(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

Life at times can turn with slow, monotonous grind,

Dreary, pallid days linger listlessly in your mind,

A dull and flat horizon turns into years that endlessly unwind,

The dreams that once enthralled you are somewhere left behind.

You wonder how you got here, on such an arid ‘scape,

When hope began to wane, your joy with it did take,

And somewhere in the grey, dim past your heart began to break,

And now you grapple desperate, for a way out, an escape.

Your future looms before you, an uninspiring plain,

When did you trade your mountains for this lonely, flat terrain?

You gaze about with sadness, regret - you sense its pain,

And then you hear HIS echo, “To trade death for Life I came!”

Remember the refrain of grace, by distraction, neglect - abused!

And do not turn your back on HIM, by your unbelief accused.

As faltering you reach out, with rusty faith, poor used,

Let HIM take your heart in HIS, in love and hope be fused.

HE will strip the mist away that grips you in its sway.

HE will blow the darkness, fill you with HIS light, a ray.

HE will take your dreams, and breathe in HIS hope this day,

If you but yield your heartsong and trust HIS will to have its way!

thought for the journey …

Perhaps you find yourself in a place you never dreamt possible - a place of hollow hopelessness and grinding boredom? Did your heart once drum with excitement, expectation - and hope? Do you find yourself disturbed, confused and dismayed at the empty and arid condition of your heart? Did faith in GOD once burn brightly within, was there a time you loved to draw aside and simply spend time alone with JESUS, did HIS word once inspire and ignite your heart? Has passion and love been slowly replaced by cool indifference?

How did this happen to you, what went wrong? How do you get back? Are you afraid of your own entrenched cynicysim? Can you ever ‘return’?

Jeremiah 3:22a “Return you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings!”

Hosea 10:12 “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek The LORD, till HE comes and rains righteousness on you!”

 Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek The LORD while HE may be found, call upon HIM while HE is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to The LORD, and HE will have mercy on him; and to our GOD, for HE will abundantly pardon.”

It’s not complicated - it takes a simple act of your will, a determination to ‘return’, to ‘repent’ - to come home; HE awaits you more eagerly than you could ever dare to imagine - for to HIS heart you have ever been most dear!

HIS call to you echoes HIS call to the Corinthian church, and to the lukewarm Laodiceans - ”Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2a). Don’t delay even a heartbeat longer, return to HIM in all your wretched need - Now! 

 Revelation 3:19-20 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears MY voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with ME.” Can you not hear HIS voice calling you? For it is HE who is reaching out to you, calling you to return home to HIM!

(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

I am lavished with love from Beloved GOD Most High

It is HIS voice I hear and cherish more than life, deep inside

I am wrapped in HIS mercy, encircled by grace

It is HIS heart that woos me and sets me longing for HIS face

That YOU set YOUR wondrous heart upon me

Is a miracle only YOU could conceive

That into this life YOU formed from dust

Awesome GOD, YOUR heart do YOU entrust!

YOU are infinitely more precious than the rarest stone

YOU mean more to me than life, YOU who would make me YOUR own

I cannot contain YOUR great love in my frame

For from me it bursts, declaring YOUR matchless Name

A fire within me burns for HIM and it will rage eternally

HE is to me my greatest desire, I ache evermore for HIS company

Such deep joy and contentment in HIS Presence I do discover

That I’m left yearning for more of this GOD, my soul’s Lover

To dive deep in YOUR heart and stay there forever

Is my dearest longing, for to leave YOU I could never

YOU are my SAVIOR, the One above all I truly treasure

There does not exist another of YOUR exquisite measure

HE is Love, HE is Life, HE is Truth, HE is Peace

How passionately I adore Him Who from my chains released

Every day I rise hungering for HIS Glorious return

I search the horizon to glimpse HIM for Whom I yearn

My most cherished Beloved help me here to abide

Serving YOU faithfully in devotion by YOUR side

For each day’s a gift, to YOU to draw nearer

And to proclaim loud YOUR praises to every lost hearer!

thought for the journey …

What a high and holy calling we have in our Redeemer - Jesus. We are called to be in this world but not of it, we are called out to be separated, set apart to HIM and for HIM; we are called aliens, pilgrims, sojourners … and we are lavished with HIS love …

As ‘HE has poured HIS love into our hearts by HIS HOLY SPIRIT’ (Romans 5:5) so let us pour out HIS love upon those whose lives ours touch - unstintingly, abundantly; for like our infinite GOD, so is HIS love without end, without measure!

