Before we begin our time of sharing, let us open with a word of prayer.
Our dear Lord Jesus, our hearts are full of thanksgiving. Lord, You came into this world, bore Your cross, and served God. You served all mankind.
Lord, not only are these things recorded so that we can understand, but through the Spirit, You will lead us into Your own footsteps, so that we can walk according to Your way. Then we too may be able to serve God and serve mankind.
Lord, we need Your light of revelation, that our service might be found pleasing in Your eyes. If it were not for the cross, we could not attain to the eternal will of God. Do not let us merely know the knowledge of the cross; may we be those who bear our cross.
Our Lord Jesus, may You gain us completely, so that Your name might be glorified in our lives. In this short time, deeply anoint this entire meeting. Give us freedom in our spirit so that we can have fellowship with one another.
We give You worship from the depths of our being. May You hear our prayer. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
We know that the Lord has saved us so that we can be those who serve Him. The experience of Christian service is of utmost importance.
God did not merely redeem us, tell us to serve, and then let us serve Him with our own methods and our own strength. Yet this seems to be the understanding of many of us. We say that we want to serve God, and so we serve Him with great fervency. We use all our natural wisdom, all our strength, and serve the Lord with all our might.
We see this throughout Christianity. In reality, the Lord does want us to serve Him, but He does not want us to serve Him according to our own methods. He has given us an example.
The example of service throughout human history is our Lord Jesus. Only the service of the Lord Jesus is acceptable to God. We thank the Lord that He has prepared the way and given us this example.
For us to serve God today, we need to do so according to His example. We need to walk in His footsteps, and then our service will be found pleasing before God.
Previously, we mentioned that the most important matter in service is that we ought to have the mind of Christ. Brothers and sisters, when our mind is the same as that of Christ, then our service is unto the Lord, and that service is acceptable.
Otherwise, we will come up with our own ideologies, or our thoughts will be filled with the thoughts of the world. Then the work that we do is our own, and it belongs to the world. That is not service to God. Even worse, if our thoughts are made captive by the enemy, then the work we do is opposing God.
If we want to serve according to God’s standard, we need to have a renewed mind. We need to have the mind of Christ.
Yesterday we shared on Philippians 2:5-8. This is an important passage of Scripture, and we spoke of seven points regarding the mind of Christ. Each of these points has much to do with our service.
Paul beseeched the church in Philippi to have the mind of Christ. If the mind of Christ cannot become our mind, then many problems will manifest in our service.
In the church at Philippi, two sisters had a problem. Perhaps they did not have issues with their gifts or their fervency. Maybe they even longed to suffer, had wisdom regarding Scripture, and lived pure lives. Yet they found difficulty in service, and that difficulty was in regard to their minds.
Paul said, “I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord.” Paul beseeched these two sisters to have the mind of Christ.
Our minds today must be renewed and transformed. They must become the mind of our Lord Jesus.
Philippians 2:2 speaks of a beautiful situation that can occur in the church: to think the same thing and to have the same mind. If we have the same mind, then we will all be in one accord.
The greatest difficulty arises when you have your opinion and I have mine. We have our individual opinions, and then many difficulties arise in service. The most important thing in service is that we need to have a transformed mind, that the mind of Christ would become our mind.
Today we want to share on the cross and resurrection life. Let us begin with a few passages of Scripture: Romans 6:5, Philippians 3:10-11, and 2 Corinthians 4:7-12.
These three passages of Scripture explain the experience of the cross in three different ways. Christ was crucified, but the meaning of the cross is especially explained by Paul. In the first century, no one explained the workings of the cross more clearly than the Apostle Paul.
These passages are all found in Paul’s epistles. In Romans 6, we find a truth. In 2 Corinthians 4, we see the effect. In Philippians 3, we see a pursuit.
We have this truth, we need to have this effect, and if we want to see a certain effect, then we ought to have a certain pursuit. Paul speaks of this matter in its entirety.
The aspects of the cross described in these Scriptures are, on the one hand, death, and on the other hand, life. We are made in His likeness in death, and we are united with Him in His resurrection life.
These are the two important aspects that the cross works in us. The most important experience of the cross is death, but the most important result of this death is life. Death is a process; the life that results is the goal.
Brothers and sisters, how is your meeting condition? Some tell me, “Our meetings do not seem very lively.” One even told me, “Our meeting is so dead.”
