The True Amen

"The only real test of conviction is the desire and willingness to sacrifice."
-E. Gideon

I've shared before on various occasions from the pulpit that if the audience were to see me during the weakest points of my life they would drive me out of the church and never listen to me again.
Yet, if I were allowed the ability to share every thought they'd ever had (in traffic, at work, during those difficult moments or times of temptation) on a big screen with the entire congregation- then they'd be so ashamed that they'd run all the way to Mexico and never look back once.

I say that to state that I am far from a perfect individual and am in no way qualified to lead SGM, Inc. or to plant Teen Challenge in Peru- yet I am willing.
I will do whatever it takes to ensure that the Lord's name is glorified amongst the forgotten people of our world.

This, in my estimation, is the reason that the Lord is willing and able to use my wife and I- because we are willing to be used.

It is easy in a charismatic and many evangelical churches to get a hearty "AMEN" during a sermon. We're so used to saying "Amen" with our mouths in the church,

but as soon as Monday rolls around we say "No Man" with our actions.

The best AMEN we can give is to live out the message in it's fullness!

The truth is that our convictions don't mean ANYTHING if we aren't willing to change our lifestyle, our spending habits, our behaviors, etc... We can tell the world what we believe till we're blue in the face and NOT ONE HEART WILL BE MOVED. Yet, if we live out even a small fraction of what we believe we will see hearts all over our world melt in the light of our lived out convictions.

After speaking with a close friend tonight I was surprised at how someone he knew worked like a dog at two very high paying jobs putting in 90+ hours per week in order to purchase the house he desired. I was reminded of the times I worked 2 or 3 jobs at the same time in order to purchase something I wanted or to pay for a trip I desired to take. I pictured the average American worker who sweats, toils, suffers hardship and often insult and does it all so that they can have a better lifestyle.

We do it so that we can have a nicer car or a bigger home,

newer toys or better standards of living.

THEN I HAD TO ASK MYSELF- WOULD WE TOIL IN SUCH A MANNER

IF OUR ONLY REWARD WERE THE SOULS OF THE LOST?

I don't have to search long for an answer. The simple answer is NO.

The vast majority of Western Christians DO NOT toil and labor in order to advance God's will or His kingdom, we toil to advance OUR LIVES. We don't work hard to ensure that the lost hear the message of the Savior. We work so that our houses and attics can be filled with goods.

We are so focused on this temporal life that we are missing out on the ONLY REASON we are here on this Earth...TO DO GOD'S BIDDING.

The church is here on Earth for one reason only, and that is to glorify the name of Jesus Christ amongst mankind. Any other reason or motive for our labors, our lifestyle, our expenditures, etc.. is WORTHLESS in the light of eternity. Yet we've settled for smoke when we could have had the fire. We've settled for a message of prosperity when we could have had life change.

Lord help us to be eternally profound and temporally shallow. Help us God to live out the true amen and be willing to sacrifice everything if it means it will bring honor to Your name.

I INVITE EACH READER TO WATCH THIS 50 SECOND VIDEO

AND LET IT SPEAK TO YOUR HEART:

http://youtu.be/dZdMHZ5IZUI

What Are Your Reasons??

There is an ancient prayer that goes like this:

"Teach us, good Lord,

To serve Thee more faithfully;

To give and not to count the cost;

To fight and not to heed the wounds;

To toil and not to seek for rest;

To labour and not to ask for any reward

Save that of knowing that we do Thy will,

O Lord, our God. Amen."

After once again reading this prayer recently I was immediately thrown into a state of self-questioning. I began to ask myself what my reasons are. I know that such vague wording can lead to much confusion, so let me explain...

What are my reasons for serving the children in La Carbonera, Peru? Why do we provide food, education, clothing, medical care, etc... for them? Why have we sacrificed so much to help children that we hardly know personally? Why do so many other families give on a regular basis? Why do some sacrifice $100-$200 of their personal income each month to support these efforts? What are the reasons behind the giving, the toil, the laboring, and the hardship??

What are our reasons for planting Teen Challenge in Villa El Salvador? Do the churches that invite us to come share have an ulterior motive? Do the people who give towards these efforts have hidden agendas? Do we have some personal motive or selfish ambition in doing this work?

