There is one last key to experiencing the Father’s love. It’s one that unfortunately is not always emphasized and could be the major one of all. What is it?

REVELATION OF THE CROSS

passionposterTen years ago the Mel Gibson film ‘The Passion of the Christ’ was released. I will never forget going with my wife Dorothy to the Dock Theater in Excelsior to see this movie. It was an awesome movie and a stunning, numbing experience to say the least. A phrase kept going through my mind as we sat in the darkened theater, ‘All this have I done for thee . . . ‘ After the movie had finished, Dorothy and I drove out into the country, not wanting to lose the impact of watching the death of Christ on the cross. You see, when you get a revelation of the cross, you get
the ultimate revelation of the love of Father God. How deep, how wide, how long is that love. (Ephesians 3:17-19)

John 3:16 says it, ‘For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son . . . .’ You want to see the Father heart of God, then get a revelation of the cross, the crucification, the death of Jesus, the Son of God.

THE IMPACT OF THE CROSS

Years ago, I came across a story that brings it all home.

One day early in the eighteenth century, a German artist, Stenberg, walking through the market place of his home town, was attracted by the face of a dancing gypsy girl. He invited her to come to his studio and sit for him, and with her as a model he painted his ‘Dancing Gypsy Girl.’ The little girl was much taken with what she saw in the artist’s studio, and watched him with great interest as he worked on a painting of the Crucifixion.

One day she said to Stenberg, ‘He must have been a very bad man to have been nailed to the cross like that.’

‘No,’ the artist said, ‘He was a good man. The best man that ever lived. Indeed, He died for all men.

‘Did He die for you?’ asked the girl. That question set the artist to thinking, for he had not yet given his heart to Christ. One day he chanced to go to a meeting of the Reformers, who opened the Scriptures to him, showed him the way of salvation, and brought him to Christ. Then he went back to finish his painting of the Crucifixion, working this time not only with an artist’s skill and technique but with the love that comes of a believing heart.

What happened to the artist Stenberg? He received a revelation of the cross that brought him to salvation in Jesus Christ.

So, in the art gallery at Dusseldorf there was this picture of the Crucifixion by Stenberg, a masterpiece begun with little religious fervor and finished in a blaze of devotion. Below the picture were the words –

All this I did for thee,
What hast thou done for Me?

One day a wealthy young man drove into Dusseldorf, and while his horses where being groomed at the inn, he wandered round the town, sight seeing. He walked carelessly into the art gallery, paused before Stenberg’s picture, and read the challenging lines.

It is said he stood there still as stone, not for a few minutes only but for hours. Other visitors arrived and departed. The light faded. The curator, waiting to go home, became impatient, and at last tapped the nobleman on the shoulder. The two went out together.

Returning to the inn, the young man drove on to Paris – but he was a different young man, for he had dedicated himself to a new way of life, and was to become know the world over as the founder of Moravian Missions.

He was Zinzendorf.

What happened to Count Zinzendorf? He received a revelation of the cross that changed his life and reached out to the world. It was at Hernnhut on Zinzendorf’s estate that the 24/7 prayer meetings began that went on for 100 years and even now are being revived through Houses of Prayer all over the world.

EASTER SEASON

Once more, we are coming to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The problem we face is that we know the Easter Story so well that it no longer impacts us as it should. If we don’t watch out, we can suffer from the ‘sin of familiarity’ because the cross has become too familiar to us.

May we pray that this Easter, we get a fresh revelation of Calvary and consequently a fresh revelation of both the sacrifice of Jesus and the love of Father God.

‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.’
– 2 Corinthians 5:19

It is a revelation of the love of the Father that in time can motivate us to fulfill our destiny in Christ, just like Zinzendorf.

“All this I did for thee
What hast thou done for Me? ”

RECEIVING THE FATHER’S LOVE

Let’s sum up some of the ways it can happen –

  • Through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
  • By Faith. Take God’s Word and believe it.
  • With the help of others in removing any barriers to receiving it.
  • By a revelation of Calvary – the greatest expression of the Father’s love.

Give God permission to love you. He does that anyway. Open up yourself to receive a fresh revelation of Abba Father and the love that He has shown for us in giving Jesus to die on the cross.

Make this an Easter Season to remember!

HEAVEN IS FOR REAL – MOVIE REVIEW

I saw the movie on the first day of its release. For me, it was a powerful movie, even though it was a dramatized version of the book. While I found some things lacking, it was nevertheless a movie with a strong family dimension to the story and good acting, especially by the father and the little boy. All in all, it touches your feelings and your emotions, as it speaks to us about the reality of heaven in the midst of the reality of life down here on earth.