I want to start this series of post off with a question. Have we complicated the mission of the church so much that many times what we are doing no longer resembles the intent of the original mission? Steve Job’s is quoted as saying,  ”That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”  

    I am going to do a series of post helping us to return to the simplicity of living our lives out of an understanding of the incarnation.  I don’t suppose to have all the answers to solve the churches mounting irrelevance in a growing post Christian America.  I do know from my own spiritual walk that when things get complicated I have to remove the clutter, reduce the distractions and clear my thinking so that I can see fresh again. 

     Simplicity is learning to live from our DNA so that the systems we build, which are needed to accomplish the mission is actually supporting the original intent of the mission.  For us to return to original intent, we many times have to remove layers of preconceived ideas that have complicated or diluted our vision.  

     In losing weight what you many times have to do is shock the system, to restart it, so that you can get out of a plateau or rut and actually lose weight.  One way to shock your system is to detox your body thereby removing the toxins so that you can actually change from the inside out. We many times want change that is easy, but for any of us that have changed we know that behavior does not change easily.  It takes breaking through the complexity of ingrained patterns by keeping singly focused on the course you want to take.

     One of the great foundational truths of the church is from I Timothy 3:6 bound up in the simple statement ‘God manifested in the flesh’.  It is from this scripture that we derive the doctrine of the incarnation therefore since it is bound up in the very DNA of what constitutes the church, it is important to focus upon this simple yet profound truth.  If we get it wrong at the level of DNA then all that follows will be altered from the original design.  We are called to be a people of mission and that mission is to be lived out in the context of an incarnational people.  The mission of the apostolic church is not just leading people to Christ, but actually Christ being formed in people.  It is two fold based on both evangelism and discipleship wrapped in the DNA of the ‘great commission’.  We have been commissioned to be a people who demonstrate incarnational living and I hope to help us come to better understand what that means in this next series of post.  

     One of the things I have been called to do as a ministry is help the church to return to her original foundations.  It is by returning to our foundations that we will find our greatest impact and truly establish the church no matter the context she finds herself in. Our foundations are tied to our ability to communicate accurately and live out the love of the gospel, which we have been called to not only preach, but to practically flesh out in a world that has left any stability of sanity.  I hope that you enjoy this series and we will learn together how the fundamental truth of the incarnation is to be brought into all parts of our life and the structures that we create are to fulfill the mission we have been called to finish. 

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     Think about this!  Does a successful bank robber just start robbing banks?  Does the person who has the courage to climb Mt. Everest just wake up one day and do it?  No!  They spend years thinking and practicing such activity, until they master that which they desire to accomplish.  The more they give themselves to such thought patterns, the more strongly their souls become reinforced to be able to successfully do such activities.  

     We have underestimated the power of meditation.  Whether for good or bad, we are molded in our personality and conduct by what we continually think upon.  This is the very reason meditation is so important.   

     The first step in meditation is memorization.  The author Dennis Burke says,

  “Some Eastern religions teach that meditation is allowing your mind to become completely blank and empty, but that is far from true biblical meditation.  To meditate is to fill your thoughts with the thoughts of God, to be consumed with the things God has said.  When you become consumed with what He has said, it becomes effortless to do the things He said to do.”

     If we want to have true success, then we must see life from God’s perspective.  This is what God was saying to Joshua.  Joshua was confronted with enemies all around, but as He meditated upon what God said, he found the faith, power and wisdom to fulfill God’s word.  God said that they were to conquer the land.  If God said it, then He was providing the grace to accomplish the task; they just had to align their hearts with God’s desires. 

     We must memorize God’s word!  Faith to overcome is granted only as we hear God’s word and become so consumed with what He says that nothing can stop us.  Memorization is hiding the word of God in our hearts, so that when the need arises, we will see every situation from God’s perspective.  We will speak His word, not our fears, insecurities and selfish desires.  This is what Paul was saying to the Colossians, when he told them to set their minds on heavenly things.  He wasn’t telling them to spend time staring into empty space, but to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith.  He was telling them to come into agreement with their Great High Priest by renewing their minds to His word. 