We are the most blessed of people, for we have been called out of darkness and into light - and we are called to take this good news of the gospel, this message of forgiveness of sin, of hope, redemption and salvation to a lost, dying and depraved world …

Isaiah 60:1-3 “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of The LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but The LORD will arise over you, and HIS glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

This is JESUS - The LIGHT of the world, The GLORY of GOD -  “…..which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27c). So let us abide in HIS Presence, and let us shine ever more brightly in this increasingly dark world!  We need not fear the encroaching darkness, for the darker it becomes the fiercer we will shine HIS Light, HIS Love, HIS Grace, and HIS Hope - and those drowning in the despair of darkness will see CHRIST in us and be drawn to HIM Alone, The SAVIOR of the world! 

(C) Cheryl Howard 2009

YOU fill me with such an aching longing

Such breathtaking beauty to YOUR heart belonging

All about me are echoes of YOUR wondrous SELF

I glimpse them in creation; so powerfully felt

Oh how blind and foolish we can be

Stubborn, deluded, lost humanity

Created for YOU – cut off, cold and dead are we

In YOUR arms alone do our hearts breathe

I once held back in misunderstanding and pride

Not knowing how safe I would be by YOUR side

I looked at YOU with fear, shame and dread

Denying my sin to YOU who offers forgiveness instead

Oh how inordinately glad am I for YOUR grace

That refused to leave me in that bleak, lifeless place

YOUR Light my KING blazed through my dark

Rescued me on the Cross of CHRIST my ARK

As Enoch walked with YOU my LORD, til YOU took him home

So I yearn to follow YOU my JESUS – to truly be YOUR own

No other crowned in my heart but YOU

My life a sacrifice of praise, raised to YOU in all I do!

thought for the journey ….

John 8:12 “Then JESUS spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am The Light of the world. He who follows ME shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’”

Don’t know where you’re  going? Don’t know what the future holds? Uncertain? Fearful? Anxious? ….. Follow The SAVIOR, take HIS outstretched hand; HE is LIGHT and HIS Presence will illuminate the path so you can see where you’re headed - keep your eyes fixed firmly upon HIM and no darkness will close you in, suffocate you and cause you to slip from the path.

John 6:37,44-45,65 “‘All that The FATHER gives ME will come to ME, and the one who comes to ME I will by no means cast out.’ … ‘No one can come to ME unless The FATHER who sent ME draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by GOD.” Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from The FATHER comes to ME.’ … And HE said, ‘Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to ME unless it has been granted to him by MY FATHER.’”

What a Gift has been offered to us - called by The Heavenly FATHER to HIS SON, our Rescuer and Redeemer; do not ever regard the value of this greatest of all Gifts lightly, and if you are yet pondering whether to embrace this Gift of Eternal Life, if you feel HIS tug upon your very life - do not be so unwise as to spurn it. For it is GOD who initiates salvation - it was always HIS idea, HE bore the cost of it, and HE calls you, inviting you to receive it though we most certainly do not deserve it - it is not we who seek HIM, but HE who seeks us; so hear and learn from HIM. HE offers us the Greatest Treasure we will ever have - HIMSELF and eternity with HIM who is Light, Love, Peace, Joy, Hope, Grace, Purity, Holiness and Truth …!

(C) Cheryl Howard 2009

YAWEH Alone is GOD Most High; Holy, Righteous ONE

The ONE True GOD does rescue us, through the Cross of HIS SON.

All about imposters strut, proclaiming loud their lies

Do not embrace the devourer’s ‘truth’, for if you do you’ll die.

For GOD will not be reduced to our size, HIS image we can’t change

With our humanistic reasoning, we think this odd and strange.

In the marketplace of ideas and idols we are quick to reject the truth

Offended by HIS rightful claim, we serve ‘self’, elevating experience as ‘proof’.

It is not the lot of man to define the truth, for it is absolute

And should we dare to claim it’s ours, then we are foolish, duped.

