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Gretchen Mure Rodriguez

Day 16 The Tension of the Cross

I've been meditating more and more on the beauty and power of the Cross.

The extreme ecstasy of blissful love and the tormenting pain of the Cross were both exemplified through Jesus. This seems a reflection of the lives of those who love Him- blissful love that quite honestly is painful to the flesh. We are spirit but we are also natural people who must take up OUR cross daily- yielding to the fact that we are DEAD to anything that hinders love. It is painful to our flesh to ignore the focus of SELF and abandon ALL- truly abandon all attitudes, mindsets, emotions, prideful ambitions, and desires for happiness MORE than our desire for Christ. 

Many of us believe in our inclusion with Him on the Cross; we are free from religious mindsets and believe in a life of Heavenly experience. We have found ourselves on many occasion lost in the rapturous bliss of Christ in us; tasting and seeing that He is good. We are love-wrecked!

But we so rarely talk about the tension between spirit and flesh. We desire Him, the moment by moment tangible glory, while simultaneously experiencing the pain of burning love deep within our spirits, that seems it will consume us with raptures. And yet for most of us, we are unable to stay TOTALLY AND AT ALL TIMES undistracted by worldly cares. (I'm not talking about a temptation for sinful living, but to stay in a place of fixated communion w/ Him.)

I believe that for many of us, the life of Brother Lawrence has been a great help. I have experienced great glory in little things like washing dishes, hanging out with my children, or even watching a secular movie! But the truth is the enemy knows what buttons to push that will steal my focus and distract my mind so that my heart will follow..even if only for a short time. I'm NOT OKAY WITH THIS!

I promised to be candid in this journey and I believe the majority of us can relate. What do we do? 
I suppose that we cannot DO much, since Christ has already done it for us!  "Now I long to know Christ and the power shown by his resurrection: now I long to share his sufferings, even to die as he died, so that I may perhaps attain as he did, the resurrection from the dead." (Phil 8:11 JB Phillips Trans) 

The inclusion of our dying with Him on the Cross  and coming alive in resurrection power with Him, is vying for our attention! To live with Christ is the reality of our lives and to be aware of it is our gift - if we  embrace the ecstasy of suffering the loss of anything that inhibits our walk with Him. 
There truly is a rapturous bliss in the pain of abandoning all things for the joy of knowing Him!

Jesus came to our rescue and all I know right now is that many of us need to become aware of the power of the Cross in our own lives. I'm not ending this blog with a new and revelatory answer that will change our lives, but with a call to refocus our attention on Jesus - the Cross as the revelatory answer!  

Comments

  1. Berta12/21/2011

    Just saw this on a friend's post. Good stuff!!!! I'm looking foward to reading more. God is so good and so quick to use us, even when we are still "us" and not yet perfected into His image. The bittersweet bliss of suffering unto LIFE is precious...

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  2. Unknown12/22/2011

    Thank you, Berta! We were made PERFECT in Christ and now we just have to walk in it each day I love how the Mirror Translation puts Col 1:28, "This is the essence and focus of our message; we awaken every man’s mind instructing every individual, bringing them into full enlightenment in order that we may exhibit the whole of mankind as PERFECT (without shortcoming and fully efficient) in Christ."
    Berta, YOU ARE PERFECT IN HIM!

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