Those who serve the Lord may think of methods in order to make the meetings alive. We see many servants of the Lord thinking up strategies: “How can I make this meeting more alive?”
Some speakers may have a talent for telling many jokes and making the meeting more lively. In some meetings they beat drums and other things in order to make the meeting more lively. Some feel that their songs are too slow or too dead, so they add more noise. Others produce a full show.
Their hearts may be in the right place, and they may feel that the church needs life. Therefore, there is much activity in the church.
Sometimes I feel that in our Chinese meetings, we are most alive when food is involved. In many Chinese churches, food is involved in the service. When food is served, everyone is very lively; but then we sit down in the meeting, and the meeting is dead.
Some churches may be very alive, but in my feeling, their being alive is a little abnormal. It is very rambunctious, but I feel that there is something wrong.
Brothers and sisters, we need to know that the Bible tells us that we need to have a correct death, and only this leads to a correct resurrection life. We need the reality of death in order to have the manifestation of life.
The life God wants Christians to have is the life that comes from the resurrection life of Christ. This kind of life in service can only come by the way of God. Worldly methods and human methods cannot bring life.
The message of the cross is neglected in many churches. The light of the cross seems dim in the church today. Servants of the Lord may merely want to make the meeting lively, and that is a frightening situation.
Brothers and sisters, if our meeting is found in this kind of situation, our meeting together has very little value before the Lord. The Lord does not accept this kind of service.
The work of God needs to be done by the way of God. God has given us the example, and He has given us the way.
We need to come before God and experience the death of Jesus. We also need the experience of the resurrection life of Christ.
The Apostle Paul, in his old age, was imprisoned in Rome, and within him he had this cry: “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.” If our service and lives are to have any value, it depends upon whether this resurrection life is manifested in us.
For Paul to gain more of Christ, he needed more of that resurrection life. What does it mean to resurrect? If you have not died, you cannot speak of resurrection. Only the life that passes through death is a resurrected life.
If we go through death and overcome it, that is resurrection. That is what our Lord did. Our Lord died, and then He came out of death. That is the experience of resurrection, and that is resurrection life.
We thank the Lord that He has gone through this entire process. Today, what we need to do is enter into the experience of our Lord. Only when we come out with resurrection life do we have a heavenly character and heavenly power.
From last night’s message until this morning’s message, our elderly brothers have given us a clear picture of what this ought to be. Brother Kong shared that Romans 6 is an eternal reality, and this is something we need to accept by faith.
The moment we were baptized, we were united with Christ in His death. When we came out of the water, we were united with Him in life. This is a truth that cannot be changed.
But for this to become a reality and bear fruit, we have to go through the process. Paul always lived a life of death and resurrection.
Before we knew the Lord, we went through life deciding what was good and what was bad, what was beneficial and what was not beneficial to us. If something benefited us, then we accepted it; if not, then we forgot it.
This may have been the principle by which we lived before we knew the Lord. But when we came to the Lord and were baptized, what did baptism mean?
Baptism includes dying with the Lord, being buried with the Lord, and resurrecting with the Lord. More importantly, our principles in life have changed.
From then on, we accept the principle of death and resurrection. I am not sure how many of you are clear on this point.
I see many saints who have come to know the Lord, yet we still base our lives and our principles on right and wrong. Often, if you are wrong, then I am right. This was the way we lived our old life, and we cannot bring this methodology into our service.
As Christians who are willing to serve, our principle needs to be death and resurrection. No wonder Paul says that he needs to be conformed to Christ’s death in order to attain to resurrection.
Paul’s desire was to be like Christ in His death. This speaks of his experience. Sometimes he was successful, and sometimes he was not. This speaks of our practical reality.
For us to receive the fruit of resurrection life, we need to be conformed to His death. What is this death? It is death to ourselves. This death to self allows us to live for God.
We may be clear on this doctrine, but it is of utmost importance. In Paul’s epistles, he speaks of running a race. In Philippians, he speaks of running toward the goal. When he writes to Timothy at the end of his life, he says, “I have finished the course.”
What kind of Christian is running? What kind is running fast? We might say that a Christian who has read the Bible a hundred times must be running very fast. We may meet saints who have memorized the entire New Testament, or the Psalms. We might think that this is running fast.