Only a sinless, Holy GOD Who exists outside of time

Can give to us eternal truth on which to build our lives.

Tis an ancient lie that whispers sweet, ’You can be as GOD’

Seductive is its endless refrain, its way have many trod.

Destructive is its widening path, that leads to hell’s broad gate

Its appetite to worship self, though cloaked in ‘piety’ you’ll never satiate.

For we are not our deity, we have no god within

All of us share common ground, crippled by our sin.

Only ONE could rightly claim to be Truth and Life – The Way

HE Who took our judgment place offers love and forgiveness each day.

We can not achieve our ‘godhood’ – we’re indebted to HIS grace

And to HIS heart our own must yield – if we would see HIS face.

In humbleness and penitence to CHRIST alone we may come

Then SPIRIT of GOD in us will breathe Life and make of us HIS home.

Through the Cross of Calvary, the shed blood of HIS SON

Incarnate GOD, The WORD made flesh, bids lost sinners to HIM run.

Such manifest and manifold mercy displayed for you and me,

If we would surrender our lives to HIM, then HIS Life in us would be!

thought for the journey …

The Divine Exchange … HE took our place!

Our defeat         - HIS victory

Our sin               - HIS righteousness

Our judgment    - HIS forgiveness

Our punishment - HIS mercy

Our separation  - HIS reconciliation

Our lostness     - HIS rescue! The Cross!

HE bore our sin, our sickness, our judgment and punishment, HE was cut off in our stead - and HE secured for us forgiveness, healing, mercy, reconciliation and righteousness. In a word the ‘Cross’, HIS startling rescue of lost sinners, was Grace! Unearned and undeserved - yet lavished upon us by a Loving, Holy GOD!

John 6:44 “No one can come to ME unless The FATHER who sent ME draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

1Peter 3:18 “For CHRIST also suffered once for sins, the Just for the unjust, that HE might bring us to GOD, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by The SPIRIT.” Truly we have cause to celebrate, to shout to a lost, deceived ’self’ worshipping world that there is One True GOD - and HE loves them and is willing that not one should perish - to urge them to hear HIS voice calling them “Behold now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2b), to urge them to yield their very heart and soul to HIM - to say ‘Yes LORD!’

Psalm 105:1-4 “Oh give thanks to The LORD! Call upon HIS Name; make known HIS deeds among the peoples! Sing to HIM, sing psalms to HIM; talk of all HIS wondrous works! Glory in HIS Holy Name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek The LORD! Seek The LORD and HIS strength; seek HIS face evermore!”

(C) Cheryl Howard 2009

I love that YOU share YOUR secret thoughts with me

I adore YOUR precious heart that YOU reveal, indescribably

Oh I’m enamoured with the sound of YOUR incomparable voice

Every word that YOU do utter, so exquisitely choice

I can hardly wait each day for the time we spend apart

When I’m so blessed to draw aside with YOU and glimpse YOUR heart

Indescribable are YOU, so full of wonder that I soar

In my heart do YOU inspire such devotion and such awe

BELOVED, that is YOUR Name I cherish and hold most near

For YOU are to me The ONE above all others held most dear

YOU are Holy, full of Truth and fierce compassion

And in me YOUR loving image YOU would fashion

YOU are unrivalled in YOUR power and YOUR beauty

To be in YOUR wondrous Presence is only joy – not ever duty

I have barely scratched the surface of Who YOU are

And I’m dizzy with desire to discover more of YOU by far

O my Glorious and unequalled mighty SAVIOR and my LORD

YOU in all creation, Alone, deserve to be worshipped and adored

The privilege of serving YOU, unparalleled, is mine

For only YOU are GOD Most High, YaWeH, KING DIVINE!

thought for the journey …

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

We are commanded to a higher love - not just ‘love your neighbor as you love yourself’, but to love each other as CHRIST has (and does) love us! HE raised the bar to unattainable heights for mere man!

Does that thought make you shrink inside with the knowledge of your inadequacy? Does it fill you with a sense of impossibility? To love your neighbor (whoever that may be) with the same love that JESUS loves you!

Well the truth is, it is impossible!

For us that is!

But not for our GOD!

