Many of us are in the habit of talking about the love of God, how forgiving He is, how much He gave His only son to die for us. Ah, so beautiful. Ultimate level of selfless passion! But is that all? Christ crucifixion was just an act of selfless love that we can go on bragging about? Not at all! He died for our sins. Well yes, he died for our sins, so we are safe and heaven is now busy with angels running around to decorate the place to receive us, whilst, we enjoy the worldly pleasures, sinning and sinning, in different ways. But hey, Jesus died for our sins. So all is well. Knowingly or unknowingly, do we take our Lord’s love and blameless blood for granted?
Taking the last wrap of hypocrisy out, I confess to have taken Jesus for granted. When I wake up and forget to thank God for a new day, when I see, hear, feel and experience different forms of blessings from my God, yet complain and not compassionately thank my God for all the unmerited favors he has been showering me, I have taken Him for granted. When I let myself enjoy different shades of sins at different times, deep down my spirit screams, “Stop beating Christ more” – my evil desires shut her up, saying, Oh Jesus loves you. The fact is, yes, Jesus loves me, but do I love Him back?
Worshipping Christ whilst you share your body with someone who isn’t your husband or wife, do you realize you are mocking Jesus and the Law? We Christians take pride in saying, I do special prayers at night, I read bible, I worship, I fast and abstain on Fridays. How beautifully are you fulfilling the traditions like Pharisees? Why do you do these? Maybe for a job promotion? For a healing? For your love/family life to succeed? For money? For all those countless materialistic or worldly needs? Been there, done that. What is the point of doing all these whilst you fornicate, use abusive language, get angry, feel jealous, and fuel gluttony? James 4:3 – You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.Yes, God is our father, and we have every right to ask Him what we want. Does that mean you can ask God to terminate your colleague from work, just because he is better than you at work? While we can ask God, it comes with certain terms and conditions. Three terms and conditions that can sum up as Tripe Rs, are;
- Be righteous
- Reconcile with anyone you are angry with, forgive and forget their sins against you.
- Repent and turn away from fornication, greed, atheism, and every way – emotionally or physically you have defiled the Ten Commandments of the Lord.
As easy it may sound, it isn’t so, as the battle is not against people, but within ourselves. On a daily basis, our spirit, filled with the spirit of Christ, battles against the worldly desires of our flesh. When your flesh becomes obedient to your spirit, the cross has won against sin, yet again. The purpose of Christ’s love for us would shine in victory, each time you say no to every sin.
Yes, it might not seem quite “cool” to the people around us, but as long as you remain to cool to the Kingdom of Heaven, rest can take a back seat. Jesus did not quite have a fashionable death on the cross. He took the shame on his shoulders, so that we can lift our shoulders and walk in light of heavenly glow. Is our love for God limited to tearing up seeing the movie – Passion of Christ? One or two hours at the church, is our time to the Lord constricted to that? Helping the poor and being nice to others – is that all you learnt from Christ? How much more do we take The Cross for granted? How much more do we take His wounds for granted?Take a moment, to grieve about those moments, where we, like those soldiers, beat up our Jesus with our sins. Let that moment of thought turn into true repentance. God still waits, with open arms, for the return of another prodigal son.
Jaria Joy
