paradise – Ad Crucem Christi – The Cross of Christ

You can start this series from the beginning, if you would like to catch up.

Where You Fit In…..

Tell me that you are getting something out of what we have discussed so far. I’ll wager that a lot of it, you never heard before; I hope so, because, if you are like me, you love hearing about new things.

Let’s update then. You feel that there might just be the possibility that your soul and spirit may not dissipate with your body when it dies, so you feel that you would like to investigate a little further.

Maybe, you’ve been a real enthusiast and looked into a few religions that might just meet with the immigration requirements that you have – good on you and well done.

Maybe you didn’t get that far yet, but have decided to keep reading; either way – good on you!

Where you fit in to the picture now, is taking a look at what you can do about getting the immigration requirements you need from this little e-book and I really want to help you with this.

Moving along with The Tree of Life Process we will want to know how we are able to take hold of what Jesus did on the cross, in order to get us all the free benefits in this life and meet the immigration requirements in the next existence.

Before we continue, I need to tell you something. I know I quipped about the cost of joining the club earlier, but the reality is, that in the truest sense, there is no club.

There is only God and you.

What will happen however is that once you have had the meeting with God, you will attract others who, like you, have also had a meeting with God. This leads to the need to spend time with these people, because that way you enjoy being with them and you learn at the same time.

But this is the thing you MUST REMEMBER. Your meeting with God and the receiving of all the benefits from Him, IS NOT DEPENDANT on you belonging to some club or organization or being monitored and controlled by a management team.

If you are sincere in wanting to meet with God, and if you have read this far, I believe you must be, then God Himself will lead you to those who will sincerely coach you, as and when God wants you to be coached.

Having said this we can continue now with The Tree of Life Process:

The Tree of Life Process – Continued

How do I personally take hold of the benefits for my life from what Jesus did on the cross?

I know that this may sound a little strange to you, but the answer to the question is, “Not much really”!

According to what Jesus said in the Gospel books, how you will begin to take up the benefits of The Tree of Life Process is actually dependant on God alone and not you.[1]

What I mean when I say this is; God understood, before He created the heavens and the universe, that you would want to receive the benefits from His Tree of Life Process. As a result He earmarked you to have them. Let’s put it this way: It’s not a matter of God being selective as to whom He gave the benefits, it’s just that He knew who would accept and who would reject His offer. (God is omniscient – knowing all things). Being very efficient in everything that He does, He would not offer something to someone, whom He knew beforehand would reject it, so then, He does not offer it to them at all.

What I have explained above is very, very important. There are many who believe that God’s Tree of Life benefits must be widely and loudly broadcast, often using techniques to persuade others to ask God to give these to them. Because God does not need the use of human marketing methods to accomplish what He wants, such efforts are, in the deepest sense, futile. However, God is supreme and His methods are not understood fully by humanity[2], but God will, if it suits His purpose, even use the futility of human effort, to accomplish His purpose.

I say that no human can receive from another human something that is not experiential in the human that is giving. In other words, if it’s not real in my life, I can’t (effectively) transfer it to you.

Remember: There is only God and you.

To summarize: God offers, you receive –it does not work any other way. So, you ask Him (no one else) and He gives to you.

The next step is believing in what actually happened at Calvary, where Jesus was crucified on a wooden cross.

What did happen?

He was nailed through the palms of his hands and His feet to the wooden beams. The cross was raised and dropped into a support socket, so that it would remain erect.

The basis of this procedure (a Roman form of punishment) was that the victim would ultimately die a very slow and painful death by asphyxiation.

Now, much has been written over the years about the physical suffering of Jesus on that cross, but, without appearing heartless for His suffering, I must say, that the pain and suffering were not the true issue here.

The real issue was that this event was the most significant and at the same time, the most powerful in the history of humanity and here’s why:

In agreement with God, Jesus offered to give up His Life as compensation for the blood sacrifice that God had always required over the millennia when His people had been disobedient. But this time it was different, Jesus would die and his bleeding body, in death, would be the very last sacrifice for humanity’s disobedience. God would require no more sacrifices from humanity after this event.

