Living Between Two Realities

Recently, I returned from several days of ministry in Louisiana.  It was a busy time meeting new people and experiencing a new culture.  A week after returning home, I received a package.  Inside was a small, hand-carved cross.  The woman who sent the cross to me shared that her father – a Cajun man – carved these crosses from bayou wood and called them a “Gripping Cross”.  This was her father’s ministry.  He gave the crosses as gifts to people, especially to those who might be going through challenging times.

As I sit here reading the Word as have done each morning for most of my life, I reached over and picked up the Gripping Cross.  I couldn’t help but think of the imagery before me.  I was sitting in my chair with the Word in my lap and my hand wrapped around this small wooden cross.

I have learned the power of resurrection is to be experienced in a place between the cross and the throne - that place is our daily life.  We take hold of the power of the cross to put to death those things that lie to us about our identity and at the same time we embrace our present place of authority in Christ at the Fathers right hand.

Today, grip the reality of the finished work of the cross and the place of enthronement you now share with Jesus.   Everything in between these two realities has already been subjected to the victory of the cross and the authority of the throne. This is your place of victory as you live in this present world – take hold of it.