HOLY WEEK PREPARATION: LOVING GOD -- THE CROSS IN OUR LIVES
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
". . .to those who love God. . ." Romans 8:28
Loving God is not a feeling; it is a faith.
Loving God is not a tingle emotion in a worship context.
Loving God is staying true when the chips are down, when life is intolerable, when friends forsake and all appears hopeless.
Loving God is to spread one's very life before the cross, asking God to pick up that life for the cross-purpose.
Loving God with all that is within one's self is to become bankrupt of all this world's props. There can be no reliance upon the sticks that earth pokes into the ground, naming them securities. They are not your securities. They are bogus to you.
Your security is one stick-the tree upon Calvary. That is where you reside. Then if you reside there, you seek not your own. You do not care today about your preening or your prize. You care only about loving God with all that is within you.
That is your love gift this moment and every future moment.
Jesus looks upon you now to see if you are where you ought to be. Are you breathing for your good or the good of the gospel? Are you doing what you are doing to get ahead in the eyes of men or to get ahead in the cross walk?
What is it that drives you? Is it conceit or comfort or the rubdown for another sprint at nighttime pleasures? What is it that energizes your life?
It must be the cross scene. There you see Jesus strapped to the wood. There you crouch before the cross base, taking your place for the Spirit's energizing for eternal good. There you commit your all to whatever it takes to carry that cross to some other lost soul.
That is loving God. "All things work together for good to those who love God. . ."
Such is an awesome claim to make, that is, that one loves God. Those are but one-syllable words, but they are to extract blood from us, as it was from Jesus.
Our lifeblood is to flow daily for the eternal cause, not the earthly, fleshly goal. There is nothing here finally that should entice us, nothing at all. We are caught up in the divine purpose, loving God with every ounce of energy coursing through our veins.
Such a sight is rare. God knows that. We know that. We feel the integrity gap within as we think it through. Such is necessary to bring us back on course.
Can we have the wherewithal to come back on course, as He would have us love Him? We can see to it if we will it to be so. The solution is in the position of the will.
Religion is not enough.
Worship attendance is not enough.
Verbal profession is not enough.
Church office holding is not enough.
All of this is but dung in the sight of God if the surrendered, bloody heart is not present for gospel use.
How empty Peter's profession was when he offered to go to jail or death for Jesus. Then an errand girl by the fire did him in within a second. Only when Peter came to his holy senses did he come to his total love for God. And with that, Peter was strung up on a cross plunged upside down into the dirt. There Peter put his motives where his mouth was.
God looks upon the heart. What does He see? He must see the whole burnt offering sacrifice, your entire being placed upon the grill for the gospel purpose. God must see there the honest consecration-complete and entire, caught in the sanctifying flame. Anything less is not worthy, not acceptable.
Our High Priest makes the final judgment as He appraises the sacrificial scene.
But when God does see the whole burnt offering sacrifice coming from the humble, broken soul, then the heart of God is made glad.
Then, and only then, it is appropriate for the Christian to sing, "Bless the Lord, all my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name."
For more: http://conservativeposts.us/ <http://conservativeposts.us/>
". . .to those who love God. . ." Romans 8:28
Loving God is not a feeling; it is a faith.
Loving God is not a tingle emotion in a worship context.
Loving God is staying true when the chips are down, when life is intolerable, when friends forsake and all appears hopeless.
Loving God is to spread one's very life before the cross, asking God to pick up that life for the cross-purpose.
Loving God with all that is within one's self is to become bankrupt of all this world's props. There can be no reliance upon the sticks that earth pokes into the ground, naming them securities. They are not your securities. They are bogus to you.
Your security is one stick-the tree upon Calvary. That is where you reside. Then if you reside there, you seek not your own. You do not care today about your preening or your prize. You care only about loving God with all that is within you.
That is your love gift this moment and every future moment.
Jesus looks upon you now to see if you are where you ought to be. Are you breathing for your good or the good of the gospel? Are you doing what you are doing to get ahead in the eyes of men or to get ahead in the cross walk?
What is it that drives you? Is it conceit or comfort or the rubdown for another sprint at nighttime pleasures? What is it that energizes your life?
It must be the cross scene. There you see Jesus strapped to the wood. There you crouch before the cross base, taking your place for the Spirit's energizing for eternal good. There you commit your all to whatever it takes to carry that cross to some other lost soul.
That is loving God. "All things work together for good to those who love God. . ."
Such is an awesome claim to make, that is, that one loves God. Those are but one-syllable words, but they are to extract blood from us, as it was from Jesus.
Our lifeblood is to flow daily for the eternal cause, not the earthly, fleshly goal. There is nothing here finally that should entice us, nothing at all. We are caught up in the divine purpose, loving God with every ounce of energy coursing through our veins.
Such a sight is rare. God knows that. We know that. We feel the integrity gap within as we think it through. Such is necessary to bring us back on course.
Can we have the wherewithal to come back on course, as He would have us love Him? We can see to it if we will it to be so. The solution is in the position of the will.
Religion is not enough.
Worship attendance is not enough.
Verbal profession is not enough.
Church office holding is not enough.
All of this is but dung in the sight of God if the surrendered, bloody heart is not present for gospel use.
How empty Peter's profession was when he offered to go to jail or death for Jesus. Then an errand girl by the fire did him in within a second. Only when Peter came to his holy senses did he come to his total love for God. And with that, Peter was strung up on a cross plunged upside down into the dirt. There Peter put his motives where his mouth was.
God looks upon the heart. What does He see? He must see the whole burnt offering sacrifice, your entire being placed upon the grill for the gospel purpose. God must see there the honest consecration-complete and entire, caught in the sanctifying flame. Anything less is not worthy, not acceptable.
Our High Priest makes the final judgment as He appraises the sacrificial scene.
But when God does see the whole burnt offering sacrifice coming from the humble, broken soul, then the heart of God is made glad.
Then, and only then, it is appropriate for the Christian to sing, "Bless the Lord, all my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name."
For more: http://conservativeposts.us/ <http://conservativeposts.us/>
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