Sitting at my computer day after day for a solid year, dependent upon God’s Presence for the writing of these lessons, has been a true joy. Time after time, as need arose, God brought to mind a specific event about which I would next write, and time after time, He talked me through each event’s message, delivering specific Truth.

Faithfully steadfast, God upheld the process, completing more than two dozen lessons, one every other week. The journey, one of both remembrance and enlightenment, has been a spiritual one, punctuated with off-the-chart highs that, at times, have raised me out of my seat and into worship. The opportunity given to me to connect to God through the lessons has been an abundant blessing, pure and simple.

But now the opportunity is about over and a new one begins. Time will reveal how God chooses to continue using the lessons. Only in obedience’s fulfillment is benefit realized. Not until the lessons’ completion could their full benefits become activated to provide more together than they ever could have offered separately.

Similar in manner as to how God places individuals with specific knowledge and abilities within the Body of Christ to increase the Church’s effectiveness, so God has structured the lessons for maximum benefit. Using something as simple as specifying the order of their writing by bringing only one event at a time to my mind, this is what God did apart from my full understanding:

1.   He selected twenty-four mostly unrelated events from my life.
2.   He used the events to reveal Truth about Him.
3.   He never duplicated a message, but compiled Truth upon Truth.
4.   He structured a complete and orderly message from chronological disorder.
5.   He divided the events by their physical and spiritual natures, creating two categories.
6.   He placed the lessons containing physical events first, emphasizing the discernment of Truth through physical reality.
7.   He followed those lessons with others based on spiritual events, emphasizing the discernment of Truth through spiritual reality.
8.   He opened the lessons with a message concerning the confusion that is caused by personal misinterpretation of God’s Word.
9.   He split the two categories at the point of Jesus’ crucifixion, history’s turning point, when the Truth of God’s love was fully revealed in salvation.
10. He opened the second half with a message about our personal relationships with Him, showing Himself to be Father.
11. He concluded the lessons with a message about eternal reconciliation to Him through Christ.
12. Then, after the writing of the lessons was complete, He revealed His finished handiwork for what He had designed it to be all along:  a singular, unified and cohesive body that glorifies God through His Word.

The revelation shocked me, for I had completely missed the big picture. Immersed in the typing of the details of the individual lessons day after day, I had focused so much upon the specific messages that I had remained unaware of the totality of the work that God was accomplishing, even as He was accomplishing it through me.

“Through me” was the shock. Though I was involved the entire time in the lessons’ development, God still had no difficulty surprising me (once again) with His greatness. Stunned, I could only say, “God! How did You do that?”

So orchestrated by God, The Lessons of the Cross retells the story once again of God’s relationship with men in yet another new way. Working with selected events from just one individual life (in this case mine), God took what appeared to be a collection of random occurrences and gave them cohesive purpose within His Kingdom. He revealed His Story that had been hidden in the ordinary day to day events of one person’s history, demonstrating His dominion over any given set of circumstances. God’s fingerprints, invisible to the world in general, proved to be all over every event, no matter what their nature.

The same is true within every individual’s life story. While our histories are different, we all exist as interconnected parts of the one Story that contains every individual one. Our lives are God’s Story in the making. They all have design and purpose beyond our scope of vision. They will outlast this world, as will we, leading us into our selected eternity, whichever way we have chosen to go:  heaven or hell. Our stories, like us, are eternal.

God, ever-Present and ever-loving, is continually working behind the scenes (out of range of our awareness), as well as overtly, in our stories. Weaving every component of Creation into a united whole, God is perfectly reconciling all into a singular finished work. Each person is born with intrinsic value and designed to fill specific purpose within Creation. No life is ever demeaned or devalued by God, despite what the world may have to say about any individual.

No one is born in isolation from God’s plan, and no one lives in isolation from it. Together, with all Creation, we are God’s Kingdom under construction through Christ Jesus. Wherever we go, wherever we are, God is there in advance, anticipating both our next move and our need. His righteousness reigns, as God comes to us, accepting us as we are and loving us perfectly. No matter our circumstances, God is above them all, creating a finished product of perfection from what appears to be the chaos of our seemingly less than perfect lives.

