I am putting two devotionals together today. Two doodles for the price of one 😄. My “Black Friday” special. 

As I write those words, “Black Friday” (For those who may not live in the U.S., the term “Black Friday” refers to the biggest shopping day with the best deals of the year. It follows Thanksgiving day and rings in the Christmas season. It’s the day that businesses hope will put their accounting books “in the black”.  Or in other words–they will have made a profit this year.), I can’t help but think of the one and only BLACK FRIDAY. The day the world went black, the ground shook and the Son of Man/God cried out “It is finished!” and died, descending to hell and paying the price for ALL sin.  In accounting terms He cried, “YOUR DEBT IS PAID!”.

 

 
Because of that day and the resurrection day, we are FREE to live in the power of the cross and in the full knowledge that all who are in Christ, covered by the cross, are just refugees in this dying world awaiting our forever home.  We have a “ticket to paradise”.

If I dwell on the Cross of Christ, I do not simply become inwardly  devout and solely interested in my own holiness–I become strongly focused on Jesus Christ’s interests. Our Lord was not a recluse nor a fanatical holy man practicing self-denial. He did not physically cut Himself off from society, but He was inwardly disconnected all the time. He was not aloof, but He lived in another world. In fact, He was so much in the common everyday world that the religious people of His day accused Him of being a glutton and a drunkard. Yet our Lord never allowed anything to interfere with His consecration of spiritual power. 

. . . “I do not pray that You should take them out of this world, but that You would keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15).  We are to be in the world but not of it–to be separated internally, not externally. 

. . . The way to make that determination, when faced with a perplexing problem, is to ask yourself, “Is this the kind of thing in which Jesus Christ is interested, or is it something in which the spirit that is diametrically opposed to Jesus is interested?”  —Oswald Chambers

What is diametrically opposed to Jesus? I can think of one thing off the top of my head–condemnation. Jesus said, “I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world”.  (Paraphrased by me.)  I would like to challenge all of us to live in a world of “innocence until proven guilty”.  Sit with those who may be different then us, have a cup of coffee. Relax and enjoy your freedom. This world is temporary but because of Jesus we are able to live, even here, in the knowledge and presence of eternity with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.  We are living on the other side of “Black Friday”.  It’s all profit for us, for FREE!  Share the good news of the cross!

 
I am Thankful to you Jesus. My heart is full and rich beyond measure, living in the hope of the promise of rescue. I love you!  AMEN and amen.