The Crushing Of Our Lord

This past week I have been reading and meditating on the suffering of our Lord Jesus.  We usually focus our attention on the suffering of the Cross, but this week my reading has lead me to Gethsemane.  Gethsemane means "The Olive Press."  In that garden there were obviously olive trees, and in the midst of the garden was an olive press.  The press was used to crush the olives under pressure to extract the oil.  In the Isaiah 53 are these haunting words;

“But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,...” 

Isaiah 53:10, NASB

The Father was "pleased, took pleasure in, delighted" to crush His Son for you and me.  This is a verse which brings me to my knees in worship and wonder.  Who am I, who are any of us that God would take pleasure in crushing His precious Son for such as us?  We are so undeserving, but that is the nature and wonder of God's love and grace.  He was pleased to crush His Son for us. That crushing began in earnest at "The Olive Press", Gethsemane.

Read the differing accounts in the Gospels.  In both Matthew and Mark it says that our Lord expressed the agony of this crushing to His disciples.

“Then He *said to them, 'My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.'” 

Matthew 26:38, NASB

It seems by the accounts that indeed our Lord so crushed in His spirit by what He knew He was going to face, and indeed as we can see already was experiencing that He was suffering deeply, as He said, to the point of death.  That seems to be why the heavenly Father provided help in that time as reported by Luke.

“Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.” 

Luke 22:43, NASB

It was after this that Luke the physician reports that the agony of our Lord was so great that;

“And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.” 

Luke 22:44, NASB

Why was this time so agonizing?  What was so crushing?  Focusing on our Lord's physical agony can cause us to miss His spiritual agony.  Here at the "Olive Press" our Lord was already experiencing being cut off from the Father.  Three times He prayed asking that the cup might pass from Him if possible.  Three times He prayed, "...yet not My will, but Yours be done."  In that fervent time of prayer there is no indication that He received an answer.  This was something He had not experienced from all eternity.  Our Lord was beginning to experience the aloneness that sin brings; separation from God, also known as Hell.  This was the precursor to the cry from the Cross of "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46)  He was beginning to drink the cup of God's wrath upon sin.

Here our Lord began to suffer separation from the Father that you and I might be reconciled.  He was alone that you and I might never be alone.  He was crushed that you and I might be saved.  He began draining the cup of God's wrath to the very last drop for you and me.  In doing so He pleased His Father, who was pleased to crush Him for you and me.

 To See The King Of Heaven Fall (Gethsemane Hymn)

What took Him to this wretched place,
What kept Him on this road?
His love for Adams curséd race,
For every broken soul.
No sin too slight to overlook,
No crime too great to carry,
All mingled in this poisoned cup
And yet He drank it all,
The Savior drank it all,
The Savior drank it all.

All I can do is fall to my knees and declare, "Hallelujah! What a Savior!"

"The Surrendered Life" (Part 1)

    This post and the two that will follow are an adaptation of the message which I preached to my congregational flock on Sunday, March 16, 2014. It spoke to my heart as I read the Scripture, meditated on the Scripture, studied, and shared it that Sunday morning. I feel led to share that simple, yet transformational message through this blog with the prayer that the Lord will bless my feeble attempt to proclaim His glorious Word.

    The book of Romans stands as the great doctrinal book of the New Testament. In other words it, more than any other book in the New Testament, teaches us exactly what God has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. It exclaims the love of God and literally shouts of God’s matchless, immeasurable grace. It gives you and me, and every child of God, everything for which we ought to love, serve, and live, every day for the glory of God. For as the Apostle Paul declares,

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” 

Romans 11:36, NASB

    But here is the sad truth in the lives of too many Christians. It is possible to be saved, yet not surrendered. Some of you that read this today live that life; saved, yet not surrendered. The truth of the matter we all live that far too much in our lives. Why do I say that? For there is no such thing as partial surrender. To be partially surrendered is to be, for lack of a better term, un-surrendered. You will never experience the fullness of God’s joy, presence, and power, if you live a life that is not surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 12:1-2 the Apostle Paul turns from belief to behavior, and focuses on  the believer’s surrender to the will of God. The Scriptural truth that the Church needs to discover is that the only way to experience the powerful life of the Lord in you, and to be able to live your life for the Lord and His glory, is to surrender to Him.

    “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 
    And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

Romans 12:1, 2, NASB

    “How does one surrender their lives to the Lordship of Christ?” The Surrendered Life involves, as described in these verses;

    First, The Surrender Of The Body.

    “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” 

Romans 12:1, NASB

    The Christian should be moved to surrender to the Lord and His will because of God’s love. They are to give themselves to God completely. Their motivation is to be the mercies of God.

    The verse says that the Christian is to give their bodies to the Lord as a “living and holy sacrifice.” That is described here as;

    - An Unbridled Sacrifice

    This surrender is something the Christian does, not because God demands it, or expects it, but because they are so moved by the “mercies of God”; His grace. A grace which loved them before the foundation of the world, a grace that sent His only Son to die on the cross for their sins, a grace which has provided a salvation for them which they could not provide for themselves. Paul has exclaimed all this in the previous eleven chapters of Romans. It is both the proper and practical thing for the Christian to do. For they owe everything to God and His wonderful grace in Christ. But it also to be;

    - An Unblemished Sacrifice

    This is a sacrifice which is in contrast to the OT sacrifices. For in those sacrifices the animal was first slain. But this is to be a “living” sacrifice. It referring to the whole burnt offering in which the entire animal was sacrificed to God. We Christians must give ourselves completely and totally to God. In essence that is the meaning of surrender. It is to hold nothing back and lay it all down. It is also to be a “holy” sacrifice. What makes this possible? What God has done for you and me in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

    “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 

2 Corinthians 5:21, NASB

    We are clothed in Christ’s righteousness and holiness. We are set apart to live for His glory. We are His and we are to present ourselves to Him that we might live for the glory of Him who gave His all for our salvation. We are to surrender ourselves to Him as an unbridled sacrifice, an unblemished sacrifice, and as;

    - An Unbiased Sacrifice

    It is our “reasonable” or “logical” service or reason to worship. This is what the word which is translated "spiritual" means. We are to surrender ourselves as a sacrifice not because we have coerced into it, but because it is what is reasonable or logical, based upon the grace of God.