The key is “HIS love” - not ours, but HIS. We don’t possess this love in and of ourselves, but CHRIST in us - our Hope of glory - does! It is not a command to love with our flawed, selfish love, but to love in and with HIS Perfect love!

Romans 5:5 tells us that ‘hope does not disappoint because the love of GOD has been poured out in our hearts by The HOLY SPIRIT Who was given to us!’ The words ‘poured out’ come from the Greek word ‘ekcheo’ and means to gush out, to run greedily, to be shed abroad and spill - in other words GOD does not give HIS love to us in a neat, tidy little measured dose; HE literally pours it into us so that it overflows!

GOD indwells us by HIS SPIRIT - JESUS told HIS followers that it was to their benefit that HE returned to The FATHER, because if HE didn’t then HE couldn’t send HIS SPIRIT to be with us and in us!  HE pours HIS love, the love of Great GOD Almighty, into our hearts - a love out of which we are commanded to love others. It is not about our striving and working to attain to this love, it is about our yielding, humbling ourselves, depending upon HIM and allowing HIS love to bubble and course through us - for HE is The Source of Agape Love, it is HIS love!

Hebrews 4:9-10 talks about there remaining a rest for the people of GOD, it says “For he who has entered HIS rest has himself also ceased from his works as GOD did from HIS.” We are to rest in GOD, to keep our focus, our hearts, set upon HIM and HIS work of grace within our lives - to yield to HIM in every way, to take up our cross as we die to self (to self will and self rule), and to abandon ourselves in joyful obedience to HIS will and purpose. Let HIM fill us with HIS perfect love so that we can let it flow through our lives and saturate all those we come in contact with!

(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

“Then they cried out in danger, they shrieked in anguish and they called to The LORD from their tight, narrow place, in their affliction and tribulation, in their sorrow, trouble and distress; as their adversary, their enemy, their opponents and foes crowded them out - and The LORD saved them! HE rescued and delivered them from their narrowness, preserving and defending them; HE helped and avenged them, making them safe – wide, open and free! HE, their SAVIOR, succored them and brought them victory in the midst of their trouble, anguish and distress!

The LORD loosed and stretched forth, HE sowed and appointed, spread out and sent HIS Word – HIS counsel and decree, HIS commandment and answer. HE communicated HIS cause; HE spoke and HE healed them, stitching them up and mending them! HE repaired and cured them, thoroughly restoring them and making them whole! HE delivered them; HE brought them forth, making for them a smooth and slippery way of escape so that none could catch them. The LORD released and rescued them; HE preserved them, causing them to slip speedily away to safety as HE saved them from their destructions, from their pit-falls, from their pit!

O that mankind would laud and praise The LORD; that they would revere and worship HIM with outstretched hands, that they would be thankful and hold out their hands and give thanks to The LORD for HIS kindness, mercy, favor and pity. For HIS steadfast love, HIS grace, strength and goodness, for HIS loving-kindness, HIS faithfulness and HIS devotion to us!

And for the wonderful works, the extraordinary miracles – beyond  the power of anyone else to do; for HIS marvelous, difficult, great and wonderful acts that HE performs for the children of men. Miracles and accomplishments that separate and distinguish All-Powerful GOD from humanity!!!

thought for the journey …

What a truly AWESOME GOD we serve! What honor, what privilege, what blessing to be called by HIS Holy Name - we are HIS! Loved, cherished, protected, defended, cared for, led by the hand …. nourished, nurtured, strengthened, empowered …

Hebrews 13:6 “So we may boldly say: ‘The LORD is my Helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’”

This is our confidence in the face of every challenge, every trial, every difficulty, every obstacle and opposition - that in CHRIST JESUS, GOD is our Refuge, and HE is more than a match for whatever giants may be staring us down! We need a smaller view of our ‘enemy’ and a bigger view of the Greatness, the Power and the Victory that belongs to our LORD - that is our GOD!  ALL Powerful, ALL Knowing, ALL Present - HE is with us, and HIS voice is even now crying out to us, commanding us - ‘Fear not, for I am with you!’

Romans 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If GOD is for us, who can be against us?”

(C) Cheryl Howard 2009

The filth, the stain, the stench of sin

It clings to man, foul rot within.

Held captive in our minds and hearts

By its grip on us, from our life’s start.

