The Old Rugged Cross by George Bernard
On a hill faraway stood an old rugged cross, The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross, where the dearest and best, For a world of lost sinners was slain.
O the old rugged cross, so despised by the world, Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear LAMB of GOD left HIS glory above to bear it to dark Calvary.
In the old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, A wondrous beauty I see;
For 'twas on that old cross JESUS suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me.
To the old rugged cross I will every be true; Its shame and reproach gladly bear.
Then HE'll call me someday to my home far away Where HIS glory forever I'll share.
Chorus:
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
Ten years ago, this Easter Sunday, I left my husband and my two children who were 9 and 7 at the time, and boarded an airplane for Dallas, Texas. I wasn't sure how long i would be gone, i had hoped no longer than a couple of weeks, but it turned into six and a half weeks before i would see my babies again. I had reached the point of desperation in my struggle with my health issues, and tried doctor after doctor after doctor with little or no help and often the treatment i received made me worse. I didn't know what was wrong with me, I had been sick for 9 years, since John Mac was 8 months old, with pain that began in my back and gradually migrated all over my body, not to mention it felt like my back muscles had shrunk and were a couple of sizes to small for me, allergic reactions to medicine that sent me to the emergency room for the first time in my life, twice, actually, and left me with searing burning pain throughout my body for months. I had to eat constantly and huge amounts to stay full, was a nervous wreck, and had reached the point that i could not walk unless i took IV's. I was 36 years old, and i was a mess. It was humbling to say the least after being a college athlete, becoming an RN, a pastor's wife, and one who like to do things for myself. My lessons in dependence really stung my pride that i couldn't even take care of myself hardly, much less do a good job caring for my family.
When i boarded the plane for Dallas, it was with the hopes that the doctor out there, Dr. William Rea, who have founded the Environmental Health Clinic,(www.ehcd.com) would be able to help me where no other doctor seemed to have the answers to my issues. After i arrived in Dallas at the apartment complex i was staying in for Dr. Rea's patients, i drug my suitcase up the steps to the second floor late at night and knocked on the door. The door opened and a man let me inside the apartment. There was nothing inside the room except a wire patio table and chairs, and a park bench a lady was sitting on watching TV hooked up to an Oxygen mask. I thought to myself, "Wow, I've got a sick one (for a roommate). Little did i know, that i would be taking oxygen myself in just a few days and a lot of it. I found my room, and it was just as bleak as the den area, it was empty except for a couple of metal frames with cotton bedding and sheets on them, with a lamp and clock on a metal table beside the bed. Talk about culture shock -it was depressing. I had been warned it would be this way, by the new patient coordinator i had talked with on the phone earlier, but nothing could prepare me for this. It was sparsely furnished like this because by the time most of Dr. Rea's patients find their way to him, they are allergic to everything whether they know it or not, and i was about to find out, i was one of those who was allergic to everything. Except for my desperate health situation...i would have turned around and left. As i opened my suitcase to hang up my clothes in the large closet in my bedroom, i saw several signs that Hannah Beth had colored for me in her 7 year old handwriting on construction paper saying she loved me and would miss me, and had drawn pictures on them. I put them up in the bathroom and they made me cry as i missed my family and i sure was scared and lonely. I'm crying even now as i think about how lonesome, scared, and yet hopeful i was that this doctor could help me. That was 10 years ago this Easter Sunday that i left for Dallas and how very grateful i am for the LORD JESUS showing me HIS love and me to my doctors in Dallas whom GOD has used to restore my health.