An amazing man of God, Paris Reihead, once said:

"If you'll ask me why I went to Africa, I'll tell you I went primarily to improve on the justice of God. I didn't think it was right for anybody to go to Hell without a chance to be saved. So I went to give poor sinners a chance to go to heaven."

Were his reasons noble from a humanistic perspective? ABSOLUTELY.

Were his reasons proper from a moral perspective? ABSOLUTELY.

Were his reasons selfless in nature and empathetic? ABSOLUTELY.

BUT, his motives were not right in the sight of God. Why?

Paris Reidhead explains his motives in his own words,

"I went out there motivated by humanism. I'd seen pictures of lepers, I'd seen pictures of ulcers, I'd seen pictures of native funerals, and I didn't want my fellow human beings to suffer in Hell eternally after such a miserable existence on earth."

Pastor Reidhead goes on to tell us that the Lord showed him that he didn't go to Africa for the sake of the people there or for the sake of the preacher, but for God's sake. Our only motivation should be that God would receive glory. Any humanitarian efforts MUST be done in Christ, for the glory of Christ, and in a manner that makes Christ known- otherwise we're simply putting a band-aid on a severed limb. Any preaching must be done in a manner that glorifies Jesus and honors Him alone; it must focus on His sacrifice and His righteousness- it cannot offer up humanitarian answers or temporal solutions or we've missed the point. If we offer temporal solutions to eternal problems then the results will have eternal implications for those we reach out to.

What are the reasons we are traveling around NY and working here in the US? What are our reasons for reaching out to 10 different nations across the globe? What are our reasons for continuing the work we've begun in Peru?

SIMPLY THIS-

THAT JESUS CHRIST MAY BE GLORIFIED AMONGST ALL MANKIND!!!

When our reasons are in alignment with God and His word we can easily fulfill the calling of the individual who wrote the prayer above. If we toil and labor and serve and give and suffer and fight for anyone or anything other than the glory of God then we do so in vain. But if our strivings are done to the glory of God then our hearts will not faint when hardship arises, rather our souls will strive onward to assure that we answer the call of our Lord in Matthew 28:19.

What are your reasons?

What drives you to do what you do on a daily basis?

Are your motives self-serving, humanitarian, or personal in nature?

OR are you living your life in such a manner that Jesus Christ, and Him alone, may receive the glory in all of your dealings??

Like A Weaned Child

Psalm 131 is one of the shorter chapters in the entire Bible, but it's words are potent!

"O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore." -ESV

I thought about that quite a bit the first time I ever read it. I began contemplating what it would have been like in the days before formula, the years before pacifiers. What was it like when the baby stayed at home 24/7 with mommy in their humble habitations and was then forced to be torn away from mother's breast and weaned in order to take on solid foods?

It must have been a brutal transition for both child and mother, especially without the comforts of modernity. Imagine a small baby receiving his comfort, his nutrition, his calm, and even his ability to rest from his mother's breast. Everything that he knows is found in this identity and now he must grow and must be weaned off of the breast and put onto something of greater substance- something that will cause greater growth and physical nourishment.

Though I am certainly no theologian I have studied the scriptures to a decent extent, but I had never heard a sermon or a theological dissertation on this particular passage of scripture. When I began contemplating what King David could have been referring to I came to a personal conclusion, I then went on to see if any Bible commentaries or theologians agreed with that assessment and they do.

LIKE A WEANED CHILD IS MY SOUL WITHIN ME.

When those infants were taken away from the one thing they found comfort in it became a difficult and trying experience for them and the hardest of their short little lives, but it opened the door to possibilities that they never knew existed. When a baby is weaned from the maternal milk he begins to try new flavors, new textures, etc.. A whole new world opens up to the baby and that one comfort that they couldn't do without quickly becomes a fading memory in the light of their new and much more abundant lifestyle.

When David said that he was like a weaned child he was in essence saying what each sincere Christian must say. I am not claiming to be someone great or haughty. I am no one and nothing before you, God! I am no greater than a small child, than an infant. Yet I want to be someone who is completely and utterly given over to you. Wean me from my sin, wean me from the worldly ways I've known. Though it aches me and tears my heart out from within me- wean me from my flesh and my sin Lord and teach me what it means to live abundantly in You!

