Lifted Up | crustybread

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. … 1 Corinthians 15:30-41 Paul is in a community of believers who are questioning that there is a resurrection and living without regard to their baptism. He warns them that “bad company ruins good morals.” Even at this age, I don’t have to go that far back to be reminded of the times I have fallen into company with thoughts and or actions that were just wrong. When I surrounded myself with “bad company” it was very easy to forget the bare seed planted within me, the one in which I, with God’s help, must take responsibility for its care, nurture and maturation. It is the seed purposely exposed in the world, in order that God may give an imperfect body a more perfect purpose. This happens when I surround myself with good company that encourages and shares in the work of Christ for building up the one body. For it is in hope of the resurrection, that I choose to sow this seed of life in Christ, because in due season, while I believe my body will return to the earth, I am confident that my spirit belongs to God and surely will be lifted up.

Lent: Day 30 – There are times in our lives when things are really bad. Feelings of fear, oppression, disappointment, frustration and loss have become overwhelming. Absolutely nothing could be worse, than the way things are right now. Then one day you find the strength through God’s word to make a move in a different direction towards something that is both plausible and doable. However, instead of things getting better they get worse. Every ounce of strength and faith we have in God’s word, will be tested by those who refuse to see what we see and refuse to know what we know within your heart, through Christ. During the time of struggle, whatever time we take to understand God’s presence in our lives will be lifted up as Christ himself was lifted up. However, as we draw closer to God in the spiritual, the powers (depression, fear, jealously, pride, anger etc.) that belong to the physical realm begin to fight back. We don’t have a Moses per se, someone in the physical who can respond for us. What we do have is Christ within us by whom we respond in faith. Our faith becomes your shield in the face of those who put a stumbling block before us. What others intended to be a nightmare for us, has now become their nightmare because faith is like fire to those who do not believe. God who is faithful, will lift us up and continue to move us in the direction he intended us to be, in reconciliation with him. Believe and Live!

Exodus 5:1-6:1 ‘You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But you shall require of them the same quantity of bricks as they have made previously; do not diminish it,…Then Moses turned again to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, why have you mistreated this people? Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh: Indeed, by a mighty hand he will let them go; by a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land.’

Mark 9:42-50 ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea…‘For everyone will be salted with fire. Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.