Beginning the Process

I want you to imagine a box. Whatever you want it to look like is okay.

Now, all of the things that keep you from Christ, from God. No matter what they are...resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness (of yourself and others), pride, ungodly beliefs, sin. All of the things that cause you tension, the things you don't share with anyone because they hurt, they sting and if you dwell on them too long they could kill you. The thoughts that haunt you when you least expect it can take you back to a place that at one point brought you happiness and now only brings condemnation. We all have them. The things that can take us from here back to there in 1.2 seconds. Those thoughts, yeah, throw them in the box.

All of it. Don't hold on to any of it. I know that you are comfortable with it. You have let it define you for years, it's your security. If you give it up you could get hurt, yeah I know. I understand I do. Put it in there. All of the thoughts, "I am not good enough", "I will never be enough", put those in there. All of your hurts, all of your hurts, all of your senses of security that aren't of God Himself, put them in the box.

Now I want you to imagine Jesus on the cross. He is bleeding, he has on the crown of thorns. He is naked, we like to think he had something covering his virgin genitals, but he didn't. He was naked, beaten, flogged. Covered in dirt, covered in his own blood. He was unrecognizable. There is a sign over his head that says, "King of the Jews". He has nails, through his hands, his feet are crossed and nailed to the post. There is nothing else holding him there. He is dangling by the nails. There is no little block under his feet, yes we like to think that there was something for him to stand on but it wasn't there. He is hanging on the cross.

I want you to walk up and put the box at the foot of the cross. Where it has been sunk into the ground. Can you look at his face? Can you see his anguish? Can you see the tears that stream his face? Can you see the tears mixed with the blood?

His blood is flowing from his body, it is filling the box. It is covering all of those entitlements, all of those feelings of pity. He is pouring himself out for you. He chose this, just for you. Just to fill your box of concerns and things that keep you from Him. And if it wasn't enough for him to hang there alive on the cross, when he died the centurion pierced his side and the rest of his body fluids and more blood came rushing down to cover that box.

John 19:31-37, "It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was the Passover). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also can believe. These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and “They will look on the one they pierced.”

1 John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

We are purified from all sin. Not some sin, not just past sin, ALL sin. All that I will commit for the rest of my life. ALL. Whether I did it as a believer or a non-believer it is an ALL. If I think that some is covered and some is not than it's no different that me looking up at the face of Jesus on the cross and tell Him "It isn't enough". "Your sacrifice may be good for some, but you know what I have done and it's not enough for me".

Lord, even as I write this I know that my own box is full. There are things that I have held onto for comfort, because they are all I have ever known. Lord, I want to move forward and I know that I can't do that if I can still trip over the feels and the condemnation from my past. Lord, I thank you for your prepaid forgiveness and I take this moment to thank you with a passion and a love that I didn't know that I could feel. How many times I have made your sacrifice seem so insignificant. How many times I have had it my own way instead of investing in you, taking the payment that you have paid for my and living in victory. Lord, you are my breath, my hope, my salvation and my hope. The price has been paid, Lord I pray that I will begin to see that in every moment in every instance. Lord, save me from myself. I pray all of this in the name of your son. Amen.