Kelly J. Grace

connect the truth you believe to the life you live

Eternal Life

What Does The Cross Mean To You?

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For each of us the Cross of Jesus Christ is either intensely personal or meaningless.
There’s no middle ground, no gray area.
What happened in Jerusalem over 2000 years ago poses a question to each of us.

What response do I have to the death of Christ on the Cross?

The Bible says the Cross was about reconciling God’s holiness with His great love for us.
We always underestimate His holiness.
We usually underestimate our sin.

The Cross was the culmination of a mission begun when Christ took upon Himself the form of a servant and came in the likeness of man.
His entire life was an offering, a sacrifice.
He lived to bring us back into relationship with the Father.

That truth was the prism through which I looked at the Scriptures this week.
We often focus on the physical brutality of His suffering and death.
I think the truly horrifying part for Christ was the moment of despair and desolation that drew the cry from the depths of His being, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

In that moment our sins were upon Him. Our punishment, our guilt, our shame heaped on Him.
Then, it was finished.

And what looked like a great defeat, like the end of a great visitation from God, was actually a great victory.
An old enemy was dealt a deadly blow. Disarmed and disgraced he would never again have power over those who put their faith in Christ.

Throughout my Christian life I’ve heard some beautiful Good Friday messages.
I can’t attend a service this year, but God has spoken to my heart from the old story as I’ve read it through this Holy Week.

One thought has circled me day by day.
I want to love God.

I want to love the Father.
To never be content, not for a moment, without His fellowship.
I want to love Jesus.
Listening to Him as the voice that spoke from heaven instructed the frightened disciples on the mountain.
I want to love the Holy Spirit. Carrying out the will of God with genuine humility.

I want what happened on the Cross to have a full measure of consequence in my life.
I want to be touched deeply, instructed fully, and transformed constantly by the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you’re a cheese. Billie Burke

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Tomorrow is my birthday.

I thought about a serious post focusing on maturity and how to tell if you’ve got it.
Then I though, maturity is like good hair: you either have it, or you don’t.

I do. Not the hair, the maturity. Thankfully my hair is still ok, it’s not POWER HAIR like Jacqueline Kennedy or Brooke Shields, but so far it’s all present and accounted for.
As for the maturity, I had it when I was young, which is not how anyone would currently describe me.
And I guess they won’t in the future if they don’t currently.
That ship has sailed.

T. S. Elliot, the guy who wrote Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats which Andrew Lloyd Webber made into a hit musical called, of course, Cats , wrote that “the years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down”.
If T.S. were still around he might have to revise his numbers because I keep hearing absurd things like 60 is the new 40.
That sounded just stupid about 5 years ago.
Now I’m looking for medical research that supports it as fact.

The truth is that life isn’t about Quantity as much as Quality.
It’s not about how long you live, but how fully you live.

I titled this blog A Really Full Life because that’s my personal goal.
Jesus said, “I came to give life—life in all its fullness”. John 10:10

I haven’t yet written the About Page for this blog. I’m having technical difficulties—AGAIN.
When I do, you’ll discover that I’m a christian.
I asked Jesus to forgive my sin and come into my life over 42 years ago
on August 18, 1970.

You know what I want for my birthday?
I want you to meet Jesus too.
I don’t know where you are on your life timeline, but I can promise you that if you don’t know Jesus, you’re not living A Really Full Life.

So here’s my gift to you:
The good news is this, Jesus Christ is God come to earth in human form to offer himself as a sacrifice for sin.
He did it because of His great love for you and because you couldn’t do it for yourself.
For it is by grace you’ve been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

The most important decision you’ll make in this life is what you believe about Jesus Christ.
That decision will determine all of eternity for you.

I’d love to share more about Jesus with you.  If you want to know more, just ASK.

While I’m sharing, here’s the link to my favorite Birthday Cake recipe and a picture.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/angel-food-cake-with-lemon-honey-yogurt-sauce-recipe/index.html

My Favorite Birthday Cake
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