But all chaos is redeemable by our God, who accomplishes perfect redemption. He is with us  and for us all:

•  the alcoholic, passed out in a plush penthouse…
        the bellman, who stocks the liquor cabinet for a fee;

• the orphan, huddled under a cold, dark bridge…
       the aunt, who refused to take her in;

• the evangelist, tortured for sharing his faith…
       the non-Christian, who never heard the Truth;

• the widow, left alone day and night…
       the neighbor, who meant to drop by for a visit;

• the boy, picking through garbage for his daily bread…
       the relief worker, who lacks sufficient resource;

• the girl, held against her will…
       the men, who use her to have their way;

• the woman, overwrought and suicidal…
       the doctor, who sent her home with pills;

• the executive, sacrificing all to his job…
       the employer, who terminated those near retirement;

• the rock star, unfulfilled amid a frenzy of fans…
       the agent, who overbooks him;

• the religious zealot, mocking his neighbor…
       the neighbor, who mocks a life of faith;

• the guerilla combatant, beheading his captive…
       the diplomat, who failed to negotiate;

• the sassy child, raised by hired help…
       the nanny, who wants a child of her own;

• the invalid, needing a helping hand…
       the retired nurse, who doesn’t feel needed;

• the boy, shamed by his father’s guilt…
       the mother, who predicts, “Like father, like son”;

• the prisoner, forever confined to a cell…
       the judge, who can’t see beyond his own closed mind;

• the grandmother, forced to choose between medication and heat…
       the social worker, who again says, “I can’t help”;

• the child, drinking from pools of infested water….
       the mother, who watches with no other option;

• the out-of-work laborer, dropping his last coin in the donation pot…
       the good-will ambassador, who asks for more;

• the politician, personally smeared by the press…
       the reporter, who didn’t realize the cost of his scoop;

• the authority figure, accepting a bribe…
       the collaborator, who looked the other way;

• the baby in utero, not given a chance…
       the mother-to-be, who prays to give life;

• the soldier, who will never see his child…
       the comrade, who will always remember him missing;

• the addict, besieged by the pain of the past…
       the dealer, who helps her stay that way;

• the woman, feeling unworthy of love…
       the man, who is certain that he isn’t worth much;

and the list goes on, encompassing all:
     you, in your circumstances and me, in mine—
     every man, woman and child ever given life.

Equally loved… equally important… equally covered by the blood of Jesus… no soul is overlooked by God. Jesus died for all. (See 1 Peter 3:18)

Bestowing grace upon grace on everyone, God is righting wrongs with divine wisdom in ways that we are not always capable of comprehending. But He is doing so, whether we understand or not. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:25)

We can be certain that in the eternal end, God’s wisdom will be evident to all, no matter what we believe now. Wise and all-knowing (See 1 John 3:20). God alone understands the perfect implementation of His perfect plan (See Job 42:2).

In this world, God is countering our ignorance and misperceptions of Him with Holy Spirit revelation, enlightening us to the Truth through various means. Disclosing a reality superior to the visible one of this world, God leads us into more blessed lives, enabling us through transformed thinking to better realize His active love for us.

Every life is God-given and has God-given purpose in this world and the next, fulfilling God’s “good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2c). Every face has a history, and every tongue has a story. Each one is known by God in minute detail (See Psalm 139). Each is an integral part of His exquisite Masterpiece.

From a worldly perspective, however, life’s events can cause us to misconstrue the Truth of God and His relationship with us. From the midst of the production process, we cannot yet see God’s finished work that brings understanding. But God does. He sees perfectly the product of His envisioning.

At times, a tapestry is used to help visualize this point. While the back side of a tapestry is typically a tangled mess of knotted threads that appear to randomly crisscross one another without rhyme or reason, the front side reveals a work of art, every stitch perfectly planned and executed. The apparent waywardness of each and every thread on the backside is used to specifically increase the beauty of the artwork on the front. During the tapestry’s creation, disorder and order simultaneously appear from two differing points of view.

Similarly, but in a far grander way, God is producing beauty from every part of our current lives (See Isaiah 61:3). Even the less than pretty is being woven by God into His magnificence.