     This brings us to the next step of meditation, which is confession.  In addition to memorization the word meditate means to confess.  We must learn to discipline ourselves to say what God’s word says.  So many believers have learned to believe their circumstances instead of believing the word of God.  

     The Greek word for confession is homologia and it means to say the same as.  It is coming into agreement with the High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:10).  This is not to be a mechanical recitation, but a growing relationship with the word of God.  Our faith will grow as we learn to say what God’s word says about our circumstances and us.  The word of God gives us many great promises that we must embrace with our whole hearts and confess with our mouths.  As we do this, we will walk in a greater reality of Christ in us.  Faith is learning how to allow Christ to fully live in us.  It is a day-by-day walk of continually communicating and abiding in Him, through His words to us.  

     This brings us to the last step of meditation, which is application.  Memorizing the word of God and confessing the word of God, feeds the inner man, so that we can be doers of the word.  All successful athletes have daily programs of food and exercise.  As a disciple, we must have a daily program to take in the spiritual nutrients we need for running.  The end result should be a demonstration of the word in us. 

     Jesus said that a disciple is one who bears fruit (John 15:8).  Fruit is something that others will be able to taste.  Our lives are not about what we know, but about what we do.  The word of God must take such deep root in our hearts that we literally become a reflection of His word.  Our lives may be the only Bible anyone ever reads. 

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     In my last post I wrote about the necessity of being diligent to study the word of God so that you have a sound understanding of the Bible.  However, we must move beyond a mere intellectual understanding into participation with the word of God.  In this post and my next I hope to help you move beyond mere study into meditation along with application.

     The spiritual discipline I want to focus upon is the discipline of meditating upon the word of God.  Once we have discovered the meaning of a text, then we need to allow that portion of scripture to become a part of us.  In the Greek language, there are several words used to describe the one word we use for the ‘word of God’ in the English language. 

    The two main Greek words used to describe the one English word are logos and rhēma.  There is a debate as to exactly what these two words mean and if there is really that much of a distinction between the two.  I have come to the conclusion that there is a difference between the two.  In generalities the logos is the teaching of the whole Bible.  In Hebrews 6:1 the King James Version of the Bible says, “the doctrines of Christ”, while the New American Standard says, “the elementary teaching about the Christ.”  The word translated into doctrine and teaching is logos.  The Vines Expository Of Dictionary Words explains the difference between logos and rhēma:

“The significance of rhēma (as distinct from logos) is exemplified in the injunction to take “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” Eph. 6:17;  here the reference is not to the whole Bible as such, but to the individual scripture which the Spirit brings to our remembrance for use in a time of need, a prerequisite being the regular storing of the mind with Scripture.”     

We need both the logos and rhēma.  It is important that we regularly study the word of God, yet at the same time we must be open to the Holy Spirit.

     The Holy Spirit will breathe upon our hearts to bring the word alive to us, so that it becomes not just a word, but our own personal word.  The rhēma is a specific word for a specific situation we are facing in real life.  It is by the rhēma word of God that faith is released so needs will be met, bodies will be healed, lives will be changed and God’s divine direction will be given.  The rhēma word from God will produce a living overcoming faith.  However, it is only as we learn to meditate upon the word of God that we are going to see the word become alive in us. 

     It is this living word, abiding in our hearts that produces the kind of faith, which gives us victory over the world.  Christ is more than a book; He is alive.  Jesus said that the “words which I speak they are Spirit and they are Life“.  We must move beyond a mere intellectual study of the word, which is extremely important, to a reality of the Living Word of God working in and through us.   

     The strongest principle, which shapes and influences a person’s thought patterns, is the principle of identification.  Whatever it is that we most strongly identify with is what we will become like.  What we learn to identify with will shape our purpose, direction and future.

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    In the 1990′s the Barna Research Group took a survey and discovered that among those claiming to be ‘born-again Christians’: Only 18 percent – less than two of every ten – read the Bible every day.  Worst of all, 23 percent – almost one in four professing Christians – say they never read the Word of God.  Then we wonder why there is not much difference between those who claim to be born-again and those who don’t, when it comes to moral character.

