Is He enough?

It has been a little while since I put a post but I am still here. As Holy Week has come and gone the Lord gave me some reflections on this amazing time. As I came to Good Friday the Lord led me to watch "Passion of the Christ". It is a movie you cannot watch without being deeply affected. The Lord spoke to me about the scene of Jesus being flogged and beaten. The brutality of this scene far surpasses even other violent movies I have seen. It is painful to watch and some questioned Mel Gibson for this, yet he said he was attempting to be accurate according to what really happened. As Jesus' flesh was literally torn from his body, the Lord brought to mind the prophesy from Isaiah 53:5 "...And by His scourging we are healed." and the parallel New Testament verse 1 Peter 2:24 "...for by His wounds you were healed." (both past tense) His question to me was this, was this enough? As I looked up the Greek word for "healed" (Iaoma) it is a complete healing including free from sin, to make whole, and cure or heal. I sensed the Holy Spirit challenging me to say that my wholeness, healing, and freedom do not come from my own effort but through the fininshed work of Christ. To totally restore us to whole human beings as originally designed to live in the Garden of Eden seems like a monumental task. We are always striving to get back to the Garden, not have our kids go astray, overcome personal hangups and issues, have an enjoyable family vacation, be loved by family and friends, complete the tasks of the day, etc... We have a sense of how things ought to be but when we attempt to bring this about in our own power we end up in frustration and often exhaustion. The Holy Spirit was challenging my unbelief, see the Holy Spirit is always pointing us back to what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Contrary to what some believe, the Holy Spirit (according to John 16:13) does not point to all the things I need to do to make things right. At one point in the movie Jesus says, "See I make all things new". Do we believe that He through His work made ALL things new. Does this mean that if I am irritated with my kids, my spouse, our dog, and our living situation that Jesus has given me new kids, a new spouse, a new dog, and a new living situation? I know this seems silly but the Word of God has to be practical or it's just a nice book. No I don't think it means that I trade our dog in but it does mean that I see our dog not simply with my 5 senses and stop there but that I see her from His perspective (which is new). It is rather humorous that the Lord gave us the name Shilo (His gift) because there are times in her puppydom where she feels like anything but a gift. In her short little 6 1/2 month life she has consumed 8 whole children's socks and doesn't show any sign of slowing down. Again I am a practical chap, so I need to see His "all things new" in this situation as well. Could it be that the Enemy wants me to believe the original lie (Genesis 3:4-5), which says that basically all life comes from being independent of God and determining good from evil according to my own perspecitve. Why does the Enemy still want me to believe that all life derives from myself? If I am constantly looking at myself, my own view, my own feelings, and my own thoughts then I will not look towards Christ. I believe according to the Word that God makes much more of the cross of Christ and His finished work then we do. Everything changed at the cross and it is to be our reference for all of life. I challenge you as I challenge myself when you face something difficult (no matter how big or small) that you look towards what God has done for you out of His grace on the cross. Don't fall for the Lie of Satan again and think it's all up to me. We tend to worship that which we focus on and get our needs from. If my strength comes from flesh (seeing myself apart from Christ) then I will tend to fall into idolatry (self-worship). I choose to walk by faith and receive all the promises that are mine "in Christ Jesus", though not one of them am I deserving of by my own self-effort or earning.
Receiving the fullness of Grace,
Bret