To know that God is in control in a world that seems ever-increasingly out of control, changes our perspective, giving us a new outlook of hope and expectation. The excitement of discovering that “God is with us” (actively Present in our lives) is superseded only by the realization that, in Christ, “God is in us.”  Boggling the mind, the revelation is an eternal show-stopper, changing everything through renewed thinking.

God loves expanding our vision with glimpses of Him, for those revelations are an outgrowth of our ever-deepening fellowship with Him that He so desires. Rain or shine, blue skies or grey, God remains Present, blessing us with Himself, meeting needs in countless ways, both seen and unseen.

God’s ceaseless blessings to us in this world are a precursor of the life to come in God’s eternal Kingdom. They are a taste of God’s goodness that whets our appetite for more of God—the precise outcome that God desires. God is the “WOW Factor” of life that we need and of which He wants to make us more aware.

Right now, in this world, the Truth is best seen from our God-provided vantage point of the Cross. Jesus is true perspective, complete revelation, an exact representation of our Father God (See Hebrews 1:3)

But the day is coming when God will reveal Himself from the “other side.” Then and only then will we see the bigger picture:  the finished work of “perfect love, fully applied” (See The Lesson of the Love). Permanently woven into God’s picture through our faith in Jesus Christ, we will be immersed in a beauty that provides understanding and needs no further explanation.

And, when God stuns us all with His finished Masterpiece, we will all undoubtedly respond uniformly:

“God!!! How did you do that???”

Amazing Grace… amazing all… after all and for all.

Once the Truth of God is seen, every other perspective fades from view.

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“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever…”  (Deuteronomy 29:;29)

 

At the time of the initial writing of this piece, almost one year exactly has passed since a website was set up to house these lessons. Suggested separately by both my husband and a clergy friend more than a year prior, the site finally came into existence in early January 2013, when I suddenly knew that its time had come.

Having received in my spirit a first topic about which to write, I sat at my computer wondering what to title the piece that was about to be written. Within seconds, the word “lessons” popped into my mind, giving me awareness that God’s plan involved, not one, but a series of lessons that would become a book.

Without fail, God has delivered a completed lesson every other Friday since then. Always faithful, God appears to be bringing the lessons to culmination on the Friday before Christmas 2013, a special time of celebration of God and His work through Jesus.

“Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:3)

“All things” includes these lessons. As a part of God’s work in and through me, they belong to Him. They are His teachings, both to me and through me to others. Overseeing every detail, God has birthed the lessons, one at a time in a progressive order, tying them together in a neat bundle that only became apparent as such in the finished whole. 

Note the order in which God systematically delivered the lessons that are built upon the foundational Truth of Jesus:

The series began with a lesson on communication problems (The Lesson of the Email), the very issue that Adam and Eve encountered when Satan put a spin on God’s Words, creating confusion in the world. Then came a lesson on man’s entrapment by sin and the Fall that occurred (The Lesson of the Fawn). Following that was a lesson on God’s continual concern and provision for each and every individual, affirming that no one (despite the appearance of any circumstance that may seem contradictory) is ever forgotten by God (The Lesson of the Comforter).

Then came a lesson stressing the paramount importance of our personal relationships with God and with one another (The Lesson of the Cleaners). That lesson was then followed by others that, in order, reminded us that God is ever-present, saving us (The Lesson of the Shattering), delivering us (The Lesson of the Parting) and providing in abundance for our every need (The Lesson of the Thanksgiving).

But since relationships are two-sided, the lessons that came next were reminders that we have a part to play in our relationships with God. We are to stand upon His Word (The Lesson of the Wind), remain in purposeful dialogue with Him (The Lesson of the Transfer) and depend upon Holy Spirit empowerment to guide and direct us (The Lesson of the Assumption). We must put all of our faith in One Man only—Jesus Christ (The Lesson of the Sauce), trusting always in the perfect work of the Cross (The Lesson of the Point).

