Whatever Your Cross

Whatever your cross

Whatever your pain

There will always be sunshine.

After the rain

Perhaps you may stumble

Perhaps even fall

But God's always there

To help you through it all.

Life is a Gift...

Today before you say an unkind word 

------ Think of someone who can't speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food 

------ Think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife 

------- Think of someone who's crying out to GOD for a companion.

Before whining about the distance you drive 

------- Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job 

------- Think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down 

------- Put a smile on your face and think: you're alive and still around.

Author Unknown

Christ is the chain-breaker.....

From this sermon...

Jesus makes a very simple statement that relates to a very big problem: our ability to walk away from our old life.

Jesus says..... that we should not be looking back at the things of the world and our old life when He has a better life awaiting us.

That we need to give up our old ways and look to His ways for our lives. Cast out the old man and let the born-again man live to please our Father in heaven.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

When we accepted Christ as our Lord and savior we have signed a contract with Him to follow His lead and not to long for the things of this world, to look forward to the eternal things and not worry so much about the earthly things. In being a disciple of Christ we are to press forward toward the mark that God has set before us. Because when we look back while we are walking we will run into or fall into something. Don’t look back; keep an eye on what lays ahead for you.

“And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:61-62

In this scripture we see that Jesus wants us to look to the greater priorities that God wants for us, and to not let the lesser priorities of life cause use to look back at the way we were. Again, we should not let life’s lesser priorities become greater priorities than God’s work because we then become little use to Him, and we become unfit or unusable for His service. Remember that you can not plough a straight line if you are looking back at the row you ploughed or for that fact anything behind you. For this let us use as an example 1 Kings 19:19-21; this is where Elisha is plowing the field with his oxen and Elijah walks by him, and as scripture tells us, that Elijah cast his mantle upon Elisha. And we see in verse 20 that Elisha quickly understood that he was being called into service for God. But he asks Elijah if he could go and kiss his father and mother goodbye; to which, Elijah replied that he should just go back then. But we can see in verse 21 that Elisha takes the very tools he was used to working with and burned them, leaving him nothing to return to. Elisha when called by God burned his bridge to his old life and started looking forward to the new life God had for him. Don’t look back, because in doing so you will make crooked the straight path that leads to Christ.