Good Friday Part II. Carrying Your Cross

So I meant to publish this a few days ago. I failed. But thoughts haven’t ceased to run through my mind about Good Friday. I am constantly finding myself reflecting back to the cross. I never cease to be amazed at the demonstration of love that occurred there 2,000 years ago, especially when I think that it was planned before the earth was made. To think that a God so holy and powerful and perfect, would love me enough to go beyond any boundaries to demonstrate His love for me, absolutely amazes me. 

However, for this post, I hope to reflect on the personal cross that we must carry. Luke 14:25-33 calls Christians to know the cost of following Him. I hope that every day, I count the cost and consider it a joy and privilege to follow Him. I must take God’s Word and live it; absorbing it through reading, deepening it through meditation on it, and applying it through living it. I think to Simon the Cyrene, the man who carried the cross for Christ, as He got to experience one of the greatest privileges in history. To carry the Creator’s cross, from which He would save Simon from his sins as well as you and I. I wonder if he even knew the honor that he was experiencing. However, he carried the cross as Christ commanded. Do we treat carrying our cross and killing our fleshly desires and our own plans and hopes for Christ as an honor and privilege? Maybe if we did, we start picking it up a little more often.

Carry your cross and never let it become a burden to do so.

-Ryan Scott

Good Friday I

Matthew 27:27-54

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

This is Good Friday. At the end of the crucifixion account, but in another gospel, Jesus says two things wile on the cross. The first, the very first statement from the cross was, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” The second, and the second to last statement, from the cross was, “It is finished.” 

In these times, a blood sacrifice was required for the cleansing of sin. They would take the best animal with no impurities or defects, and would slice it’s neck and offer it to God on an altar. Yes, it is a graphic picture, but it was reality at that time. Here, in this passage, we see God as a human, who has laid aside His exalted and transcendent position and has become like you and I (Philippians 2:5-8). He has come to save the people who have rebelled against Him since Adam and Eve. He has been rejected by them. They have taken His rules and guidelines that dealt with the heart and transformed them into legalistic laws that dealt solely with the actions, turning a God of love into a God that is condemning and shallow. They spat in His face with acts that they knew He found heinous. They loved the darkness. They did not want to leave it. They took the King of Kings, the Creator, the God that they claimed to love and nailed Him to a cross to die with the lowest of criminals, a death that is the most excruciating (which actually was a word created by the Romans to reflect the torturous manner of the cross that they perfected to execute criminals; in fact, it was so bad, that Roman citizens, even the worst, would not and could not be executed on a cross) and humiliating death of all deaths. You and I, we make up the “they” group that I am referring to as well. We spat in His face, mocked Him, beat Him, whipped Him, rejected Him, and chose death over Him. Yet, He still came and dies for us and has given us the ability to not only be saved from our sins and the punishment that we rightfully deserve, but also has given us the gift to come into a relationship with Him and sit at His feet and talk to Him and read about Him from His Word. How beautiful of a gift that we have been so graciously given. While on the cross, Jesus exemplified love. Love demonstrated by its maker. Jesus, Himself, said “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13). The extreme weight of this sacrifice amazes me. The fact that I am loved enough for God to die for me to be able to know Him absolutely leaves me speechless. It blows my mind that God did that for me so that I can know Him and come to live for Him and bring Him glory. As the Jews made sacrifices to God for forgiveness, Jesus was our sacrifice. He is the only sacrifice that we ever need. He was bloodied for us. He was striped for our iniquities (Isaiah 53). May we look at what happened today 2,000 years ago and say, “truly, this is the Son of God.”

This is part I of the Good Friday message that I have coming. Part II coming tonight. Then be looking out for an Easter message also!!!

God bless!!!

