The reason

April 9, 2023April 9, 2023 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

The reason

I was too late. She didn’t know the truth, and now she was gone. The cancer won in the end. We didn’t think it would.
Six hours we had spent together. All the time in the world. Yet never once did I speak the truth. Now it’s too late. Now she’s gone, her soul lost forever. If only I could go back. Say anything that would make a difference. Anything at all.
The reason for the death and Resurrection was so that people would be able to come to Jesus and be free from hell. We get caught up in the ribbons and the bright colors added to this day and forget, today was the winning of a battle, not an Easter parade. It’s a happy day for those who know and love Jesus, it’s a hopeful day for those who find Him, but for those who don’t believe it’s just another Sunday to stay in bed. These souls are what we are supposed to fight for. We all fail daily to spread Jesus to the world, for those who aren’t missionaries, preachers or evenagelists, it’s really hard to find the words and the moment to show Jesus to people. Sometimes a lady you met once who you pray for for years will suddenly die from cancer and you never know, was it enough? Did she find Jesus in the end?
Souls of the lost and found are the reason for it all. My soul, your soul and the wandering souls out there are the reason for the empty tomb.
He gave us everything. We need to give Him all of us in return. Don’t be half a Christian following the easy path. Serve Him and be a jewel in His crown.

Christianity · Devotional · Jesus · lent · power of God · searching · The Bible · True Joy

Beneath His feet

Featured carriedinthecross1 Comment

If I were the sandals beneath His feet.

If I were the sandals beneath His feet, oh the places I would go. I would step into the Temple and hear Him teach the crowd. I would walk along the Jordan and see fish fill a boat. I would come too close for comfort to lepers and not fear their disease. I would see the lame man walk and watch the blind man see. Would I undstand His parables? Would I question who He was? Or would I know just be being near Him that He was God’s only son? I would stand upon a hill top and see the devil face to face. I would hear Jesus refuse to bow to sin. I would be stained by the sweat of donkeys. I would taste the sweet dew of morning on garden grass. I would be made wet by His tears. I would hear Him pray for all of us left. I would stand on a platform and watch a crooked trial. I would be hit by His blood, and strain to hear His defense. I would weep when He said nothing to free Himself. I would be gambled for at the foot of a cross. I would be shaken as the Vail was torn. I would break deep down as I realized He was gone. Then I would be far away from Him. I would be stuck on the feet of a Roman soldier. Then I would spend a long night outside a tomb and be terrified as the big stone rolled away. I would cry for joy as I watched the feet I knew so well and loved so dear walk past me in a glow I could not explain. I would hear from the soldiers later that He had been seen around, appearing before those He loved. Then I would see Him no longer. But I had heard Him say that He would return someday. I long for that day. The day when at His feet I might remain.
If only I were the sandals beneath His feet.

Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · Jesus · searching

Today I die

September 30, 2019 carriedinthecross2 Comments

Today I die

I sit in my cell with the bare cold hungrily eating into my flesh, my wounds almost numb from the night before. Suddenly I look up into the face of my executioner. He clamps irons on my wrists and I am pushed, pulled, and dragged up the winding stair case onto the street above. A cross is driven onto my back by the ruthless pull of gravity and I am told to walk, so I walk. A soldier follows in place of my shadow and strikes me with his whip whenever I slow down, so I don’t slow down, I move as quickly as my beaten body will allow until I reach the top of the hill where I am finally permitted to lie down upon my burden. I close my eyes and tense my throat as vomit threatens to choke me from the agony of the spikes being driven into my hands and feet. Tears burn my eyes and soak my neck as I am lifted up. Everything turns blurry from the pain, people were laughing, I think, I couldn’t really hear past the high pitched ringing raging through my ears.
Breath comes in gasps as the hours pass by. Hours? Or was it days? It felt like days. My shadow comes along and begins breaking legs. Mine are next and suddenly the troubled breathing turns into no breathing at all. Tell me someone can hear me. I know I am screaming so where are the ones to save me? Then it ends. I awaken to see a judge. Sad eyes touch mine and He shakes his head. Two dark figures grasp my arms and drag me away, forever. ‘Wait!’ I cry. ‘Have mercy! Please!’
But there is silence as the judge turns His face away and I am led off to my eternal sentence.

This is what it would be like if Jesus had not taken that cross for us. If instead we had gone through our own crucifixion. Pain, death, hopelessness, and no promise of rescue.
If we had been sacrificed instead it would never have been enough to pay back all the wrongs we have done. In the end death would lead to death and nothing could change that.
Thank God that He sent Jesus to save us. Thank Jesus that He was willing to come.
Thank the Holy Spirit for residing in us.
Without love, God’s love, we would truly have nothing.
As the true story reads.

God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son. Continue with me. That whosoever believes in Him… should not?…. Might not? Will not perish, but have eternal life. -John 3:16

Thank Jesus today for dying for you.

Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · Jesus

Filled with nothing but hope and love

April 22, 2019April 22, 2019 carriedinthecross1 Comment

We dont usually see empty as a good thing, but when the tomb became just an empty hole it was the most joyous day in all of Heaven and earth. When we think empty we usually think void, lacking.
The grave was void, it was void of death. It was lacking, lacking the power to hold Christ and keep Him from rising. It was empty, empty of the sorrow that death brings. It was also full. That big space of nothing was filled to the brim with hope, love, new life and the glittering remnants of the glory of God.They say that love begins at 0. Does that 0 not look like a big empty hole to you? It does to me. Love began before the cross, on the cross and in the empty tomb. Love began in a manger in a little town called Bethlehem. Love is 0, love is a big, wondrous, EMPTY tomb. Because Jesus is no longer on the cross, no longer in the grave, today He rose, soon He is coming back again.
Happy Easter