The way that my doctors practice medicine is often looked at as "foolishness" by those who practice traditional medicine...until one of those doctor's who practice traditional medicine gets sick from chemicals, and comes to Dallas for healing...GOD has a way of using suffering in their own lives to change their minds. In order to prepare my doctors to be able to bring others out of their bondage of sickness from chemicals and mold, GOD allowed them to suffer from similar issues as their patients, while they were practicing medicine...I'm sure it wasn't a welcome interruption in their busy lives at first...crosses never are welcome at first. Dealing with their own sicknesses, while they were trying to care for others must have been very difficult. I know it was very difficult for me when i just had my family i was trying to care for while i was sick. There has been a cost to them as they both left practices that made much more money, Dr. Rea as a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon, and Dr. Henry as an Internal Medicine Doctor with her own family practice...to practice Environmental Medicine where the insurance doesn't always pay so well, and they do their best to keep the costs down for their patients. There have been other costly battles legal battles along the way...and how thankful i am for the boldness and courage GOD has given them to fight for their patients. Through their "cross," GOD has brought healing to thousands, who had nowhere else to turn. Life out of death, the message of the cross, and so much healing has been borne out of my doctors "deaths" to their own plans and purposes . Through their "crosses" GOD has granted hope and healing to thousands of patients like me who were lost in a wilderness of suffering and couldn't find our way out. How thankful I am for the plan that GOD already had in place to deliver me from my sickness...there were times i thought nobody could relate to what was wrong with me, and GOD had it all under control. The LOVE of GOD had already prepared my doctors through their "cross" so they could deliver me and countless others from our desperate health situations.
For a glimpse of the wealth of knowledge concerning how chemicals affect our health and the humility that GOD has built into Dr. Rea's life through "his cross," click on: http://progressive.uvault.com/pd1005/AEM073/05Rea/player.htm.
This is a most special time of the year for me for another reason as it was in April of 1982 that the LORD JESUS delivered me from my sin that HE had already paid for two thousand years ago on the cross. "For HE delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of HIS beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
I had wrestled with my sin throughout my teenage years as i was in a dating relationship that was not pleasing to the LORD. CHRIST would not let me go, and gently continued to convict me of my sins, and drew me to HIM. After surrendering my life to HIM at a youth revival, something was really different this time... I had prayed before and tried to live right, but this time i had a joy, I'd never known, i felt like a huge burden had been lifted from me, and a hunger and thirst for GOD, HIS WORD, and HIS people like I'd never had before. THIS was HIS doing, not mine own. I also had a huge desire to be obedient to the LORD and my parents. I was changed and no one could do that but JESUS CHRIST who gave HIMself for me on the Cross "At Calvary." I was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 11, 1982, as an outward sign of what CHRIST had done in my life inwardly. "Therefore we have been buried with HIM through baptism into death, in order that as CHRIST was raised from the dead through the glory of the FATHER, so we too might walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4
That has been 27 years ago, if my math is correct, that JESUS CHRIST led me out of the bondage of my sin...Praise the LORD, and as i shared last week, "the longer i serve HIM the sweeter HE grows." The more I "gaze at the cross," as my friend Ashlie Clay shared with me last week, the more I realize how very much my SAVIOR loves me. I continue to sin, everyday, and will in this life, but CHRIST has forgiven me for all of them, and HE has given me a desire to be holy and more like HIM. HE has given me the power through HIS HOLY SPIRIT to overcome the sin in my life and sin doesn't have the power over me that it once did..."My chains are gone, I've been set free."
JESUS, the Lamb of GOD, was crucified on an old rugged Cross, as GOD's perfect plan for our redemption. GOD sent HIS SON from heaven to pay for our sins, to deliver us from the bondage of sin, because our sin had to be paid for in order for us to be justified before our holy GOD..."oh the LOVE that drew salvation's plan, and oh the grace that brought it down to man, oh the gulf that GOD did span at Calvary." This awful day, and it was awful, yet glorious for us, as the precious Lamb of GOD was beaten beyond recognition, HIS muscles lacerated by the whips that had sharp pieces of metal woven into them, and finally he was nailed to a wooden cross, naked, to be the Passover Lamb, so that HIS blood could be shed, and cover all of our sins. "For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only Son that whosoever believes in HIM should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16.