     The daily renewal of our minds, which is of necessity to complete the will of God, can only take place as we discipline ourselves in the word of God.  A disciple is someone who has committed his life to God’s word.  Jesus said, “if you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32) True freedom only comes into our hearts, as we allow the word of God to be securely implanted in us.  Knowing the truth does not set us free, but abiding in the word of God on a continual basis brings true liberty.

      James 1:21 tells us the type of attitude we must have as we approach the word of God.  “In humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.”  We must put a high value on the word of God. It must become more important to us than our opinions and feelings.  Owning a Bible and reading it now and then is not going to renew your mind. 

     If you will look at your own life, I am sure you know of areas in your heart, which need the delivering power of God’s word.  I can tell you that you’re only going to experience the living power of God’s word, as it is implanted into your heart. 

     The Greek word implanted is derived from two other words.  En means a ‘fixed position’ and pho means ‘to puff or to blow up’, or to ‘grow’.   Jesus taught us that the word of God is like a seed planted in the ground. 

     In the parable of the sower there was only one seed, yet several different types of ground (Mark 4:13-20).   The types of grounds are types of hearts.  If we want to see the word of God truly grow within us, then we must have a high regard for it.  It must be a treasure that we daily seek.  As we approach the word of God, it must be with an open heart of humility. 

      A humble heart, will allow the word to be embedded into your thought processes.  This must happen if we want to see the word bear fruit in our lives.  As we do this on a consistent basis, our minds will be renewed, emotions stabilized and our will come into alignment with the very thoughts of God and in so doing; we become closely yoked to Him. 

     If we will daily study God’s word, it will work in us.  David said that he ‘hid God’s word in his heart‘.  Joshua was commanded to ‘meditate upon the word‘, the book of Psalms and Proverbs give multiple references to the necessity of giving the word of God a high priority in our lives.  Jesus said that man is not sustained by just natural food, but by the living word of God.  We must have a disciplined intake of God’s word. 

     There are several ways in which to study the word of God and I do not have the room nor is it the purpose of this post to cover all of these areas.  An excellent book to help you study the Bible is, “How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth”, by Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart.  I would recommend going to your nearest book store or online and ordering a copy for yourself.  Here are a few key’s to getting the most out of your time of study:

• During your prayer time add reading, studying and meditating upon the word of God.  Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you.
• Get the entire context of what you are reading before trying to understand it.  Discover the historical and literary context so you can discover the orignal meaning.  What was the writer trying to say to the orignial recipitents of the letter being written. 
• Let the Bible interpret the Bible by comparing text with other text.  
• Get tools to help you.  A good translation, Bible dictionary and good commentaries.  You can find many tools these days online.
• Once you understand the text then see how the essence of what you have learned applies to you and changes you in your daily life.

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     In looking at spiritual disciplines we don’t normally talk about holiness as a discipline.  It is not a spiritual discipline, but it is the fruit of the ‘spiritual discipline of presenting our bodies’ as a living sacrifice. 

     If we refuse to take up our cross and follow Jesus then we cannot be his disciples.  True discipleship means cross bearing, however we need to see what it means to take up our cross.  Is it wearing a big gold cross around our necks?  What about taking a physical wooden cross and dragging it around wherever we go?  None of these acts have anything to do with taking up our cross. 

     Paul said, “I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (I Corinthians 9:27).  The call to discipleship is a call to master our bodies, so that they are used to fulfill God’s purposes and bring glory to His name.  Peter in his first epistle says:

 ”Since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”   (I Peter 4:1-2; Emphasis Mine)

     Presenting our bodies to be the vehicle of the Spirit of God is our calling and one of the fruits of learning to grow in this abiding relationship is holiness. God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace ( 2 Timothy 1:9).     

     Holiness is one of those subjects that few in the church want to discuss out of fear of being labeled old fashion or legalistic.  However, the result of leaders not addressing this subject is a generation that lives compromised to this worldly system, powerless and sadly to say with less character than some unbelievers.  The bible goes so far to say that without holiness we can’t even relate to the Father (Hebrews 12:14).

