The Cross then the Crown - Part I

This phrase has captured my attention recently. As I was reading a prayer titled, "The Grace of the Cross" in the book "The Valley of Vision", this sentence jumped off the page, "O My Lord and Saviour, Thou hast also appointed a cross for me to take up and carry, a cross before thou givest me a crown."

The introductory prayer, with the same title as the book, speaks of learning by paradoxes. One paradox says, "that to bear the cross is to wear the crown."

As I pondered this and searched the Scriptures, I was reminded how the King of Heaven traded His crown for a short time to come and bear His cross.

Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:6-11

Jesus left His throne in Heaven, removed His crown, took on flesh, obeyed His Father, went to the cross, bore the penalty for our sin and became sin for us...yes, the King of Heaven became a curse for us while we were dead in our transgressions and sins.

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in.
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

The "Therefore" that begins verse 9 of Philippians 2 is absolutely incredible...quite breathtaking actually! We are taught to always ask, "What is the therefore 'there for'?" All that Christ did in v.6-8 results in everything after the "therefore".

Do you see this? This exaltation of Christ came only because He made Himself nothing. Wasn't He already exalted? Was He not in the form of God prior to His coming? Yes of course! So Jesus is really re-exalted. He gets the crown back that He willingly gave up. (for more on this check out this message by John MacArthur under I. C.)

How did he do this? Through suffering and obedience to the point of death on a cross.

Scripture also speaks of the crown we will receive one day. I will address that in part 2.

My Famous Friend

Do any of you know someone who is famous...I mean REALLY famous?? I'm not talking about a shelf full of Oscar's or Platinum records on the wall. Oh no...that won't make the cut folks!!

So what does it take to be famous? How about getting your name on the Wisconsin Record Fish List? You only need to click on the link if you are interested in looking up what all the record fish are. Unfortunately they only display names of these World Famous Anglers in a separate PDF file. I saved you all the trouble and cropped the file and circled the name of my good buddy Andy Lickel (click on picture to enlarge).



As you can see, Andy holds the record for the Shortnose Gar. Andy and another friend went out with the goal of catching the state record Shortnose and Longnose Gar in the same trip. He had a longnose on that he believes may have been the state record but lost it when a flashlight was shined in its eye and it went crazy and snapped the line. If you wonder why it snapped the line, just look at this ugly, prehistoric looking beast with razor sharp teeth (no that's not Andy in the picture). Next time you're swimming in the Wisconsin River you may want to be wearing your iron pants!!



Let me tell you a little bit about Andy. Besides being an absolute stud, great friend, amazing man of God, and new blogger, he is the most incredible fisherman I have ever met...and I know some pretty phenomenal fishermen!!

The first time I went fishing with Andy I didn't know him very well. He was using two poles that I thought he had just pulled out of a dumpster somewhere. I had my fancy setup with my expensive line. We were fishing for Redhorse (junk fish) where the La Crosse River flows into the Mississippi downtown La Crosse, WI. That's where Andy caught about 5 times as many fish as I did and made me feel like a fool.

I could also tell you lots of stories of ice fishing when me and another guy were on each side of Andy with the same exact lure and he was pulling fish out one after another and were scratching our heads in disbelief.

Andy is also the only guy that I know that has ever used a pink plastic reel. Don't ask me where he found that one!

One thing that I really appreciate about Andy is his absolute love for trout fishing. Andy is the one who taught me how to fish for trout. What blows me away every time is that he really delights in God and His creation while fishing. Every brook trout that he catches he just marvels at how beautiful God made them...and he is right!!

Andy, thanks for being a wonderful follower of Jesus and an amazing friend!

Check out this monster!