THE POWER OF THE CROSS; PART TWO.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY TWENTY NINE.

EXODUS 15:22-25.   So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses saying, "What shall we drink?" So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them.
The children of Israel had just been delivered from Egypt, they had seen God's miracles and provision in that, they had just crossed the Red Sea and seen God destroy their enemies. When they come to Marah and the water is bitter they immediately turn on Moses, even though they had seen God's hand in their journey so far, they complained against Moses. Moses cries out to God and God shows him a tree and instructs Moses to cast the tree into the water, when he does the water is made sweet and they can drink it.  
So, how does this story relate to us. Egypt represents the world and all it represents. When we come to Christ we are delivered from the power of the world and its influences through the cross of Christ, as we saw in the previous study. Our journey into the promised land is the process of sanctification and being led into all that God has for us, we will all face our Red Sea experiences in that journey, where we know that the enemy is pursuing us and there does not seem to be anyway out. It is out these times that we must stop, trust in God and watch Him lead us into victory and destroy the enemy that is pursing us. Marah represents the times when God wants us to deal with the things in our lives that are causing us to dry up spiritually, situations that are bitter to our spiritual walk, things that we cannot partake of because they will cause spiritual loss in our lives. If the children of Israel had drunk those waters they would not have quenched their thirst or sustained them, on the contrary they would have only poisoned them, the same applies to us. The tree in this story represents the cross of Christ, it is only through the cross that we can be delivered from Egypt, set free from the work of the enemy and led into the promised land. It is only as we apply the work of the cross to those areas of our lives that are bitter for us that God can set us free from them. Jesus said in John 7:37-38 that if anyone thirsts they should come to Him and drink and that out of our innermost being shall flow rivers of living water, we can only come to Him because of the work of the cross, it is as we apply the work of the cross to our lives that we can drink of the living waters that Jesus offers us. 
The story of the woman at the well in John 4 is an important part of this, the woman came to the well looking to quench her thirst, to get natural water. She met Jesus at the well, He pointed out that if she drank of this natural then she would thirst again, but He could offer her water that would satisfy her real thirst, her spiritual thirst. Jesus say past her natural need to her spiritual need. Our lives are the same, we cannot meet our spiritual thirst or deal with those issues in our lives by natural means, it is only as we drink of the spiritual water that Jesus offers us that our spiritual needs will be met, The woman at the well said that they were looking forward to the Messiah, Jesus told her that He was the one that she was looking forward to. The only reason He could offer her the living water that would meet her true spiritual need was because Jesus knew what He had come to do, that it would only be as He dealt with mans fallen nature on the cross that we could receive the well of living water that would spring up to eternal life. 
My prayer is that when we are faced with our Marah moments we would not look to the natural to quench our spiritual thirst, but rather we would take the cross of Christ and the work of that cross and apply it to our lives, recognizing that we have been crucified with Christ, that it is Christ who lives in us, and it is only Jesus who can supply us with the living waters that will quench our spiritual thirst. AMEN.  

THE POWER OF THE CROSS.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY TWENTY EIGHT.

GALATIANS 6:14-15.    But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
Paul, in these verses shares a vital truth that we must all come to know and understand and walk in. Paul recognizes that our boast must be in nothing else other than the cross of Christ, he even goes as far as to say that God would forbid him from boasting in any thing else. Paul shows us here that we are no longer under the authority of the world system, it has been crucified to him. In Colossians 1:13 he says that we have been delivered from the power of darkness and conveyed into Christ's kingdom, again showing us that Satan and his system no longer has authority over us. In our verse here Paul shows us that it is through the power of the cross that this has happened. Paul also shows us that he is now also dead to the influences and attractions of the world, when he said, "And I to the world", we have to realize the power of the work of the cross in our lives, because it is only through the work of the cross that we are set free from Satan's power and the pull and influence of the world system. 
Galatians 2:20 For I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Paul again in this verse is emphasizing the importance of the cross of Christ and His work in our lives, when Jesus was crucified we were crucified with Him, when we acknowledge Christ as our Lord and Saviour and are born again the work of the cross is applied to our lives, our old man is now dead, Christ now lives in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, we are now new creations in Him but it is up to us to apply that work in our lives on a daily basis and recognize that our life is in Christ. Paul says in Galatians 2:20 that His life is now in Christ and it is by faith that he lives in Christ. 
In Galatians 6:15 Paul again emphasizes the point that it is not about what we can do in the flesh, but that we are now new creations in Christ, born again, the old man done away with because of the cross of Jesus. It is not about us trying to work for God, but allowing God to work through us as we recognize that we are now dead, that there is no good thing in ourselves, that is in our flesh, but it is only as we allow the life of Christ in us to work through us that we can accomplish that which Christ has called us to. 
We all want to know what it is to walk in the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, in the power of the resurrected life that Jesus offers us. Paul says in Philippians 3:10 That I may know Him in the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.  This verse is not saying that we are going to have to suffer, no, it is saying that if we want to know the power of the resurrected life, then we need to realize that it is only available to us because of what Christ suffered on our behalf and we must know that we have been crucified with Him, that's what it means to be conformed to His death, as Paul said in Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ" 
My prayer for all of us is that we would all get the greater revelation of what it means to be crucified with Christ, that we would never boast in how good we are or in what we have done, no matter how good we might think it was. That our boast, like Paul, would only ever be in what Christ has done for us through His death on the cross and that we would always know that it is not us that lives but Christ who lives in us that gives us the ability to live and walk in this Christian life. AMEN.