The opportunity to help, to minister, to bless others, in any way, should always be welcomed. Welcomed because we want so much to serve God. But, in so many aspects of life, we prefer to serve only who, and when, and how we want. And, thus, we don’t really serve at all, no matter what we decide to do.
Now at the cross
was greater loss
with torture and with pain.
From crown of thorn
to nails and scorn,
would someone please explain?
When God calls on us, will we show up? Or will we be missing in action? Our responses to God reveal to us, and everyone watching, what we think of Him. Our responses will reveal if He really is our God. Our responses will reveal whether we believe He is good, fair, just, and worthy of our love.
Your cross is not your sacrifice. Jesus was crucified ON a cross. Therefore, to take up your cross is to be ready for the world to crucify you for the sake of the gospel. Taking up my cross is the willingness to be rejected by the world.
Sing to Him your songs of praises
Bring to Him your gifts of love
Give to Him your very finest
All the King is worthy of
Take up thy cross, the Saviour said,
If thou wouldst My disciple be;
Deny thyself, the world forsake,
And humbly follow after Me.
It’s easy to ‘put God first’ when things are going well. But how about when we lose our homes, or our health, or our jobs, or our children, or ‘all of the above’? Will we put God first then?
Some treat the blood of Christ as nothing special, they say it was no different from any other blood, but that is NOT what God says in His Word… Only through faith in the blood of Christ can we be saved…
The story of the shepherd seeking his lost sheep became very, very real to me that night, and I’m not ashamed to admit that those stupid lost hens brought me to tears of humility. Do we not do the same to our Heavenly Father? He shows us green fields, and we race back to the emptiness of what’s familiar… even those with years of experience in walking with God, we can be caught unawares. All of us, at some time or another, stray away from God’s best, and need the Shepherd to come find us.
It is mercy, God’s mercy, that makes Salvation available. Mercy opens the door of Salvation to let us into the Kingdom of God.
Reflections in The WORD 