“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20
This year we did something a little different with our Christmas lights. We bought new strands of all blue lights, lined our middle walkway that leads to our front door with them, and added "arms". Yes, we now have a huge lit up blue cross in our front yard! I love it! One of our neighbors driving by, stopped and began to tell his 6 year old daughter what it was about...what the cross meant. A friend that came to a Christmas party we threw a couple of nights ago said it felt like he was walking up a "royal passageway".
Growing up in church was pure drudgery for me. I absolutely hated it. My parents were very involved so, inevitably, we were there quite a bit. We were also altar boys...we were Roman Catholic. My days were spent doing what most boys do at church...well not really...my days were spent partaking of the consecrated bread and wine every chance I got, pilfering through glove compartments of unlocked cars, stealing and smoking cigarettes, and anything else I could dream up to kill the boredom.
The cross is everywhere throughout the buildings and sanctuaries of the Catholic church...but it meant nothing to me! I was dead. I was like that scripture "we played a the flute for you, and you did not dance, we sang a dirge and you did not mourn.". I was deaf, dumb, and blind and the "royal passageway", to me, was nothing...it was lifeless, dry, empty of meaning, a dead piece of artwork.
The cross...some ask why would you hang an instrument of torture, an electric chair around your neck. Maybe it is because this "instrument of torture" is the "royal passageway". It is still unfathomable for me to understand how absolutely meaningless this "symbol" was to me at one time, and now it's like those amazing little blue LED lights in my front yard. The cross glows mysteriously in the night...in my heart. Since I came to Christ, everywhere I go, when I see a cross and I can't take my eyes off of it!
The cross...I cleave to it now...I wrestle with it...I embrace it. Paul said he always carried about in his body the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he had been crucified with Christ, and that Christ now lived in him. When I walk about this earth, the cross is continually etched in the forefront of my mind. There is a deep hollowness when you are lost...really lost. Your heart aches at untold depths...it's never-ending. I tremble when I think of those who perish in it...never finding this eternal, royal passageway to Life. It grieves me that when I wrestle with it, like Jacob wrestling the angel for a new name, others rarely join the fight.
Sometimes I like to stare at my son and daughter when they're sleeping. Not because they're cute...although they are adorable! I stare at them, amazed that they are part of me! With my past, the things I did, the illness I endured, I never thought I would have kids...I never thought I would live past 25! I stare at them, amazed they are "bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh". I am, in a sense, in them, part of them and they are part of me.
"On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." John 14:20
The cross...a mystery. What a mystery that through the cross, we are now "bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh", and really...spirit of His Spirit. A more learned man, scholar, scientist or philosopher might be able to "out-debate" me on religion but my testimony will always stand. A once hollow man now buried with Him...His life the only thing living in me...hidden...the mysterious burning....a deep knowing...that can't be out-argued or taken away.
My former hatred for the cross is as much a faith-builder for me as my current love for it...only the truth of the gospel can exist in such a graphic change of heart and change of mind. It is the royal passageway. I love the cross. Without it there is absolutely no life, no eternal life...only destitution, abandonment, hopelessness, despair...for eternity.
In this life there will be many trials...the Bible promises it. But even if all should crumble, fall apart, and fail, the cross is still there...every moment can be lived in its hope...every minute I can walk and breathe and live in a secret, hidden, exciting, ROYAL hope that a celestial city awaits with the cross as the entrance...the City of God. If I'm left owning nothing...my hands holding nothing...may my hands still be clenched to MY cross...OUR cross. It is my greatest treasure. It is my Royal Passageway.
"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Galatians 6:14
This year we did something a little different with our Christmas lights. We bought new strands of all blue lights, lined our middle walkway that leads to our front door with them, and added "arms". Yes, we now have a huge lit up blue cross in our front yard! I love it! One of our neighbors driving by, stopped and began to tell his 6 year old daughter what it was about...what the cross meant. A friend that came to a Christmas party we threw a couple of nights ago said it felt like he was walking up a "royal passageway".
Growing up in church was pure drudgery for me. I absolutely hated it. My parents were very involved so, inevitably, we were there quite a bit. We were also altar boys...we were Roman Catholic. My days were spent doing what most boys do at church...well not really...my days were spent partaking of the consecrated bread and wine every chance I got, pilfering through glove compartments of unlocked cars, stealing and smoking cigarettes, and anything else I could dream up to kill the boredom.
The cross is everywhere throughout the buildings and sanctuaries of the Catholic church...but it meant nothing to me! I was dead. I was like that scripture "we played a the flute for you, and you did not dance, we sang a dirge and you did not mourn.". I was deaf, dumb, and blind and the "royal passageway", to me, was nothing...it was lifeless, dry, empty of meaning, a dead piece of artwork.
The cross...some ask why would you hang an instrument of torture, an electric chair around your neck. Maybe it is because this "instrument of torture" is the "royal passageway". It is still unfathomable for me to understand how absolutely meaningless this "symbol" was to me at one time, and now it's like those amazing little blue LED lights in my front yard. The cross glows mysteriously in the night...in my heart. Since I came to Christ, everywhere I go, when I see a cross and I can't take my eyes off of it!
The cross...I cleave to it now...I wrestle with it...I embrace it. Paul said he always carried about in his body the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he had been crucified with Christ, and that Christ now lived in him. When I walk about this earth, the cross is continually etched in the forefront of my mind. There is a deep hollowness when you are lost...really lost. Your heart aches at untold depths...it's never-ending. I tremble when I think of those who perish in it...never finding this eternal, royal passageway to Life. It grieves me that when I wrestle with it, like Jacob wrestling the angel for a new name, others rarely join the fight.
Sometimes I like to stare at my son and daughter when they're sleeping. Not because they're cute...although they are adorable! I stare at them, amazed that they are part of me! With my past, the things I did, the illness I endured, I never thought I would have kids...I never thought I would live past 25! I stare at them, amazed they are "bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh". I am, in a sense, in them, part of them and they are part of me.
"On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." John 14:20
The cross...a mystery. What a mystery that through the cross, we are now "bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh", and really...spirit of His Spirit. A more learned man, scholar, scientist or philosopher might be able to "out-debate" me on religion but my testimony will always stand. A once hollow man now buried with Him...His life the only thing living in me...hidden...the mysterious burning....a deep knowing...that can't be out-argued or taken away.
My former hatred for the cross is as much a faith-builder for me as my current love for it...only the truth of the gospel can exist in such a graphic change of heart and change of mind. It is the royal passageway. I love the cross. Without it there is absolutely no life, no eternal life...only destitution, abandonment, hopelessness, despair...for eternity.
In this life there will be many trials...the Bible promises it. But even if all should crumble, fall apart, and fail, the cross is still there...every moment can be lived in its hope...every minute I can walk and breathe and live in a secret, hidden, exciting, ROYAL hope that a celestial city awaits with the cross as the entrance...the City of God. If I'm left owning nothing...my hands holding nothing...may my hands still be clenched to MY cross...OUR cross. It is my greatest treasure. It is my Royal Passageway.
"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Galatians 6:14
THIS IS MY FAVORITE ONE OF ALL! Yes, yes, ye,s and Yes! I am the same way Sean. How did we get so lucky....no blessed? God has had you in His hand from the beginning. He needed you, me, to walk those "paths", so that we could "speak" differently. In a "language that some, many!, need to hear! Way to go!
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