unseen

I've been resisting the bloggin' world. For several reasons I suppose, but close to the top is a feeling that I'm committing to one more thing I will hardly be able to keep up with. Or perhaps it's because this is attempt #2 at keeping a blog. The truth is I don't really know why I've resisted, nor do I know why I'm spending my Sunday afternoon starting one. What changed? Don't know that either. All I know is that this morning I woke up hungry to hear what my Savior was saying and eager to see the unseen. So I sat in my mini "bay window" and paused. Then God began to do what I most deeply long for - He spoke to me. It's these encounters that leave me feeling like I've actually got something to say. Maybe I do.

You might be wondering what exactly He had to say this morning. I hope you are, because that's what the rest of this blog is about. It all began when I read a portion of "My Utmost for His Highest" that a friend directed me to. Talking about Is. 40:26 it said, "If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred. We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades, if we will only begin to use our blinded thinking to visualize it."

As I said earlier, I woke up with a longing in my heart. I wanted to see the unseen. I wanted to hear what is not heard. I was longing for an encounter with my Savior. So I sat in my window, stared out, and whispered, "Where are You and what are You saying?" I found myself fixating on an unusual cross standing in a yard across our street. I took a picture so you can see it too:

It was the two beams going across that got my attention. Why two? Maybe you actually know the answer to that and I'm exposing my ignorance here, but I found it unusual. Trying to guess at what God was saying, my first thought was something along the lines that two are certainly unnecessary because Christ needed only to die once. But then I began to think about my place when it comes to the cross. I've always pictured myself at the foot of it. This morning, however, I suddenly found myself on it, beneath Christ. With these images in my mind, I opened by Bible and began to read Romans 6 (no recollection of how I got to that passage). I read through verse 14. It's too long to put in here, so I'll just highlight a few things that stood out to me but add that it's worth the read. Vs. 3 "Or don't you know that all of us were baptized into His death?" Vs. 5 "If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection." Vs.8 "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him." Vs. 10 "The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God."

I finished reading this passage and thought, "Wow, I really do belong on that cross!" Identify with Christ in His death, in His suffering, and in His resurrection! We die to live. So backwards but rich with truth. It was at the end of the passage that I began to hear what God was saying to me this morning, "offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life ... for sin shall NOT be your master ... you are under grace." By the time I finished reading that God was screaming at me, "Live! My Son died that you would live! You died with Him so that you might live! You are free. Sin is not your master. Get up! Go! Live!"

I see.