Wondrous Cross

At the Foot of the Cross

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Our part is to listen
His is to speak
For the words that He says
Will be heard by the meek

While His ways seem a mystery and not understood
God works in Heaven through it all for our good
When fears of dark nights seem to stand in our way
He sticks close by our side till the first light of day

And He calls us to follow
In both joy and through loss
For we come nearest to Him
At the foot of His Cross

At the Foot of the Cross
by Peter Caligiuri
Copyright ©  2023 
All Rights reserved

 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.  John 19:26-27 ESV

Wondrous Cross and I Surrender

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I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 ESV

Surrendering all, is one of my favorite hymns and yet each time I sing it, that surrender looks a little different. The apostle Paul makes the point to the Roman church that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. This type of surrendering is not a one-time thing. This surrender begins every morning when we open our eyes, sit up in bed and put our feet on the floor. The direction those feet walk is a daily choice to follow Jesus. Wondrous Cross reminds us that when Jesus died on the cross, it was a long painful surrender. He had to keep surrendering, from the moment of His arrest in the garden, through the trial, the scourging and the crushing weight of the cross He was forced to carry. I know that we all face some days when life seems too heavy to bear. That is when we need to remember that Jesus surrendered Himself as a living sacrifice for us and then humbly take up our cross again and follow Him.

Poured Out

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

Poured Out

I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels. Psalm 22:14 KJV

As a teenager I always loved the Christmas presents I got from my stepmother Amy. She bought me beautiful expensive clothes, but she always left the price tag on! It was not that she minded spending the money, but she wanted to be sure that I treated her gifts with special care! In some ways God is a lot like Amy. God loves lavishing us with His grace, but He wants us to know the cost.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said that His soul was sorrowful unto death. He agonized in prayer in order to accept the suffering of the cross. He asked if there was any other way and then sweat ran down His face like great drops of blood. Just hours after He had finished praying, Jesus was nailed to the cross. Today’s Bible verse tells us that He was poured out like water. The spear pierced His side and then the last drop of the lifeblood of Jesus flowed down to the ground. What a price He paid for us! Let’s be grateful to God for His blessings and treasure more greatly the gift we are given, by remembering the price that He paid.