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Tag Archives: Jesus Christ

The Weight of All That Love . .

08 Saturday Apr 2017

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Blessings, Christianity, Easter, Faith, God, Redemption, Resurrection, Sacrifice

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Easter, Jesus Christ, Love, Redemption, Resurrection, Sacrifice

I just saw a really timely movie for this season of Easter. It’s called, “A Case For Christ”, based on a book written by the former atheist, Lee Strobel. I won’t give the plot of the movie away, although the book has been available over many years now and is probably familiar to many of you. It’s basically an accounting of what the title suggests, an investigative reporter’s discovery and evidentiary investigation into the truth about Jesus Christ. Based on leads, evidence and by following the story wherever it takes him, Mr. Strobel endeavors to discover a way to disprove and discredit what is revealed in the New Testament Gospels once and for all! But suffice it to say, it doesn’t go as planned! As a believer, this story of Strobel’s probing investigation is a great reminder of God’s omniscience and the amazing gift of love He gave the world through the birth, life, and crucifixion of Jesus.  

When I was younger and attending church routinely by habit, I understood and processed the events of the life and death of Jesus upon that cross to a limited extent. But it has only been through a process of spiritual growth and a great desire to draw nearer in relationship to Jesus by choice, that I have come to truly appreciate the overwhelming sacrifice that He made! It was something which was often softened and sanitized for the sake of us believers. We knew He went to the cross, but we couldn’t truly grasp what He actually physically endured until recent years when the reality of it all was more truthfully and graphically depicted on movie screens through films such as “The Passion of The Christ” and in this one, by way of explanation. To understand the physical impact of scourging and crucifixion upon human flesh is to realize the tremendous and undeniable sacrifice Christ chose to make for us all! When we really allow ourselves to contemplate that horrific physical suffering which was necessary as a blood atonement for the redemption of sin for all time from all beings, it is truly beyond our scope of thought. Pause and contemplate that unimaginable sacrifice, it will probably make your soft heart ache for the sake of such love!  

And that physical suffering is a great part of the proof which finally converted a reticent and stubborn atheist in Strobel. He had surely grown up hearing a sanitized version of the crucifixion as a child before he chose to avidly deny God’s existence in adulthood. But in its actual detail, beyond horrific to imagine, the physical reality of the crucifixion is the telltale evidence of not only the absolute truth of Jesus’ resurrection but also of God’s infinite love. It is only a Divine being which could possibly overcome death endured upon the cross! For those who still choose to deny it, it is not compelling enough to sway their hearts hardened by disbelief and denial, but for hearts willing to ponder such an unselfish act of love, it is undeniable and indisputable! For believers, who need no additional evidence of the proof of His existence, their faith is enough because God’s love is all they ever needed as proof! Once you know His love within, there is no need to be further convinced of His existence. You know because you know! That love lives within you, changing your heart and life forever! It doesn’t make you perfect, or better than others, it just makes you different from who you were before!

Easter is the day we remember that infinite, defining and amazing gift of God’s love! The day when Christ willingly subjected Himself to ridicule, betrayal, torture, false accusations and ultimately, death upon the cross, is the most meaningful day for believers! It’s proof that God so loved the world, that He was willing to spare us all the relentless condemnation of our sinful nature, of an eternity, spent apart from Him. By sacrificing His one and only beloved Son for our sake, as the Gospels and history recount, God remedied for all time the constant need for us to endeavor to atone for our sin through blood sacrifices. We ourselves could never be good enough to bridge that sinful chasm which separates us from God, we’re always sinful by nature. So Jesus bore the brunt of all our sin for all time, the truly innocent and pure lamb, the blood sacrifice slaughtered for the sake of all of us so that we would no longer be separated from our Father! Jesus is the bridge over the chasm! And my heart aches from the weight of all that love, when I contemplate such a sacrifice for my sake and what it means for my eternity!  

Open-Concept Living . .

