Psalm 121:1-2 (NLT)
1 I look up to the mountains— does my help come from there?
2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth!
The days leading to Easter are filled with challenges. We don't live in a world of ease, but one filled with challenges to faithfulness, integrity, character, courage and strength. It's easy to get lost in the bad news and the sense of despair that surrounds that news. People do awful things...to others and to themselves.
Wouldn't it be nice to just get rid of the evil and live in a world without that pain?
The problem is, we don't...and we won't - at least not until Jesus returns and his Kingdom is set upon the earth.
The Cross represents God's solution. Sin is a World-wide infection. It is an epidemic that cannot be cured by our best strategies, or our best efforts. There is no political solution. No country can police away the evil. There is no pastor, no teacher, no counselor, no friend, or parent/spouse that can do what needs to be done.
Mark 8:31-38 (NLT)
31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.
32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.
33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.
35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.
36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
37 Is anything worth more than your soul?
38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
We cannot fall into the Peter trap...seeing things merely from a human point of view.
Instead we must hear the words of Jesus - "calling us like his disciples to turn from selfish ways, take up the cross, and follow him." It is in embracing redemption that evil is overcome. It is in embracing Jesus that our hope lies.
The cross is inevitable...but the choice is ours.
Peace
1 I look up to the mountains— does my help come from there?
2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth!
The days leading to Easter are filled with challenges. We don't live in a world of ease, but one filled with challenges to faithfulness, integrity, character, courage and strength. It's easy to get lost in the bad news and the sense of despair that surrounds that news. People do awful things...to others and to themselves.
Wouldn't it be nice to just get rid of the evil and live in a world without that pain?
The problem is, we don't...and we won't - at least not until Jesus returns and his Kingdom is set upon the earth.
The Cross represents God's solution. Sin is a World-wide infection. It is an epidemic that cannot be cured by our best strategies, or our best efforts. There is no political solution. No country can police away the evil. There is no pastor, no teacher, no counselor, no friend, or parent/spouse that can do what needs to be done.
Mark 8:31-38 (NLT)
31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.
32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.
33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.
35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.
36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
37 Is anything worth more than your soul?
38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
We cannot fall into the Peter trap...seeing things merely from a human point of view.
Instead we must hear the words of Jesus - "calling us like his disciples to turn from selfish ways, take up the cross, and follow him." It is in embracing redemption that evil is overcome. It is in embracing Jesus that our hope lies.
The cross is inevitable...but the choice is ours.
Peace
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