Lead Me To the Cross

I was listening to this song (Lead Me To the Cross) over and over the other day, and realized how fitting it was when thinking of Easter coming up. If you have not heard this song...you must check it out. It's from the latest Hillsong United CD. You can find it on itunes. And it's written by my favorite Brooke Fraser. Here are the lyrics...be moved...

Savior I come
Quiet my soul remember
Redemptions Hill
Where your blood was spilled
For my ransom
Everything I once held dear
I count it all as lost

Lead me to the cross
Where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees
Lord I lay me down
Rid me of myself
I belong to You
Lead me, lead me to the cross



You were as I
Tempted and Trialed
Human
The word became flesh
Bore my sin and death
Now You're RISEN!

To Your heart
To Your heart
Lead me to Your heart
Lead me to Your heart

Lead me to the cross
Where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees
Lord I lay me down
Rid me of myself
I belong to You
Oh, lead me
Lead me to the cross

Jesus is powerful...He's alive...and He LOVES. I'm praying that walls would be burned down by His love, that hearts would be soften by His love, that you would be consumed knowing that He is for you and you can come to Him.
So many people celebrate Easter because that's what they do, they've grown up doing it. It's one of those holidays where you feel like you have to go to church.
I grew up that way. I completely know how that goes. I had no clue the significance of this day.
Let me tell you...it has changed my life.
I'm a sinner, I mess up ALL the time. That separates me from a completely perfect and Holy God. Instead of feeling guilt...instead of feeling the weight of all of that, instead of having to pay the consequence of sin...death and separation from God, Jesus took it on at the cross.
He bridged the gap.
God sent His Son, to be completely human and completely God, to live a completely perfect life, to show us how to live and to show us how to love.
God sent Jesus, His Son, to take our place, out of His pefect love.
So that we would not have to see and experience the depths of death, so that we could be covered by His blood, so that we could stand before a perfect God and be blameless and be called righteous...only by Jesus.
He died on a cross, going through the most excruciating pain and torture. He died on a cross and took on the death of the world. He died on a cross carrying the weight of all our sin.
But that wasn't it. 3 days later. He resurrected. Completely ALIVE.
He gave us a promise of new life, of being alive in Him, of having eternal life in and through Him.
In Him alone.
Not in anything of ourselves...we will never be good enough, we cannot do enough good things. We will still fall short.
But, Jesus says that if we believe in Him, give our lives to Him, die to ourselves, He will give us His Spirit that will live in us...that will take away the death and give us life.
That when we come to die, God will see Jesus in us. That it will be because of Him and our relationship with Him that we are even able to stand in His presence, in His home, in His glory. What great love! That He was willing and chose to die for us.
We have to surrender.
Surrender the pride of thinking you can do it on your own, you can't.
Surrender the thought of trying to be perfect and be a good person, you will fail.
Surrender your life to the only One who can satisfy and bring pure joy.
Surrender to His love that is unfailing and complete.
Surrender to His character that is unchanging and beautiful.
It is all for His glory.
He came perfectly human, perfectly God...for HIS glory.
He loved and lead the way...for HIS glory.
He died on a cross and took on sin and death...for HIS glory.
He is ALIVE and alive in us, if we let Him in....for HIS glory.

Philippians 1:21 "For me to live is Christ [His life in me], and to die is gain [the gain of the glory of eternity]."

John 15:13 "No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends."

Philippians 2:7-11 "But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being.
And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!
Therefore [because He stooped so low] God has highly exalted Him and has freely bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, That in (at) the name of Jesus every knee should (must) bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
And every tongue [frankly and openly] confess and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Galatians 2:20 "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

John 11:25-26 "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die."

John 14:6 "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through Me."

Romans 5:5-11 "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

This is good news my friends!! Believe it...Love it...Celebrate it!