It's Thursday and Im so excited about the upcoming weekend! Dying eggs, spending time with family and hearing about the cross and resurrection of my Savior! Easter stirs people because we are forced to see the cross for what it truly stands for and it pushes believers to repentance and many people commit to follow for the very first time. This morning I am reminded of the Batman movie with Val Kilmer in it. Remember the scene with Nicole Kidman and he picks up the ink bloat and he saw bats. That's because he was batman right!? We find out later that bats are what he fears the most. My whole life I feared God and I allowed Sunday school lessons, my relationships and stories told to me to distort my view of the cross and ultimately my Creator. My prayers seem to always start with my head hung and not out of reverence but out of shame. Never praising but always begging for forgiveness. It wasn't until I got in the word and begin reading about Him that my view truly began to change and my heart just seemed to follow. The cross stands for my freedom. The cross stands for NO more guilt and shame. The cross stands for an intimacy like no other. The cross stands for an eternity spent in paradise. The cross stands for forgiveness. You see the cross once stood for criminals and the visual sign to others that the person hanging was and should repulse those who passed by because of the crimes they committed. There is no beauty that comes from the necklace that hangs around our necks when curse those around us, gossip, act self righteous, withhold grace, be impatient and the list goes on and on. We have cheapened the cross to shirts and jewelry as a feel good piece. I am not bashing your necklaces or pictures hanging in your houses ( I have them). When people were crucified the blood and guts that went into killing them was for the people to see and know you better not even think about doing what they did. Jesus went to the cross for what you and I did and will do and that steeple you pass by or that necklace hanging around your neck should remind you not of what you did or thought this morning but that YOU ARE FORGIVEN for it. Approach this weekend by not idolizing a cross but a Creator that sent His son to free us. The tomb is empty and so is the cross! My shame! My guilt! My past! My bitterness! My food addiction and all my other junk is GONE!!! (I just killed some exclamation points ha!) I pray you will be encouraged today and that you allow that stirring within you to push you and change you.
But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds. (Isaiah 53:5 HCSB)
If you don't already have plans for Sunday you should be my guest!!! 10:30 Revolution church (YMCA on Franklin blvd)
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