Living the wrong side of the Cross..??

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Miah45

Guest
#1
#1
OK .. so here's a thought:

Is it me or does it strike you that the 'average joe' believer lives a life obsessed about sin and it's perils, the devil and his works, the anti-christ and the end of the world...and yet struggle to know on a daily basis God's voice and the joy they once knew when they first repented at the foot of the cross and gave their lives to him? Why when you talk to a believer is the devil so powerful and busy on the earth and yet God seemingly retired and well... small? (I know he's not in our heads but he is in our lives)

Is it me or should the 'average joe' (or josephine) :) believer re-name his 'Testimony' and call it 'Test-ur-memory' instead? (let's face it our stories are past their sell by dates) Why are we more bothered who the anti-christ is than whether the most powerful thing God did in our lives was last week or last century? (compare the threads here on CC)

Is it supposed to be that the highlight of our week was that we sang our favorite worship song at church on Sunday?

Is it possible.. that we've perfected leading people to the cross, and yet are clueless in what comes next the other side of the cross?

For instance James 4:10 'Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.'
Is it me or do we have the whole humble yourselves thing down so well and yet have no idea what to do when God lifts or exalts us? (Has God made a mistake? Do we have to humble ourselves straight away for fear that our 'wicked hearts' will become full of pride? Besides what happened to new heart we were promised, and how 'new' is it really if it's so susceptible to becoming 'wicked' again?)


I'm rejoicing today because I heard that someone came to know Jesus last night here on CC... and do you know what scares me? It's not the devil or the anti-christ.. it's that no one out there knows what comes next the other side of the cross... seems to me to the two options are 'go and do something for Jesus' or 'read all you can and hold out for the end of the world'.

What are we going to tell this new believer when they read they're supposed to be raising the dead?
"Sorry no one can help you dear.. why don't you serve in the children's church.. they need help cutting out paper palm leaves for Easter ?"

C'mon church... prove me wrong! I hope I am!!!
 
MahogonySnail

MahogonySnail

Banned
#2
Jan 8, 2009
7,576
23
0
#2
maybe you could explain what sort of things you are thinking of about "other side of the cross"?
 
M

Miah45

Guest
#3
#3
Take my example of raising the dead... I've only raised one dead person in my whole life so far... raising the dead is one example of what a life looks like the other side of the cross... but do you know how many people were around then that could teach me how to partner with the Lord to raise the dead? I bet you can guess.

This is only one aspect of it... but I know that most of my life in this area (seeing salvation manifest as deliverance and healing) looked more like a broken watch than a christian who was walking the other side of the cross. A broken watch comes up with the right time twice a day.. at that was more than what I was coming up with (seeing healed etc), contrary to the standard in scripture Jesus left us.

Look ..we know in the christian life that we don't have to wait till we get to heaven to enjoy its blessings.. heaven already came to us. But to use another analogy as it's nearly passover... compare heaven or the kingdom to the promised land... we get set free from pharaoh, we pass through that blood red sea and we come out the other side.. the other side of the cross if you like. but we're not in the promised land yet... We're still not walking in all that God has for us..We've come out of the land of slavery, but the land of slavery isn't out of us...so we keep wanting to return back to Egypt. Average joe hasn't been the right side of the cross for 5 mins it seems before he's back to his old slave ways.. it's not that the old slave doesn't just return back (albeit momentarily) to bondage, the old slave also sees where the promised land beckons and says "there's a giant in my way agggh!" And it seems like we've been staring at giants, demons and 'anti-christ's' so long we think we know their names! ;)

Jesus said the 'promised land' is at hand and within us...and when God's people back then had got it right.. didn't every enemy bows it knee every time? And that's the OT! And yet why are the giants, the 'Goliath's of today like cancer still shouting in the valleys of our towns?

You know where David slayed Goliath? in a place called Ephes Dammim which means on the 'edge of blood' I find that really interesting, that that is where we slay giants.

So I guess I'm also asking where are the little David's.. the little anointed ones with their slings..? I can introduce you to the little David's that I know in other continents.. but are they here too? Do I really have to go half way round the world to find someone who can show me what life the other side of the cross is supposed to look like?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.