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"If a soul thou wouldst redeem, And lead a lost one back to God; Wouldst thou a guardian-angel seem To one who long in guilt hath trod Go kindly to him take his hand With gentlest words within thine own, And by his side a brother stand, Till all the demons thou dethrone."
Cross Bearing
"The Christian's Passion"
There is a powerful question that is too often avoided by preachers and church attendees alike, "Who took the rough edges off the Cross?" Modern day Christianity and the world have generally turned the cross into a nice piece of harmless jewelry, all shiny and pretty. Wearing nice jewelry shaped in the form of a cross is not necessarily sinful unless it is worn without regard to what the Cross of Christ symbolizes. Here are some ways that the Biblical symbolism of the cross is abased today: 1.) Ladies wearing low cut blouses with a cross hanging in their cleavage; 2.) Young people wearing the cross on body piercings, earrings, necklaces or on their clothing while living lives that scream of the immorality and self-possession of this world; and 3.) Making merchandise out of the cross.
Jesus' word to His cross bearers is, "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Luke 9:23).
There is a symbolic meaning to taking up the cross. The cross is a symbol of death. When someone carried a cross down the road to the place of his execution, he did not return. Our sin is why Christ endured the agony and shame of the Cross. The first and utmost reason for bearing our cross is to die to sin. This involves death to ourselves, death to self-effort and death to our quest for earthly gain and recognition. These very things have destroyed even the most gifted men of God. This is why Luke included "daily"--because our sinful nature desires to dethrone God from our lives daily. Our flesh, the world and Satan are throwing something at us continually to tempt us to say yes to them and stop seeking the will and desire of God for us.
In writing about being dead to sin and alive in Christ, Paul set the matter straight in regard to what really should be the Christian's passion, "...Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1-2)... For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin -- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin" (Romans 6:6-7).
Have you died to self, to the world and Satan's lies? Have you repented of sin and asked Jesus Christ to come into your heart and life to be both Savior and Lord? If so, Paul's instructions are, "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God... offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness..." (Romans 6:11-13).
The apostle Paul makes this heart searching statement, "And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you." (Romans 8:11)
Are you a cross bearer that reflects a life of Christ--a life that is dead to sin and alive to Christ? Do not live a life that disregards the price paid for you at Calvary.
When King Louis XIV of France was dethroned, someone kidnapped his son. They tried to spoil him and dethrone him. The people who captured him exposed him to vulgar language, excessive alcohol and women—anything to feed his passions and to try to keep him from fulfilling his destiny. After 6 months he refused and refused and refused. Finally his captors said, “Why haven’t you succumbed to any of these passions? Why haven’t you indulged yourself in any of these things?” The king’s son replied “I cannot indulge in any of those things...
POWER OF THE FLESH
A certain man was in very big trouble. He was sacked from five jobs. When he could not feed his family again, his wife ran away, leaving him with three daughters. To worsen his sorrow, his first daughter became pregnant while in form three. When he tried to beat her, she said, "Daddy, all the time I did not ask you for bus fare to school. Where do you think the money I was using came from?"
The man was very sad, so he cried unto the Lord in prayers. He really cried to God, and you know God never rejects the cry from the heart. The Lord Jesus appeared to him while he was praying. The man was very happy. He wanted the Lord Jesus to sympathize with him. He wanted the Lord to promote him and give him deliverance from all his troubles. He wanted comfort, fairness and divine justice.
But to his amazement, the Lord pointed at him and said, "Your problem is rooted in you and not in the enemy." The Lord told him that that was the hardest part of his Christian life. "You have not even agreed that you are your own problem. You are only deceiving yourself by blaming the devil. I am the Almighty. I am not struggling with the devil. I desire that your flesh must submit to me. I want to dethrone you from the centre of your life and be your Lord, but you have not...
The video "Transformations" made in 1999 shows stunning Revivals that are taking place mostly in third world countries (Africa, South America, etc) - Revivals that have literally TRANSFORMED ENTIRE TOWNS AND CITIES for Jesus.
It showed how in one Columbian city (notorious as a drug citadel), the church leaders who were hopelessly divided only became unified after a well-known pastor was murdered. Suddenly, through this unity God was able to move. They decided to hold a huge all-night prayer gathering in the city stadium and 50,000 Christians came. Within nine months of this united prayer the drug lords who had dominated that city were dethroned and everything had changed. Since then the Christian community has experienced massive growth and has become a ’beacon set on a hill’ in that place. They continue to hold massive unified prayer gatherings in the city stadium.
In another dark South American town the desperation point again came when a pastor had a gun jammed against his head. This sparked intensive unified PRAYER and the situa...
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