-Ryan Scott

Speak Out, Speak Loud

Psalm 119:46

I will also speak of your testimonies before kings
and shall not be put to shame,

Today, one of the largest shortcomings of the Christian church in America is a desire to blend in with the world. We are called not to blend in rather to stand out and to be living according to a higher standard. Christ sets the bar high for us from His example and also from the Commandments (though we are not bound by the law, these laws are direct reflections of the character of God and in order to pursue holiness, as we are called, we must pursue these character traits entering our lives via spending time with God and seeking Him above all else). But, my point is, as Christians, should we not live lives that speak volumes of praise towards our God rather than volumes of worldly living and little towards the calling of God? Should we not share His word with all? Should we not share of the reckless love of God that He has for you and I? I mean, we don’t deserve His love, yet He gives it to us. How much more should we share of that love in order to allow people come to a realization of who God is and be able to make an informed decision concerning who they believe Him to be? Family, may we speak of Christ through our life, and may we speak of Christ through our words with reckless abandon, forsaking all for the one thing that matters, Our King. This task will not be easy, but why keep the message to ourselves? It benefits us more to share it while it benefits others. And if persecution faces you by doing this, remember, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” -Matthew 5:10-12

-Ryan Scott

Turn My Eyes, Give Me Life

Psalm 119:37

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and give me life in your ways.

A verse that has quickly become one of my favorite passages in Scripture. I’m beginning to consider a side project centered around this verse. “Turn My Eyes, Give Me Life.” This verse is an anthem for Christians. We are to turn our eyes, our focus, from anything and everything that does not bring us eternal life in heaven. We are to turn from anything that will not matter in eternity. Your wealth will not matter, your success will not matter, your extensive traveling will not matter. Your love will matter. Your discipleship will matter. Your utilization of the gifts that God has blessed you with, will matter. That is turning our eyes. Turning our eyes is a lifestyle, not just an action. It is a mentality, not just a physical movement. The second part of this passage says “Give me life in your ways.” This needs to be our prayer as disciples of God. If we are finding life anywhere aside from God and God’s will for us, then we are finding it in the wrong places. In Christ alone do we find life! In Him alone can we find our true meaning and purpose. In Him we receive our name and calling.If we find it anywhere else, it is a waste and is not what God wants for us. Also, only by looking to God’s ways can we find true life. That means that we must be seeking His will for our lives and then follow that will. The verse means that we must know His ways before we can follow them. Only through prayer and the Word of God can one know the ways of God. 

TURN MY EYES GOD, AND GIVE ME LIFE

-Ryan Scott

Finding Answers

Psalm 119:26

When I told of my ways, you answered me;
teach me your statutes!

God listens to you when you talk to Him. God also answers you. He may not answer with the answer you are listening for or in the way that you expect Him to answer, but nonetheless, He answers. God works in ways that we can’t understand, but we are just people with limited knowledge. However, God will move, God will answer you. Throughout the Bible, God says to ask Him for whatever it may be. Sometimes He says yes, others He says no, many times it seems like the answer is wait. He has something better in store for us many times. We just can’t see it yet. However, regardless of the answer, we must be willing to conform our will to God’s. Why? Because that is the cost of discipleship. Replacing yourself with Christ. Following Him and His will for you. Jesus conformed His will to the Father’s and if we are called to be Christ-like, we must do the very same. When we seek God out for requests, we must also seek Him out in His word. We must dig into it because the Bible is what God spoke and continues to speak, we just have to listen. Many times, I’ve found that the most common way that God speaks to me is through His word. He reveals things to me, He displays His glory and His plan through His word. When we cry out to God in prayer, may we be seeking God and kneeling before Him in full surrender, when we do, we will grow closer to our King and His will shall become ours. May we seek His will and His ways in His word and on our knees.

-Ryan

Longing

Psalms 119:20

My soul is consumed with longing
for your rules at all times.

