When Solomon had finished building the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, the LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. The LORD said to him: ‘I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. (1 Kings 9:1-3)
Wow, this should be the goal of our lives, that we live them in such a pleasing way unto the Lord that He consecrates our lives and we carry His Name above ours. In essence this is what the Lord Jesus Christ has already done for us. The moment He allowed the temple guards to take Him, He started on the road to purchase us this reward from the Father.
Yet the question must be asked “Is our life worthy of this ”
In other words, for the born-again believer does our life reflect a position of gratitude towards the Lord was the price He has paid that NOW the Father look’s down upon us with a smile of favor?
Think about it for a moment, about what Jesus had to endure that we could be covered with His righteousness. The beating, the humiliation, the shame and the cross. And He had to do all this not because of what He had done , no for He was an innocent man. He had to endure it all for the price of “our sins” called for it as the only lawful sentence in the Kingdom hall’s of justice. For the penalty of sin is death and eternal separation from the Lord God.
He was indeed the King of kings, the glorious One, the only begotten Son of God. He knew Heaven as His Home, and He maintained the balance of the world spinning around the sun. At any moment He could but open His mouth and Heaven would have emptied of Angelic Armies to come forth to His rescue. He could of given one comment and His accusers and all the Roman soldiers around Him would have turned to dust. Yet out His GREAT LOVE for us, He willingly endured it all, as a lamb going to slaughter.
Picture for a moment (those of you who watched the “Passion of Christ” movie will remember the scene) as the Roman guards stood about Him, taunting Him, humiliating Him, shaming Him, and they get the grand idea that if He truly is the King of Jew’s He need’s to be crowned. So they fashioned a crown out of thorn’s, the very creation of the Lord Himself, and they did not merely set it on His head. No, they pushed it with great force upon the precious head of the Savior of man-kind, past His beautiful head of hair, through the flesh til they felt it hit the bone of His skull. And He said not a word – Oh’ the amazing love and compassion does our Lord have that He would endure such pain on our behalf. Such love and the patience does our God in Heaven have, that He could endure watching what His creation was doing to His Only Begotten Son.
Now, having pictured the guards doing this, something rises up in us. Some would say that if they were there they would have stopped the guards, others that they should have been brought to justice for their crimes against an innocent man. Yet the truth is, we in our own sinful lives, placed those thorn’s upon the Lord’s head. Each and every time we sin, it is as though we are but adding a thorn to the crown our King did wear.
Have we ever stopped for a moment to realize that Jesus endured it all for us? That every blow, every snap of the whip taring flesh off from His body, every thorn on that crown was because of “our sins”
We must ask the question daily – Am I re crowning the King of kings today with a crown of thorns? Or am I brightening the Glory of His eternal crown with my life, lived according to His Will.
Can the Lord look at our lives today and say that He has heard our prayers and that He is consecrating our bodies, these earthen temples for which He has filled with His Holy Spirit?
Do we glory over the Lord’s eyes and heart being upon us? Or are there moment when we wish He would turn His head because of the shame in our lives.
Ask Holy Spirit to search your life today, to see if there be anything that would once again place that crown of thorns upon the Masters head. If the light of His Holiness point’s to something, repent of it and turn away from, He will give you the grace to over-come what ever sin you may be struggling with. But you must first desire to walk away from it.
Our God is the greatest example of love in all the universe, there is none like our God. The lover of our soul’s, the guardian of our eternal destiny, to victor of our salvation, He who not only destroyed the power of sin over our lives, but He who paid the penalty of such sin with the surrender of His right’s, with the humiliation, shame, beating, whipping ,and the nailing of His precious flesh to the cross.
Let us today and every day forward awake with the commitment that today we shall not re-crown of King with the thorns of our sin’s! Ask for the abundance of His Grace to flow into our lives empowering us to live lives free of sin!
For our God is an Awesome God!!!!!!
~Russ Welch
Radical Disciples - A Remnant Revolution 