The Cross Life

In the year 2007 when the world is saying, "Preserve your life, prepare for your future, gain security, and build bigger barns." We say, "Wait a minute; Matthew 6:33: Seek first the kingdom of God, and His Righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you." 

We don't know the details of our life five years from today: Where we will be employed, what we will be doing, or if we will be alive. Matthew 6:33 is a verse that never grows old. Seek first the kingdom of God. The question of my life is what is in my heart and how do I think. The world does not teach me how to think with God and the importance of the cross.

In John 12:24, Jesus said, "I assure you most solemnly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains just one grain. It never becomes more." He said this solemnly. He was very serious about this. Life is serious. Life is significant, critical, powerful, important. Do we love our life? Of course, we do. My life -- what is benefiting me, my self-interest, me -- is my primary concern. I am made this way; self-preservation, self-absorption, referencing life to myself. This is our nature, but God offers to us something unique. He says if you love your life you will lose it, but anyone who hates his life in this world, he will keep it to life eternal (John 12:25). 

How could I go from loving my life to hating my life? In Galatians 6:14, Paul said this: "But far be it from me to glory in anything or anyone except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." Far be it from me to glory in anything. 

What do we glory in as people? We glory in many things but not the cross. And this is what Paul said: "I don't glory in anything but the cross." This is an attitude that must be cultivated in our lives. It is a surrender of my thoughts; it is bringing every thought into subjection to doctrinal teaching so that my orientation, the background for everything I am doing and thinking, is rooted in truth (2 Corinthians 10:5). This truth is blended with worship. I believe that the only thing that has made my life unique and valuable has been the cross. I believe that when Jesus said lose your life, He was telling us the truth. When I in my heart decide that my life is not about me, but instead it would be better for me to loose my life and gain him, I believe that this mental attitude that the scriptures lead us in is the one thing that we can glory in. 

We are in this life only for a short period of time. Why not in my heart decide that it is wise to trust the Lord with all my heart (Proverbs 3:5) and follow him even if it is to my own hurt (Psalm 15:4). If self-preservation is dealt with by a mental attitude that God gives to us at the cross, we will live and walk with an authority in our soul. How is it that you have joy? The cross. How is it that you are motivated in your life? The cross. How is it that there is something different about you? The cross. Why is it you never get really discouraged? The cross. Why is it that you are always moving on with joy, freedom, love, and peace in your heart? The cross. 

We can say this: that if. in my heart, I lose my life at the cross, I will gain the presence of God. I will gain the thinking, the wisdom that comes from God. We will gain God's life, God's love, God's way. There will be a mystery governing our lives. Unless the grain of wheat dies it will be alone. But if it dies it produces many others and yields a rich harvest. 

Prayer is the cross life. Bible study is the cross life. Obedience to God is the cross life. Loving my enemy and doing good to people that hurt me is the cross life. Living by faith is the cross life. The anointing, powerful prayer, and discipleship come through the cross. Deliverance from sin and true freedom is through the cross. It has changed our lives. It has even made an impact worldwide down through the centuries. It is the key to our future. It is the way to live. It is important. It is serious. It is the way to life and real victory. It Is God's secret. It's the place where God meets man and reveals to man who God really is.