Today's Devotional

March 21, 2005

Subject:  Fellowship With The Cross Of Christ - Expectation

Philippians 3:10 - "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;"

Jeremiah 30:8 - "For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:"

We think of the cross as something that Jesus had to endure.  While we know the scripture says that we must also "take up our cross," it's clear that we also affiliate ourselves with Christ in His sufferings in many ways.  This series of devotionals will be published throughout Holy Week.  Today we talk about how we have Fellowship With The Cross Of Christ  in expectation. 

Within the earliest ancient Jewish tradition, the prophecies told of a messiah for the Jewish people who would free them from the yoke of slavery and bondage.  The arrival of Christ on the scene shone new hope on the Jewish people to meet the expectation of this messiah.  However, there would be many questions along the way.  While He seemed to have everything it took, including supernatural powers, He sometimes behaved too meekly for a messiah.

Oftentimes people's expectations of us don't match up to what we expect of ourselves.  This was a problem the people had with Christ and many people have that problem with you today or you may have that problem with others.  Today you need to understand that your expectations should only be for yourself.  Creating expectations of others leads us to dashed hopes and dreams and just as they labeled Christ, so too will people label us when we don't meet up to their expectations.  They call us "failures."  Tomorrow we will cover how failure affiliates us with Christ.

  Carlen