The crucifixion of Jesus was the reason for His birth and life on this earth. Without Him, there was no hope for humanity and the perfect completion of God’s original and ONLY plan.

How do you go about BELIEVING in what happened at Calvary and how does this believing bring you to the place of receiving the fruit (benefits) from The Tree of Life process, here on this earth and then immigration acceptance in the next existence?

Another way of saying, “believing in” is to have faith in. If I came up to you as a perfect stranger and said, “You are headed for a wonderful experience in this coming week”. I suppose your first reaction would be, “How do you know”? And I might say, “Someone told me and it’s not important that you know who, just now”. With this I walk away.

You say to yourself, “That man is a complete stranger, who doesn’t know me, but he must know something about me from some unearthly source”.

Now, you want a wonderful experience this week – right? So, you do not reject what I say, but rather, you accept it because that’s what you would like to happen for you.

You might say, “How stupid is that guy, what does he know about me?” You go on your way and soon forget what I said.

Which side of you is, “believing in” what I said?

OK, no prizes for the correct answer, but you get the idea.

Let’s do a little visualization here….You have time travelled to zero AD. Jesus is hanging on the cross and is in the stage of His last breath. You happen to be standing with the little group of women, including his mother, Mary.

He looks down at you….yes, you. At first you turn your head, because you can’t honestly look into his eyes, there is something about yourself that makes you feel that you not good enough to take in his gaze. Then you turn and look at Him. He starts to speak, you strain to hear. You cannot believe what He is telling you. “Come up here and die with me”. “What?” you say to yourself, “What are you asking?” As if he can read your thoughts, He continues. “If you are willing to die to your disobedient life, I will give you a new life here on this earth and a paradise for your soul and spirit when your body dies”.

You pause and try to reason, and then you say to yourself, “This man is a complete stranger, who doesn’t know me, but he must know something about me from some unearthly source”.

What seems like an hour, but in fact is only a few seconds you make your decision and hesitatingly say, “Take me, I want to go with you.”

Jesus turns his head towards the little group of women and it’s not long after, lifting His head upwards, he cries out a sentence in a language you do not understand and his head sinks in submission to death.

Suddenly, to a woman, the little group begin to wail.

It is a strange thing, that in this horror scene, you are feeling elated, you cannot understand why…but later you will come to know.

The reason for you feeling the way you do, is that something spiritual has taken place between you and God via what Jesus has just accomplished on the cross.

What did He do? He became the final sacrifice for your sins (and all other humans). When I say sins, I mean your past sins, your present sins and finally your future sins. For your part you obeyed the request from the lips of Jesus to, “Come up here and die with me”. Spiritually speaking, you joined Him on that cross and died with Him.

It did not stop there, because He was buried that day and likewise, you were buried with Him.

Finally, after three days, He rose from the dead and was lifted up into heaven, to be seated at the right hand (place of authority) of God and you went with Him, to be seated with God.[3]

Now looking at yourself, you will notice that you are still very much here on earth!

But in the spiritual sense your soul and spirit are with God, as they are the eternal parts of you and not limited by time or space. Your body, however, remains earthbound.

Seated with Jesus, next to God, the mindset that you had (which used to disobey the will of God) before you agreed to join Jesus on the cross, is no longer in you. It was buried at Calvary, never to be resurrected again.

So now you are a new person, seated with Jesus, next to God and you have a new mindset that is passionate to obey God in all respects.

You have just undergone a ‘rebirth’ process[4] and the benefits of this process are:

You begin to see God in a new light. You understand something about his character and the Kingdom that He established here on this earth.
You begin to actually live; the way God wants you to live on this earth, adopting his Kingdom Principles[5].
You make immigration approval to a new and better existence.

In the next chapter I would like to talk a little more on the subject of our position with God and Jesus in eternity (which for you and I will be the new and better existence for which we have now qualified).

A Timeless Tale is a series that is published bi-monthly.

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[1] John 6:44,65

Romans 8:29-30; 9:12-21

Ephesians 1:4-5

Titus 3:5-7

[2] I Corinthians 2:16

[3] Ephesians: 1:20; 2:6

[4] John 3:3-5

[5] Chapters, 5,6,7 of Matthew’s Gospel