And neither should we be! Remember the two men in white (angels) that showed up as Jesus ascended to heaven? They said, \u201cMen of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen Him going into heaven.\u201d (Acts 1:11)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, you know what? I think God is sending me as a messenger today to remind us that He and \u201cwe\u201d are no longer on the cross. We too are risen! There is work to do and hanging out at the cross \u2013 though it\u2019s a sacred emblem of Christ\u2019s suffering and shame where He paid the ultimate price for our sins and mistakes, it is NOT where we should stay! We MUST be about the business of sharing the good news to those Who are burned out, tired, worn, weary, lost and asking: \u201cIs this all there is?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last Sunday, our pastor announced that $15K had been raised for the families of Uvalde, TX. He took another offering to send even more to the brokenhearted families there for funeral expenses and other much needed support. That is called \u201ccoming off the cross and doing something about the needs of others\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is something to be said for the mental state of anyone who could have conspired this horrific event and furthermore, putting blame on those who were careless in providing aid as soon as possible. But blame doesn\u2019t change the hearts of those families. That\u2019s why they need us, our neighbors and our own families need us to come off our crosses and do something to make a difference.
I think our postman forgot to leave us the letter that says: \u201cYou are not living in the land of the dying. You are living in the land of the living because YOU are people of the resurrection who believe in our Lord Who promises to never leave you or forsake you. You are His ambassadors for what\u2019s right in this world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know how easy it is to live in the posture of our hearts bearing a cross. The weight of it all \u2013 so much devastation, calamity, broken hearts, pain and suffering. Yes, it is gun violence, mental illness, hatred, anger, senseless and diabolical brutality. At its core, is the same one who plotted against Jesus from the time He was born and who knows his days are numbered. He is out to KILL, STEAL and DESTROY. (John 10:10) He is the same one who thought he had won when Jesus died on the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know that all of us carry crosses, but Jesus didn\u2019t stay on the cross. He was gently taken down, carefully bound in a tomb, rose from the dead, and forty days later ascended into Heaven. Do I live with this reality, this truth guiding my life? Or am I like the Apostles looking into the sky wondering where Jesus went? Wondering why He left me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think this is how the devil deceives us into carrying crosses that were never meant for us to carry. Instead, we should be living as people fully alive with the singular target of Heaven as our mark. We burn out doing things that don\u2019t bring us joy, don\u2019t fulfill us, don\u2019t really matter\u2014aka living with the posture of cross bearers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know I sound like I\u2019m still in the Easter season. As a matter of fact, I am! I am daily choosing to do the things that make me feel alive, the things that really matter to me. I\u2019m discovering the crosses don\u2019t go away, but they have a greater purpose than before. I look at them now and look upward to heaven! Heaven is our mission and taking as many with us as we can is our goal!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And neither should we be! Remember the two men in white (angels) that showed up as Jesus ascended to heaven? They said, \u201cMen of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23903,23904],"tags":[23897,1210,1769,23900,1417,23901,3275,3296,23902,2066,40,749,159,23895,23894,23899,23898,23896],"class_list":["post-16190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-easter-season","category-heaven-is-our-mission","tag-about-the-masters-business","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-come-off-the-cross","tag-cross","tag-cross-bearer","tag-easter-season","tag-empty-tomb","tag-heaven-is-our-mission","tag-home-sweet-home","tag-inspiration","tag-jesus","tag-john-1010","tag-men-of-galilee","tag-no-longer-on-cross","tag-tx","tag-uvalde","tag-we-are-risen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16193,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16190\/revisions\/16193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}