Boast in the Cross

Read: Isaiah 53:1-10 (below)

Who has believed our message? To whom will the LORD reveal his saving power? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither [was any] deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

Wow! Reading how He took it all, reading about how my Jesus was marred and bruised, and for what? Why did Jesus allow this torture? He did it for you, like we read last week how His desire was for us to know God, to be one with God. Jesus took on your every sin, so that the wall built between you and God, would be broken down, so that you could commune with God! That’s truly awesome. Think about it you wouldn’t even have the ability to pray to God, you wouldn’t have the ability to ask God’s forgiveness if not for Jesus breaking down the wall of sin and death. He was lowly and rejected, did He give up? Did He say after the first time people tried to stone Him “Hey Father? Yeah, well, you know the reason you sent me? Yeah, well, their too far gone, can you beam me back up now….” Is that what He did? NO! He said Lord forgive them, they know not what they do! Even when we don’t want forgiveness, Jesus prayed that the Father would show us forgiveness.

Pray: Thank Jesus for His ultimate gift! Thank Him for loving us when we didn’t even think or want to love Him.

Read: Isaiah 11:1-5, 10 (below)

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

"And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious."

As we read in Isaiah 53, Jesus was lowly in all manner, He was not beautiful or glorious in his appearance, but what was Glorious about Jesus was, His Father; His resting place, the fear of the Lord He had, the way He judged righteously. Jesus Had nothing to boast in but His Father and the rest that He promised. He didn't boast in His own authority, He only boasted in the authority of His father, but not that His father would smite them all, He proclaimed God's Love. I know we live in a world where aknowledgment and pride are upheld in the highest places, but do we honestly have anything to boast in?

But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galations 6:14

You and I may be complete no ones. We may be the lowest of low of all people. We have no glory no fame no money no unspeakable beauty, but what we do have, is the Glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, on whom all the sin of the world was laid, and paid. And in that we can boast and sing into eternity.

Pray: That you would boast only in the cross of the Lord, that you would make it you mission in life as Jesus did, to only glory and only speak of the Kingdom of heaven and the Glory of the Father!

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:12

So God is giving to Jesus a portion of the greatness, to Jesus whom "people" esteemed lowly and unworthy of even a just trial. God is giving Greatness. Are we not now crucified in Jesus Christ, are we not now heirs to His riches? Beloved, never feel that you are not good, that you are unworthy, You have the glory of the Father in you. The same glory that Jesus had inside of Him. Jesus poured out His soul unto death, and now He is seated at the right hand of Almighty GOD. Can we fight a little longer, can we stand firm in this vapor of time, so we can be seated in Him, can we endure the slight suffering so to recieve our riches in heaven? Pour out your life to Him! He bore or sins, He eliminated our iniquity, He made intercession for the transgressors. We are capable of the same, eliminate sin in your life, pray for eliminated iniquity daily, and make intercession for all who you know need to know your Lord, who need to know the Gorious hope of Christ in them.

Pray: That you would be like Jesus and pour yourself even unto death if that is what God wills, though we are lowly and poor, we can share in the riches of Christ by giving our lives to God, and making intercession, praying for those who are transgressors and do not know our Lord. Pray about inviting someone to Easter service at your church. Pray that many would come and see that Jesus is Lord!

The Time is at Hand

And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.

Revelation 22:10

Wake Up!

Read: Luke 22:39-46

I love the way Mark wrote his account of this story, he says that Jesus said to them:

“Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Mark 14:38, and if we look into Johns account of the mount of olives, he records what Jesus prayed in the garden. This was after He decided to take the cup of suffering.

Read: John 17

Isn’t amazing to see how Jesus prayed and is praying for us? Here Christ is about to be brutally murdered and He is praying that we might know God as He knows God. His earnest desire was for us to know God like He knew God. Yet sometimes we can’t even stay awake for our encouragement from the Lord, The Spirit is willing, God will send His angels to us to strengthen us when we cry out to Him, can we stay awake?

The hour is at hand Christ has given us the righteousness and power to pray the same prayer Jesus did that night for everyone we know. We are given the priveledge of praying that our friends would know God like we know God. Are we sleeping when we should be praying for Christ’s inheritance? Jesus Died for EVERYONE! God loves EVERYONE! If you are too timid to share with your friends and classmates isn’t that essentially cursing them to hell? It spits in their face to say that you do not love them enough to share the greatest gift EVER given! If you don’t have that love for others, than you might not have God, 1st John 4:8 says that if we do not love then we do not know God. Do you know God? Are you showing love?

Long before we made messes of our lives God made a mess of His son’s life for EVERYONE! Wow! WAKE UP SLEEPERS! The spirit is willing to answer your prayer of salvation to all you ask, but your flesh is too weak to pray??? I don’t think so! WAKE UP!!!

Pray now:

Like Jesus did, in your own words, pray for your friends for your classmates, for anyone you know who is not walking with the Lord, that they might know God like you know God. Pray for The Holy Spirit to strengthen you to share the greatest gift ever given! Write out a prayer, make it real! If a certain person falls on your heart that you know needs Jesus, specifically pray for them list their name.

"It shall come to pass That before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear.”
Isaiah 65:24

Is God not good??? Before we even ask God for a friends salvation He will answer us, and while we speak He hears! Maybe right now this very moment at your request God is sending angels to surround the person you listed above, are you called to be an angel for someone in this moment?

If you prayed earnestly for a friends salvation and you desire them to know Him like you know Him, you can count that prayer as good as answered. The Lord gives us the desire of our heart when we humble ourselves and delight in Him. He is sovereign and He will be Lord of every heart, salvation is coming to those hearts!


Final prayer:

Thank God for His awesome promise to answer our prayers, Thank Jesus for giving us the ability to come before God, Thank God for grace through Jesus and for salvation that is free to all. Pray about the commission you have been given to be a harvester, God laid that name on your heart for a reason. Go to coffee with them and let them get a taste of the insatiable passion you have for the Lord, you don’t need church to reach out to your friends, first, YOU need to reach out to your friends! Ask God how you are to harvest the field He has given to you! Make this prayer real write it down, keep a journal to see how God will blow your mind with answers!

Will you fall asleep, and grieve Jesus again?? Or will you give God the sweet smelling aroma of a heart humbled before Him? His Spirit is willing!

I love you so much dear faithful one, but there is one much greater than I and He has a will and purpose for your life that is greater than you can imagine! Don’t believe the lie that you are not good enough for any reason!

You have The Holy Spirit inside you, and that is the same Spirit that raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, Amen!

Read: Jeremiah 1:4-12, 17-19