Lead Me To The Cross
‘Lead me to the cross’ is an unspoken desire of my heart, yet God heard it and responded with his amazing grace and unfailing love. As the Lord took my hand on this journey together, the Holy Spirit kept revealing visions of me kneeling at Jesus’ feet. The visions then became an aching and longing. I just had to hear His voice and that sparked a fire within me to dive into his Word. This led to teaching a study, “Who Is Jesus?”
The preparations came just before Valentine’s Day, when the lover of my soul began showering me with a powerful, supernatural, consuming, welling up of love. A pressing urgency to worship opened a door to a deeper place; worshiping for hours with a higher level of fellowship with the Spirit. This holiest of doorways unlocked a hunger for relationship. God revealed he intends for the passion he gave me to be ignited for Him, first and foremost. As this intimacy grew, my flesh reached for a relationship of the flesh. The enemy was trying to pull me away, and I felt this tug-of-war, as if the Lord was pulling on my wrist. “Come, it is time for a deeper, more intimate relationship with ‘me’ now.”
This year was my first experience taking part in a Lent service. As I walked around the sanctuary among the long line of others, the worship team played “Lead Me to The Cross”, my heart song. I just looked up and prayed in amazement, “You just love me so much; you even arranged my favorite song.” I felt like a bride on her wedding day. As I continued to the front, I placed my thumb into the bowl of ash and painted a cross with my thumb onto a white canvas. How personal this was for my individual fingerprint to paint the sign of the cross in ash, in honor of God MY Savior.
God reminds me “Tell them, my child”, and his Word in Romans 10: 14, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” New revelations of healing and cleansing within my heart brought peace to my soul. Our study lesson, ‘Things Jesus Said’, included the Sermon on The Mount, the Parable of The Sower, and many other parables. Since our discussion and reflection on the scripture caused our lesson to run long, we did not reach many of the other things Jesus said in that session. However, later that day, my Pastor from my home church taught at our weekly service. His message included his heart for ‘God MY Savior’, for the personal nature of these words. He continued to share the ‘things Jesus said’ on the cross, which consisted of seven statements. We read a few of them from the Psalms. Driving home afterward, I realized I needed to follow up with my Pastor to get the list of all seven things Jesus said from the cross.
Two days later, I picked a book from the shelf of our ministry library. After skimming through a few books, I selected one titled “No Wonder They Call Him The Savior”, by Max Lucado. The reason I decided to take this book is due to the reference to ‘God MY Savior’ made by my Pastor. As I read through the first chapter, I came across an amazing discovery; a summary of the seven final statements Jesus spoke from the cross! In case you ever wondered, Jesus spoke of many things:
A final prayer of forgiveness - "Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.'" (Luke 23:34)
A plea honored - "And Jesus said to him, 'Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.' " (Luke 23:43)
A request of Love - "When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, 'Woman, behold your son!' Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother!' And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home." (John 19:26-27)
A question of suffering - "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' which is translated, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?' " (Mark 15:34)
A confession of humanity - "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, 'I thirst!' " (John 19:28)
A cry of completion - "So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!' And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. " (John 19:30)
A call of deliverance - "And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, 'Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.' Having said this, He breathed His last. " (Luke 23:46)
My heart’s desire for the Holy Spirit to lead me to the Cross is God’s most significant desire. It was not an unspoken desire of my heart, after all. God spoke His desire into my heart. Of course, His orchestration of it is with perfect precision. For the first time, the wonder of the Cross shines on my heart.
The preparations came just before Valentine’s Day, when the lover of my soul began showering me with a powerful, supernatural, consuming, welling up of love. A pressing urgency to worship opened a door to a deeper place; worshiping for hours with a higher level of fellowship with the Spirit. This holiest of doorways unlocked a hunger for relationship. God revealed he intends for the passion he gave me to be ignited for Him, first and foremost. As this intimacy grew, my flesh reached for a relationship of the flesh. The enemy was trying to pull me away, and I felt this tug-of-war, as if the Lord was pulling on my wrist. “Come, it is time for a deeper, more intimate relationship with ‘me’ now.”
This year was my first experience taking part in a Lent service. As I walked around the sanctuary among the long line of others, the worship team played “Lead Me to The Cross”, my heart song. I just looked up and prayed in amazement, “You just love me so much; you even arranged my favorite song.” I felt like a bride on her wedding day. As I continued to the front, I placed my thumb into the bowl of ash and painted a cross with my thumb onto a white canvas. How personal this was for my individual fingerprint to paint the sign of the cross in ash, in honor of God MY Savior.
God reminds me “Tell them, my child”, and his Word in Romans 10: 14, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” New revelations of healing and cleansing within my heart brought peace to my soul. Our study lesson, ‘Things Jesus Said’, included the Sermon on The Mount, the Parable of The Sower, and many other parables. Since our discussion and reflection on the scripture caused our lesson to run long, we did not reach many of the other things Jesus said in that session. However, later that day, my Pastor from my home church taught at our weekly service. His message included his heart for ‘God MY Savior’, for the personal nature of these words. He continued to share the ‘things Jesus said’ on the cross, which consisted of seven statements. We read a few of them from the Psalms. Driving home afterward, I realized I needed to follow up with my Pastor to get the list of all seven things Jesus said from the cross.
Two days later, I picked a book from the shelf of our ministry library. After skimming through a few books, I selected one titled “No Wonder They Call Him The Savior”, by Max Lucado. The reason I decided to take this book is due to the reference to ‘God MY Savior’ made by my Pastor. As I read through the first chapter, I came across an amazing discovery; a summary of the seven final statements Jesus spoke from the cross! In case you ever wondered, Jesus spoke of many things:
A final prayer of forgiveness - "Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.'" (Luke 23:34)
A plea honored - "And Jesus said to him, 'Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.' " (Luke 23:43)
A request of Love - "When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, 'Woman, behold your son!' Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother!' And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home." (John 19:26-27)
A question of suffering - "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' which is translated, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?' " (Mark 15:34)
A confession of humanity - "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, 'I thirst!' " (John 19:28)
A cry of completion - "So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!' And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. " (John 19:30)
A call of deliverance - "And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, 'Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.' Having said this, He breathed His last. " (Luke 23:46)
My heart’s desire for the Holy Spirit to lead me to the Cross is God’s most significant desire. It was not an unspoken desire of my heart, after all. God spoke His desire into my heart. Of course, His orchestration of it is with perfect precision. For the first time, the wonder of the Cross shines on my heart.
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May the words shared here bless you in some way and inspire you to draw closer to God. Your input is welcomed and appreciated, my friend!