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by Cheryl Ries in Attitude, Choices, Christianity, Faith, Freedom, God, Lessons, Maturity, Wisdom

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Control, Jesus Christ, Obedience

It’s nearly impossible to compartmentalize your life for long. Especially when it comes to being a believer, a follower of Jesus Christ. I tried for many years to keep God, my faith and my growing relationship with the Lord into the neat compartment of the occasional Sunday morning; some years of my life, I even kept it strictly to emergencies and holidays! I will tell you that at the time, it seemed to be working; but always there came a reason and a desire to move closer, to draw further in. And eventually, the closeness and proximity to Him made it impossible to stay away for long at all! And in increasing my time with Him, in drawing closer in relationship to Him and in giving more of my life to Him, I was unable to separate areas of distinction in my life from Him! My life with the Lord became open-concept living . . no “rooms” I struggle in vain to keep separated by closed or locked doors!

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You cannot ask the Lord to be Lord of your spirit and soul, but then deny Him access to your other parts! And you cannot hold the door closed on Him when it comes to relationships and social activities, all while asking Him to watch over you and the rest of your life, the rest of the time. The surest manner of being born again, of having a relationship with the Lord, is to go all out! You must relegate yourself subordinate to Him in every way possible to give Him the rightful place as Lord and Savior over all your life and being. And that is sacrifice, that is complete and total surrender; and that is certainly not easy sometimes! That is the committed will to let go of any control over any part of your life, trusting completely in the Lord. Let go, let God! In every area. In all ways. There are no compartments in which He doesn’t have clear vision, awareness or control anyway; so why persist in holding back from giving Him the wheel? If we’re keeping some areas in our lives over which we are determined to sin, to go astray and to be out of His will, then we are keeping ourselves purposefully apart from Him. And although He doesn’t require our works to love us, to have died for us or to offer us salvation, we can show our love for Him through our obedience and surrender. Hopefully, as we draw nearer to Him, our love and obedience is something freely-given to Him because it seems a joyous choice to make anew each day!

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What we do after we’ve been born anew in Him is how we honor Him, give Him glory and love Him faithfully in return; it’s also how we fulfill His purposes for us. It is not possible to neatly compartmentalize our lives while so deeply committed and devoted to serving Him! Seek to grow nearer to Him, though it not be easy, it is the most rewarding aspect of faith to know the Lord better! I can only attest that is exactly what has happened to me; through my drawing in towards the Lord, I have felt Him drawing me in. My trust in Him has grown and my peace has increased; I know absolutely that I am loved!

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REMARKABLE DAYS

10 Sunday Oct 2010

Posted by Cheryl Ries in God, Life

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God, Jesus Christ, Life, Time

REMARKABLE DAYS

 

We know these days, the ones which each year stand out and become our most hoped for days!  I’ll call them remarkable, but in truth, all of our days should be remarkable!  For us to not label our days this way, each and every one, we cheat ourselves of our precious time.  We have only what number we were promised when we were designed by our Father.  From our first to our last, we decide how and what becomes our legacy of days.
 
This day, 10/10/10 is only going to happen once.  We with our mortality, will not know this measured time again.  We will know other special days noted for their curious specialty in time, such as next year’s 11/11/11.  But in truth, yesterday mattered, today is crucial, and tomorrow is our dream hoped for.  We shouldn’t decide that only today is special for the relevance of three numbers lining up so methodically.  It’s more than that . . our days are precious for the fact that each one becomes more valuable as we live the last . . . the minute today passes, tomorrow becomes the only one which matters.  It is the single most significant day that you will have to live.  Live it fully, with intention to see your dreams realized through faith, hope, and perseverance to endure!  

Life is rarely easy any longer, seems we all are suffering and enduring something.  But the most important thing to understand at this critical juncture of time is that we don’t have time to waste!  Life isn’t limitless, infinite and expendable.  We shouldn’t allow ourselves to waste time nor to be so mocking of circumstances, just because we feel compelled to cower down and wait out the storms!  Waiting doesn’t have to mean that we are watching life pass as we lie in fear hoping for new events to prevail.  Decide today that it means the world to you!  

Today, the only day you know for sure you are promised, it’s remarkable for that very reason!!

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Cheryl Ries-Author & Model

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