We often hunger for food. Especially in America, when we haven’t had food in the last 6 hours, we feel like we are dying. Our bodies ache, we are tired, maybe even get dizzy, are irritable, overall not good. My question is, do we long more for physical food to satisfy our bodily hunger, or do we hunger more for spiritual food? Our hunger for God’s word should be so immense that we are never satisfied. We should be thinking about it, searching through it, reading it all the time. In this Psalm, the writer says that his hunger for God’s law consumes his soul at all times. Is this a way that we could describe our walk? One that is consumed in God? I fully believe that if this was true, Christians would be under a new reputation in this world, not for blending in and condemning others, but for loving limitlessly and always being focused on God. I know which reputation I want. However, when we are blocking out God’s voice with TV, Facebook, our busy schedules, etc. We also are blocking out our hunger for Him. Those things are not bad at all. They can be used for God’s glory or simply for entertainment. But, when these things consume us more than God, we have an issue. When we “can’t find time” for God’s Word (as we spend 3 hours on Facebook, 1-4 watching tv, and the entire time that we are awake doing what WE need to do), there is a problem. When we hunger and long more for earthly food than we do for God’s Word, a change is needed. When we can go for days or weeks without being plugged into God’s word and aren’t striving to change that, there is a problem. What is a Christian without the message of Christ? They are nothing. We need to be CHRISTians. Seeking God with all that we are, longing for Him and His word, never being able to get enough of it. Plug in to His word daily. Crucify yourself daily and sacrifice for Him because He gave His life for you. 

Blessings,

-Ryan

The LORD is my shepherd, but do I let Him guide me through the reading of His Word?

Bending the Rules

You have commanded your precepts
to be kept diligently.
Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!

-Psalms 119:4-5

“Rules were made to be broken” is the theme of our generation basically.... We all know it’s true. We love to break or bend the rules; speeding rules, school rules, rules prohibiting phones, ignore common etiquette, whatever it may be, we love to bend the rules at some time or another (or all the time).  However, with God’s rules it should be different. God should be feared in our life. We picture Him as this cute and cuddly teddy bear so often without remembering that He is capable of enforcing His rules to any extent because He demands us to honor them. God is powerful. We need to remember that. He loves us beyond all comprehension, but He has sooooo much power that we can’t begin to even describe or imagine it.  However, the real point of this post is to say that if we don’t know God in true way, how can we know His rules? If we don’t understand the intentions behind each rule, what good does the rule do us? We would end up like the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, knowing and obeying the law, but missing the point. Let us not miss the point of the One who ought to be our Master. His words need to flow through us. We need to meditate on His law day and night (Psalms 1). We need to give Him all of us. We need to surrender to Him completely. However, if we don’t know what to live like, how can we do it? We need to dig into the Word all the time to know what God wants from us in order to bring glory to Him. This life is about Him. Time was created for His glory. Yet we so often live as if time was made for us to be glorified. We live to be immortal through fame and success. However, we forget that the biggest icon of immortality is our God and He created time. We live to be remembered, He gave you life to remember Him. His intentions were not wrong, so it must be ours. We need to seek His intentions out. We can start by making Him center of our life. We are lost without Him. We need His precepts (laws, direction) in our life. How else can we live as He calls us to? It starts in the heart. You have to want Him to take control and you need to seek Him out, crying out to Him to satisfy you. 

Let Him take control and cling to His precepts

-Ryan Scott

Whole Heartedly

Psalm 119:9-11

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.

the question is, do we seek God with our WHOLE HEART, or do we let anything and everything stand in the way? Only when we seek God with our entire life can we keep our ways pure. Only when we are seeking God completely does scripture truly become guarded in our hearts because it is treasured and is more than words to memorize or small sayings to attempt to validate our faith in the eyes of the world. This has been something that I have been seeing more and more in scripture. This theme of completely giving yourself over to God, yet how often do we actually do it? The Christian life needs to be more than a fad or a part time commitment to us, however, reality is that we often look to ourselves and the world more than God and his word. The Bible says "blessed is he that endures" many times through scripture but I have seen it frequently in revelation. The question is, do we seek God with our WHOLE HEART (as opposed to most or none of us) and do we FIGHT TILL THE END EVERYDAY (as opposed to a Sunday, Wednesday, or partial commitment)? Everyday and every part of your life matters to God, does it matter to you enough to give it to your King?

-Ryan Scott

Willing to Travel?