Some may say that they have been to every country in the world. Many Christians are fervent in caring for brothers and sisters, and we may think this is running fast. These are good things, but this is not the running that Paul is referring to.
Those who are conformed to His death are the ones who run. What does that mean? The quicker you die, the quicker you are running.
How fast a Christian is running can be measured by how quickly he is dying. The more we die to ourselves, the more we are actually alive. This is a precious Christian experience, and we need to understand this secret, especially in service.
A lot of times in service, we touch things that lead to death. Sometimes we burn ourselves out. Some are like nails in the temple, with so many things hanging on them that the nail is bent.
A brother or sister may have three or four different services, but become so tired that he is dry and of little use. This is an experience we have all had.
Sometimes we rub up against one another in our characters, and some get crushed. Those who are stubborn may crush those who are gentler. Sometimes our speech and actions lead to death.
Those who do not serve may not encounter this kind of death, but they also cannot experience much resurrection. In service, if resurrection life is to flow out, the Lord will allow us to experience difficulties. He will even allow us to experience death. This is an important thing.
Some of these things I have shared may seem theoretical. Let me share with you my own experience. I would also like others to prepare to share their experiences.
Some of you may have heard this story before. I apologize, because of my limited experience, but this is the most appropriate example of how the Lord allowed me to experience death and how I came out of this death.
This occurred about thirty years ago. I was serving in California. They did not have a preacher, and an elderly brother asked someone to come and serve there. He asked me to go.
The meeting was small, only about thirty or forty people. I was excited and thanked the Lord for the opportunity to serve.
At that church there was an elderly brother who was very wealthy. He was responsible for what happened in the church. When he saw that I had arrived, he said, “I have a car for you.”
It was a car that he had previously wrecked but had repaired. He gave me the car so that I could get around. I was staying with another brother, and he took me to get the car.
I thought in my heart, “Oh, that is very nice. I have a car to drive.” But when I arrived at the elderly brother’s home, he stared at me and told me, “It is good that you are here.”
He said, “We are all very wealthy, and we do not have any time. I am going to give you a car so you can get around. If you can bring us one hundred and fifty people, I will build you a big church building.”
He continued, “You come and serve here. We will take care of your housing, food, and clothing needs. I will give you two suits every year.”
Do you know how I felt as I stood there? I felt ashamed. I felt that I had come out to serve the Lord and wanted to live by faith. I did not have any requirements.
I wanted to be like those brothers and sisters before us who served the Lord and lived by faith. I did not want to make demands of anyone else, and I did not want to impose on anyone.
Then he told me that he would take care of my housing and food needs, make me two suits, and build a giant structure if I brought one hundred and fifty people to the church. This really hurt me.
As he was telling me these things, I became angry. But I thought, “I am one who serves the Lord. I cannot lose my temper here.” So I suppressed my anger and even tried to smile. I smiled, looked at him, and nodded.
There was a young deacon standing there, mocking me. I was like a volcano ready to explode, but I suppressed it. I was not going to embarrass the Lord by exploding at him.
But I was completely dead inside. We know that in service, one who lives in the flesh is already dead.
Paul tells us clearly in Romans 8 that to be spiritually minded is life and peace, but to be fleshly minded is death. If we set our minds on the flesh, we are dead.
Not only was I thinking on the flesh; I was consumed by the flesh. I did not tell the elderly brother that I did not want his car. Obediently, I took the car and drove it, but I was filled with sorrow.
I thought, “What kind of Christian is this?” I drove on, full of sorrow. When I returned to the brother who was hosting me, he knew I was hurt and comforted me.
He told me, “Do not worry about him. He has always been like that. If you spend enough time with him, you will get used to him. Just ignore him.”
But I could not smile. I went into my room, closed the door, and knelt before the Lord. I told the Lord, “I cannot serve here.”
I resigned before the Lord. I told Him, “I am leaving tomorrow. I am not staying here. How fleshly these people are. How proud they are. How they hurt others.”
Thirty years ago, I was young. They despised my youth and treated me so unreasonably. The more I thought about it, the more sorrow and sadness I felt.
I was so filled with anger and darkness that within me it was all dark. I knew I had touched death.
Previously, my upbringing and what I had learned taught me that I needed to die to self. When I first came out to serve, I said, “Lord, I am going to carry my cross and follow You. I will suffer the worst suffering. I will even die for You.”
