A Poem of Hope: The Beautiful Cross

Posted on by the lazarus pit
cross_sunset_silhouette_239783

No, sadly. It was me.

The Beautiful Cross

The cross, an ancient murderous weapon of choice

Would be used to shame its lowly victim and silencing any with a voice

It was gruesome indeed

Loved ones would plead

But still I see…

A Beautiful Cross

The cross, the most beautiful message of Christianity

Loyal hearts shown, through seal marked foreheads our humanity

Palm leaves of ashes displayed

Of the “Good News” story played

As we began to see…

A Beautiful Cross

The cross was warmly received until the creation of the gun

Let’s cover our eyes to the dying Christ, when there on a cross, there is none

He is not there, for he has risen indeed!

The Cross? No. Sadly, it was me.

A sinner’s heart redeemed, now you see…

A Beautiful Cross

The cross, was no match, for my Savior, Jesus Christ

For everything he touches, changes, no matter how horrible the device of life

He can change something so dark into light

He gives me hope then, in my trials I fight

It was Him, not the world, who has shown me…

The Beautiful Cross

My grandfather is a very good person. He has become wise in his many years of living. One night in our conversations he began to quote poetry to me. This led to his quoting me of the many passages of poetic scriptures he has memorized from the Bible. In this moment, I realized how much he enjoyed a good poem which led me to write this poem for him.

You see, my grandfather has always been involved in church as far back as I can remember. He is a Mason of a high degree. He loves God. His wisdom comes from his many years of experience. My grandfather and our family have gone through a lot of things. And I was hoping that this poem would be able to give him hope.

We all struggle don’t we? We have trials upon trials heaped upon us. Some of these trials are our own making. Guess what? Jesus paid the price for that. Some of these trials are someone else’s doing and it ends up hurting our life. Guess what? Jesus paid the price for that. Sometimes our trials are the worst, I mean absolutely the worse when they are situations in life that hurt us, that simply are because they just happen. Someone gets an autoimmune disorder or someone leaves this life far too soon. Jesus paid the price for that too.

God wasn’t teaching us a lesson in those moments. God is in the comfort not the cause. God is comforting us in our grief. He isn’t playing some game with us. He is making good happen out of the situations we find ourselves in or get ourselves in. Out of whatever situation, God is picking up the pieces from our brokenness. It doesn’t matter how we are shattered. We are a broken people. And he alone is able to mend us, no matter how crushed to pieces we are… all  is made new, through his sacrifice. He says, I know. I know. I have been there. It was awful. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Just breathe… I am here.

And even when we feel the lowest. You know… the times when we are the most ugly of all humans… (You know the time I am talking about right?) Well, he still isn’t going to give up on us. Not even then. No matter how ugly, how messy, how responsible we feel for something so irreparable for us to have experienced in our life… God says, my child, you were paid for IN FULL. You have been redeemed! Isn’t that just beautiful?

The Cross helps us recognize how beautiful it is that our guilty lives our paid in full. That it wasn’t a cross, not really, that Jesus was suffering through, it was our sins… Sound pretty hopeless for us huh? But it isn’t. Because Jesus took a hopeless and crushed people and turned them into something beautiful through the Cross. Jesus’ life was an infinite and eternal sacrifice of redemption. What? Redemption? What… hope? Yes! (Alma 34:10,14)

So the Cross ironically becomes a symbol of an old life being dead and buried and new life purchased and bought. Jesus just changed in our old clunkers sinful lives and got us a brand new life, with a lifetime warranty! No kidding. This is way better than the Price is Right cars, huh? (Unless your problems are with cars. Sorry for the analogy then.)

However, this Cross was enough, to cover all sins… past, present and future tense sins, so that we can be with God, in heaven, free from any and all damage. And if he can make a murderous weapon beautiful… what will he do for our lives? Wait a minute… what did he do for our lives again? Everything. He gave his innocent life for our guilty lives. We all have been redeemed. Isn’t that beautiful? He took our place on the Cross because he meant it when he showed us nothing will ever be able to separate us from his love.

God isn’t kidding.

It is my prayer, that we may eventually see, God really does mean it when he says, nothing will separate us. That means the things that you are keeping hidden from everyone else that only God knows, guess what? Nothing. (Romans 8:38–39)

Absolutely, nothing can separate you from his love. I promise.

The Resurrection and the Life

Posted on by the lazarus pit
Copy_of_Lazarus20tomb

There is always hope.

Since the beginning of time, God has been using our physical senses in our physical world, to help all of us explore and understand, our spiritual senses in our spiritual world of faith.

In the Biblical account of a man named Lazarus, he dies, is buried and then is raised from the dead and given new life. So, his heart stopped. He was declared dead and then buried. Days later, this man was made alive. His heart became pumping once more. His lungs filled with air once more. And once more, through the power only found in the very person of Christ Jesus our Lord, Lazarus was raised from the dead.

This should provide hope to all of us. No matter how dead we are in our current state, God will be there to revive our hearts and give us breath once more. There are no lost causes. If we feel as if our choices have led us too far away from God, simply put, we are wrong. God is the master of bringing dead things back to life, for he is the Resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25)

As an educator of tiny humans and missionaries who have been helping me explore my physical world, wherefore, helping me to understand the spiritual world of faith, the messages found within the Lazarus Pit are, so I’ve been told, long over due. Now, many of my theological ideologies of the physical realm mimicking the spiritual realm from my own life’s experiences and perspectives, will be found and explored in one place. Right here in the Pit. If you do not find these writings as spiritually rejuvenating, then disregard them. God, I would assume would be speaking to you in another way. However, I welcome clean and sincere questions and comments about my posts from all of you.

With a special nod to my favorite comic book heroes, through the use of the title the Lazarus Pit… there is, however, no superhero who will ever take the place of the one who had the power to save us all from death… no other name, but Jesus. Jesus is the giver of life. Jesus’ only weakness is you. Therefore because of his unconditional love for us, he should be seen by all of us as our personal superhero.

This love, which led him to lay down his own life on the Cross of Calvary and later, this love, led him to have the ability to raise his own life up again on the third day, is a powerful, powerful love. (Matthew 27:50) Can you believe Jesus died for you? Can you believe he now lives to give you hope and life once more?

It is my prayer that the Lazarus Pit will help get our spiritual hearts going again, to uplift us, and to encourage us to take in maybe our first breath of hope which maybe we haven’t taken in a long time. Let this breath fill up our spiritual lungs, to be able to praise our Almighty God. He is the one who is able to give us CPR for our spiritual lives and the one who raises all of us who are spiritually dead to a new life of hope found in him. This new life is given to each of us by the power of the name of Jesus and through the power of his unconditional love, which he has for every single one of us, who he loved so much he laid down his life for, so that we may have hope once more.(2 Nephi 26:24)

Yes, this means that kind of love was even meant for you… especially you. I promise.