     The ability to live a holy life does not come from the clothes that you wear, rituals you perform or even prayer.  Holiness is simply a life that is consecrated (set apart) to the Father through the free gift of grace.  To suffer in the flesh is not self-flagellation or abusing our bodies, but denying our selves the right to live for our own desires.  It is refusing to be mastered by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes or pride of life.

     Jesus is our pattern.  He demonstrated a life totally dedicated and consecrated as a living sacrifice.   He lived for one purpose and that was to do the will of the Father.  He lived each day not for Himself, but in submission to the will of God.  He did all of this by the Spirit’s ability working in Him and it is the only way we can accomplish a life of holiness.  We are holy to the degree that we allow the Holy Spirit’s power to work in us.  Grace is the free gift of Christ working for us, but sanctification is the free gift of the Spirit of Christ working in us.

     Let’s add the spiritual discipline of offering up our lives on a daily basis as living sacrifices along with a disciplined life of prayer.  On a daily basis we must:

• Deny our selves and identify with the cross.
• Allow the Spirit of Christ to work in us.
• Refuse to be mastered by the spirit of this age.

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     Prayer is not an option for the disciple; it is the very air that he or she breathes. Just as the runner must know how to breathe correctly, so a disciple must learn how to pray. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. He taught them to pray by both word and example.

     We must devote ourselves to a lifestyle of prayer (Colossians 4:2). Devoting ourselves to prayer is not an activity, but a relationship with a Person. It is both a discipline in setting aside designated time and a delight as we learn to abide in His presence throughout the day.  There are many passages in the Bible, which inform us that God expects us to pray. Richard Foster in his book “The Celebration of Discipline says,”

“All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their lives. The words of Mark, “And in the morning, a great while before the day, he arose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed.” This stands as a commentary on the life-style of Jesus. Martin Luther declared, “I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.” He held it as a spiritual axiom that “He that has prayed well has studied well.” John Wesley said, “God does nothing but in answer to prayer,” and backed up his conviction by devoting two hours daily to that sacred exercise.”

     After I was first saved I desired to know God. I longed for someone to personally disciple me and teach me how to walk as a Christian. In my hunger and thirst for the things of God, I discovered the best Teacher I could ever have received and it was the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit became my Teacher and He taught me how to pray.  I along with you, looked at the life of some of these great men and women of God who had gone before, and wondered how I could ever attain to the commitment of prayer, which they displayed.

     I want to encourage you, that you can have as deep a walk with God as you desire. If you too, will give yourself to the Holy Spirit, He will help you in your weakness. Think about it. Do occasional joggers suddenly enter an Olympic marathon? No, they prepare and train themselves over a period of time.

     God is not asking you to become a master in prayer overnight. He is asking you to start having a consistent time of prayer everyday. If you will consistently start praying as one of Christ’s disciples today, then you can expect to pray with greater authority and spiritual success a year from now than at present. It is time to begin your spiritual journey in prayer, by learning to yield your heart completely to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

1)    Find the time that is right for you whether morning, mid-day or night.

2)    Develop a habit so that you are consistent.

3)    As you develop a disciplined habit it will become a delight to meet with the Father.

4)    Learn to carry your time of prayer with you as you become more sensitive to the Spirit’s life, voice, power and guidance.

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     Among some, there is a debate as to whether Christ partook of the Passover meal or of the Lord’s Supper on that last night with His disciples before His crucifixion. He did both.  At the same time, it was the last Passover meal and the first time the Lord’s Supper was eaten.  In Matthew’s gospel it says “while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said take, eat; this is My body“. (Emphasis Mine)

     Can you imagine what might have been going through the disciples’ minds at this moment?  They had only heard their Master speak this way one other time as recorded in John 6:51 where Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; this bread is my flesh, offered so the world may live.”  The body of Jesus Christ was unlike that of any other human being. 

A Total Identification With the Body and Blood of Christ

     During the last Passover meal after Christ has pointed His disciples to His body, He now takes up the cup.  Once He has drunk and given thanks, “He gave it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins’” (Matthew 26:28).  As we look at this text we can see that the main theme of the New Covenant is the forgiveness of sins. 