This should be the cry of each believer- from day one until the day that we die. We are to calm and quiet the yearning for sin from within our sin filled selves. We are to be weaned from all that we once knew, painfully and sadly weaned.

There will be times when our flesh desires that old milk. We will yearn for it at times and we will look to it with affection and sadness- but to be torn from our past and brought into our future is going to be a costly and difficult task, yet it is necessary for a sincere follower of Christ.

I've watched as woman had to leave the man they've loved for years. I've watched as addicts had to be torn from their 'best friend' in drugs/alcohol/cigarettes. I've seen people give up friendships that meant the world to them. I've seen people give up even seemingly innocent things in order to bring glory to Christ's name.

This is the call of Christ- to leave all that is comfortable, familiar, easy, and all that our hearts desire and to follow Him with reckless abandon.

Like a weaned child our soul should eventually cease to long for the old ways and become content with the much greater things that God has given to us. Are we being weaned daily from the world and beginning to ingest the spiritual meat that our Father has prepared for us?

Like a weaned child has our sin slowly lost its place of comfort and fulfillment in our lives or are we a child in need of a weaning?

Two Christian Lizards

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF CHRISTIAN LIZARDS:

Every preacher has done it at one point or another, and it was bound to happen to me...

This past Sunday I was preaching in Albany and I felt a tug in my heart to preach from the heart and not from my notes so I threw the notes out the door and began allowing the Spirit of God to direct and guide me. As I was in the heat of the moment two great points hit me. The two types of Christian lizards.
I announced that I had two points to share...then, I touched on type one and completely forgot to share what the second lizard was. OOPS!
See what happens when we don't use notes ;-)

Since I missed the chance to share in Albany I figured now would be the suitable opportunity to share the two types of Christian lizards.

The way I look at it we have two types of lizards in many of our churches in America today. The unfortunate thing is that there is one lizard which is highly predominate across the modern western version of Christianity. That lizard looks much like you and much like me, perhaps one of the readers may do some soul-searching and find that they are part of this group.

The first lizard is a chameleon...

This type of lizard fits in at church. They worship with fervor and they give a hearty "AMEN" during the sermon. They tend to volunteer from time to time and like to socialize with church people. They speak 'Christianese' and act in a manner worthy of a Sunday morning service. They throw their money into the offering so all can see. This type of lizard is comfortable being around the church and around Christians.
The issue with this type of a lizard is that the chameleon doesn't only adapt to the church and the church people, the chameleon blends in wherever he goes. The chameleon fits in with the church, but the chameleon also fits in with the world.
This type of lizard looks just like the world and acts just like the world. They go out to all of the parties. They complain about their bosses in the workplace. They are comfortable being around the world and being around sin. Often when they encounter sin they choose to partake as well and do so gladly. They don't give good tips, they don't volunteer unless it gives them recognition. They are just like the world.
The 'Christian' chameleon isn't a Christian at all. They are social believers whom have learned to adapt to whatever situation they are in. In the church they are Christians, in the world they are sinners, in reality they are lost! These people fit in with everyone and live for nothing. They give Christ a bad name and they give the world an excuse to continue in their sin. This is the chameleon.

The second lizard is a lacertid lizard:

This type of lizard sheds it's skin frequently, nearly every day. They are famous for the constant shedding of their skin. These lizards are almost never comfortable. They are always striving for a new-self and striving to release the old-self. The lacertid lizard doesn't fit in anywhere and stands out everywhere he goes, because unlike the chameleon his colors don't adapt based on his environment. He stays the same everywhere he goes and sheds his old skin on a near-daily basis.
In the not-so-famous words of The Remnant Militia:
"I'm still shedding, crawling out of my old skin. You've been reintroduced again."

Far too many 'Christians' are content to be chameleons; adapting to church, adapting to the world, living in a world of self-delusion and never being true to their self.

Yet, for a Bible-believing Christian, EVERY new day should be a new US. As believers this isn't a petition- God commands it. We are to die to our flesh daily and pick up our cross EACH DAY. If we are made new in Christ then each new day is a new chance to shed the old man and reintroduce ourselves to Christ. We should wake up ready to shed off any of the dirt, filth and grime from yesterday and start each new day as a new man or woman.

