The Cross is All

Gal 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

The Cross is All

I stand before the Cross and I profess a love for this Man, this One, Who has taken my place…

and I turn away…

and I go shopping and I buy a bikini…

I can justify it because it is so cute on me and anyway…

if a guy looks at me to lust, it is all his fault for not controlling himself…

and not my fault at all.

I go to church and I worship this holy God…

and I turn away…

and I go home and I turn on the television…

and I watch…

and as I do I fill my mind, my heart, my eyes with things that I would be ashamed to watch…

if Jesus were here…

but, He isn’t…

and I justify it, because it is a good show…

and, after all, God is a God of love and He just wants me to be happy.

I kneel before my God and I pray…

Thy will be done…

and I get up…

and I go about doing my will…

with everyone that I meet…

in everything that I do…

not for a moment thinking…

that I am sinning.

I open up my Bible and I read about the wonders of God…

and my heart rejoices…

I read of His love, His mercy, His tenderness…

sometimes, I come to passage that shows more than that…

and it makes me nervous, uncomfortable…

but, I turn the page…

and I read more about how very much God loves me,

and I read into it how much He longs for me to respond to Him,

and I think how cool it is that this God of the whole universe needs me…

me…

and I determine to try to find something really nice to do for Him…

sometimes.

I reach out to my God in my need…

and I can’t find Him…

and I ask Him, “Where are You?”

but, He doesn’t answer me…

and, I don’t understand His silence…

I run towards where He was but find only darkness …

I seek Him out and I ask, ”Why have You abandoned me?”

“Where are You, God?”, I plead…

and it’s then that I realize…

that I am alone…

and He doesn’t seem to hear me…

at all.

And, in the echoing silence, suddenly I hear

a still small voice,

saying, “If you love Me, you will obey Me.”

And I fall on my face…

and I weep.

By Anna Wood, Posted with Permission.

Disclaimer: There is heavy emphasis on modesty, women wearing head coverings, and external things of that nature on this blog. Modesty, I believe in. Women wearing head coverings, that's between you and God. The main covering we have is the Blood of Jesus. We are to be under authority, from Christ, who is the head, or supreme authority over the man, who is the authority over the woman. So a woman who is rebellious against the authority God sets over her, i.e. the husband, the pastor, etc., but primarily the Holy Spirit, has uncovered her head. Flesh is eager to seize on religious rules it can keep. The Spiritual precepts are much harder to obey and require total dependence on God, which is why I tend to shy away from a heavy emphasis on externals.

If the internals are right and the Holy Spirit is allowed to sit on the throne of our heart, all these external things will be in order. Christ alone is to be the center of our focus. That said, I do like a lot of what Mrs. Wood has on her blog, and would not dare argue with her (or anyone) about her convictions out of respect for her devotion to Christ and the Cross. I have much to learn, and this is one subject I have not studied in depth, so I can't really say more.

The new cross says, "Come and get." A selfish human would be contrary to his own nature if he refused. He will use the cross for his own benefit. The old cross says, "Come and give," and for the moment entirely ignores anything the individual receives save a baptism unto death. The old cross was meant by God to be the symbol of death to the old Adam life, the new cross simply redirects him. The new cross gears Adam into a cleaner, fuller way of living and saves his self-centeredness and ambition. To the self-assertive it says, come and assert yourself for God; to the egotist it says, come and do your boasting in the Lord. The old cross would have no hands with the world. For Adam's proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. The old cross carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law. The new cross is not opposed to the human race, rather it is a friendly pal, and if understood aright, is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. The new cross lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged, and he still lives for his own pleasure. The new cross offers a living unto self, the old cross points to the heavenly way of living unto God.- BH Clendennen (What the Cross Means to God, School of Christ, Cross Series)