I was so courageous in my consecration. Little did I think that I would encounter one situation and my whole condition would change.
As I knelt there in sorrow, on the one hand I knew I needed to die to self. I needed to die to my temper. It was tumultuous within me. My mind and thoughts were racing.
I wanted to stop, but I could not stop. I told myself, “I need the death of the cross.” But no matter what I told myself, I would not die. I was filled with sorrow.
I got home at about nine in the evening, and I struggled with the Lord until four in the morning. I had no peace. I was filled with sorrow.
I saw the situation, and I was filled with sorrow. I also saw that I could not die to self. You know what kind of sorrow I was in. I struggled with the Lord.
At four in the morning, I was at my end—at my own end. I thank the Lord, because at that time the Lord spoke to me.
The Lord asked me, “Did You not say that you would consecrate yourself to Me? Did you not say that you would suffer any shame for Me, that you would bear any shame? Look at this small situation, and look at you.”
When the Lord spoke to my heart, my temper, which had grown like a balloon, suddenly shrank.
The Lord said, “These people, even though you feel that they are very worldly, are ones whom I have chosen. They are ones whom I have redeemed. They want to use you as a servant, but can you use the spirit of a shepherd to shepherd them?”
When this word of the Lord came within me, I could not hold back. I wept. I confessed and said, “Lord, how could I serve You? Please forgive me. Please have mercy on me.”
In my anger, I wept before the Lord. I thank the Lord that after a while, His peace came into my being, and I calmed down.
The next day was Sunday, and I had to serve and speak. What did I share the following morning? I had prepared to share on peace.
I had been like that until four in the morning. I had no peace within. Even though I was calm, I knelt before the Lord and continued to pray, “Lord, I am the one who needs peace the most. I cannot speak a message of peace tomorrow. I need peace.”
Then I went to bed. I got up at six in the morning; I had not slept for more than two hours. I washed my face, got ready, and came out.
The brother who was hosting me thought I looked all right. We went to the meeting place. I went to the pulpit and spoke.
I thank God for His mercy. I have never really been satisfied with my preaching, even until today. But for that one sermon, I stood there and felt my whole being in the presence of God. God gave me a simple sermon.
After I had concluded, I experienced something that I had not experienced in thirty years and may never experience again. All thirty or forty brothers and sisters lined up and wanted to shake my hand. I was filled with the Lord’s presence.
Afterward, that old brother stood there and looked at me. He looked very serious. He came out and took my hand, and I reached out and took his hand.
There was no longer this conflict. That handshake, and the feeling I had, I will never forget.
Brothers and sisters, in our service we will touch many things that lead to death. Sometimes the Lord leads us in this path so that we might know what is meant by resurrection power.
Not only do we know in our minds that we have to die to self; if we only know in our heads that we need to die to self, we are never going to die.
Do not forget the word in John 16:13: when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. All the truth in the Bible becomes reality through the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Without the leading of the Spirit, we remain at the level of the word. Because of the work of the Spirit that day, I was led into God’s presence.
When you are in God’s presence, the reality of death is made manifest in you. Only the presence of the Lord can allow the death of our Lord Jesus to be thoroughly worked in us.
Sometimes, when we encounter difficulties, we know the truth of the cross and know that we need to die. Yet we say, “He needs to die.” We do not really want to die.
We may say, “I am going to scold him, and then I will come back and die.” We let our temper go. When we do this, we will never die.
In service, we encounter this often. We may think that we need to die, but through our upbringing and self-control we merely hold ourselves back. This is not real death. It does not have real spiritual fruit.
We hear these precious words and say from these messages that we know the truth of the cross. But then the Lord will pursue us. The Lord will challenge us and see whether this truth is manifested in our actual lives.
Can we hold these truths in reality? Our faith needs to be constantly strengthened by God. We need to live in the presence of the Lord and follow the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Otherwise, next year we may come back here and still be the same. We need the mercy of God.
The truth of the cross is not merely doctrine. It is something that needs to be carried out. In the experience of death, this needs to become reality for us.
There is a correct way to die, and then we will have a correct life. When we truly die to ourselves, then we will manifest resurrection life.
In the remaining half hour, we want to give time to brothers and sisters. Especially those who have served the Lord for a long time have many experiences of this kind. Please tell us your story. We will have Brother Ted share first.