Every believer should strive to be a lacertid- true to self, ridding themselves of their old nature daily, becoming new each day. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God, but we must ask if sin will rule or Christ...
WILL TOMORROW BE A DAY TO DIE TO SELF?
WILL TOMORROW BE A DAY TO BECOME RENEWED IN CHRIST?
OR will tomorrow be another day to try fitting in and continue living a lukewarm life despite the warnings in Revelation 3:16.

Let us awaken to Christ, shed off the old man, and become new in Him once again!! Just as the lacertid needs the light of day in order to shed his skin, so we need the light of God to shed off our old man.
AWAKE OH SLEEPER AND ARISE FROM THE DEAD AND CHRIST WILL SHINE ON YOU!

THY ROD AND THY STAFF

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

-PSALM 23:4-

As a youth I had a horrible habit of skimming over assigned reading in school. I would skim the entire book but absorb just the main points so that I could say that I finished the task at hand.

In like fashion, many of us approach the Bible in this same manner. We have a tendency to pick out the catchy parts and set the rest aside. Psalm 23:4 is no exception to this habit. If you took away my emphasis above what would stand out to all readers would be "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou are with me". This is an amazing statement and it stands the test of time as one of the most famous verses in all of the 31,102 verses in the Bible.

BUT- In case the title of this blog and the highlighted portion of the Scripture above have eluded you I'd like to focus for a moment on a specific portion of Psalm 23:4.

"Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

By reading the above verse a simple lesson in deductive logic would lead us to an interesting conclusion:

The psalmist feared no evil because God comforted him with His rod and staff.

The questions we are then led to is "What does that mean? How does God comfort us with His rod and His staff?"

THE ROD:

When a shepherd would care for his sheep he would carry two instruments with him at all times. The first instrument was a rod.

The rod was meant for a two-fold purpose.

1- If any enemy would come to attack the sheep the shepherd would beat that predatory animal over the head with his rod and thus drive away the threat to his sheep.

2- When a sheep was really pushing his luck and was being rebellious against the shepherd it would receive a blow. The shepherd would give the sheep a nice knock on the head to remind it who was boss and to break it's rebellious spirit.

Simply put, Psalm 23:4 is telling us that God's rod of correction will keep us from attacks from our enemy (Satan) and it will keep us from attacks from our biggest enemy (our own flesh) which constantly leads us to rebel against Him.

THE STAFF:
The shepherd had another instrument that was always on hand, and that second instrument was his staff.

The shepherd's staff was a long stick, much like a walking stick and at the end of it was a crook. There was a large lip on the end of the staff that was designed much like the hooks used in the Vaudeville shows of old. We've all seen the clips on television- where someone had a bad act and they were forcefully pulled off the stage with a shepherd's crook.

In like manner a shepherd would watch his sheep diligently and when a sheep would begin to stray off of the path of safety the shepherd would wrap his crook around it's neck and guide it back onto the path of certainty.
The shepherd's number one concern for his sheep was their safety and their arrival at the proper destination.

Likewise God has a shepherd's staff that He uses to keep us off of paths that lead us away from Him and into danger. He will gladly direct us back to the path of safety with his staff.

THE GOOD NEWS:

In order to fully appreciate the Good News of Jesus Christ and the nature of God's comforting power we need to first come to grips with the bad news.

We read the good news in Psalm 23:4 and sometimes ignore the bad news, but you see; The Good News doesn't really shine through in it's fullness until it is contrasted with the bad news.

The bad news simply put is this: WE ARE DEPRAVED BEINGS.

Mankind is sin-sick and cannot cure himself, the answer is not within himself- the answer is the external, eternal Almighty God.

We are under the curse of sin and death and because of our sin we deserve nothing more from God than an eternity in Hell- that is the HORRIBLE NEWS.

Yet, while we were still sinners Jesus Christ came and died for us so that we could be free- nothing that we could have done would free us, but Jesus came to offer Himself as an atonement to reconcile us to God the Father.

That is what makes the Good News so GOOD! When we were at our worst Jesus gave us His best!!

What better news could there possibly be?

God Himself stepped out of eternity and into the temporal

solely to receive the just punishment meant for us.

There is no better news!

