Beyond The Cross

I heard a great phrase yesterday in a sermon and thought to myself, well, isn't that brilliant.

It was simply this...

"Beyond the cross."

The Cross of Jesus Christ is a pivot point for every life who stands before it. It is the moment in time, in which the life that makes a decision for or against Christ, makes a decision that impacts eternity. Meanwhile, it means a life transformed for the remainder of their days here on Earth.

Yet, this struggle I'm about to explain, exists for the one who stands at the cross for the first time as well as for the umpteenth time.

In this life, we take things beyond the cross that were never meant to go that far.

Jesus left it all on the cross. His life. Our sins. He doesn't hang on to it and carry it with Him as He returns to Heaven. Yet we come to Christ for salvation, then continue our lives after the Cross with the very things that we were leaving at the time of our decision. For the believer, we do the same. We go back and pick up our cares and concerns that we have laid at His feet.

Do we not believe in the transforming work of Christ?
Do we not understand the sacrificial work of the Cross?

Is it possible we don't live empowered by the Holy Spirit as much as we could or should be living because we take the struggles and concerns of this world with us, beyond the Cross where Christ has told us to leave it with Him?

It is a struggle for both the seasoned saint and the newly saved. Yet on this #missionsFriday, it affects the testimony of both, for what we could and should be accomplishing for the kingdom of God.

Thus, will you join me this #misssionsFriday. Pray for those believers, yes, even in ministry and missions, that are struggling in the work that God has placed before them because of our propensity to take life before the Cross beyond the Cross. May we leave, forever, the things and concerns that God desires to remove and manage in our lives. Pray that we would be about the burden Christ would have us to carry, rather than our own, for ours is great and His is light. May we not stand in the way of the work God is attempting to accomplish in our lives and through our lives that will forever impact eternity.

For life before the Cross has nothing
To the life that waits beyond the Cross.
The demarcation line was drawn with the blood of Christ.
May we live for the glory of God
For the cause of Jesus Christ.

- PNC

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