Brother Sun said that we cannot preach because we only have five minutes, so I did not bring my Bible. I want to share something that the Lord revealed to me that encouraged me.
It is not something that happened to me; it is something I heard. There was a young sister who was about to get married. The other sisters in the church gave her a bridal shower.
The sisters shared testimonies. One sister had been married for a year, and she shared something that caused me to feel touched. Of course, I was not there; my wife told me.
The sister said that over the past year, every time she and her husband had an argument, her husband would always go to the Lord first.
When I heard this, I was encouraged, and I think many sisters would probably be encouraged. He knew immediately to submit himself before the Lord. Then the sister knew, “He is right, and I am wrong.”
During these days of messages, we have been considering Christ crucified. In 1 Corinthians, Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. But to us who are saved, Christ crucified is the power of God.
I read this carefully. It is this Christ crucified that is the power of God. I often think among brothers and sisters, do we see Christ crucified as God’s power?
We see many kinds of power, but do we see Christ crucified as power? I do not see this sufficiently in myself. I can barely see this.
But in the young brother and sister I mentioned, we see a person who can come before the Lord quickly. One person may be right, but he submits; another repents.
In the church, we rarely see Christ crucified as the power of God. Is it because we are too slow to submit? Is it because we have not repented before God in a long time?
The Lord cannot even work through me. How can I require that of brothers and sisters? I feel regret in this matter.
Regarding repentance, if the Lord has no way in me, we need to look back and ask, “When was the last time I repented?”
If I have wronged someone, then I can easily repent before the Lord. But if the Lord deals with me through someone else and I still have to repent before God, is that really repentance?
There was someone like this in the Bible: Job. God considered him righteous. In the eyes of the world, he did not need to repent.
He suffered for forty chapters, but at the end Job said, “I repent in dust and ashes.” Why did he repent? What did he need to repent of?
The Lord will lead us in this deeper way. If we do not allow Him, He cannot lead us deeper or bring us into the heavenly realm. Our condition will remain as it is.
In the church, we will never see Christ crucified as the power of God unless we allow the Lord to lead us in this deeper way.
I apologize that I did not share my own experience, but I see what has happened in our young brother and sister. Thank the Lord that He has a way in these young people.
If we are quick to yield before the Lord and willing to repent before Him, then He can lead us in this deeper way.
Then we can see in the church how Christ crucified is the power of God. Thank the Lord.
I do not have a deep experience like Brother Sun’s. I want to share something the Lord taught me as I served during this conference.
Everyone knows that I used to work in a bank as an accountant. I learned management as a manager, so I have learned that we ought to manage everything well. Especially for a conference of this magnitude, we need to put forth much effort.
As we approached the conference, we received bad news after bad news, and we did not know what to do.
For example, last Friday I had just picked up Brother Kong, and we were having dinner at a brother’s house. My cell phone rang.
The school informed me that we might not be able to use the Science and Technology Center and the towers because of a gas leak. They could not determine the source of the leak.
Originally they were only willing to give us space for seven hundred people; now it was only six hundred. Then we lost another three hundred.
My immediate feeling was that the Lord was teaching me a lesson. Often I feel that here in America we do not really walk on the path of faith. We live in such an affluent society, and we live shallow lives.
We live and serve in a realm where we feel that we can control things and manage things. The Lord showed me that true spiritual service has no comfort zone.
This is a state university. California is a very liberal place. The Lord showed me that we are in the enemy’s territory, doing spiritual battle.
I repented before the Lord and told Him that the root of my spiritual service had not been correct.
I am one who is easily stressed out, but when I heard this news, I had no reaction. Why? It was because I did not know what to do.
At first I thought that perhaps we needed to get a motel, but then I thought that would not work. I needed to hand it to the Lord.
When I saw that my spiritual service had depended upon myself in the past, and when the Lord put this great difficulty in my life, I began to know what it was to die.
Then we will not merely see activity. We will not think up methods. We will not depend upon ourselves.
It was only on Tuesday of the following week that I heard the gas problem had been resolved and that the gas would be back on Wednesday morning, the first day of the meetings.
Thank the Lord. If we want to learn the lesson of the cross, we need such experiences.
Prior to these meetings, I always enjoyed a line from Hymn 21: “Earnestly my heart is longing, the homeward way of the cross.”