     If I were to ask most Christians if their sins were forgiven, they would answer yes.  However, we have to pause for a moment here and discover what it really means, to eat the flesh of Christ and drink in the ‘blood of the covenant’, so that we walk and live as a forgiven person.  Drinking Christ blood is more than a prayer, but an active participation in the power of God by identifying totally with the crucified Lamb of God.  

     The Passover was a prophetic picture of the cross which crushed Satan’s power over us, and which delivers us from slavery to the corruption of this present worldly system. It is in Exodus 12:7, after they sacrificed the lamb that the children of Israel were commanded to take the blood into a basin and then were told to put it on the post of the door.  The applied blood to the door of the house was a covering.  Wherever the blood was applied, the death angel would Passover and spare the firstborn.  Rick Joyner comments on this text by saying: “It would not have done Israel any good to know that there had to be the sacrifice of the Passover lamb or to have sacrificed it unless they also applied its blood to their houses.  Likewise, it will not benefit us to just know that there had to be a propitiation for our sins – it will not even do us any good to know that Jesus made that propitiation – unless His blood is applied to our life.  To just know facts without applying them will accomplish nothing.”

A New Life With A New Family

     At the same time that we are identifying with Christ by partaking of His body and blood, we are also entering into a fellowship with Him and all of those who have identified with Him.  When we look at fellowship, what we begin to peer into is what the Bible calls the ‘mystery of Christ’.  Paul unfolds this mystery in the book of Colossians by saying that this mystery “is Christ in you” (Colossians 1:27). 

     Paul goes on to say that his sole purpose in ministry was to present every man complete in Christ.  Following Christ and becoming more like Him is the essence of Christianity.  It is for this purpose that we have been saved and it is through fellowship with Him and one another that this is achieved. 

     On that last Passover night when Jesus was laying down the very foundations of the New Covenant, He laid that foundation down on the bedrock of fellowship. 

     Communion is an English translation of the Greek word Koinōnia that is defined as: “Fellowship with, participation in anything, the using of a thing in common.”  The word Koinōnia is the word that I believe best demonstrates how we apply the work of the cross to our lives.  Let’s take a quick look at this word, which can be translated as sharing, fellowship and communion. What is demonstrated through the Greek word Koinōnia is simply an unveiling of the ‘mystery of Christ’, which is Christ living in and through the life of the believer. 

     When I think of the word Koinōnia, I think of the word partnership.  We are in a partnership with Christ and His body the church.  In Matthew 11:29, Jesus instructs us to come to Him and take upon ourselves His yoke.  To be yoked to Christ is to become His partner.  A partner shares, loves and works together.  The essence of the New Covenant is that through Christ’s redeeming work on the cross, man can now be brought into a partnership with God. 

     It is no longer to be us living life through our own ability, but Christ living in and through us.  Religion is man trying to be a Christian.  No man has ever been able to live the Christian life except for Christ Himself!  This is why Paul said, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  Through the Spirit of Christ we become ‘partakers’ of the divine nature (II Peter 1:4). 

     When we become partakers of the divine nature through the new birth experience, then we are also partaking of the Spirit of resurrection life.  When Christ is living in us and we are identifying with Him, then we are His body in this earth.  The glorious story of celebrating during this season of reflection is that we get to have a brand new start every time we truly partake of His body and blood.  Let this be a time of renewal, restoration and new beginnings. 

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     On the night before Jesus finished His race at the cross, He ate the last Passover meal with His disciples in the upper room.  The symbolic nature of this last meal with His disciples demonstrates the significant change His death and resurrection was about to bring in how man and God would relate to one another.

     As He was entering into this special night with His disciples, they were on the verge of consummating the main theme of all the prophetic promises given in the Old Testament.  On this night Jesus spoke of entering into a covenant, or, as some manuscripts say, a new covenant. 

     Covenant, is one of the leading concepts of the Old Testament.  The Hebrew word for covenant is berîth and it contains the sense of a binding or a bond.  It also means a ‘cutting in pieces,’ usually of one or more sacrificial victims.  This word signifies that through the ‘cutting in pieces’ of a sacrificial victim and the shedding of blood there is going to be a binding or bonding agreement made between two parties.

