My 1,000th Post!!

Funny - I had all sorts of plans and ideas for my 1,000th post!

I was wondering about taking a look back to where it all began and some of the highlights and low points of this journey. But that's not how it turned out. Maybe I'll do that or maybe I won't - but there seems to me to be no better way to start a Monday morning than being truly Cross-centred and by that I mean not staring misty-eyed at some icon on my wall. I don't have any icons of the Cross on my wall because (thank God!) He is not there! He's alive today and His Spirit is right next to me ... there. But I have begun transcribing again with a fury - and I've got a few Rob Rufus sermons to catch up. I'm typing "We are God's Workmanship Created in Christ Jesus" (preached on the 24th May 2009) - and what better statement of victory to begin the week with than this?!

"Men wouldn’t die for something they had not experienced first-hand. These men were willing to die, to be burnt alive and crucified upside down for this One because they had seen Him. You don’t go and steal a body and hide it in a secret grave somewhere, claim He is resurrected and then be prepared to die for that. There was no money gained for them – only martyrdom and suffering and death.

You have to see Christ – He is your workmanship that you are created in. You have to see Him as Almighty God before time began – you have to see that He is the one who created time and see He created all things and see the uniqueness of His virgin birth and see the uniqueness of His life of miracles on this planet and see the wonder of the Cross and the cosmic consequences of the Cross where He took away the laws, rules and regulations that were opposed to you and judged you and He cancelled them at the Cross and He forgave all your sins 2, 000 years ago there and took your sins on Himself and didn’t just carry your sins. He obliterated them and He made them totally disappear and He gave you His righteousness!

He disarmed the powers and authorities at the Cross and He triumphed over them and they are now under your feet and you have total authority in the cosmic consequences of the Cross. We are not engaged in a battle to pull principalities and powers down and neutralise them. They have already been neutralised at the Cross! Don’t agree with the lies that they put on your mind. Don’t agree with the depression and oppression and negativity and confusion that they put on your mind! If you keep disagreeing with them they are powerless and don’t have any rights – you are in total dominion over them whether you feel like it or not because you are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus!".

The "Monday-morning" syndrome?! What's that?! I've often wondered about Christ's cries from the Cross. I wondered what they sounded like. I remember a certain preacher once reading them out with the intention of impacting his hearers with the gravity of what they meant. But it's the final cry that is gripping me today - this early Monday morning. I'm convinced that;

"It is FINISHED!".

- was a cry of victory because the Son of God knew what He had done and maybe He heard the cries and screams and groans coming from the defeated and toppled powers of darkness. Maybe He heard the ripping of the veil and in His Spirit saw the ripping of the spiritual veil and the glory of God beginning to shine forth. Maybe He saw the Father close the book of the Old Covenant law once and for all never to judge mankind by it again. Maybe He saw the Father's wrath and anger disappear into a cosmic vortex never to be seen again!

It is truly finished - and to finish means; "To come to an end : terminate ... to defeat or ruin utterly and finally ... to bring to an end" and my personal favourite;

"To bring about the death of".

Thanks to all who still come and read my ramblings - may you know truly and experientially that you are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus this morning!