Talk about revelation! Today I am in Philippians 3, and I am blown away. It's amazing how, when you ask the Lord to reveal things to you, He is faithful to do so. I flipped to my concoordance and looked up "cross" and found a phrasing that said, "enemies of the cross". I am a firm believer that the entire word of God is a wellspring of revelation and knowledge, if only we ask for it and seek it out, but this particular scripture just leaped off the page and clicked with me.

The writer starts off by saying that he took no glory in being circumcised - he took no glory in anything that he had that by the world's standards would make him a "great guy". He also says that he had plenty. I equate it to the things that we think complete us: relationships, jobs, homes, cars, good looks, nice clothes. Paul took no pride or confidence in his heritage or his lineage, in anything, but only took confidence in the cross. He saw those things that the world may take as gain and counted them as loss because he knew that those things would bring him no progress, no future. In fact, he called them rubbish - TRASH. Kind of reminds me of the phrase "you can't take it with you".

I read on and see verse ten, where he says he thinks of these things in this manner because he wants to be "conformed to [Christ's] death". I'm boggled by that thought - there is so much humility and sorrow and love in the death of Christ, and Paul wants to be conformed to it? He counted himself a servant as Christ was. Keep reading and in verse 13 he says he does not "count [himself] as apprehended". In other words Paul was saying "I have not arrived". He didn't have it all together, and he probably did more work than Billy Graham spreading the Gospel. Paul had it together, spiritually, and he knew that there was so much more to what he was experiencing. He continued to reach up and out and forward toward whatever it was the God wanted to CONTINUE through him.

Keep reading and we get to the part about the enemies of the cross - he said their glory was in their shame, and their god is their belly - they set their mind on earthly things. It's my goal to not set my mind on those earthly things. I don't want to be an enemy of the cross. To be fully satisfied in the cross means to put off these earthly things, to not be satisfied in your belly, but rather in the lowering of ourselves -to clothe ourselves in the humility of the cross, because it was humiliating and beautiful all at the same time. We can't set our mind on what we wear, how we look to others, whether or not people like us, if we appear beautiful, if we own our own home, if we even have a home, but rather if God calls us to be homeless to minister to the homeless, we should be willing to carry that humility and service that is in the cross and do it. It's a hard word, a hard act, I know, and it is even hard to write it, but even as I write I know it's truth. Scripture tells us to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift us up. We can't look for the things of this world make us important, because it's temporary and fleeting.

I hope all of this make sense to somebody, I was just overwhelmed in the revelation of the Word today and had to get it out somehow. Love to everybody who may or may not read it.

Fully Satisfied in the Cross of Christ

"Fully satisfied in the Cross of Christ." I hear those words ringing in my ears this morning. A few weeks before I moved, I was in a service at church with the Banovs and as I walked through the "fire tunnel", Winnie Banov looked at me, put her hand on my head, and said, "Fully satisfied in the Cross of Christ". What a life changing moment for me. It has stuck, but I haven't applied it, if that makes sense.

You know, I walk through my life I think with blinders on my eyes. I believe that I can be fully satisfied in Christ, but I still want this, or this happens and I'm upset. That's not the same thing. The thing I respect about Winnie Banov is that she has such a revelation of the impact of the cross, and she lives her life accordingly. Very few of us really get it the way she does, and it's my prayer today, not just for me, but for everyone I know - that we will be truly, truly, truly FULLY satisfied in the cross of Christ -in it's sacrifice, in the love and provision that it represents.

It sounds so cheesy but sometimes my heart just EXPLODES with the love God has for me, and it is overwhelming. I wonder how I could not be fully satisfied in Him in those moments. I think that the test comes in the dark moments, when we give in to temptation, when we are tested, when things are presented to us that aren't always happy - it is in those moments that we must be reminded of that explosion of love in our hearts. Our full satisfaction is not in those things we give into, in our loved ones being well and whole, in our spouse or potential spouse, in our children, in our finances, and the list goes on and on. His love is extravagant, and it's enough. Oh to be fully satisfied in His cross... how amazing. Help us to get it, Lord.