     In our day with all of the animal rights activists, the Bible looks barbaric, but there is a purpose in the killing of innocent sacrificial victims and the shedding of blood.  Satan became the ‘god of this world’, or you might say the ‘god of this present evil age’ when Adam allowed him to establish his kingdom of darkness into the void left in mankind by Adams’ sin.  Yet, if we go back to Genesis chapter three, where Satan deceived Adam and Eve, we will remember that God in His grace thwarted Satan’s coup d’état to take over completely. 

     God set His plan in motion that worked even in Adam’s failure because God promised that one day ‘His very own Seed‘ would come through the woman to crush Satan.  This was the first prophetic promise given concerning a future Messiah who would liberate man from Satan’s rule and bring him back under God’s rule. 

     Adam’s penalty for disobedience was death.  This death was to be manifested in three specific ways:  spiritual death, which is man separated from the life of God because of sin; physical death, which occurs when the physical body is separated from the inner man which is the spirit-soul; and the ultimate effect of death which is eternal separation from God because of sin.  Man’s body can die physically, but the spiritual part of man, his spirit-soul, can never be exterminated. 

     In Genesis 3:21, just after Adam and Eve received the prophetic promise, that one day they would be delivered from Satan‘s power through the ‘seed of the woman’, God covered them with animal skins.  The Bible does not directly say it, but God must have killed an animal or animals to clothe Adam and Eve.  The New American Standard Bible says, “And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Emphasis Mine).  The Hebrew word for made is âsâh and one of its meanings is ‘to sacrifice’.  I would like to do a personal translation of this text and say, “The Lord God sacrificed for Adam and his wife and clothed them with garments of skin.” 

     What we want to do next is discover why God would do such a thing?  The reason is because God is a God of mercy and holiness.  You cannot separate His mercy from His holiness.  God’s holiness could not allow Adam and Eve’s rebellion to go unpunished.  He loved them, but He could not be merciful and loving at the expense of His justice.  He had to punish them for their disobedience because to allow rebellion to go unpunished would result in chaos. 

     At the same time, God’s mercy reached out in unfailing love to provide a way of escape.  That way of escape was the sacrifice of an innocent victim who took their death penalty and was punished in their place. 

     The sacrifice of an innocent victim and the promise of the ‘seed of the woman’ both found their ultimate fulfillment in Christ.  It is by looking at the Passover that we can best understand the blood covenant.  It is because the Passover is one of those portions of the Bible, which is a main link between both the New and Old Covenant. 

     On the night before Jesus went to the cross He partook of the last Passover meal with His disciples, and it was on this night that there was a completion of the old and a bringing in of the new.   The first Passover found its fulfillment in Christ and was simply a model of the Last Supper.

     Out of all the gospel stories, which tell the life of Christ, it is John’s gospel, which centers on the Passover.  John’s account uses the Passover as a guide, to help us see that in Christ, there was a completion of the Old Covenant promises and the starting of a New Covenant between God and man through Him. 

     The central focus of the Passover is the sacrifice. 

 “It was the Passover sacrifice which delivered Israel from the power of Pharaoh so that her people would never again serve Egypt.” – Rick Joyner 

     This was the sacrifice, which brought the final separation between the children of Israel and the Egyptians.  What seemed like foolishness to the Egyptians was really the power of God in demonstration, to deliver those who had faith in the God who commanded the sacrifice of the Passover lamb (I Corinthians 1:18).  At the same time, God’s wisdom was seen in action, by the obedience of the Hebrew people to apply the blood to their homes.  

     Instead of going through all of the details of the Passover as recorded in Exodus 12, we are just going to look at the main points which the New Covenant that Christ established focuses upon.  These are the body, the blood, the meal and the new beginning of the Passover. 

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     In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth he had to bring them back to being singly focused on the cross.  They had begun to listen to several factious voices, which began leading certain groups of them down different paths.  Paul instructed the Corinthians to become focused around one simple message, which he called “the word of the cross”.  What an appropriate word for us today.    The unity of the faith is established around the person of Christ and message of the cross.

