Gruesome, Yet Amazing

There is a gruesome scene I can barely tolerate. Reading and hearing about it is hard. Watching it be portrayed on film is something I rather not do. The moment is a painful one and we don't want to look. Although this point in time is hard to swallow, it is also a beautiful time. It is a reminder of Heaven reaching down to Earth and giving me a glimpse of a love I still struggle to understand at times. It is also Heaven watching it's King surrender all He is, pour out His very life, for His creation. Heaven seems to be on stand by watching and holding back because it has to happen this way. It has been written and planned, and ordained. God couldn't take it back. It is the way of the Cross. The way of the Cross is gruesome to so many, but to so many it is also amazing! It is the path believers of the Way pass through regularly when they hear and follow Heaven's call. God's love embraces and leaves us in a journey where the Cross we once identified with as only a painful moment, not becomes the sign of a promise, a hope, and a reason to hold on.

The cross is ever before me when I look at the burdens I see my children carry. I see their pain, their struggles, when they lose their way and when darkness comes against them to distract them or hurt them. The cross is ever before me when I see the sickness, the pain and the physical ailments people I love continue to carry. I look to the cross and remind the One who carried it, the One who was stretched out upon it, that by His stripes they've been healed. And I wait. As I wait, I see the Cross before me when the Prince of Darkness shows up in my home, in my environment, or where I am and begins to throw his fiery darts, begins to accuse, begins to torment, and lure away from Godliness. I remind the Enemy that Christ defeated him on the Cross! I remind Him that greater, "GREATER!" is He that is in me- (in my home, in  my family, in my children) than he who is (defeated) in the world.

My cross is not like the one my Savior carried. I have not and can never pay the price he paid by being on that cross. I cannot fathom the notion of carrying the burdens and sins of every single person that has lived or will ever exist. I'm powerless to do anything for those who have been molested, abused, tormented, hurt and mistreated in their childhood or as an adult. And, I surely don't have the power, no, not even in the one letter in my name, to heal, deliver, set free or save. It is not in me to love and love and love like God loves.

The Cross. 
I carry it ever in my heart not as a piece of jewelry, but as a reminder that through the death on that piece of wood, there was also life. It is that life that I hold on to when I come before the Lord to stand upon His Word and pray. It is that LIFE that gives me hope when I see the Enemy come against me. What God has done, the Enemy cannot undo. Period.



What are you struggling with today? Does it seem like all hell is breaking out in your home? Do you find yourself in this battle alone, carrying the cross and no one by your side as you stand in the gap for family, friends and people around you? Then, my friend, it is time to embrace the story of the Cross. See those promises take root in your life, in your atmosphere and all around you as you not only see what God provided on that Cross, but what took place and was given to us through His death and His Resurrection. He is not dead! He is alive!


He has not only provided forgiveness of sin, but deliverance from every bondage imaginable. He has given you and me Abundant Life. He has provided Healing in your body and in your mind. He has promised and provided healing in our emotions, in our memories, and in our present. He has provided restoration.

 

Hallelujah! The Lord is awesome!  



My eyes focus on the cross, and then on the end result of this battle between God and every other force and spirit that would rise against Him and his redemptive plan. I see every curse broken! I see confusion and depression weakened and gone! I see sickness leaving! I see hereditary illness running scared and never looking back! Addiction to drugs, pornography, and any other substance stops in the name of Jesus!It is the promise!
Heaven has promised it to me and to you.
Lord, help us to see the cross and embrace it for through the blood shed on Calvary, we have been made whole. The Enemy no longer can have his way in our lives. We boldly come against him, in Jesus Name. Amen.