"The
Cross: The Power Of God"
17)
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to
preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be
made of none effect.
18)
For the preaching of the cross is to them
that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
19)
For it is written, I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
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I |
n the
scripture, we find that the Lord says that He will use the foolish things of
God to confound the wise. Therefore, it
is in the best interest of one who believes himself
wise to let him become as a "fool."
It seems as if one of the hardest things for man to do is to count
himself as knowing nothing—so that God might teach him everything.
Those without
the revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ find it hard to understand the
Cross because it fits no pattern of logical human thought. Therefore, it does not make
"sense." How much sense does it really make that the death of one Man
could free all of mankind? Though it is
a reality that natural man does not possess that necessary to be able to grasp
this, he is usually aware that as a man, he is woefully inadequate. Knowing this, however, does not give him the
power to change his situation. That
which will, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ as
represented by the Cross of Calvary.
We tend to be
very self-delusional people who try to rely on our human understanding and
convince ourselves that what we think and feel is true, whether we have a basis
for those opinions or not. Do we not
understand that something has to be wrong when everyone else can think
differently from you, but it is you who continues to be "right." The only
thing that changes this is an acceptance of the gospel—which reveals all
things.
Being
"self-directed" is probably one of the biggest problems of the people
of God, today. As we try to
"chart-our-own-course" and make our own decisions, the plan of God
forces us to see after a while that all that we plan causes us to fall short of
God's expectations. This, in turn,
should cause us to be determined to seek His counsel.
Becoming
"as a child" and ignorant before Him is the only way we are often
brought to consult Him about anything.
As long as we think that we know something, we will not ask God.
Deliverance
is accessible through the power of God.
This power in turn, is manifested through Christ at
Through the
power of the cross of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to be free of
sin. How every we
must be willing to accept what Jesus has done.
Modern man
really misses the point that from the time we were born into the world, God has
intended us to undergo a change. We come
to God because we know we need to change, but then, mistakenly believe that
receiving Him was the change. The
infilling of His Spirit is what gives us the power to change. After this, it is up to us to make the
change. Why do we so often
"wait" to effect that change?
We did not do this when we knew we needed a job, we simply did what was
necessary.
It is
necessary that a man be "born again" if, he would inherent heaven. God's mandate is clear on this and we must
begin to get a world to comply. After
salvation, he must accept that sin is not a part of salvation because salvation
frees us from bondage to sin—but "binds" us to Christ. Therefore, we are under obligation to live a
life pleasing to Him.
If we change
our mentality, we can change our lives.
Part of this is learning what to "plant" before God to get the
"return" that we want.
Therefore, our "seeds" need to be love, joy, peace, faith and
all other spiritual fruit.
We are to be
free and available to God at any time for any things. Therefore, there is no place in our lives for
distractions of any kind. This is why
all that comes to us must be left in His hands under His control.
We know that
God allows what He does to "perfect" us and because of this, He is
more concerned with what we are going "to" as opposed to what we are
going through.
All of mankind
is faced with a choice. He can believe
the testimony (report) of the people of God and accept the Cross ad power
of God and choose life. Or he can remain
the way he is and experience continued spiritual death. The man who chooses the latter is choosing the
life he will live—and consigning himself to a certain death.