Crucifixion

I'm reading in the book of John about Jesus telling His disciples he was "going to the Father." The verses in John 13:1-3 say a lot about the mindset He had before His own crucifixion . . . which should help us when we are facing crucifixion in our own lives.

Jesus knew He had come from God.  He knew His identity.  In Jesus' identity was the work He did also, or  His mission.  Our enemy satan accuses us so that we will forget we belong to God, and think that there is really nothing important for us to do here on earth.  The only way to win this battle is to know Whom we belong to.

Jesus knew where He was going. He was going back to God.  Belonging to God is a relationship that endures after our physical life ends.  Satan throws dirt on us so that we will think that God rejects us. Perhaps this is where the helmet of salvation comes in . . . it protects our mind from thinking we are not saved.

Jesus knew that His Father had put all things under His power.  What was about to happen was His own death by crucifixion.  Jesus could have walked away.  But to be gloried by His Father (Jn 12:23), Jesus needed to lay down that power, submit to His coming death, and pick that power up again on the other side of the cross. Sometimes we think we'll get through our trials by sure will-power.  I think this could be partially right; it's setting our mind on God's will, and on what is on the other side of our cross (Phil 3:4 & Heb 12:12).

I truly believe that God does not set crucifying trials in to our lives to crush us beyond repair.  Using the above points I believe that God gives us tools to overcome satan, and that we never lose the mission for which God has set up upon this earth, our identity with Him, our salvation (due to the trial), or our choice in the matter. They crucified Jesus because they did not see Who He was and thought He was an impostor. But it was because of Who He was that we are saved.  So too, with us, satan accuses us in a similar manner.  But it is because of who we are in Christ that we will show Christ to our families and the world, and satan eventually will be defeated.

Do you see yourself as a person who has the power of God to pick up?  who is certain of belonging to God?  who is on this earth for a purpose?  God does.

Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge

Wisdom, understanding and knowledge are 3 words we read a lot about in the book of Proverbs.  This morning I read that God created the earth and the heavens by wisdom, understanding and knowledge (Prov 3:19-20).  These intellectual traits and properties of the heart are tools shared with us by our loving God.  In one of my favorite passages we read that our house (symbolic for our home lives) is built and established by wisdom, understanding and knowledge.  On a smaller scale, we can do what God does.

It is because God made us in His image that He shares his tools with us.  He trains us like a father would train his children, and gradually entrusts His tools to us. Our intellect changes as our minds are renewed. (Rm 12:2)  God intends that, as we look at Him and His example, we will go “from glory to glory” in this life, with a changing heart and mind.

And we, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, Who is the Spirit. (2 Cor 3:18).

Perhaps we do not believe we are made in His image (likeness) because of the errors of our ways.  Are we meant to believe only if we are perfect?  Or should the believing in God’s good intentions for our lives perfect us?  I believe it is the latter.  If we find continual fault with ourselves we miss the image we are patterned after, and we lack faith to use the tools available to us to build a great life.

Today, let us look at the One who created us as the One who had good intentions for doing so.  Let us use the tools of wisdom, understanding and knowledge to build good lives for ourselves and for others as a legacy of what can be done by those created in His image.

Amen.