Christian Message Boards: BACK TO THE CROSS

This is topic BACK TO THE CROSS in forum Favorite Devotions at Christian Message Boards.

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Posted by David (Member # 1) on :

"For I determined to not know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (I Corinthians 2:2).

Religion seeks to reform a man; the Cross seeks to crucify him. Religion may fail to bring about the desired result, but the Cross never fails to achieve its end. Mankind will pursue morality, virtue, spirituality, even perform religious works and good deeds, in order to avoid death on a Cross. But there are no wounds, no scars, no evidence of having ever died and been made alive unto God. Either a man has never died, or he has died and been raised again. You cannot fake a resurrection.

The Cross is the means by which God reduces us to Christ, that we may be raised to new Life. What cannot be accomplished in a lifetime of self-effort is easily accomplished in God through the Cross. We may take many shortcuts along the way and attempt to escape the inevitable, but the day we cease striving and meekly accept the Cross we find everything is done for us. In fact, death by crucifixion cannot be accomplished by suicide. We cannot crucify ourselves. The instrument of our death is chosen for us, as well as the manner in which it is carried out, the timing and the duration of the execution - all is controlled by Another. There is nothing to be done, for we must submit to the Unseen Hand and cast ourselves completely upon Him.

by Chip Brogden
http://www.watchman.net/articles/back.html

Posted by TEXASGRANDMA (Member # 847) on :

Thanks David. We need that.
The age we live in is that the thing to do is, is to live our life our way. The hit song by Frank Sinatra "My Way" seems to be defining our philosophy to life. Even as Christians we seek our way and not God's way. Sometimes we see our error but then instead of seeking God, we seek to "fix" the problem ourselves. Let's face it; our cure is to put a band aid on an infected wound. God's way is to clean out the impurities. We have to let go of the control and let God do the job. We have got to get over this "I did it my way!" mentality and start living God's way. This is not easy when we especially Americans are taught to take pride in doing things our way. We have got to let go of the pride and start focusing on God.
betty