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, 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

Posted by Posted in 100 Hard Things Challenge, backyard adventures, Bible, challenges, do hard things, faith, Home, I was thinking..., Living for God, me, memorys, myth of adolescence, teens, teens doing big things, the rebelution

#14- Hard Things of the Heart

Hard things can be actions you do, decisions you make, initiative you take or they can be hard heart things. Hard heart things is looking at your heart, going ‘no that is not right’ then changing. I had one of those hard heart moments recently. It was about contentment. I have always loved farming, the outdoors and gardening. Sometimes I wish that I could live on a farm out in the middle of nowhere, instead of on a 1/2 acre in a small town. That is not good. That is not being content. Discontentment can easily be turned into jealousy. So this weekend I looked at my heart and changed my attitude. Instead of looking at what I didn’t have I looked at what I did have. I have a 1/2 acre to live on in a small, small town neighborhood! That is much more than some people who have tiny little backyards in developments. I am a part of 4H and have many opportunities to participate with those in the agricultural community. I have good friends who live on lots of acreage and I have plenty of memories of romping in the woods, fishing, feeding their goats and chickens, helping in their big garden and more! I have lots of opportunity to farm on 1/2 an acre. We already have a pretty nice garden and we are going to get chickens soon. I am looking into starting a mini farm which is basically using your space wisely and harvesting much more in your garden, to the point of selling fruits and vegetables to others and making a profit off of it. I have so much! And I was discontent?!? God has been working a lot in my heart recently on this matter. This is where God has me now, why not make the most of it?

Priscilla

“Keep your life free from love of money and be content with whatever you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear, what can man do to me?”

Hebrews 13:5-6

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

#13- Started Taking Sermon Notes

For the longest time I didn’t take notes. It was too much of a hassle getting a notebook and a pen that actually worked! Much easier to just sit and listen and take home a phrase that stuck out to me. No. That’s not good. How about actually writing the information down and reviewing it later in the week. Taking notes, a rather simple thing can be quite helpful in your Christian walk. It helps you glean from others wisdom and be able to take home their wisdom and live it out in your daily life. Sermon notes are not just for old people or little children who are bored, so they color in the service. When we were young, our parents would have us sit in the service with them and also draw a picture about what we were hearing. If the sermon was on Abraham then we would draw a picture of Abraham. When we are older we can start taking notes about what we were learning. My hard thing was starting back up on this habit of taking notes in Sunday service. Oh how much we can learn by doing simple things like this!

Priscilla

“Hear, my son, your father’s instruction and forsake not your mother’s teachings, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.”

Proverbs 1:8-9

Posted by Posted in 100 Hard Things Challenge, Bible, Bible attributes, Bible characteristics, challenges, do hard things, faith, Family, Home, I was thinking..., Living for God, me, myth of adolescence, teens, teens doing big things, the rebelution, time

#10-Talked to my Dad about our family/social media balance

We got an ipad last summer mainly for Jace’s schooling. Now, we really do not have a ton of other electronics, only an ancient computer, the phones and the ipad. However, the ipad has slowly over the past months taken away from our family time. Social media can be dangerous like that. My sister and I noticed that the ipad was starting to control our evenings in some respect. We decided to talk to our dad and maybe start turning the ipad off in the evenings and using that time for something else. We talked to him and we are going to start using our evenings to have a family Bible time. Social media is something that can steal things more precious than facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. It steals your time. Time that can be spent to deepen your relationships with both people and God. People with phones need to stop using so much time looking down at their screen and look up, toward God. I think that sometimes we need to go back to the good old days where entertainment is self made and not on a screen. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that social media can be a tool. With tools like computers we can do lots of great things, it helps make writing books, staying in touch with people and communicating thoughts and ideas so much easier than handwriting long books, sending letters and telegrams that take forever to get to their destinations and getting groups of people together to hear your ideas. I believe that modern day technology is a tool, not a toy. Time can easily be lost when you are on social media. Lets not waste our time. Let us be good stewards of what God has given us.

Priscilla

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”