Giving It Your All

[HKHaugan]

“For we are God’s workmanship, created to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph.2:10 NIV).”

 

What I like about this verse is its no nonsense declaration of what God is up to, of how Jesus is our salvation, the way the Holy Spirit gives us direct access to the Father and our personal part and purpose in His plan.  He has invested His Son’s life in us.  It is the Cross that has brought us this realization and inclusion in His plan.  We are not only a part of a movement in our age but also part of an ongoing building program He is shaping.  The ‘I Am’ really does care about us.  He really does like us.  He really loves us in the very deepest sense, His sense. 

 

Again, we just have to look at the Cross, consider its beckoning to our mind, our heart and our spirit.  The image of that One Person, eyes on His Father, hands outstretched for us to grasp, the true trail of tears and blood. 

 

What is the message to the mind?  Believing that God sent His Son for each one of us, that His death means life for us?  That in Him alone is the our salvation and that we are members of His Body and given special roles to play as we live out this new relationship with Him?  Here the Cross moves us to ponder, to think, reason and consider the meaning of His life, death and Resurrection.

 

What is the message to the heart?  Yes, we feel---but do we trust?  Can we for a moment just reach out and take Jesus’ hand, the one still nailed to the Cross?  What is that like?  What do you sense in this moment as you read that idea?  Is there a place within that moves just a little?  In the heart only questions can evoke personal response.  It is what you know about who you are that comes to bear in that moment when Jesus’ immoveable nailed hands can’t move and only yours can. Will you reach toward them and grasp them or just one? The imagery may be in the mind but the question really is---where is your heart? 

 

What is the message to the spirit?  Is there that spark, that burning sense of the need to move out, conscious of a deeper urge to step back into the world and let the Spirit fill your every next moment?  Has the dead spirit come to life through His Spirit?  That will be the gift of faith reviving, enlivening and leading you to the mind and heart of someone else.  There is always that nudge, the sense that you need to act, to give yourself to honor the outstretched hand of the One who has given you this new sense of being, spiritual being.  His hand becomes your hand as you extend it in this new live faith that has gripped your spirit.

 

We are called to take up our cross in belief, trust and faith.  So mind, heart and spirit, having been sent messages, line up in anticipation of the Spirit.  It is the Spirit that will touch one or the other for a response.  Sometimes it’s the heart that reacts first, sending a note to the mind.  Then again the spirit might be moved and we are urged to bring a word of comfort, of encouragement, or an action to help another, or to minister, or to start a ministry.   Being one with Jesus brings a whole new dimension, the spiritual dimension, to fill us with His presence so that we can’t help but be His wherever we are and act accordingly. 

 

“That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home (Eph.2:19-22 The Message).”