Beautiful Cross

For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. II Cor 4:11 nas

Precious Sisters who are hidden with Christ in God,
I heard a new song titled, 'Beautiful Cross' and it moved my heart; then my Bible Study this past week was on the Cross; so my thoughts naturally turned to Calvary and how it touches me personally.

Our identification with Christ in His death was a death unto Sin- the principle of Sin as a master and a tyrant- Sin, not sins. The Cross deals with the cause, not symptoms. MJS

 The Holy Spirit faithfully applies the Cross to our self-life until Sin as master loses its power over us at every point. Daily we are to appropriate this Truth, counting ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ.

It is futile to try and bridal our sins and overlook their source: our sin nature. Pruning branches we strengthen the root. We must count on the finished work of Calvary and the Holy Spirit will apply the Cross to our fleshly nature and as death works in us, His life will be revealed in us. (the branches will fall away)

Our Precious LORD waits for us to come to the end of our effort to live the Christian life. "Nothing can set us apart for God, nothing can make us holy except as the Cross is working in us, because the Cross alone can keep the hindrances to holiness in the place of death" G. Watt  Our flesh cannot and will not follow Him, but taking up one's cross results in death to self and we experience the newness of life in Christ Jesus. Either Christ is in control in our lives or the old 'I' is ruling our thoughts and actions and Christ is not. We can never overcome the sin nature apart from the death of Christ.

It is a misnomer that bearing our cross is some burden or trial with which we have been saddled. Regretfully we groan, 'This is my cross to bear'. This is not the Christians cross for our cross is 'the daily giving up of life, of dying to self, which must mark us much as it did the Lord Jesus..... without which the fulness of the blessing of the Cross cannot be disclosed to us.' A. Murray 

Man's intellect is stumbled by the Cross but the major aversion to the Cross is moral, in the sinner and the believer. N.Douty says: "The Divine way (via the Cross) for spiritual emancipation is just as offensive to the child of God as the Divine way for salvation is to the lost." 

When we begin to see just what the Cross entails- a place of death for us- we are inclined to hesitate or turn away settling for mediocrity. "LORD deliver me from settling for the flesh, for being satisfied to be a 'nice person' and doing good things to gain approval by those who cannot see into my heart, instead of surrender to Your way and Your glory." 

"If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me... John 12:26

 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me. Luke 9:23

We are not followers of Jesus if we ignore or refuse to take up our Cross. It is His way. There is a cost we should be longing to pay....  a Cross we should long to carry... a death we must choose in order for Him to manifest Himself in and through us! Do we believe this? The living God desires to manifest Himself in our mortal body! Do not let these words become 'old' or familiar; turning a deaf ear to them. Memorize them. Personalize them. Meditate on them. Paraphrase them. Hear them, dear sisters. Hear His love for you in them.

God of the Cross, You who have set Your divine plan around the Cross and the death of Your Son Yeshua. Thank you for the Cross... Teach me  the fellowship of the Cross. Teach me the beauty and freedom of the Cross. His Cross and mine. No one can carry my cross for me or instead of me, it is mine. Reveal when i am side-stepping my Cross and turn me back to the Cross, for this is where I can see and behold who You are LORD. I love you. In the Name of my Cross-Bearer I pray. amen 


Unashamed,
az