    Christ gave His all for us on the Cross, and in return we owe Him everything, and does it not it seem the most reasonable, logical thing for us to give our bodies to the one to whom we owe everything?

    Have you surrendered your body to Christ as a living and holy sacrifice? Lay it all down today and withhold nothing from Him. You need to know that it means to “present once and all.” It is to lay your life down on the altar and to not take it up again. You are to be the Lord’s to do with as He wills. Surrender your body to Jesus today.

    Lord, we owe everything to You. Where would we be without Your grace? Today, we surrender our bodies to You and present them as unbridled, unblemished, unbiased sacrifices. Use us for Your glory this day. We pray in Jesus' matchless and wonderful name. Amen.

The Devotional Life - Part 1

There is one thing that is imperative if you are desiring to live and experience the Cross Life.  You must have a devotional life.  It is impossible to follow the Lord Jesus daily, if you don't spend time with Him daily.  The devotional life of too many believers is anemic, if not actually dead.  From the time we are young believers we are taught the importance of a "quiet time" with God.  But in a very noisy and, as I wrote about a few weeks ago, distracting world, it sometimes seems next to impossible to have a quiet time with God.  But beginning today, and for a few weeks, I would like to try to share some things that will hopefully help anyone reading this blog have a more productive and consistent devotional life.

First, a consistent and fruitful devotional life will require a commitment.  It will not happen unless you make it happen.  That means your daily time with the Lord must take priority over other things in your life.  Again, it is so easy for us, and I speak from personal experience, to be distracted by the world and neglect our time with God.  We have good intentions, but find ourselves easily drawn away from the Lord by other demands.  What can you do?  Surrender it to the Lord and ask Him to enable you by His power to begin to be consistent in your time with Him.  Your devotional life needs to grow out of a desire you have for a closer walk with the Lord.  Don't make it into something you "have" to do, but it needs to be something that you "want" to do.  If time with the Lord is seen as a duty or an burden, then you will never become consistent and will gain nothing from it.  But when it is a joy and a blessing, it will become something that you look forward to daily.  That is where we want to be.

In the coming weeks I want to delve into the devotional life further.  To do so I will be referring to a small booklet on prayer which impacted my devotional life powerfully a number of years ago.  It is available as a free download from the Chapel Library of Mt. Zion Bible Church.  It is entitled "The Hidden Life of Prayer", and deals specifically with the prayer aspect of the devotional life.  Following are two links you can use to download it.  The second link is for the Spanish version.

http://www.chapellibrary.org/files/archive/pdf-english/hlop.pdf

http://www.chapellibrary.org/files/archive/pdf-english/hlops.pdf

Begin reading this little booklet and we will use it as a resource to guide us as we learn more about a devotional life in the weeks ahead.  I pray the Lord will bless it to your hearts and use it in your lives to draw you closer to Lord that you may begin to experience and walk in the Cross Life.

The Distracted Life

     Our world is constantly seeking to seduce us away from the Lord.  If we can be lured away from full surrender to our Lord then the world wins.  If you and I are simply distracted from the things of God by the things of the world we will be like "salt that has lost its savor", salt which has been rendered useless for its intended purpose by becoming contaminated by impurities.


     “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” 

Matthew 5:13, NASB

     What are you distracted by?  Many times good things distract us from the best things.  For me one of the greatest distractions is technology.  I love computers of all kinds; desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.  I also love the convenience of having a smartphone and the world, literally, at your fingertips.  But for me the danger is that I am allowing technology, which is a good thing, to distract me in my relationship and fellowship with the Lord, which is the best thing.  Watch the following clip from John Piper.

     Think about your life this week.  How much time do you spend daily with technology; FaceBook, Twitter, texting, etc.?  Compare it to how much time do you spend daily with the Lord; Scripture reading, Scripture study, Scripture meditation, prayer, etc.?  Then ask yourself, "Am I living a distracted life or a surrendered life?"


     “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 
     For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. 
     For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?” 

Luke 9:23-25, NASB

The Life Of The Cross

I set this blog up many months ago, but have never written an entry till today.  At the time the title of the blog was "Fruit From The Vine", referring to the passage in John 15 when the Lord Jesus teaches on the vine and the branches.  We, as the branches, are to abide in the Lord Jesus, the true Vine, to bear fruit.  A wonderful passage of Scripture, but I truly believe that the key to Christian discipleship is found in our Lord's words in Luke 9.


“...If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” Luke 9:23, 24, NASB


The child of God must daily; deny themselves, take up their cross (die to self, sin, and the world), and follow Jesus Christ as Lord of their life.  It is a life of complete and total surrender to Christ's Lordship.  His will is to be our will.  His life is to be our life.  This past week this was brought to me vividly through a song and a story from church history.  The story which I first heard many years ago in a church history class, has now come back to bring great conviction to my heart.  A story of two Moravian men in 1732 who literally sold themselves into slavery that they might share the Gospel of Christ with others.  As they set sail, sacrificing their lives that others might hear, they shouted, "MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERINGS!" 

This past week I heard this story again as I listened to Matt Papa's newest song, "The Reward Of His Suffering."  Watch the video, listen to the song and ask yourself the question, are you truly taking up your cross daily and following  Jesus as Lord?