It seems that it has been about 2 months since I’ve last written anything. Oh what a two months they have been. Movements of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of people around me and seeing them come to know Jesus more fully were regular. The death and decay of flesh to work true Life in those around was all too common. Life was being had on an amazing and abundant level within the community of believers through the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Guess what? This hasn’t changed in the last two months. The believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit and desiring nothing but to please and love their merciful Redeemer are still, by His grace, seeking His face. Even though there has been a major scattering and fellowship seems few and far between, life is still found amongst the Body because of the foundation of Jesus Christ. He is the most stable and firm foundation anyone could have. We are all still united in the Body of the One who has made us righteous by HIS own work and nothing that we have done. More than this, through His scattering He has connected us to the Body in a greater sense. He is sending us forth to encourage the Body in other locations. Light has been had at greater intensities and love has been experienced at greater depths. This isn’t to say that times are without suffering because anybody who has experienced love knows that along with love come times of suffering. It is simply the nature of love and sacrifice. The two go hand in hand.
This being said, you don’t get any deeper than love and the deepest love that we have ever seen and will ever see is the Cross of Jesus. He was one who was without sin yet was made to be sin in order that all who come to Him might be seen as righteous in the sight of the Father (2. Cor. 5:21). He is the perfect Lamb who was blemished for the sake of those who are to be found in Him. He is the One of whom the song is written:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”
And also this song:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
(Rev. 5)
If we ever get off onto anything other than the love of Jesus for His people, the love of the Shepherd for His sheep, then we had better take caution for it is easy to be distracted from the simplicity of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Trust me. I’ve been there. You cannot get any deeper than the cross. You cannot get any deeper than the love of the cross. That was the most profound, meaningful, almighty, sacrificial act of love that has ever been and ever will be all so that we might join into the Bride of Christ and the Family of the Father.
“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” -Phil. 3:7-14