Then, in awareness of God the Father’s completed work through His Son, came a lesson on the importance of family (The Lesson of the Pain). As perfect Father, God then followed that lesson with a lesson of assurance that He is indeed the Source of all of the understanding and guidance that we will ever need and seek in life (The Lesson of the Illumination). As members of His family, the lessons that followed affirmed our personal witness of the Truth of God that Jesus reveals (The Lesson of the Declaration), as we come to better know God in growing intimacy with Him (The Lesson of the Knowing). Those lessons were then capped off by others about how God’s healing power is at work in the world through His forgiveness that we receive and pass on in compassionate outreach (The Lesson of the Uprooting), witnessing in action as well as words to the Truth of God that we have received (The Lesson of the Touch).

The next lessons assured us that when we call out for God, He not only comes to us (The Lesson of the Radiance), but He remains with us (The Lesson of the Sealing), increasing our faith in Him as He restores us to wholeness in Christ Jesus (The Lesson of the Walk). The final lessons then wrapped up the others, affirming God’s all-encompassing love for each and every person (The Lesson of the Love) and avowing His unbreakable commitment to each individual (The Lesson of the Perspective) who chooses to be permanently reconciled to Him through His Son (The Lesson of the Honor).

Movement through the lessons is transitional. The revelation-based process itself is transformational.

The Story revealed in The Lessons of the Cross is an ongoing story, one that is authored fully by God and penned in part by many. In bringing these particular lessons into being, my “job” was simply to devote specific time to God in reference to the lessons that God wanted to use in this way. In so doing, with each additional lesson that I received, I was also given additional opportunity to share what I had received with others. God, working in me, simultaneously worked through me. Through the words that He provided, God multiplied the benefit of my growing understanding to encompass increasing wellbeing in and through others. God provided both the words and the understanding, connecting thoughts and filling in missing pieces. As I sat purposefully waiting on God before a keyboard, prepared to type, as I was led to do, words came forth to mind and print that God provided, bringing me closer to Him as I listened and typed in a continual refining process that was fueled by one word of Truth at a time.

God’s words are literally that which God says that they are:  Spirit and life (See John 6:63). Imparting Truth, they instill—give—life wherever they are accepted. Once God’s words are in us, they transform us by correcting errant thinking, thereby changing our actions to create positive outcomes in not only our lives, but the lives of others as well. Through our willingness to be identified with the words of God that we accept, God’s words then have opportunity to come forth from us to instill yet more life wherever they are then once again received. Though all of our words, in general, are important in their conveyance of ideas and information one to another, God’s Words are vital. They alone always contain the Truth of God that builds up life in the best way possible, rightly fine tuning understanding in one person after another.

The Bible’s prophecy and testimony, wrapped up together cohesively in Christ Jesus as one, is the all-inclusive story that is the foundation for every other story ever written. The Bible’s words cover the completed past, the occurring present and the coming future, all in relation to God’s eternal “now.” Every other true testimony of God, apart from those in the Bible, bears witness to the Truth of God that the Bible reveals. God-produced, every word of the Bible is related to every other word along various pathways that lead always to the Story’s focal point:  Jesus. Jesus, in alone having the Words of eternal life (See John 6:68), is the sole route to salvation:  everlasting life. (See Ephesians 1:13)

Our personal acceptances or rejections of Jesus as Lord and Savior singularly sentence each one of us to either everlasting life or everlasting death. No one’s words but our own determine our future existence following the judgment that is coming. Having been given an appointed time by God, Judgment Day cannot be avoided. (See Hebrews 9:27) The clock is ticking, and as it was set in motion by God’s words, so time will expire in the same way. The end of time as we know it is yet coming, for both the Bible’s words and the Word of God (Jesus) have declared it so. God is unchangeable (See 1 Samuel 15:29), and His words are self-fulfilling (See Isaiah 55:11). Understanding of a God-ordained finality will be experienced by all.

But our acceptance and rejection of God’s words also affect our here and now. God employs His words, in us and through us, to best prepare everyone for all that rightly lies ahead today as well as in eternity. Countering every individual misunderstanding of Him with Truth, God leaves nothing to “chance,” nor anything incomplete or undone. He even interprets His Holy Word for us in ways that we can best understand through the Holy Spirit, who unravels our confusion one thought at a time. By remaining in God’s Word (See John 14:26), seeking greater Truth, Truth comes to us in the manifestation of more of the abundance of the life of Christ Jesus that is growing within us.