We cannot shift it from our lives

Though we struggle and fight, against it strive.

In a prison bound by self and pride

Our anarchy and rebellion keeps us trapped inside.

Into this pit came Incarnate GOD

HIS brilliant Light piercing through our fog.

The Blood of CHRIST dying on a Cross

Alone can cleanse, bring pure gold from our dross.

HE turns our lives utterly inside out

As we lay down our ‘self’ and of HIS glory shout.

Our crosses gladly shouldered each day

Following HIM with single will – to honour and obey.

HE will return for a spotless, glorious bride

One who’s loved HIM in purity and walked by HIS side.

A people of power who’ve shown HIS love to the needy

Seen HIM free bound captives, spurned all that is greedy

The call of The CHRIST, the cost of the Cross

In the power of HIS SPIRIT, reconciling the lost.

Proclaiming in reverence HIS Holy Word – HE is Incarnate GOD!

Fearless and uncompromising, as in HIS footsteps we have trod!

thought for the journey …

John 12:25-26 “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves ME, let him follow ME; and where I am, there MY servant will be also. If anyone serves ME, him MY FATHER will honor.”

The ‘Call of The Cross’ - what a challenge it is, the laying down of our lives, of our will and ambitions; and the taking up of HIS desires, HIS purposes - of HIS heart! The overflowing gratitude for a life rescued, redeemed and reborn!

1 Peter 1:17-19 “And if you call on The FATHER, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the Precious Blood of CHRIST, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.”

How sobering and liberating is the knowledge that HE Alone is the One to whom we will give an account - HE Alone is the One we should be living to please. For HE Alone is the One who redeemed our lost lives, who ‘brought’ us back from the brink of hell and who ‘bought’ us back with HIS own Precious Blood - at the cost of HIS very own Life!

We have sooo much to live for in HIM, The Cross should be at the center of our lives - The Risen CHRIST of The Cross!

Let us rejoice and give HIM all the glory - for HIS Cross; for HIS calling of us and for HIS saving grace, for a new life in HIM! We have such a future, such a hope - let us not keep it to ourselves, but let our hearts burn with HIS heart for all humanity;let it overflow our lives and our lips, proclaiming loud The Good News in CHRIST JESUS!

Let us bear those precious souls GOD has intersected our lives with in prayer, knowing “HE is willing that NONE should perish”, and intercede on their behalf - that CHRIST, by HIS SPIRIT, will invade their lives, and that The FATHER will draw them to HIS SON - to the Cross of HIS SON!

John 6:44 “No one can come to ME, unless The FATHER who sent ME draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 12:32-33 “‘And I, if I am lifted up from the earth will draw all peoples to MYSELF!’ This HE said, signifying by what death HE would die.”

(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

Shine the light of YOUR Cross on the depths of our sin,

Rip open the foul chains that hold us bound and enslaved within.

All that YOU suffered unbearably on those crude wooden beams,

Let the truth haul us unrelenting to YOUR healing streams.

Most awful of deaths YOU willingly embraced for mankind,

Bearing our fetid sins, so grace every lost soul could find.

YOU died chained in our stead so that we could be free,

What fathomless love YOUR heart bears humanity.

To the Cross were YOU condemned, alone in darkness YOU died,

Neither death nor sin could hold YOU, HOLY GOD we crucified.

With a roar of victory that echoes through all time,

YOU arose imputing righteousness to all to YOU, YOU bind.

Now the Cross stands testament in time, to the wisdom and power of GOD,

Mighty risen SON of GOD Who crushed our enemy, as on his head YOU trod.

Death no more holds captive sin-ravaged, fallen sons of men,

The Cross secured our safety, if on CHRIST’s Atonement we will depend.

If in HIS innocent shed blood, our very selves we will trust,

Then our ruined, guilty lives HE will pronounce pure and just.

The power of HIS Cross, the power of HIS Blood,

ALMIGHTY GOD for us did die, to wrap us ever in HIS love!

thought for the journey …

Acts 17:30 “Truly these times of ignorance GOD overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because HE has appointed a day on which HE will judge the world in righteousness by The MAN whom HE has ordained. HE has given assurance on this to all by raising HIM from the dead.”

Acts 2:38 “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the Presence of the LORD”

GOD commands us all to repent - not pleads, HE commands!