      The ‘word of the cross’ is the power to overcome sin, Satan, the world and the flesh, but it is also the wisdom to build an intimate relationship with God and others.  Wisdom is the very essence of how to live a life of overcoming purpose through the manifest presence of God (I Corinthians 1:24). 

     The ‘word’ or message of the cross is the very foundation of our faith.  In the Vine’s Expository it defines the word ‘foundation’ as the ¹⁾ The ministry of the gospel and the doctrines of the faith. (Rom. 15:20; I Cor. 3:10,11; Eph. 2:20).  ²⁾ The foundation laid by God, – not the church (which is not a “foundation”), but to Christ Himself, upon whom the saints are built.  There must come a fresh emphasis on Christ Himself. 

     Paul declared the essence of the apostolic message in I Corinthians 2:2 when he said, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”  The apostolic message is centered on Christ.  The ‘word of the cross’ releases the very power of God to destroy the works of darkness and the wisdom of God to build the church.  Christ displayed the power of God when He walked this earth and He has commissioned His church with His apostolic power to set the captives free. Not only is His supernatural power released through the word of the cross, but also His wisdom.  The word of the cross establishes us on the secure foundation of Christ the very wisdom of God, which will stand through the fires of persecution and tribulation.  

     The ‘word of the cross’ is not just a message about Christ’s crucifixion, but also of His resurrection and ascension as the Victor.  Jesus’ complete and total victory over Satan, sin, the world and the flesh is clearly shown in the Word of God.  That victory was won at the cross, sealed on the day of His resurrection, and established when He ascended to be seated at the right hand of the Father to be our representative in Heaven. 

     The salvation that Christ has provided will affect every area of our lives.  As disciples there is not an area of our lives, which should not be submitted to the Lordship of Christ.  When Adam sinned, his total nature was corrupted.  Since we are Adam’s offspring we have been separated from God and doomed to the same fate as Satan, which is eternal damnation.  However, God has provided a way out of the prison cell of sin.  The key to unlock the prison door is Christ. 

     Jesus is our victory, yet the victory of the cross has been laid out in the terms of a covenant, so in order to understand the ‘word of the cross’ and its full impact on our lives, then we must understand the terms of the covenant.  In my next post I will help us to fully understand covenant and its implications for us as believers. 

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     As we are entering into the season of the year when we celebrate Christ’s death, burial and resurrection I want to do a few post centering in on this theme.  It is important that we have a solid point of reference so that we can stay on track during these turbulent times. Hebrews chapter 12 gives us much insight how to run the race that God has set before us.  In verse 2 we are told to keep “our eyes on Jesus”.  Jesus should be the focus of our undivided attention.  What He accomplished for us on the cross should always be before us and we should continually peer upon the marvels of His finished victory over Satan, the world and the flesh.

     Paul said to the Corinthians that he was afraid that just “as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion that is in Christ” (II Corinthians 11:3; Emphasis Mine).  In the days in which we live, many things are trying to grab our attention and control our mindset.  In Ephesians 4 Paul encourages us to not be “tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.”  The New Living translation tells us not to change “our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.” 

     It is important that we see clearly what the Christian race is all about.  To do this we must take a ‘radical’ look at the gospel message.  The word radical comes from the Latin word radix, which means ‘root’.  So to be radical is to get down to the root of things, penetrating its essence and not being distracted by the many sidetracks.     

     Life today can be very complex and confusing.  As we have entered into the 21st Century it seems that everyone is looking for some new way.  Even in the church people are searching frantically for answers.  The path, which we must stay true to, is the path that Christ Himself ran.  He is the Beginning and End of our race.  Only if we keep our minds focused on a pure devotion to Jesus Christ can we run a straight course. 

      To run in a straight line, you must have a point of reference.  Have you ever tried to make a straight line without two points lined up with a ruler?  It is next to impossible.  However, with a point of reference we can accomplish the task.  A point of reference is something we use to keep us going in the right direction.  The message of the cross is our point of reference and when we stay aligned with Him then we will run straight.

• Stay focused on the main thing.
• Don’t allow little tributaries to take you away from the River of Life.
• Live a radical life centered and rooted in Christ.

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