All about the Cross

I have spent a lot of time at the foot of the cross these past few weeks..

And in the past months I was there as well with a slightly different spirit but still there, at the cross. I have seen the scene of His death in such a different way lately, and in light of all He did for me there, and in light of all of my sin, what I used to read without much thought, now it genuinely hurts me. I recognized that it was my sin that held Him there in all of His intense pain and suffering, and that knowledge has done this for me: it has made me realize that He is in fact the most trustworthy being that I could ever place my trust in, and He proved it by hanging there in all of his misery but yet maintain His faith and obedience to the Father and with a peaceful, kind, gracious and loving attitude. That my friends, is beyond my comprehension, and frankly, I think it's meant to be beyond our comprehension because the act of what He did for me and for you at that cross was things that had kingdom purpose.

This of course gives light to our present day sufferings, and although I personally do not like to focus on sufferings, it is something that is so prevalent in our lives, it was then in Jesus's time and is now, only today as people we look at our sufferings so differently than Jesus did, and I'm humbled greatly by that.

The battle with suffering is in the mind for many of us..physical suffering is hard, but emotional and suffering in our thoughts, who can fix that? It was Jesus's steadfast focus and belief on the promises of His Father that kept Him on that cross, had He even for one moment doubted, all the suffering would have been considered void because God needed a complete and stainless sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. Had Jesus doubted, it would've been sin, and of course we know, Jesus never sinned. He was blameless and spotless, even in His most intense suffering of all. It's those feelings of doubt and despair that can absolutely flatten us during our times of trials and sufferings, when we begin to not be able to see or "feel" the peace of Christ because we become so wrapped up in the suffering itself and lie that comes with the suffering. The lies of the enemy. Jesus heard lies from the enemy when He was on the cross through the taunts of all the people around the cross, ridiculing Him and actually making fun of all He claimed to be on earth.

Have you ever heard those taunts in your heads my friends? What do they sound like to you? Maybe like this..."Your never going to amount to anything..." or " your work for the kingdom is so small, just stop wasting your time.." or "See, God's not listening to your cry for help, if He was, He would answer you!" Oh friends...those lies are just that, lies. And they are Satans plan on trying to get you to doubt the trust you know you should have and can have in your Heavenly Father. He is bigger than all of your suffering and the plan He had for Jesus on the cross should be testimony to us of this exact truth. What was true about God back then, is oh so true about God today.

Let me take this to a place that encourages any of you in suffering today, or even if your close to someone who is suffering these words will bring light to your heart...

When we are down and out and asking ourselves, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me..." we need to surround ourselves with the Means of Grace. What is the means of grace? It is this: Going to the People of God for comfort, focusing our hearts and minds of the Works of God, we need to Worship God and most importantly we need to immerse ourselves in the Word of God.

Those four avenues when used together are our greatest gifts from the Father. It's the unity of the body of Christ that can bring hands and feet to offer us physical help. You know how this looks, it's that day. The day that all of this came crashing in on you. You might be slumped on the floor, or unable to lift your heard off your pillow because the suffering your in has taken it's toll on you and a lie was believed, and doubt crept it. You see your phone and you know the person you could call...

So you do. You dial that Jesus with skin on friends number and all you do is say "hi" and you begin to weep. Oh my friends, I've been there. I made that call, and I wept. And do you know what my friend did for me? First she cried with me, and then she prayed. She prayed for the peace of God to transcend my heart and mind that day...she became strength for me and pointed me back to my ultimate source of strength, Christ.

And Jesus, my Jesus bore all the suffering imaginable for me, so that I could live free today, giving some light to all of our sufferings today. I pray that this word encourages you today as it did for me. Suffering is something that we are going to face on this earth, but it's how we conquer in suffering that we can bring glory to God. Every time we do not submit to the fear, the lies and the deceit of the enemy as he lies to us about our suffering, we win a victory for the Lord, and ultimately, we stomp Satan. So lets win this fight one little stomp at a time, and conquer the lies of the enemy. Suffering is hard. The Lord knows this, and He will provide you with the peace you need as you ask for it. God never leaves His children forsaken, or alone, look at the cross!! The moment the words " my God my God why have you forsaken me" left the lips of Jesus, the darkness ceased and He gave up His spirit. He was heard, He was rescued and He was never forsaken. Neither are you and I.

"These things I have spoken to unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."

John 15:11 kjv