Grace

The Cross Of Love And Life.

     

           Stay At The Cross, Leave The Cross?

       The Cross will always represent the Love God has for us, for each and everyone alive or not. As long you have life in you or ever had life in you, the Cross is the first and most prominent symbol of God's Love for you, for me, for all of us.

      The message of the Cross is Love. For God so loved the world that HE gave HIS one and only Son so that whosoever believes in HIM shall NOT perish but HAVE Eternal LIFE.
("For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." ~ John 3:16 NIV)

    God loved you and I from the very start. Way before we knew HIM, way before we could even breathe HE Himself breathed into us, HE breathed HIS Love into us. HE loved us so much that when death demanded that we pay our debt ("For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~ Romans 6:23 NIV), God could not bear to give us up. HE could not let you and I perish for our very own sins.

      We sinned against HIM, our flesh denied HIM even though HE made us in HIS own perfect image. The world corrupted us and we turned our backs on HIM who made us. ("This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God." ~ Genesis 5:1 NIV).

      For when Adam and Eve sinned, it was placed on all mankind. It is not Adam and Eve that sinned, it is Mankind that sinned and thus we are each accountable for sin young or old, born or unborn we are tainted with sin. ("Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—" ~ Romans 5:12 NIV)

    Seeing this, knowing our end for HE is the Alpha and Omega, Beginning and the End, God with so much Love gave HIMSELF away for us that we may live. HE gave HIS ONLY SON for you and I.

    JESUS CHRIST left the Heavens, put on flesh like you and I, came down to this World, lived like mankind but never once gave in to the flesh. JESUS walked on this earth like you and I do, He faced the same challenges you and I face daily but never once did HE live as the flesh HE wore demanded. HE existed in the physical but lived in the Spirit. He lived in fellowship with God the Father through the Holy Spirit all the days of His life in this world. That way He overcame the flesh. ("But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin." ~ 1 John 3:5 NIV)

     And when HE had lived like man but with no sin, He went to the Cross to die a sinner for us. He bore our transgressions, He bore our sin, He bore our sickness, He bore our pain, He bore our suffering, He bore our debt. ("Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted." ~ Isaiah 53:4 NIV)

     A debt you and I owed to death but could never have been able to pay with anything other than our lives. Death demanded your life and mine for that was our collateral but God loved us too much to let it be so. Thus JESUS was beaten, whipped, tortured, spat at, shamed, despised, bruised and so much more HE endured then was crucified on The Cross that you and I may keep our lives. That is the message of The Cross, LOVE.

     So today I was thinking about something I heard about The Cross. A certain Man of God had a Revelation. In it, people were coming to the Cross, carrying all their baggage and dumping it at the Cross. All the heavy burdened, the sick, the poor, all sorts of people with their different affinities were bringing them all to the Cross and then leaving. But as some people were leaving, they turned and looked at the baggage they had just dumped and they were starting to pick up some of the smaller baggage to go back with.

      Imagine, you have been troubled with say, sickness, unemployment, bitterness, hate, pain, unforgiveness, sexual immorality among others, you come to  The Cross, you come to Jesus Christ with all this, and HE takes it away and gives you life nd freedom but then you decide to take back some of the baggage? Why? Why come to Jesus but remain one foot stepping in the world? Why not go all in into CHRIST?

    

     As i was thinking of all this, The Holy Spirit gave me a perspective I never could have imagined. What if we come to the Cross and never turn to leave? Since it becomes so hard for us to leave with only the life and freedom JESUS gives to us once we believe and accept HIM at the Cross, why not never leave at all? If leaving prompts us to pick up a certain baggage we had already been freed of, why not just simply stay? Why not just stay at The Cross and watch all the baggage disappear?

   For if we choose to stay at the Cross, to stay with Jesus, the baggage will surely disappear. Because where Light is, there can be no darkness. Where Jesus is, there is no pain, no fear, no doubt, no sickness, no sin! With HIM there's only goodness, mercy, peace, prosperity, life, freedom and all that is good. ("When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”" ~ John 8:12 NIV)

    If you find it hard to leave the Cross with only Jesus, if you feel that you want to pick up that bad baggage all over again, then Do Not leave. Stay at the Cross and let Jesus make that baggage disappear.

    You can leave the Cross empty handed but filled up to the brim with Jesus. That is the only way to leave the Cross empty handed. For if you decide to leave the Cross without Jesus in you, you will be prompted to pick up that baggage once again because if you are empty on the inside, you'll want to fill yourself up and that baggage will be the only other option. So before you turn to leave the Cross, be sure to let Jesus fill you up Himself, that way you will never hunger or thirst again. ("but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”" ~ John 4:14 NIV)

       OR
  You could also just Stay at The Cross with Jesus and watch the baggage disappear.

      Although, leaving the Cross doesn't literally mean leaving, it simply means Walking With  Jesus Christ.

       Leaving The Cross with Jesus or Staying at The Cross with Jesus, it is all one in the same. It is just you choosing to be with Jesus Christ, letting HIM be the anchor and center of Your Life.

     Stay At The Cross, Stay In Jesus
    Leave The Cross, Leave with Jesus.