The Power of The Cross

Last year one of my daughter's had a birthday in which we gave her jewelry kit. It came with a couple of bracelets, a necklace and a box of charms where you could choose which charm(s) you wanted to wear each day. It was a pre-determined kit so I didn't know exactly what kinds of charms were inside so we all watched my daughter go through each charm, admiring the shapes and jewels. Then, she gasped with joy as she lifted one of the charms for us to see, "OH WOW! A CROSS! I've always wanted a cross!" and she immediately chose that as her first charm.

I'll never forget sitting there with a million thoughts running through my head...I love the cross. I was thrilled she loved it too and that she chose to put it on first. And then came my paranoid thoughts, "Oh no...what if kids won't play with her if she wears that? We never taught her that members of the church don't wear the cross. What if she's shunned or wrongly judged?"

I decided not to share my thoughts with her but rather I decided let her love the cross, and cross-examine my thoughts.

For two years I have had one eyelid that twitches nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I say 'nearly' because maybe it stops when I'm asleep, I don't know. I've tried everything. I eat bananas, I take a copious amount of vitamins daily, I get more sleep, and after about losing my mind, I opted to have botox put into that eyelid to see if it would deaden the nerves and halt the twitching (thank's for that suggestion Google), it didn't work (and it didn't make me look younger either...double loss).

Last week my eyebrow on the opposite eye started to twitch and pulsate. My left eyelid twitching, now my right eyebrow - what in the world?! I was pretty sure my sanity was about to go out the window. I had a blessing in the past that helped for a time so as I sat pondering on this new twitch, I saw the cross in my mind. And so, taking my finger and stroking it across my eyebrow in the shape of the cross, I prayed and said, "I worship Jesus Christ."

The twitching stopped immediately. I was stunned.

A few hours later, the twitching came back, so I repeated the above and, it stopped immediately. I am going nearly a full day now with no twitching and, when I do get a twitch, I repeat my prayer, with full heart and intention, and it stops. I am humbled. How have I missed this?

The power of The Cross of Jesus. 

The power of His blood and His flesh in submission to God's will. 

There is none like Him and none beside Him. 

He truly is Lord, God, and King. 

Ruler of all Creation. 

What I do know is that the adversary, and his minions, hate the Cross. And they mock the cross. Moroni gives a glimpse of the dark sacrament of the evil one in Moroni chapter 9 and the book of Moses chapter 5 gives also more insights in the the secret combinations which are had among us today which are designed to gain dark power through dark emblems.

A few months ago I drew this sketch as I contemplated Christ hanging on a tree: 

Acts 5:30 the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 

The Tree of Life, The Lamb without blemish, took upon Him our sins. He wore a Crown of Thorns symbolizing His taking the curse given to Adam and Eve when they were cast out of the Garden into a world of thorns (Genesis 3:18). And then that same Christ, in full submission to His Father's will, hung on the cross...He died on a tree - taking us back to the Tree of Life in the Garden in whom all Redemption and Salvation is found. Isaiah put it best when he said, "...with His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

"In the Cross is salvation; in the Cross is protection against our enemies; in the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the Cross is strength of mind; in the Cross is joy of spirit; in the Cross is excellence of virtue; in the Cross is perfection of holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of eternal life, save in the Cross." 

-Thomas Kempis

“If Christ is God, He cannot sin, and if suffering was a sin in and by itself, He could not have suffered and died for us. However, since He took the most horrific death to redeem us, He showed us in fact that suffering and pain have great power.” 

-E.A. Bucchianeri

 

“Until you see the cross as that which is done _by_ you, you will never appreciate that it is done _for_ you.”
-John Scott

“On the cross, we see what God did to satisfy his yearning for us. He went that far. He went all the way. The blushing effusiveness of heaven’s bowels funnelled down into the crucifixion of Christ. Repent of your small thoughts of God’s heart. Repent and let him love you. ” -Dane C. Ortlund

“At Gethsamane and Calvary we see him enduring our hell so that we might be set free to enter into his heaven.” -Philip Edgcumbe Hughes

“Remember, God placed man on earth and gave him dominion over the earth to cultivate and steward it. The fall of man subjected the earth to the same corruption as the hearts of man, but the work Jesus did on the cross set the course for the reversal of this process and the return to our intended mandate. Instead, we as Christians tend to sit back while those who do not know the Lord cultivate and dominate the earth. This is not wrong. They are in fact doing what they were created to do, but they are doing it under a different master. Consider what the world would look like if we took up our God-given mandate and released, by restoration, the glory of creation to a watching world!”      -Karla Perry 

I LOVE YOU JESUS. I Glory in You. Help me as I move forward in my love of You. 

Even Unto Death

by

Audrey Assad

https://youtu.be/uAfp8vg4Jz8