pay – Cross Culture Church

Meditation: December 21

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs”. Psalm 103:10 (MSG)

If we received what we deserved, every inhabitant on the earth’s surface would warrant the consequences of their transgressions. Our treatment would be harsh while the sentence would be measured against the deserving. None would be able to survive the plight of heavy-handed justice from a God who would remain just in meeting all with the same treatment commensurate to their treatment of God’s Law. God does not give us what we deserve even when it is deserved many times over as result of repeated acts of rebellion. Instead of justice, He tempers justice with mercy. His sentiments remain the same in relation to our deeds. But continues to extend opportunities for us to hear something different than what we may have grown accustomed to hearing in order to give expression to a new way of living. His mercy cannot be demanded. It is arbitrarily granted. He will have mercy on whomever He wills. Yet we all receive it extended towards us. He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. The time will come when all will be both compensated and rewarded. They will either receive the wages of sin, death, or the gift of God, eternal life. He has given us a Savior that we did not deserve. Jesus is the gift of life that has paid the wages for our sins. Only He is able to free us from what every person deserves.

24 Nov 0Comments 1Like

Meditation: November 24

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“To whom He said, “This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest,” Isaiah 28:12

God speaks to the weary. His words of encouragement are directed towards them as liberating words. It is a rest that continues in the midst of work. Too many busy themselves with efforts to achieve their dreams yet ruin the possibility of reaching the heights which lie beyond their own imaginations. What a high price many pay in order to become what they consider to be their best? Yet the best ever envisioned is like standing before an anthill in contrast to Mount Everest. God speaks to those who tire themselves in trying to do great things yet do not know Him or the power that He alone possesses. They flex their muscles as weak as they are, but cannot find the strength to even live long enough to participate in all they believe and is their dream. God’s objective is for each of us to become what He has in mind. Only when our Creator is pleased will we find true and lasting pleasure. All else will keep one in an endless pursuit of wanting more than he has, wanting to do more than he is able, and wearied by his efforts to achieve what he will never be able.

18 Oct 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: October 18

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“Buy the truth, and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.” Proverbs 23:23

The price paid for the truth may be the loss of friends and love ones. It may be the loss of the potential of profit requiring the compromise of our integrity. Our integrity is worth more than the things acquired through dishonest gain. Even though they may bring immediate success, but the high cost paid in the end far out measures its temporal benefits. We must be willing to pay the price for the truth. The price of self-denial and sacrifice for the sake of having the character to stand for what is right. This is accompanied with wisdom which comes from above. God can speak His truth to our hearts and there is nothing within us rejecting it. The lust for things not sanctioned by God choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful. It is the fool that despises instructions. The ownership of truth will deliver us from the bondage of greed and self-centeredness. We can then understand what the will of the Lord is and comply with joy because we are enabled to see the benefits of our faithfulness to Him.

27 Jul 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: July 27

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.” Ezekiel 22:30

God has designed man as such to respond to His initiative. His will is accomplished and we are complete when we are in the right place to receive from God and use what we receive in ways that glorify Him. Fragmentation is taking what God gives and using it for our own pleasure without any regard to His will. The world suffers for there is no man to cultivate God’s creation. Where there is no man there is chaos and confusion. The absence of a man who stewards the grace of God judgment is inevitable. It is the rule of the righteous that preserves the order so that God withholds His wrath. Wickedness positions the world for destruction. Many do not consider the devastation measured against the world when misguided people are allowed to have their way. God seeks out those who would stand and not wobble regardless of the cost that they may have to pay. Where they are received, the grace of God is abides.

28 Aug 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: August 28

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:26

Values are a means to equate the worth of thing in contrast to its usefulness or utility. Whether a thing is profitable or dispensable is determined by the individual. The question of Jesus was directed at the value one would place on his own soul. It has to do with ultimate importance, or to have one to stretch his thoughts beyond the immediate gain to consider the ultimate cost one would have to pay for it. Values fluctuate among the immature. True maturity is marked by the development of a value system that is unalterable. They become the center of our lives, standard of behavior, and the stimuli for thinking straight. Jesus asks them to make a value assessment of their lives. He asked them, “What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world?” If the whole world as gain to him, would the gaining of it produce peace within the soul? Would the pleasures of the world squeeze you into a fixture that cannot escape the grip holding you tightly to it? The pursuit of acceptance and the trappings of success have the potential of robbing one of any desire for spiritual truth. The world defines the person rather than God giving him meaning for living. Has he really won or lost when his sole desire is to achieve greatness and all traces of humility have faded. The loss of one’s soul is a great loss where most people never recover. Jesus does not speak of receiving at all when one’s soul is at stake. He speaks of the loss of spiritual sensitivity as severe loss. Even though the person paying may not be aware of the price attached to it, he is still paying more than he would be willing to pay if he only knew the consequences of where his decision is leading. The entire soul is loss in exchange for whatever he thought to receive on his end of the bargain.