In the past, I never felt that I loved or longed for the way of the cross. I was only fearful.
But through the experiences of preparing for this conference, the Lord showed me that I have a love for the cross. The Lord gave me a taste.
I trust that the Lord, through this topic in the past two years, is showing us that we can only bring the reality of the last twenty years of conference material into our lives through God’s way, and that way is the cross.
I am not telling you to get out of your comfort zone merely to do risky things. But I think we need to put forth more effort in the things of the church.
When we truly touch spiritual service, the Lord will show us that we cannot serve only within our own comfort zone. True spiritual service cannot be done by us.
We are trying to be a testimony for the Lord in the enemy’s territory. Only the Lord can do the work. We need to let go.
Our brother just shared about leaving our comfort zone. Now I am way out of my comfort zone. I cannot lay claim to any great spiritual experiences, but perhaps by the Lord’s grace He can use this little experience to edify His church.
Allow me to set the stage. This was back in March or April, and I had just gone through some harsh spiritual experiences. The Lord had revealed to me my true nature: nothing good really comes out of me.
At this time, we were preparing for our spring gospel conference. I volunteered to help organize it for the English group. Of course, I did not feel that I was anywhere near capable, but the Lord placed this burden on my heart.
I do not know why He placed this burden on my heart, but He did. So I volunteered to serve.
When you volunteer for something like this, everything seems to go into chaos. We could not find people to serve or people to complete their service. People were taking on one another’s service, and I ended up having to bear many menial tasks.
I remember one Monday afternoon. We decided to print our own invitation cards with a new copier. The copier jammed up terribly.
As I was kneeling before the copier, with all the parts open, trying to find the jammed paper, I looked outside the window.
I do not know whether you know me very well, but I used to be a huge nature enthusiast. As I looked outside, I saw the sun, the birds, and the trees.
I realized that God is in control. I realized that the reason He had placed this burden on my heart was not because I had some special ability He could use, but because He wanted to work inside me.
I knelt down and prayed. I prayed and prayed, confessing my faults and my inability. Again and again, I prayed, “May I decrease, and may You increase.”
As I got up, He filled my heart with peace. For a young person like me, peace is the greatest treasure that the Lord can give.
Even though I had all these tasks to do—studying, attending school, working in my lab, and carrying the tasks needed to make the gospel conference happen—at every step of the way, when I resigned myself to the Lord, I was able to walk in His peace.
Praise the Lord that even though He used such a mediocre tool as I am, during the gospel conference I truly felt that the Lord’s Spirit was present throughout the whole meeting.
Afterward, people came to me and said that things could be improved. Yet I still had peace in my heart, because I knew it was God.
Even more so, when people gave me compliments, I could not receive them. I do not know how to accept compliments, because I am constantly struggling against my own pride.
But after this conference, when someone gave me a compliment, I could say in all truth, “It was not me. It was all the Lord’s grace. I am nothing, and everything is Christ.” Thank you.
Our time flies. I think many of your hearts may be thumping, because you also have a story, and perhaps you are suppressing that feeling.
Tomorrow afternoon, you will have another opportunity. I will leave more time for testimony, so please prepare.
We thank the Lord for His presence this afternoon. Let us close in a word of prayer.
Lord, our hearts are full of thanksgiving. You have chosen us, fallen people, to be Your testimony. There is nothing good in us. In service, we cause You more trouble.
Oh Lord, we thank You. You have become our example. You have clearly revealed Your path to us. Not only have You given us Your word, but You have given us the Holy Spirit to teach us, and You have given us our environment to train us.
Lord, through Your word, may You deliver us from our inability. May we have wisdom from above so that we might know how to follow.
When we encounter difficulties, may we submit before You. Lord, keep us in Your presence daily. Lead us with the anointing oil in our service.
May our service be like Your service, and may it usher in resurrection power and the accomplishment of the will of God.
Lord, once again we commit ourselves into Your loving hands. Continue to speak to us during these meetings, and reveal Yourself to us.
In these last days, and in a short while, may You gain a group of people who carry their cross. In the Old Testament, You called us a nation of priests. Lord, may we in the New Testament be called a people of the cross.
Through the cross, You have been glorified and exalted. May the same experience in our lives exalt and glorify You.
Lord, we give You thanksgiving from the depths of our being. May You hear our prayer. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus, amen.