Choose!

Dear friends


King Solomon said that there is a time for everything..."a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build..." (Ecc 3:2b-3) Concerning all things spiritual, the writer of Hebrews also said there is a time to be fed milk and a time to move on, grow up and be fed meat. (Hebrews 6)


Indeed there is a time when we need to be reminded and taught about God's unconditional love, His mercy and grace. We need to know without doubt that we can come before the Thrown of Grace just as we are and that we will never be turned away. We need to hear the Good News about salvation, redemption, forgiveness and reconciliation.


When we are weary with life's struggles and our wounds are deep and raw, we need to be able to come to the cross and receive healing and restoration. We need to know that Christ came to bind up our broken hearts,  to comfort those who mourn and to give us a spirit of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Oh how we need that hope! When we are caught up in addictions and when we are bound by chains that are hard to break, we need to hear that Christ came to set the captives free.


But there comes a time when it is time to move on...beyond the cross.


There is a time that when we only tell people about all these things and about God's abounding love, it is not to their advantage. Rather, the feeling that all will eventually 'be ok' because God will 'let it turn out ok' in fact keeps them in the very place that God does not want them to be. Thus, there is a time when some meaty truth with the sharpness of a double edged sword needs to be spoken.


Jesus Himself often spoke a seemingly harsh word to the people. It is one of these that I want to bring before you today:

"...anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me."

(Matthew 10:38)

I don't know about you, but to me these are pretty harsh words. According to Thayer's Greek Lexicon the word 'worthy' in this passage specifically shows to being 'worthy of one's fellowship and of the blessings that go with it'. So in fact Jesus is telling his disciples that if anyone, including us, do not take up his cross and follow Him, he or she is not worthy of Christ's fellowship and not worthy of the blessings that are to be found in Him.

This is a different message concerning the cross than the one we have made it, the one we very much love! For we have come to view the cross mostly as a place of refuge, a place of comfort, a place of 'all will be ok', a place where Jesus suffered and thus made everything ok for us.

Yet, when Jesus spoke these words to the disciples, the cross had only one meaning and one message. They knew exactly what Jesus meant when He said this. The cross was a merciless instrument of death. The cross had no other purpose. It wasn't a place of comfort and safety. It wasn't some irritation or burden that one had to live with and bear in life. It was a method and an instrument to execute people.

Jesus was saying that unless in my life there is some kind of execution, I am not worthy of His fellowship, not worthy to share in His blessings.

When Jesus says something, we take notice. When He says it twice, we should not only take notice, we should take it very seriously. Jesus repeated these hard words in Matthew 16:24 -

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

This time round, Jesus shed a little more light on WHO is to be executed on that cross....SELF.


Jesus took up His cross, walked all the way to Golgotha and was executed. Following Him as He commands us, we have to take up our cross and walk up right up to Golgotha and be executed too.


Paul did not say in vain, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live..."

You see dear friend, what we invariably want is to come to the cross, receive forgiveness and redemption and salvation and healing and restoration and acceptance and then move around the cross and come to the place of newness of life, of abundant life and joy and victory and great blessing.

Jesus is saying, the way to move on beyond the cross is to get up on the cross. It is as we die on that cross that we will find Him come alive in us. As we die to our life, we will find His life. While 'I' am still alive, I cannot imagine the new life, the new thing. It is only as we die that the new life is born in us and the impossible becomes possible. That is why on both occasions Jesus also followed up the above words with the following:

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39)

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." (Matthew 16:25)

Death is never an easy matter. Crucifixion is a most painful death...it involves immense suffering.

We should expect dying to self to be most painful and to involve immense suffering. Yet, that is exactly what must happen and take place if we want to be worthy of Jesus' fellowship and the blessings waiting beyond the cross.

Let us just quickly ask ourselves the question - who is this self that needs to be crucified? We know from Scripture that it is the sinful desires of our flesh. Please let me say that the desires of our flesh is only and always sinful. Our flesh is not capable of good and righteous and commendable desires. That is why we have to be reborn of the Spirit before we can be clothed in the righteousness of Christ and produce the good works that were predestined for us.

So dear friend. What is that one thing or that many things that Jesus is asking you to put up on the cross?

Unforgiveness

Hatred

Rage

Jealousy

Sexual immorality

Selfish ambition

Drunkenness

Orgies

Envy

Idolatry

The list can go on and on can't it? Please add to it anything the Holy Spirit points out to you.

As we read and recognize those things we are holding dear to us (yes that is indeed what we are doing) we immediately know the pain that would accompany the death of it! The rich young ruler also recognized the pain and loss of putting that one thing on the cross. He came to Jesus because he wanted to inherit eternal life. He wanted to inherit the Kingdom of God. So he asks Jesus what he has to do. Jesus tells him the one thing that he has not yet put up on that cross. "Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Luke 18:22). This man, having already obeyed such a large part of the Law, would not  put this one thing on the cross. He would not die to this one thing. It saddened him to think that he would have to give this one thing up and, instead of following Jesus, he ended up walking away from Him. Please note that we do not see Jesus begging him to stay, trying to convince him of the greatness of what he is missing out on. No, Jesus spoke the sharp truth, put before him the cross and let him choose.

Perhaps you and I have also come to Christ. Perhaps you and I also want to inherit eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Then Jesus will ask us to get up on the cross. Now, as we realize the immensity of what is asked of us, we are put to the choice explained in Deuteronomy 30:11 onwards. Allow me to state it here. It says nothing else but what Jesus confirmed in Matthew 10 and 16:

"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach...the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands...then you will live...But if your heart turns away and  you are not obedient...I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed."

I urge myself and I urge you:

SURRENDER.

CHOOSE LIFE.

BEYOND THE PAIN OF THE CROSS IS THE JOY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN YOU.

CHOOSE.

Until next week

God bless and lots of love in Christ

Lize