In the light of Truth that Jesus provides, we more clearly “see” the manifested Spiritual Truth of God revealed in Jesus. Each additional revelation better enables greater realization of the unification of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as One accord, existing forever in unparalleled harmonic perfection. As One Living God (See Deuteronomy 6:4), they are One in Truth, One in Word and One in Spirit. As One, They have invited all mankind to join Them in knowing the perfecting in Christ that They have made available to all people for all time everywhere.

When we have moved beyond time’s completion, God will remain as He has always been;  Eternal God. “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1), and in the end God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (See also John 1:1) Being of One Voice, God spoke all Creation into being by the power of His Word, timing perfectly the Story that He unfolded from beginning to end, bringing it to right completion in its eternal conception. Then at the precise moment in time that all-knowing God so designated as perfect timing, God revealed to His Creation, through the giving of the Son, the fruition of the Story that will have no end.

When God the Father delivered His Son into a sin-filled world in a Body of sin-free flesh, God revealed Himself to be the All-in-All of the Story that mankind, for the most part, thought was being written by them. They (we) couldn’t have been any more wrong, and God proved so by giving visibility of the Authorship of God to the people whom He had penned into the Story. God the Son carried God the Father’s Name in His very Being, exactly as God had foretold throughout all of recorded history (His Story):

Immanuel – God with us
Jesus – YAHWEH is salvation
Savior – the One who saves
Christ/Messiah – the Anointed One
King – the Sovereign One having dominion
“I Am” —the Self-proclaimed Name of God Eternal
(See Isaiah 7:12-16, 9:6, 7; Matthew 1:16; Luke 1:31, 2:11; John 18:5, 8, 37).

God the Father has always been both honored by and proud of His Son who bears His Name. But even more so, according to God, He has always been both honored by and proud of His Son who bears His Word, for the Son speaks only as He hears the Father speaking. (See John 12:49) By fully respecting His Father’s words, the Son gives respect to the Name of the One who spoke them.

In verse two of Psalm 138, God specifically says through David’s penning that He has exalted His Word above even His Name:

“I bow myself toward thy holy temple, And I confess Thy name, For Thy kindness, and for Thy truth, For Thou has made great Thy saying above Thy name.” (Young’s Literal Translation)

The abundant (See John 10:10) and eternal life (See John 17:3) that God has given to all men by grace through faith (which comes also by grace—see Ephesians 2:8), is the Gift that God extended to us in the Truth of Jesus, for “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

Denoted in the original Greek by use of the singular tense of the verb “came” is that the grace of God is indistinguishable and inseparable from God’s Truth that reveals it. Likewise, the Truth of God comes to us only by God’s grace. “Grace and Truth” is a singular Entity, a single Being:  Jesus Christ—God. Encapsulating all life, Jesus is the revealed perfection of God, who ”…gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

That is the Truth that Jesus continually delivers.

To a world inclined to judge people by performance, the Truth of God’s grace is a conundrum. Though grace is a breath of fresh air (an unexpected reprieve from “measuring up”), its unselfish “no strings attached” nature can make grace difficult to accept. Carrying no hidden agenda, grace’s extreme generosity is counterintuitive to self-preservation, defying worldly logic.

Yet there it is, “Grace and Truth” laid out in a lowly stable, publicly displayed in the innocent babe, most humbly born to die for the sake of others.

“He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—” (John 1:11, 12)

And how did God say that it would be so?

Through faith in His Word,..
Through acting—speaking, confessing—in belief of His Word…
Through faith in the Name of Jesus:  the Living Word of God Almighty.

To all who humbly turn to Jesus to ask in faith for whatever is needed in accordance with the Father’s will, much is given. (See Mathew 21:22, Mark 11:24, Luke 11:10) Everyone who brings their needs to Jesus discovers that Jesus is already on top of every situation. Whenever Jesus is asked if He is either willing or able to help, His reply is always the same. He answers with His Father’s Self-professed Name:  “I Am” (See Exodus 3:14 & John 8:58).

Like Father, like Son… always One and the same. (See John 5:19)

That is Grace, pure and simple:  the Gift of God, giving His All.

And that is the Truth.

Jesus. His Name says it all.

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“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”  (Philippians 2:9-11)