HE is “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” - 2 Peter 3:19; and it is HIS goodness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). 

This is HIS will - but we choose: Death or Life.

One day we will each stand before a HOLY and RIGHTEOUS GOD, and our lives will be measured against the standard of HIS law - an impossible standard for sinful humans to attain; we have all broken at least one of the ten commandments, and nothing less than perfection will suffice! For anything less would be for ALMIGHTY GOD to condone our lawlessnes, to wink at our sin - in a sense to aid and abet us in our breaking of HIS Holy and Righteous standards. “… Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20.

The law will measure us and we will be found wanting. The verdict will be passed - Guilty; and Judgment will be meted out, Justice served - eternal death and separation; Hell!

We are all doomed and there is naught that  we can do about it, we are in desperate need of rescuing - only the mercy of a Loving GOD can save us, we need ‘imputed righteousness’.Only those whose names are written in The LAMB’s Book of Life will escape this deserved penalty of sin, pride and rebellion against our CREATOR. Only CHRIST upon The Cross, only HIS Blood that was shed in our stead will suffice. HE fulfilled the righteous requirement of the Law on our behalf - “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17. 

HE took our Judgment, served our sentence, died in our place and rose again to offer us HIS Eternal Life, HIS Pardon - and by faith we receive HIS merciful forgiveness and grace, so undeserved yet so lavishly offered. HIS breathtaking rescue and redemption. In HIM we become the Righteousness of GOD because HE who knew NO sin became sin for us! (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Now that is Grace!

How could we offer HIM anything less than a fully yielded, lovingly obedient and eternally thankful life?

(C) Cheryl Howard 2008

Vulnerable HE hung on a cross on a cursed hill,

Battered and bruised and bearing all our ills.

A sight too achingly common, yet unspeakably rare,

Unrecognized, DEITY, for all humanity hung there.

Shame inexplicable, degradation beyond compare,

The single motive – Love, for lost sinners did HE bear.

To the ends of creation HE willingly did go,

To give us life in HIS death – HIMSELF did HE sow.

A rescue unparalleled, breathtaking and ambitious,

Only GOD could conceive, so costly and audacious.

HIS own life did surrender, yielded up for all,

Hear HIS longing resonate, crying, “Respond to MY call!”

You were there in HIS heart, HIS yearning, HIS thoughts,

It was in spilling HIS blood your salvation HE bought.

To HIM you were worth every agony HE had to endure,

And you’re yet in HIS heart - let HIM your rescue secure!

thought for the journey …

1 Corinthians 2:2 “For I determined not to know anything among you, except JESUS CHRIST and HIM crucified!”

The Cross of Calvary - how familiar many of us are with this object of suffering, sacrifice, substitution and death; and how often we’ve heard its message of resurrection Life and of victory!

Yet …. how well do we really know The Cross? Is it reality in our lives, do we live daily under its shadow, do we grasp its reach of grace, do we fathom its bloody price? Do you see The Cross as a “symbol” or do you know it in its power? The power of GOD ALMIGHTY to justify us, to conquer, atone and defeat our sin! Do you recognise and truly know THE CHRIST Who hung upon its crude beams, giving up HIS sinless Life in substitute for ours - so hating our sin, yet so loving us lost sinners that HE was willing to take our judgment and punishment?

How intimate are we with the power of HIS resurrection life coursing through our veins? Have we “died” with HIM, and are we now “living” in HIM?

We are called to a life that echoes the truth of Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with CHRIST; it is no longer I who live, but CHRIST lives in me …..”

1 Corinthians 1:23-24 “but we preach CHRIST crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block (offense) and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, CHRIST the power of GOD and the wisdom of GOD!”

Romans 5:6-10 “For when we were still without strength, in due time CHRIST died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But GOD demonstrates HIS own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, CHRIST died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by HIS blood, we shall be saved from wrath through HIM. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to GOD through the death of HIS SON, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by HIS life!”

1 Corinthians 15:16-17 “For if the dead do not rise, then CHRIST is not risen. And if CHRIST is not risen then your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!”

Hallelujah we belong to, and serve, a Risen CHRIST - HE conquered sin and death - so let’s live in that “blood washed” and “blood bought” knowledge!