LIFE WITHOUT A CROSS

What will life on earth be like without a ‘cross’?

Wouldn’t it be fun to live a life free of pain, sacrifices and longsuffering? How about a life void of uncertainties and full of significance? That’s exactly what life on earth without a cross will be like. Fun don’t you think? Yea, for a day or two thereafter boredom sets in and you begin to wonder why life is so boring!

Life on earth is designed to be at its best when there is balance. Too much of anything, even seemingly good things becomes bad once out of balance. As sweet as honey is to taste, the bible warns that too much of it will make you sick!

Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste (Prov 24:13 NIV)
If you find honey, eat just enough-too much of it, and you will vomit. Seldom set foot in your neighbor's house-too much of you, and he will hate you (Prov 25:16-17 NIV)

Without a cross we cannot become followers of Jesus Christ (Luke 9:23). Does that make Jesus a sadist to have made the cross a prerequisite to being His disciples? Not at all! We need the cross.

There are six basic human needs, people will violate their values to have those needs met.

Certainty/ Variety
Significance/ Love and connection
Growth/ Contribution


The first four are survival needs. Certainty is good but too much of it results in boredom no wonder God gives life to us one day at a time! Variety balances certainty but too much of it results in overwhelm. Reminds me of “Jack of all trades, master of none”

It is great to feel significant, because we all are in our unique ways but too much of significance sets you apart from love and connection. E.g. I love to give hugs, it’s one way I connect with people but if I became the queen of England, people can’t hug me without making headlines! Too much love and connection breeds co-dependency, which is not good.

It all boils down to balance. Just as variety acts as a balance for certainty, love and connection for significance so does the cross acts as a balance for our life in general.

For a two year old, life is fun when it’s all about them and everything falls into ‘me’, ‘mine’ and ‘myself’ category. However childhood is only a phase, God designed us to come into maturity, letting go of childishness while maintaining a childlike heart. What makes childish attitudes things we must let go off? They are selfish! Man was designed to be selfless, not selfish. It’s in selflessness that we gain true fulfillment in life.

One way to live a selfless life is by picking up our cross and following Jesus. How is that selfless? First, picking up your cross is an act of obedience to God. Every act of obedience to God’s word is a demonstration of love to God (John 14:15). Secondly every cross carried results in dying to self.

Did you know your cross is really not all about you? It’s about others as well. Jesus did not carry His cross for Himself, He did it for you and I to benefit from the grace of salvation. When you and I pick up our cross, it qualifies us to receive God’s grace and comfort, so that we’d have grace and comfort to give to others who are going through all kinds of trials. You can’t give what you don’t have!

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ (2 Cor 1:3-5 NLT)

Why all the tears pain or sorrow just to receive comfort? If nothing else, it shows how ‘expensive’ God’s comfort is. I say to people, whoever thinks heaven is cheap has never been to the cross. But how can anyone ever imagine heaven to be cheap when its streets are paved with gold? Have you checked the price of gold recently? Sometimes it’s good to check these things just to remind yourself how priceless the gift of heaven is to all heading in that direction.

It has been said “no pain, no gain”. Pain has a way of making us appreciate the gain. Did Adam and Eve appreciate Eden before they sinned? I guess they did to some extent but the appreciation for what they lost must have quadrupled after the pain of the curse took effect.

Is life on earth without the cross really worth it? No! Don’t run from the cross, there is a power that comes from familiarity with the cross. Without your cross, you will have no power to impact the people in your sphere of influence. The cross may not be attractive but therein lays the power to change lives. No matter the weight of your cross, do not quit, keep pressing forward, God will send you a ‘Simon of Cyrene’ like He did for Jesus (Matt.27:32) to help you out so you can stay the course.

By all means, run the race to the finish line because at the end there is in store for you a reward that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard neither can the natural human mind comprehend it.

But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."[ (1 Cor 2:9 NKJV)


Stay the course!!

With warmth


Angela

GOD HAS FEELINGS TOO!!

I work as a Behavioral Analyst meaning people hire me to help them identify why they, their employees or loved ones act the way they do and how to use the information to increase their productivity and create the relationships of their dreams. I also work as a Life Coach; in this case people hire me to come alongside them to accomplish their goals e.g in business, relationship, family life, career, or spiritual while creating a work – life balance. I gave you this background to let you know that my job means constantly pouring into people. I absolutely love what I do. But sometimes, like the last two weeks, I’ve really needed someone to pour into my life. I have a couple of close friends that I can talk to, so I called one of them, but I could not share my burden with her because she has so much on her plate, that I ended up as usual listening and brainstorming with her. Same thing happened with my next call. When I hung up this time, my heart was broken, and I turned to the Lord and said “Lord, these people know where am at and what’s going on with me, how come none of them is asking how am doing and how are things going? Every time we speak it’s all about their issues. I consider them my friends and sisters in Christ, even though they are aware of my situation they don’t even ask me how am doing it’s always about them. I have feelings too!”

Then the Lord spoke into my spirit “I understand how you feel and can perfectly identify with you. When a lot of people come to me, it’s all about them, not many stop to think that I may have a burden on my heart that I would also love to share. Yes I’m God, but I have feelings too. There are times I want to share my burden with my friends, but they seem to be preoccupied with themselves and their stuff. Very few pauses to find out how I am doing”.

I was shocked and felt so guilty. When I was younger, it was my custom to stop by at church to visit with the Lord, just to hang out with Him and ask how He is doing. Those where times I would find myself repenting on behalf of those who are either ignoring His grace or deliberately causing Him pain. My walk with Him was more about Him than me. He was my first love. But am older now and the storms of life seem to be coming one after the other and I find myself coming before Him more often but it’s been more about me and what is going on in my life, ministry, country, family, business, than simply “Lord, how are you feeling today? Do you have a burden on your heart you would love to share with me?”

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Rev 2:1-7 (NIV)


Now I know that God allowed me to experience this with my three friends to draw my attention to how I have “fallen from my first love”. After my conversation with God, the phone did begin to ring, people calling to find out how I was doing - not the ones I was expecting though – but it didn’t matter, at least God laid it upon some people’s heart to check on me. I’ve been very humbled by this experience. I’m writing about it because I’m wondering if there are other people out there who have “fallen from their first love”.

When was the last time your time with the Lord was all about Him and what was on His heart? God has feelings too you know, awesome as He is, He does need people to call true friends, people who care about what’s going on in His Life. The part of us that long for companionship is not a human nature; it is His divine nature in us. He longs for true companions, no wonder he was excited when He found David.

And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will (Acts 13:22 KJV)

The fact that God used the word found indicates that He carried out a search. In that generation, He found David, God looks for friends in every generation, are you one of them?

God is not short of people, He has loads of acquaintance but very few qualify to be called friends. Jesus never called His crowd of listeners friends. He didn’t even call the 12 friends until close to the time of His crucifixion, when they proved they were in it not just for themselves but for Him as well (except for Judas, who had his own agenda).

You are my friends if you do what I command.15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me (John 15:14-16 NLT)

God has feelings too. Would you take time out this week and in the weeks to come, to give God a call just to find out if He has a burden or a praise report on His heart He’d like to share with you a call that will be about Him and not about you? Remember a friend in need is a friend indeed.

If you want to learn more about going beyond being a mere acquaintance with God to becoming His friend, you can start by reading my book “BEYOND SONSHIP TO FRIENDSHIP”


With much warmth

Angela