The King of the Cross

 

"Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way.  And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."   --Numbers 21, John 3

    Much like Genesis, we will never know the weight of our fall and sin until we sit with it for a while. Today, I pray you will sit with the weight of Jesus’ death for a while. Don’t skip to Sunday. Place yourself on Golgotha, “looking on from afar” see the earth get dark, the sun go dark, feel the earth rattle and shake underneath you, hear Jesus cry out and die. See the crowd beat their breast in anguish. Hear the soldier glorify God and speak the truth of Jesus. Let your senses be there on that day. Rocks split, the temple veil split, graves busted open! Don’t miss it fast forwarding to the resurrection. Look to the cross, it’s the only thing that can conquer sin, the only thing that gives hope, the only thing that can heal. Jesus' obedience is the only good thing on this Good Friday of Holy Week. He stayed on the cross with all the accusations on Him for my life. I'm the liar, the cheater, the law breaker...The truth is I don’t like the way this life can make me be most of the time. The way I react in traffic, the way I can be self righteous, I screw it up everyday. Then I hide from God...the one who can make it right. Jesus on a hill for all to see died. The hill ran crimson red, the blood to cleanse all sin, my sin.

    What do I utter to pray as I beat my breast in shame for my scoffs? What great glory can I give God in my realization that Him who I crucified was indeed the Son of God Almighty? Dare my dirty feet touch the inside of the Holy of Holies into His presence that I have been invited into? What can I say but the same as my Lord cried out from the cross to His Father? "God, my life is Yours."



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