it, "You see a man coming out of a city carrying a cross and you know that he isn't coming back. We have lost sight of this mindset. That once we engage Jesus in relationship, a call is placed on us. The call includes taking up "OUR" cross and following Him. We follow Jesus to death for it is only in a death to self that we can embrace life. In our current day, we seek to build a life of comfort to separate us from the hard and harsh life of following Jesus. I don't want you to think that we are to walk around, heads down, frowns on our faces a mile long and sing about what a suffering servant we are for Jesus. No! We rejoice that our names are written in the book of life. We rejoice that everything we face is temporary and is only drawing us closer to our eternal reward.

What about you?
Have you taken up your cross today?
God on you..........

1 comment:

Bobby said...: I do rejoice that my name has been written in heaven...but I plead guilty to seeking to draw attention to myself. God's grace covers all my sins. Thanks for letting God use you.; February 2, 2009 at 9:06 PM

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Cross Talk

1 comment:

THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD