The Cross.. Transformed

I was thinking this morning about how transformed the cross has become over the centuries… after Jesus was crucified on it.    Since Jesus was cruelly , tortuously murdered on a cross,   it has been transformed into a symbol of love.,  of sacrifice and hope.     It has been engraved in altars and chiseled out of marble and precious stone.   It has been carved out of  crystal and placed on mantle tops,  it has been formed out of sterling silver or gold and worn as an elegant jewelry reminding the wearer that Someone special died for them.

Prior to Jesus’s death on a cross, a cross was nothing more than a rough hewn ugly construction of wood..  full of splinters ..  and something barbaric created by the Babylonians and perfected as the ultimate execution tool by the Romans.   The cross wasn’t beautiful and  in areas it is still being used today as a form of execution, it is still ugly.    Only Jesus could transform an ugly cross into something beautiful because of why He allowed Himself to die on one.. for the love of His Father and the sake of all mankind.

Jesus.. a carpenter’s son worked with wood, and chopped, cut, polished wood for years along with His step-father, Joseph, and His Heavenly Father.  Jesus made many things out of ordinary wood.   Jesus’s ultimate Masterpiece was how blessed that cross became as He shed His blood upon it, dying for us all.   He didn’t have to carve, buff, chisel or shape it to make it beautiful.   He transformed it by what He made it become-   an instrument of love and ultimate sacrifice.     Only Jesus could transform something ugly as a rugged cross into something precious .    Only Jesus, our Redeemer, can transform us into someone formed, shaped, buffed and polished .. made precious without splinters, by His shed blood.

ps..   after meditating on this.. I asked our Lord if He would give me anything from His words recorded in ‘He and I” regarding this post.    I blindly opened to the following from Him:    “..I created and redeemed you, and with what love!”  

Let Me Take You To My Father

 

I put the picture (above) on in full stance – and was contemplating..”what” could He be thinking?  And then this…what is in my heart…as if He was (and is) speaking as I look at this picture…to His Father in Heaven, while being on earth? Or even now.  Here goes:

 

Jesus to His Father:   “What more can I do Father? I have given My very life’s Blood for them to pay the price of their Redemption…
Why can’t souls see how much I love them!  What more could I do, yet I would die again for each one if that is what it would take to save them! How can they ever understand such love….A love they too, must immolate and imitate to be My followers.  Ready to give their very life for their brothers.  To love as I have loved –  and do love still.

 

How I still pray for each soul to come into Your Kingdom of peace, love and joy – to spend an eternity in Your Embrace.  To truly know the love of a True Father!  How much I love You, Father, and will do anything for Your Honor and Glory.  To give You souls.

 

They don’t listen!  They go on their way in blindness – the blindness the enemy of their salvation gives to them in lies and deception, in offering silver and gold and all that sparkles to entice them.  I speak to them in visions, visiting them in their very rooms, dreams and even trials to bring them to their senses!  I send others to witness to them in hopes a spark can be re-lit and bring them back to Me.  So many once believed and loved me as their First Love, and were so on fire for Me – but over time, this dimmed and the allurements of the world choked them –
Still I was always there, ready to forgive and strengthen, to show unfathomable mercy in their regards.  Oh souls, you do not know My love and how I forgive, how merciful is Your Savior who died such a horrendous and terrible death to free you from the slavery of your worst enemy of your souls!  Could you not say ‘Thank You’, even?

 

How I long for you to return!  Only I can give you true life and joy.
And I will pursue and pursue till your dying breath and last heart beat, to win you over to My Love.  I will never stop.  I am the great pursuer of souls to bring them to repentance and free them from the enemy who only wants to kill and destroy and give them an eternity of untold suffering!

 

I am here my children!  Speak to Me!  Trust in Me.  I call you always.  I will never relent in speaking your name..listen to Me when I call you.  Listen!  I will never stop.  I love you that much.  Only look at the Cross – and you can understand such a love that never gives up calling the beloved!  { I can hardly  type Lisa, I am crying }

 

He is saying enough for now, beloved.  Souls have to know my endless mercy in their regards and how much I love and forgive.  To never doubt or fear.  As I said in He and i  – “Don’t wait to be please with yourself..just as you are..come! In your greatest shortcomings, throw yourself into My arms..I came to heal and restore.  Never doubt, Oh never doubt! ”  Come to the One who loves you most.  Let Me take you to My Father – Your Father who loves you with a boundless Love! ”
Your Jesus

Shared by Patricia Owens

His Own Received Him Not

 

John 1: 9-10

“The true Light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.  He was in the world , and the world was made through Him, yet the world knew Him not.  He came to His own home and his own people received Him not….”

I read these words in the scripture today and was struck by the reality of them.. how Jesus “came to His own home… His own people,  but was shut out..   was not received by them.      I thought of how true this was and still is, even when He was in His mother’s womb…    and Mary and Joseph were searching for a place where she could deliver Him they were turned away for “there was no room for them in the Inn”.

Jesus was also shut out .. even literally pushed out of his home town synagogue in Nazareth, after He revealed the truth of Who He is.     They pushed Him to the edge of a cliff, and wanted to kill Him, but He was kept from them being able to see Him , as it wasn’t His time to die yet.

Mary Baker,  a subscriber to a You tube channel I listen to shared on the channel a dream she had that I believe depicts Jesus:    “I was sitting in a dirty street and this lamb kept trying to jump in my lap for comfort and to be held and loved. He was like a stray animal that had been abandoned. I had the strong feeling that He had been rejected, forsaken and that he wanted my love and comfort. …”      That lamb is Jesus..   unwanted,  rejected.. even from those in His “own Home”.. from His ‘own people”.

And even Christiandom pushes Him out., and leaves no room for Him.. preferring the image of following Him, but not the reality of Him as our Lord and King.

May we receive into our hearts and homes our Lord Jesus..   Our Savior and King in Exile..

 

Jesus and Naaman… and the Muddy Jordan River

 

In the Old Testament, in 2nd Kings 5:  9-13,   we read of Naaman, a  Syrian general with leprosy who was told about the prophet, Elisha, in Isreal who might be able to obtain healing for him.   Naaman had a lot of wealth and power.., and held a high office in Syria.. so when he went with his assigned men to Jerusalem, he came with his chariots and horses..

Regardless of the fact that he held such high prestige, and that it would have made the prophet look good to have such an honorable guest., Elisha  was not led to come out of his home to greet him, but was led to give directions to a messanger to relay to Naaman as to what God required him to do in order to be healed of his leprosy.     This, of course, offended Naaman, who felt that he deserved far more honor and courtesy than that..  at least the prophet could have come out of his home to greet him.   To make matters even worse,  he was highly offended that the instructions were for him to dip himself  7 times  in the muddy Jordan River.., especially when there were much cleaner rivers available, and after all…  he is a Syrian general..  who does this prophet think he is dealing with?

Naaman almost turned his horses and chariots around to leave, when one of his servants reasoned with him , saying, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!  , and so, Naaman thought about it for a bit, and realized that his servant made a good point.  What did he have to lose anyway.,  Against his personal preferences,  he obeyed and  dipped himself seven times in the Jordan river, and came out healed.

 

(“…So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

¹¹ But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. ¹² Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

¹³ Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” ¹⁴ So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.”)

Centuries later, another Man dipped Himself into the muddy Jordan River..   This Man also holds a high “office”., .. in fact, this Man is a King.. of all Kings., yet this Man did not come to the Jordan River in fine horses and chariots.  He came by foot and stood in line to wait His turn behind others being dipped in the Jordan.    He did not balk or complain about having to step into dirty water, and be submerged in baptism.   Yes, there were far pristine rivers for Him to be baptized in..   and even John the Baptist tried to discourage Him.    “I need to be baptized by You, and yet you come to me?”, John said to Him.    Yet Jesus gently replied, ” Suffer it to be so for now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness.”

So in both portions of the Scripture , we see the contrast in humility between someone of this World in high position, who was incredibly offended in being directed to dip himself in the Jordan River.,    and Someone of the Highest Office.. not of this World,. a King of all Kings.., of every Universe , yet He graciously, humbly waited His turn to be completely submerged in the muddy Jordan River.. even though He didn’t HAVE to , but because He wanted to obey the Father in every way.

This Man., this King in Exile, offers mankind the crystal clear, pristine Living Waters of the River of Life, yet He, Himself.. to fulfill all the Father’s Righteousness, willingly allowed John the Baptist to submerge Him in the muddy Jordan River without complaint.    What a study in Contrasts between Jesus’s humility and inner nature compared with the ruler’s of this World!