In the Old Testament, when GOD was delivering the Hebrew children from the bondage of being in slavery to the Egyptians, he told Moses to tell the Hebrews to take a lamb, a lamb without blemish, and keep it until the 14th day of the same month. I have read where these lambs became like pets to the Hebrews, and they were loved, while they kept them in their homes. I have thought of that often since we have a little Maltipoo now that stays in the house..."Troy" reminds me of a lamb, and how painful it would be to have to kill him as a sacrifice for our sins. On the 14th day of the month they were to kill the lamb at twilight, and take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts of the houses where they ate...when the LORD passed through the land of Egypt and struck the firstborn dead, those who had the blood on their doorpost like the LORD commanded would be saved from their firstborn being killed. "Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations." Exodus 12:13-14
Several years ago, our Sunday School class at Elkmont Baptist, when through a Bible study of the 7 Feasts of Israel. It was at that time that i understood for the first time, that JESUS the dear precious Lamb of GOD who takes away the sin of the world, was crucified on Passover, to be the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb. "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even CHRIST our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (I Corinthians 5:7-8).
Sadly, to many in our world today, GOD's plan for salvation- " The Message of the Cross is Foolishness..."
"that CHRIST died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that HE was buried, and that HE was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ...and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve and after that HE appeared to more than five hundred brethern at one time."I Corinthians 15:3-6
...but to us who are being saved it is the power of GOD. For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
Where now is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not GOD made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of GOD, the world through its wisdom did not know what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach CHRIST crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom GOD has called, both Jews and Greeks, CHRIST the power of GOD and the wisdom of GOD." I Corinthians 1:18-24.
I am very grateful for the cross that HE has allowed in my life through my sickness, though at times it has looked very foolish to me. HE has taught me and my family so much through it, and used my"cross" in many ways to draw me closer to HIM and be able to identify with HIS sufferings on the cross. So many of these emails i write are "borne" out of the cross that CHRIST in HIS perfect love for me, has allowed me to carry for HIM.
In this week's April 8 Streams in the Desert I read this comforting and challenging words...words that I can only obtain to through the cross that JESUS died on for me and you:
Here is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of everything in ourselves and in our circumstances. When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard situation or bad treatment, for we will recognize these things as the very conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God and find in them a claim upon Him. --A. B. Simpson
George Matheson, the well-known blind preacher of Scotland, who recently went to be with the Lord, said: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.
"Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows."
My hope and prayer for you my dear friends and family is this Easter you will know the salvation that is ours in CHRIST JESUS...GOD loves you so much and doesn't want anyone to be "Left Behind," to go through the terrible, terrible days of the Tribulation...Rev. 6-19. HE sent HIS SON to save us from those days and eternal damnation for our sins. I believe with all my heart that HE is going to return soon for HIS bride and take us to heaven - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5PfFMy6-n0 .
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"For if we believe that JESUS died and rose again, even so GOD will bring with HIM those who have fallen asleep in JESUS...For the LORD HIMself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of GOD; and the dead in CHRIST shall rise first.Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air, and thus we shall always be with the LORD. Therefore comfort one another with these words." I Thess.5:14-18
Those who have studied prophecy in the Scriptures much more than I have sure do say the signs are pointing to HIS imminent return. Dr. Thomas Ice of the Pre-Tribulation Research Center http://www.pre-trib.org/index.php shared on a recent blog how Scripture is being fulfilled to bring about the end times- http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot.com/2009/03/prophecy-on-fast-forward.html This Easter you can know GOD's love and HIS plan for salvation by simply trusting in what CHRIST did for us on the cross and repenting from your sins...HE has done the rest "On the Old Rugged Cross."
You are very dear to me and I thank GOD for your love for us. Thank you so much for your dear prayers for me and my family...through all these years GOD has led us. HE has been so faithful and encouraged us and cheered us on by your love and friendship, your wisdom, and tender loving care for us. How i praise HIM for HIS wonderful love and plan of salvation for you and me... through "The Old Rugged Cross."
Happy Easter,
Mitzi
Please pray for Johnny who had carpel tunnel surgery this week on his wrist.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing your testimony. You are dear to me. My God be glorified. Love you -catherine
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