The beauty of Psalm 23:4 isn't that we have comfort in times of distress. The beauty is that we can know that God is there in the times of hardship and the times of abundance. He is there to correct our rebellion and to pull us back on the path of safety when we have wandered astray!

God has a rod to protect us from external attacks and to correct us when we rebel within ourselves.

God has a staff to direct us towards His path which leads unto salvation.

Next time we are struggling or going through difficulty; next time we receive a heavy blow to the head- instead of immediately saying "The devil is attacking me".

Let us ask the questions:

"Is the Lord trying to show me something?

Is this heavy blow from the rod of God's holy correction?

Is this yank in another direction because God is pulling me back onto His perfect path?"

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me!

ARE YOU BEARING FRUIT?

One of my favorite stories in the New Testament comes from Acts chapter 4.

Let me set the stage for you..
John and Peter were taken before the rulers, the elders, the teachers of the law and even the high priest, Annas, was there to question them. Peter and John were basically on a preliminary trial because they were uneducated shlubs who didn’t have the right to teach on religion but they were out preaching Jesus around town. Therefore the religious leaders were asking them how they could dare to teach about Jesus without proper theological doctrine and proper credentials to support them (sound like any churches you’ve seen today?).
John and Peter even went so far as to heal a man- how dare they! They healed a the lame beggar and various people were aware of the miracle. Because of their actions Peter and John were brought before the religious authorities to be questioned as to how and why they would do such a horrible thing like healing a man without having a THD or PHD attached to their name first.

They replied in an amazing manner which you can look up on your own in Acts 4.
What struck me wasn’t necessarily their reply in the matter, what stood out to me was the reaction of the crowd. “When they (the religious leaders and the crowd of likely onlookers) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished.” In other words they were ignorant men, or as one Bible commentary states of the original Greek term used to describe them- Peter and John were idiots. Obviously the people couldn't understand how foolish men could do such amazing works and preach with such authority, but the Bible goes on to tell us how the rulers and the crowd came to understand the source of their authority...

“They took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

How did they know that these men had been with Jesus?
Was it because they saw it with their own eyes? Perhaps but not likely. Was it that someone whispered into their ear telling them that they were the ones who walked with Jesus? Not likely. The reason I don’t believe that is because even at the death of Christ on the cross only one person recognized Peter; but once Peter cussed that twelve year old girl out and swore he wasn't with Jesus she backed off of him. These men were basically unknown.

How then did the people know that they had been with Jesus?
BY THEIR ACTIONS.
Their lifestyle was a testimony to the fact that they had been with Jesus Christ.

Is your lifestyle a testimony that you have been with Jesus or like so many others are you living the same life you once lived but now doing it with the banner of Christ above it?

Matthew Henry said in his commentary:
“And the followers of Christ should act so that all who converse with them, may take knowledge that they have been with Jesus. That makes them holy, heavenly, spiritual, and cheerful, and raises them above this world."

Various other commentaries on the Bible take the same stance. These men were known to be of the fold of Christ by their actions and lifestyle. Their power and authority came from above and it was evident to all present. People knew that they had been with Jesus because their lifestyle looked like an old park bench wrought with the carvings of youthful dereliction.. The words "JESUS WAS HERE" were carved into their lives for all to see.

Are you recognizable as a part of God’s fold? Are you bearing fruit in keeping with repentance? Do you bear the scars of a bond-servant, have you been sealed with the seal of the one who owns you? Is it apparent to all that you are of the fold of Jesus Christ or are you indistinguishable from the world?

Does your life preach for you or do your words have to justify before others what your actions never could- that you are of the true vine of Christ? We have churches that tell us that if we say the magical prayer we're set for life regardless of how we live after saying that prayer. If Jesus is truly all-sufficient for us then our lifestyle will reflect it and we won’t have to seek out preachers who will justify our sin. We will stand firm in the work Christ did on the cross and stand certain of our faithfulness to Him because of the evidence visible in our daily life.

Are you bearing fruit in keeping with repentance or does your lifestyle negate your verbal declaration of faith?

THE FOUR CROSSES

The Four Crosses:

We come to a crossroad in our life. We aren’t sure where we want to go, but we know that we need to make a choice. We need to find out which way we’re headed and why we’re heading that way. This is the first cross that each of us must come to in life. We must ask ourselves what it is that we believe, why it is that we are living, and which path it is that we will take.

