Tag: The Cross

MY NAME IS IN HIM

God is not so concerned about the escalating partisan hatefulness of America’s political and social dialogue; the once unthinkable level of bloodshed through mass murder and abortions; the insatiable appetite for new and sensual entertainments to a level of “idolatry”; the ever-expanding lgbtq-xyz acronym; the greed causing a growing scarcity of livable and affordable habitation for the less prosperous; the disturbing epidemic of substance addictions, pornography, and suicides; the declining respect for authority and family and human life in general…as He is about something else:

His Holy NAME.

Obviously, that is not to say that the heart of God is not broken over the terrible toll sin has taken on our nation and on the world, with all of its violence, poverty, and disease; that has always been the case. That is why Christ came! But God is more concerned about what has become of the “light” and the “salt” that His Son’s bride, the Church, was intended to be. Those aforementioned “effects” of sin in all societies are only symptoms.

Exodus 23:20-21 nasb “Behold, I am going to send an angel before you [Israel] to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My NAME is in him.”

I Corinthians 10:3-7 nasb “…They [Israel] were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.”

The same “Rock” who preceded, guarded, and followed Israel is the exact same Rock who guides, protects, and nurtures true believers today. Our Rock is the eternal Source of spiritual light (life) and salt (preservative) meant to show hurting people the way to God! What is the world to think of a “church” that is daily rocked by reports of child sexual abuse, immorality, corruption, scandal, and an ever-growing compromise of God’s Word? In what circumstances does God refuse to “pardon” sin? Is it the degree or the category of sin. No! The answer is simple. Sin is not forgiven when it is not acknowledged and repented of. Israel crossed a “threshold” of committing bloodshed during the time of King Manasseh. Manasseh himself was punished by God but was later redeemed when he repented, but the people would go on to experience terrible judgments “for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord would not forgive” (II Kings 24:4 nasb).Their leader turned from his own sin, but his subjects refused!

On two occasions many years ago I tried to reach out to a man who was married and had several children. This man had an often volatile temper and was a spouse abuser. Both times I visited him I found him alone and sitting in a dark room, fighting depression. The problem was, his family had been faithful members of a megachurch which specialized in “praise”, “prosperity” teaching, and claiming God’s “blessings”, but had never addressed or dealt with the sin problem in his life. Upon my invitation, this man attended two consecutive services at our church. At the end of the second service he went to the altar and confessed, “There is no fear of God in my church.” The man went back to his megachurch and we never saw him again. The last report I had of him was that he had abandoned his family, committed theft and assault, and sounded like a man “demon-possessed”, although he exuded a form of religion and spoke often and passionately of spiritual matters.

2 Corinthians 6:17 kjv “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”

When the Church becomes all about entertainment, self-indulgence, and soothing the social conscience of mankind, we have completely lost sight of our standard:

The Cross of Jesus Christ!

A worthy quote:

“Regardless…of the conditions or difficulties you face in life, see in each one ‘a chance to die.’ For die, to yourself, you must if you would live unto God. Your wishes have been crossed? your likes and dislikes disregarded, your wisdom discredited, your sensibilities provoked, your opinions ridiculed? You have been falsely accused and your name has been cast out as evil? Take any or all of these up, as your cross, and see, in each of them, a chance to die to your vainglory and pride. You will learn little by little to be led as a lamb to the slaughter. Self-will and self-justification and self-defense are indeed your greatest foes. Someone says, ‘Welcome anything that calls you to your only true position, crucified with Christ.’ You will then experience the glorious truth, ‘Christ liveth in me’…The life that He imparts is a crucified life. It is a life centered upon God, fixed upon God, a life lived in the will of God. This Christ-life, mark you, is the life of Him who, on the eve of His passion and death, spoke for the first time in His earthly career of ‘My peace, My joy’; and in prayer for His own: ‘that my joy might be fulfilled in them.’ Christ’s joy in life’s darkest hour was in the will of His Father.” ~ L.E. Maxwell, Born Crucified.

Is Christ’s joy being fulfilled in you?

The Titanic: A Sailor’s Story

In your opinion, which is the more challenging: diving headfirst into the frigid water of the deep end of a swimming pool and acclimating quickly, or creeping tortuously down the steps of the shallow end – an inch at a time and shivering the entire way – until your whole body is finally submerged?

I recall reading the account of a British second officer aboard the RMS Titanic who had been working furiously on the boat deck helping to get passengers, beginning with women and children, off the doomed ocean liner and into lifeboats. After all of the boats had been lowered and were away, he watched as the water began to overtake the clustering crowds of people who had retreated toward the stern of the badly listing ship. Instead of an agonizing wait for the freezing black depths to overtake him, he made a choice. He decided to take a “header” and dove headlong into the icy surge!

His decision at first appeared to be a mistake, as he was pulled down and pinned against a metal grate by the force of water rushing into the ship through a ventilator. As he held his breath, hoping that the grate would not collapse, a boiler explosion well below the deck sent a burst of hot air to the surface and blew him far enough from the maelstrom that he was able to swim, gasping, to an overturned collapsible lifeboat to which several other men were clinging. He was later rescued.

I remember being impressed at the time with the spiritual symbolism of this account, and it has stayed with me ever since. The decision of the disciplined sailor to go “all in” was for him the difference between life and death.

Am I “all in” with regard to my relationship with Jesus?

The answer will often require some serious, and sometimes painful, introspection. The times we as believers find ourselves the most miserable are those when we have merely dipped a toe into the icy water of the unknown and are vacillating over our next step and our intended level of commitment, considering even the possibility of waiting until the weather gets “warmer”; until conditions “improve”, and the “water” is more conducive to taking that imposing “leap of faith.”

In his daily devotionals Oswald Chambers wrote often of the need for “total abandonment” of ourselves as believers to God. That is, by far, the most difficult thing for our (my) flesh to contemplate. It was this same voluntary self-abandonment that enabled the Son of God to brave His own dark descent into death, relinquishing His authority to summon 10,000 angels to His rescue, and believing that His Father would raise Him back up again. Am I willing to be accused by others of going “overboard” in my passion for Jesus? His sacrificial choice to be “all in” became our very salvation, and we are faced with the exact same choice as our Lord: to cast ourselves with abandon upon the unfathomable love, grace, and mercy of our heavenly Father!

Philippians 2:5-11 NASB “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

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The best preachers are the ones who will tell you, with honesty, that God preached the message to them before they ever preached it to their congregation. Before you or I can proclaim God’s Word to God’s people with any sense of power or authority, the Cross – the pangs of Holy Spirit conviction and the healing result of Self-surrender – must first be applied to my own heart and life.

Bryan