Richard Ellis Talks

Jesus not only hung on the cross -- He died between two crosses. On one side hung the man who rejected Him, and on the other, the man who received forgiveness for his sins. Like the two sinners, we also have a choice: we can reject the salvation Jesus died to give us, or we can take up our own cross and follow Him into the life of forgiveness He offers us.

In Genesis, an animal would be slain in order to "clothe" the sins of the people with its blood. On Good Friday, the Lamb was slain so that we could be dressed in His righteousness alone, and so be able to stand before the Father without sin and without shame.

It sounds contradictory to say that the only way to be made clean is to be made dirty, doesn't it? Yet that's exactly what Scripture tells us! The whole reason Jesus came to earth in a physical body was to fulfill the requirement that a blood sacrifice had to be made to wash away the sins of the world. And no matter how much we try to clean ourselves up, we're filthy with sin unless we've been washed by the blood of Christ.

Jesus was forsaken by His Father on the cross, all so that those who choose to follow Him would never be forsaken themselves. We still experience struggles and suffering in this life, but Christ's sacrifice put us into right relationship with our Father Who will never abandon us and Who will walk with us through every trial we face.

Jesus struck up conversation with the woman at the well, despite knowing the "junk" of her life, and that exchange ultimately led her to recognizing Him as the Messiah. In the same way, we need to be looking for opportunities to have conversations with others that could ultimately lead them to knowing Christ. God already knows the "junk" of each of our lives that we, too, try to keep hidden, but He loves each one of us anyway and desires for us to take His love and His gift of salvation to the rest of the world.

We have two choices: live for ourselves and die to God, or die to ourselves and live for God. Jesus warned that to follow Him means having to take up our cross and die to ourselves. One day we'll all die an earthly death, but on that day we'll stand before God. When we do, we'll either have to say, "I did it my way" or we'll hear Him say, "Well done" for doing it His way.

It's tempting to get caught up in the affirmation and praise we receive from other people. It feels good to get proverbial trophies for our earthly accomplishments. Those rewards aren't necessarily bad, but when they come at the expense of us bringing glory to God, we neglect our purpose in this life. We're called to be a reflection of Jesus to the world -- and the crown He'll one day place on our head in Heaven is worth far more than anything we could obtain on earth!

2 Corinthians 3 tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! But on the flip side, when we choose to walk without the Spirit, there are consequences, and sometimes those consequences are eternal. God's given us His Spirit to guide our decision-making -- and when we walk with Him continuously, we become attuned to hearing His direction and following His lead.

God didn't save us so that we could sit around acting like this life is just a waiting room for Heaven. He left us here to fulfill His purpose to seek and save the lost. What if, instead of being tempted to follow our own plan and seek earthly riches, we followed God's plan and sought heavenly rewards?

One of the very first statements God made in all of human history can be found in Genesis 2:18, when He declared, "It is not good for man to be alone." He created us for community -- with Himself and with each other. When we do life together with a body of believers, we're able to become accountable to one another and to grow spiritually as God develops us into the people He designed us to be.