We then come to the cross of Christ. We see that we cannot save ourselves; we realize that we have no hope of freeing ourselves from our sin and our flesh. We know that Jesus died for us and that He can provide us with eternal life. Now, as we stand in front of the second cross, we’re forced to make a decision as to whether we will receive Jesus’ free gift of salvation. Whether we will walk away from Christ’s cross unchanged, having seen the mercy of Almighty God, or whether we will receive what Jesus did on that second cross and begin living for Him.

The third cross we come upon is the cross of death. This is the cross that all believers must first jump up on. I do not mean to say that we literally climb upon a wooden post, but a metaphorical cross appears before us. At this point we must choose to die to our carnal selves and we must carry that cross as a reminder for the rest of our lives. Just as in Christ we have all died…. The Word says that in Adam all men die, but I am not talking about a death in the physical sense, I am talk about death to the fleshly world and desires. In Christ all men die to their desires, their nature, their will, their wants, their sin.

Unfortunately far too many Christians think that this is the end of the road. Many Christians have gotten to the point where they came to the cross of Christ and they’ve made a decision to follow Him and they even decided to jump on their own cross and die to their flesh- but then they stop. They’ve been fooled into believing that God’s ultimate goal for their lives is to be sin-free. They think that getting sin out is the ‘Missio Dei’. We decide that the ultimate goal of a Christian is to be free from sin.

Yet, we see men like David who had an extramarital affair and murdered a man to try to cover it up. Abraham who got so sick of waiting on God that he had sex with and spawned a child with his maidservant. We see Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, who was so addicted to smoking that the tobacco companies used his face and personal quotes about cigarettes as a logo to sell their products. These were men who had sin in their lives and they failed in some aspect or portion of their life; but they did far more for the cause of God than nearly any others throughout history.

Why?

Because they were willing to be obedient. Obedience is better than sacrifice and quite frankly we DO need to get the sin out of our lives- but we need to be obedient FIRST AND FOREMOST!

This is where we come to the fourth cross. If we look at the progression we see a man who stumbles upon a crossroad. After standing at the fork he makes a short deliberation and then decides to follow God’s narrow path to see where it leads him. When he walks just a short way down this road of discovery and curiosity about faith in Christ he is then taken to the cross of the Almighty One whom gave himself as a sacrificial atonement. The man stands before the cross of Christ and decides that in and of himself he has no good thing to offer and he cannot take that step towards God, Therefore he will receive the open door, the bridged gap, that Christ has made for him when He died on the cross. Once he has stepped away from the cross that led to his salvation he is now led to another cross which is calling to him. It is his own cross. Will he now die to his carnal desires and his own will? Will he now get up on that cross and die? Will he cross over from life in and of himself to death in Jesus Christ? He chooses to die to himself and take up his own cross. A wise decision and one that will change every fiber of his destiny!

BUT… there’s still more.

He has crossed from life into death, but now he needs to cross back into life. The fourth cross is a crossing from death to the flesh, into a new life in Jesus Christ. This is where so many believers fail. We love the freedom that Christ offers- freedom from sin, freedom from self, freedom from pain, freedom from religion and fruitless personal strivings, freedom from hell. Yet we sit back in joy, having been purchased at the highest price any has ever paid, and we do nothing to return the favor to the King. Too many believers have failed to take the fourth step- or at least to fully take it.
When a man or a woman comes to that fourth cross and decides to come back to life in Christ Jesus he or she makes a declaration tantamount to that of the apostle Paul.
“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain!”

We have now made the decision that our efforts, our time, our money, our belongings, our everything is going to be used to bring glory to God and not to ourselves. We have decided that we will now live to advance the cause of Christ, not the cause of self. We have become a people who live to serve and bless others- not because it’s easy or it’s natural (although with time it becomes that way), but because we feel indebted to the One who gave everything for us.

We cannot skip out on any of these four crosses or our personal walk with Christ will be lacking and our salvation can be brought into question. Have you come to the crossroad? Have you seen the cross of Christ? Have you taken up your own cross and died to yourself? Have you crossed over from a fruitless life into a metaphorical death and back into life in Christ so that you may live each moment for the glory of God?