Crucified with Christ
The Cross of Christ. So much has rested on the cross of Christ. Our sin put him up there.
May you be reminded that today, Good Friday, is the day that we remember Jesus Christ being put to death on a Cross.
This cross is not only a reminder to us that Jesus Christ has provided the way to God through death on a Cross and resurrection from the grave, but it represents our daily struggle to crucify our flesh. To die to ourselves. To die to sin.
The crucifixion of the flesh is must be a daily activity in the life of a believer. It is not an easy thing. To put to death that which has consumed your life is not easy.
"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." -Romans 6:6
May Romans 6:6 be a reminder to all of us, that our old man, our old creation, was put to death through the salvation in Christ, so that we no longer serve sin, but serve Christ.
We no longer serve sin, as the old creation did, but we serve God as a new creation, a new being.
We have been crucified with Christ, because it's not us that lives, but Christ in us.
His Law is Love
I really like to listen to Christmas music, sometimes way before Christmas, like, I'm talking July. That's not a bad thing, right? Well I hope not. See, the thing I like about Christmas music is not that it takes me back to the good days of sledding down a mountain, nor do I like Christmas music because it reminds me of a time where there is no school, but, what I really like about Christmas music is that a lot of it is based on Christ. I understand that "Christ" in the Christmas makes my previous sentence sound dumb and pretty self-explanatory, but have you ever taken time to actually read aloud and meditate on those oh so familiar hymns, especially the song "O Holy Night"?
As I was listening to the version of "O Holy Night" from Dustin Kensrue's Album, "This Good Night Is Still Everywhere", I went ahead and looked up the lyrics behind the song, although I didn't need them to sing along in my mind, but rather, I wanted to take a second look at what the lyrics were. As I was following along in the song, I ran across these words:
Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and his gospel is peace.
In the New Testament, Jesus was asked by one of the Pharisees, "Of all the commandments (which totaled to 613), which one is the most important?" Jesus responded to the Pharisee by saying "Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
In the midst of the Pharisee attempting to corner Jesus into admitting that Jesus' way of viewing the Law was unorthodox in having to name the greatest commandment, he ended up shocking the Pharisee by summing up the 613 laws in stating that the Law is nothing more than Love for God and others. In the end, the passage in Mark 12 states that Jesus told the Pharisee that he was "not too far from the kingdom of God." The Pharisee understood what it meant to Love, but he needed only to Love and obey God in order to enter into the Kingdom of God.
May we be reminded by this Christmas song that Jesus has called us to fulfill the Law through Love. Too many times, even during the Christmas season, we forget to love. May you be encouraged to Love, just as Christ has loved you, because His Law is Love.
a reminder
Many of you are doing life 90 miles per hour. And what I mean by that is you are filling your life with things that aren't necessarily bad, but rather, a lot of good things. At this point in life, you may be feeling swamped with things that just don't seem to leave you, like schoolwork (which is where I'm at right now). I beg you and remind you to:
Remember Christ.
Too many times, we allow ourselves to do many good things for Jesus, like attending worship services more than on Sunday mornings, participating in bible studies, doing visitation, and going to group prayers at church, but we miss the point behind it all. It's Christ. Or maybe, at times, I miss the point as to why I do all that I do. Either way, I pray that you will be drawn to God's face in all times, good and bad, and you would avoid filling your lives with anything less than Christ and his Love for people.
Now go love people and love Christ, and never forget the forgiveness that Jesus pours out into the hearts of the broken.
Remain
There have been times in my life where I have felt that God was nowhere in sight, and I was doomed to fall out of his grasp.
These past couple of weeks I have seen God's faithfulness in my life. He has met my needs where I seemingly could not find a solution to my problems.
I want to stress to you the importance of remaining in God during the tough times. I would say that this past summer was a tough time in my life because of my lack of growth and slow descent towards materialism.
Remaining in God is essential in the life of a believer. The act of choosing to satisfy your desires with that of God's is the ultimate decision one must make daily if spiritual growth is to be achieved.
I am living proof that Christ has remained faithful to me and that I have exhausted myself in remaining in Him at the lowest times of my walk with Christ. Ultimately, when we are at the lowest points of our walk with Christ, God becomes more visible because we cannot trust anything outside of Him, whether it be material things or relationships with others. I urge you, whether you are constantly finding joy in God or you are finding contentment in material, visible things, gaze upon the face of Christ and understand that he has always remained with you no matter the circumstance.
We cannot break the grasp of Love that God has on our soul once we accept Christ into our hearts and begin a relationship with the tri-une God, the immovable mover, and the lover of our souls. May you be encouraged to know that many believers struggle with the visible, material, earthly desires and issues of our time, but Christ is there to spur us on towards joy through living in accordance with God's pleasing and perfect will.
"we consider blessed those who remained steadfast ... you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful." -James 5:11