Matthew 2:1-2

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 

In job applications, many times a question will be “are you willing to travel if needed?” The wise men, rich rulers that lived a great deal away, came to seek out Jesus. They did not have luxurious travel accommodations. They likely rode camels through the scorching hot desert. This was no easy trek. Often times, this passage is glanced over and only one part is remembered, the wise men saw Jesus and were almost tricked by Herod. However, when I read this, I thought about our willingness to seek God. I must ask myself, and hopefully you will do the same, “How far am I willing to go to find God?” I have to be willing to go through long spells through the desert, I have to be willing to go for lengthy periods of time, I have to be willing to give all of my effort in order to find Him at times. Life will throw every possible distraction towards us to prevent us looking for/to God, the question is, how do we compensate? Do we cave under the pressure, evaluating the costs and deciding that they are too great for our liking, or do we put more effort in, striving to find the Creator of the Universe in order to experience Him and His presence and to have the hope of being able to bless Him with our gifts, just like the wise men did. This question of one’s willingness to abandon all for God is what determines where we stand with Him. Do we pursue Him with reckless abandon and seek Him even though the cost may seem ridiculous to everyone around us at times? If not, what is holding us back, and why? Let’s bless Jesus by going to whatever lengths needed to find Him in our lives.

-Ryan

Accepting and Clinging to Forgiveness

Matthew 1:21

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Mary, a young woman, probably around 14-16 years old, becomes pregnant without ever having sex. She had been visited by an angel of God (Luke 1:26-38) telling her that she would be the mother of God incarnate (God in flesh). She was told that she would serve a great purpose for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom. She was destined by God to be the mother of His Son, the savior of the world. However I will address this in more detail in Luke. I want to focus on the second half of this passage stating that He (Jesus) would save His people from their sins. Immediately as I read this, I asked myself, “have I completely accepted this freedom from my sin? Have I turned from it and given it all over to Him and taken that passion that I had for sin and turned it into passion for Him? Have I given it up?” I think that these questions need to be asked in our lives frequently, especially for our generation. Our world raises us up to be impulsive, passionate, and ill-informed people. We give into our desires the second that they arise often. We get hungry and immediately search for a fast food joint. We want something and we seek how we can get it and the faster the better. We have the ability to find any information we want, but don’t access hardly any of it. Our greatest master has become our misplaced passion. We have a desire for Facebook, for food, for drink, for meaning, for acceptance, for ignorance of who we are at times, for love, for intimacy, for money, for maintaining a busy lifestyle. However, most of these are not inherently wrong. Facebook can be a great tool for Christians to spread the word of God and to be representatives of Him, however when we take time away from devotions and prayer in order to check our statuses and Facebook stalk people is when it becomes an idol. Nothing is wrong with being physically hungry, nor is there anything wrong with eating, but do we do it for God’s glory first of all, and has our hunger for physical food brought us more pain than our spiritual hunger that we continually ignore? We seek meaning, but where better to find meaning than the One who made us with a purpose? Why would a pencil ask another item that has no idea what it is, what the pencil’s purpose is? We do the same thing. We seek meaning from people that often don’t even know their own meaning in life. God created us with a purpose that we are to live out, but do we are we willing to give ourselves up in order to find it in Him? The list for these things goes on, but the purpose of it all is to say “what do you live for more, God or anyone or anything else?” If you live for God, you will cling to the freedom from sin because you will be freed from sin. I could not imagine what God’s reaction to people will be that rejected Him but I know He will be frank with them. I can picture that He will look at them in the eyes and say that He gave His beloved son for them, but to them, that was not good enough and now they should depart from Him.  That would be devastating to hear. I pray no one reading this hears that in the final day. I pray that none of us hear that we did not seek to embrace the forgiveness that God made avail to us because we were unwilling to give up our sin. A lightbulb cannot be partly darkness and partly lit (yes, I know there are dimmers, but a basic switch is my reference here) it is either lit or not. Which are you? We are called to be a light on a hill, demonstrating God and His love to the world (Matt 6:14). It starts with embracing His forgiveness.

May we take off our clothes of sinfulness and evil and heinous acts towards God and replace them with His grace each and every day. May we take our plans and wills and lay them aside for His. May we be His people.

-Ryan