Do not shelve the cross

Yesterday I had to do some cleaning, the front inside porch became a catch all for broken stuff and toys the kids out grew and just plain junk.  So, I spent all day and afternoon cleaning it out. I put everything in the front room as to look through it all. Then after dinner, we moved all my stuff into the front porch, my computer, bookshelves and CD’s and stuff that I decorate my area with.

This morning I sat down at my desk to drink my coffee and I found that my desk was not put together correctly, considering how tired I was last night I am not surprised in the least. One thing I like having out in front of me is a wooden cross one of my kids brought home a few years ago. I love having it out in front of me at my computer to keep me in check, with all the negative news, bad websites and diversions on the net I like to have this reminder.

But it was not there, I looked around and found it shelved on another table. I thought, “Don’t shelve the cross.” It made me irritated that I just shelved it away; in haste to complete a day of cleaning, spraying for insects, and organizing, to have shelved it away as if it meant nothing.

The bible tells of the cross:

In Luke alone it says,

Luke 9:23 [ Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus] And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow. Luke 14:27, Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Luke 16:26, And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ Luke 23:26 [ The Crucifixion] And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.

It seemed to me in that split second that I had shelved away the importance last night. I know it was just out of being tired but this morning it means a lot more to me. I was careless of the cross, for many different reasons. I was quick to just lay it down and to just place it aside, so I could just move on, to get the day done.

What seemed as an innocent gesture wound up being an important lesson this morning.

We are to be light in this world. As the saved, the followers of Christ. The bible says as light we:

In Luke 1:79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Wee are warned not to hide our light, Luke 8:16-17 “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

The light that God places into us a salvation, is Himself, in the Third person of the Trinity, The Holy Spirit. One may ask, how can we shelve the Holy Spirit like shelving that wooden cross of yours Kevin?

We can forget Him, not totally forget like never have known Him like forgetting a part of the body but we can forget to listen to The Holy Spirit.

In Isaiah 63 he wrote about a time when the nation Israel forgot God. verse 8-11 For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” And he became their Savior. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity,  he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore, he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit,

That’s a horrible place to be, being on the receiving end of God’s wrath. The presence of God’s Holy Spirit was so important to David that he wrote in Psalm 51:11 “Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” You see David had sinned greatly, he lusted after a woman, had extra marital relations with her, who was married, she got pregnant and to cover that sin, he tried to get her husband, who was at war at the time, to sleep with her, but he wouldn’t so David had her husband go to the front lines in war and he died. In David’s sin he was punished by the death of that child. The presence of God’s Spirit was so far away David begged and pleaded for God not to totally remove His Spirit.

So, we can see the importance of God’s Holy Spirit. It is evidence that through the work of the Holy spirit He saved Israel, judged Israel as they forgot Him, you can read this in Kings books one and two how the nation was led to sin many times. The sin was so great and repeatedly done that God had to bring his wrath to them, they lost their land the Land promised to The Nation of Israel, to their forefathers. They had forgotten the covenant with God it is written In Deuteronomy 28:1-3, “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” In verse 15 God says, “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.”

70 years, the nation was removed from the land promised them because of their great sin. The forgot God.

The good news is this in Luke 12:12 “for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” Jesus Promised the Holy Spirit in John 14: 15-31 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.”

This echo’s Deuteronomy 28, If you follow God He will bless you, if you forget God then he will have no choice than to punish you through cursing instead of blessings. This here Jesus is saying the same thing, remember God is the same, yesterday, today and forever (Hebrew 13:8). If you follow God’s commands, Jesus teachings then the Helper, The Holy Spirit will help you do this we cannot do this alone.

I think Israel as a nation proves what happens when you forget God and follow your own choices, desires and lusts. They lost everything. They were slaves to Egypt but was brought out by God’s deliverer, Moses. They forgot God and then were reinstated as slaves to another nation.

Jesus promised us good, he delivered by dying on the cross for our sins, raising back to life, giving us the Holy Spirit and is still giving His Spirit to many who are saved even to this day. But we are like sheep, we forget God at times and we fall into sin, even after being saved, we fall for all have fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

In John 16: 1-24, Jesus said, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

God promises good for those who love Him, following the teachings of Jesus Christ we can see the path that has been set for us. But we shelve that promise, forgetting what is good for us. When I saw that I had shelved the token wooden cross, it was like a light shining into my eyes. Don’t shelve that cross Kevin. And you too, do not shelve the cross. It is a representation of what Christ has done for you. The salvation is not in the little wood carved into the cross, I know that. I am not saying that, but through the word we can see that salvation comes through the cross.

Hebrews 2:1-4 Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

You see through the Bible times of blessing and cursing. Unfortunately, we are about to be engaged in a time of cursing again. There is a wrath to come and it will be in the form of great tribulation as recorded ion the Bible in The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote about it as well. It is throughout the bible even in the Old Testament, some of the prophecies that foretold of the coming of Christ to save the world, which did happen have some prophecies that have yet to happen, Ezekiel for example.

If we forget His goodness, forget all that has happened already, Jesus’ death and resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at salvation we are in subject to some of the punishment. We will not be forsaken Romans 8 tells us that nothing can separate us from the Love of God. But at the same time, we can lose some of our blessings, by forgetting God, shelving Him like I shelved the cross last night.

But God has a way of making sure we place our cross right in front of us, Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  We must take our life daily sacrificing the things we want and forgetting those but NEVER shelving the cross and follow that which is good. It may seem like it is difficult but with the Holy Spirit’s guidance nothing is too difficult.

For we are light as Jesus is the light; 1 John 1 7- 9 ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

Luke 11:33 [ The Light in You ] “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

Luke 11:34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.

Luke 11:35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.

Luke 11:36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no park dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

Luke 15:8 [ The Parable of the Lost Coin] “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?

Luke 17:24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.