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.