Posted by Posted in Bible, faith, Home, Living for God, the cross, words

Take Up Thy Cross… and Follow Me

The cross. What does it mean to you? Lets take a look at what the cross is for us today:

The Cross is Hope

The Cross is a symbol of the hope that we have in Jesus. For years the Jews waited and hoped for a Messiah. Jesus was the promise that they had hoped for. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned the only hope we could cling to was that someone would come deliver us from the slavery and bondage of sin. When Jesus died for our sins on the cross he fulfilled that hope and came to deliver us.

The Cross is Redemption

When we see a picture of the cross, we can see it as a picture of redemption. It holds the impossible truth and idea that someone higher than us would come and put down their perfect life for us. Not only did he redeem us, he brought us up with him and gave us the chance to be sons and heirs of him. (Galatians 4:4-7)

The Cross is Love

The Cross is also a symbol of love. Not only did Christ redeem us (see above), but he did it in love. (John 15:13) Why should he die for us? Because he loves us. These lyrics from David Crowder Band’s song “How He Loves” says it all.

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us, oh,
Oh, how He loves us,
How He loves us all

The Cross is Blood, Sweat and Tears

As Christians we do not just glory in the Cross, we take it up. We walk with it. (Matthew 10:38, Mark 8:34) We share the glory of it with others by bringing our cross to them. When you take up your cross and follow Jesus you lose your old self too. (“Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34b) Holding a cross is no easy thing as we see in Luke 23:26. When Jesus was being crucified and he was carrying his cross up the hill, Simon of Cyrene was forced to come help him! But as Christ-followers we follow Jesus everywhere, even up on to a cross. Following Christ is not always easy, but it is worth it.

The Cross is Beautiful

To the Romans, a picture of the cross was horrid. It symbolized the most horrific sort of death. They looked at it the way we look at pictures of torture machines, guillotines, gallows, etc. But why do Christians today have pictures of crosses in their houses, bumper stickers of crosses and t-shirts all proudly displaying a cross? Why do we not look at the cross the way we look at other torture machines in history? Because of one man who died on one. Because Jesus, God’s perfect holy son came down from heaven and forever made the cross a picture of hope and beauty.

The Cross Makes us Free

In Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan, Christian, a man fleeing the City of Destruction has a burden on his back. When he reaches the cross the burden (of sin) falls off. He is free of the burden which he has carried on his back for years. (Matthew 11:28) The promise of the cross can free us from all past sin and give us salvation in Christ.

Now how about some lyrics for a good end.. 😉

Hillsong United- Lead Me to the Cross

Savior I come
Quiet my soul remember
Redemption’s hill
Where Your blood was spilled
For my ransom
Everything I once held dear
I count it all as lost

[Chorus:]
Lead me to the cross
Where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees
Lord I lay me down
Rid me of myself
I belong to You
Lead me, lead me to the cross

Chris Tomlin- At the Cross

There’s a place where mercy reigns and never dies,
There’s a place where streams of grace flow deep and wide.
Where all the love I’ve ever found,
Comes like a flood,
Comes flowing down.

[Chorus:]
At the cross
At the cross
I surrender my life.
I’m in awe of You
I’m in awe of You
Where Your love ran red
and my sin washed white.
I owe all to You
I owe all to You Jesus.

There’s a place where sin and shame are powerless.
Where my heart has peace with God and forgiveness.
Where all the love I’ve ever found.
Comes like a flood,
Comes flowing down.

[Chorus]

Here my hope is found
Here on holy ground
Here I bow down
Here arms open wide
Here You save my life
Here I bow down
Here I bow down

O Lord, thank you for sending your son down to die on the lovely, beautiful cross that redeems, gives hope, freedom, blood, sweat and tears. Thank you for the cross!

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in 100 Hard Things Challenge, backyard adventures, Bible characteristics, challenges, character, do hard things, Family, Living for God, me, memorys, myth of adolescence, teens, teens doing big things, the rebelution

#17- Patience with William

So sorry I have not been writing! Our internet was down and then we had blog problems…

Anyway, my hard thing from Friday was just having patience with my little brother William. Now William is a great kid but when it is 11:00 at night and you have just returned from a fun but exhausting day at your friends house where you play games like hide and seek tag in the dark with flashlights and do things like army crawl through wet grass to try and make your way to base without being seen, while teamed up with 6 year old William who scraped his leg and is now moaning in pain, he can try your patience. No actually William did a great job being teamed up with me. We piggybacked through the woods, army crawled through the grass, all in pitch black darkness and he was a very brave trooper. (The things some sisters do with you..:) ) But on the 45 minute drive home at 11:00 at night… well…

The Lord gives me grace to have patience with my younger siblings. It can be hard, but hey isn’t that why it is on the do hard things list?

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in 100 Hard Things Challenge, 4H, challenges, do hard things, Home, Living for God, myth of adolescence, teens, teens doing big things, the rebelution

#16- Started Taking More Responsibility in 4H

So for all who don’t know, our family is active in 4H. We have been involved in 4H for about 5 years. Our family has participated in our club activities (of course), presentations, NC 4H Congress and other county activities. Recently I have started taking more responsibilities:

1. County Council

Our county has recently started doing a County Council. The County Council plans county activities and fundraisers and does things like that. I decided that this is something I would like to participate in. I went to the first meeting and got elected to the Secretary/Reporter office (there are actually only 3 of us on the County Council). We discussed ways to unite the different clubs and recruit new 4Hers.

2. Club President

This year, I ran for president of our club. This was kind of a bigger step for me because it will challenge me to stand up in front of people and lead the meetings. Not my favorite thing to do but thankfully after doing presentations I am a lot better at getting up and talking to people.

3. Planning Activities

I also wanted to help our 4H leader plan program ideas for this upcoming year. I came up with a couple different ideas that I sent her.

4. Operation Christmas Child

This one, I am very excited about. I am going to be presenting Operation Christmas Child to our club and making boxes etc. available for people to make their own shoeboxes. I hope to get at least 15 boxes from our club. I love Operation Christmas Child and what they do, so I am so excited to be able to promote this to my 4H club.

I am so excited to be able to take a couple bigger roles in 4H! And take some more responsibilities too! Lots of thanks to my 4H leader and 4H agent for helping me with all this!

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in 100 Hard Things Challenge, Bible, challenges, do hard things, faith, Family, Friendship, Home, Living for God, me, myth of adolescence, teens, teens doing big things, the rebelution

#15- Accepted a challenge for youth group

Sorry I haven’t written for a while! Life is busy :b Anyway for my hard thing….. Our next meeting, our youth group will be talking about gossip and sins of the mouth. My youth pastor sent out some verses to look over beforehand. I accepted the challenge to look them over. Over the past week I have been reading and then summarizing what I learned in each verse so I can think and ponder over the verses throughout the day. I am very grateful for having a youth group that challenges me, teaches me and guides me in the ways of God. In the past we have been challenged to read the whole New Testament and then later on read the whole Bible. (I am still working on that…I hope to finish in December which would mean that I did it in about a year 🙂 ) Thank you God for giving me such a great youth group!

Priscilla