Family of God: Re: [FamilyofGod] The Word of the Cross

Amen michal

On Sat Nov 27th, 2010 11:24 PM CST Michael J. Knight wrote:

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>The Word of the Cross
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>Chapter 53 of Isaiah is the chapter of the cross and begins with a
>question: "Who has believed our message?" Who in Israel would believe
>what Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would come, not with power, but
>as a despised person, as a root out of a dry ground?
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>"He grew up before His Father" (Isa. 53:2). The secret of Jesus' life
>was that He did not live before the face of men but before the face of
>His Father. He was not attractive to men when He hung on the cross. We
>read that "He had no appearance that we should be attracted to Him."
>(Isa. 53:2).
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>The message of the gospel is not attractive to man even today. Christ
>was not accepted by the world in the first century; and He is not
>accepted by the world in the twentieth century. The Christ that some
>claim to appreciate today is a false Christ and not the real One Who
>spoke against sin, against the love of money, and taught people to love
>even their enemies. The real Christ is despised, forsaken and rejected
>even today.
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>And if you follow the real Christ, I assure you that you will face the
>same rejection by the world that He faced. You will be despised even by
>much of Christendom, just as Jesus was by most of the religious people
>of His day. It was not the Greeks and Romans who despised Jesus and
>rejected Him, but the Pharisees (the fundamentalists of His day).
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>Who has a heart to accept the word of the cross - even today? We can be
>excited when we hear the wonderful promises of blessing that are found
>in the Scriptures. But the word of the cross comes along with the
>promises in the same package. You cannot have one without the other. One
>reason for the shallowness in the lives of many Christians today is that
>they have tried to claim the promises without taking up their cross.
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>Notice that it says three times in verse Isa. 53:7 that Jesus was
>silent. "He did not open His mouth. He was silent. He did not open His
>mouth." As believers, we must know how to open our mouths wide and shout
>to the Lord at times when we praise and thank Him. We must also know how
>to keep our mouths shut when we are insulted, criticized and slandered.
>Jesus knew how to praise His Father and He also knew how to be silent.
>Unfortunately it is the other way round with many Christians. They are
>silent when it comes to shouting God's praises in the meetings. But they
>do know how to shout and defend themselves when someone accuses them or
>hurts them. But that is the characteristic of an upside-down world, and
>Christians must be different.
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>In Isa. 53:7, we read that the Father was pleased to crush Jesus –
>and "therefore He will see His seed and prolong His days." Those are the
>results that come out of the crushing. "He will prolong His days" means
>that Jesus would be resurrected from the dead. And "the good pleasure of
>the Lord will prosper in His hand."
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>This is the way for us to go too. And as "He was numbered with the
>transgressors" (Isa. 53:12), we too will be misunderstood by other
>Christians and categorized with the wicked.
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>The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
>communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2 Corinthians
>13:14)
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>Love & Prayers,
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>Michael J. Knight.
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>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/A-C-T-S/
><http://groups.yahoo.com/group/A-C-T-S/>
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>I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will
>have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in
>my body, whether by life or by death. FOR TO ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST AND
>TO DIE IS GAIN (Philippians 1:20-21).
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