Crucified with Christ: My Spiritual Death and Resurrection

By Rachel K. Frederick

Rachel K. Frederick once went through life without knowing who she was because she didnt know who God was. By age forty-two, shed become exhausted because the consequences of her sinful choices were just too heavy to carry. Just when she was ready to give up all hope, however, Gods merciful arm reached down and lifted her into His grace. In that instant, she was transformed into a follower and fighter devoted to Christ.

Since that day, her God-given faith compels her to testify about her experiences and to reveal her sinful past, which includes rebellion, fornication, adultery, murder, homosexuality, rage, vengeance, self-mutilation, suicidal tendencies, and with secrecy enabling them all. Its a journey that showcases the power of the Lordone that can help you redefine your future just as it has redefined hers.

Join Rachel as she walks with the Lord, putting her poor soul in His hands to witness the works of both God and Satan. She is awed by the many blessings that God intended for her in life, having discovered that its never too late to turn back and receive them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491723166

Rachel K. Frederick

Rachel K. Frederick is nobody special in the public eye, but to God, she is now His child and a willing vessel waiting to be used for His purposes. Since her radical conversion to a life in Christ, she stands in wait for any invitation to share her testimony with the world. She currently lives in Lafayette, Louisiana but will follow the Lord wherever He leads, and, she’ll humbly welcome all comments and/or inquires at: [e-mail]

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Dedication

To My Jesus

The Lord. The Messiah. The Son of the Living God.

You took what was broken and you restored it. You took what was worthless and you redeemed it. Oh mighty Savior, you took what was dying and you saved it!

The why and how you could look upon a soul such as myself, as being worthy of your gifts, is still somewhat beyond my comprehension, but, my soul rejoices through my repentance, in your everlasting Divine Mercy! For you, Lord, refused to allow my sinning soul’s past to further define and kill my future.

Your merciful forgiveness invited me into you and you gave me new life! I adore you with all that I am, and never again, will I allow the evil one to deceive me into taking your sacrifice for love in vain.

You have called me into unity with your redemptive work, for the sake of bringing other sinful souls out of darkness, and into your beacon of guiding light. I have answered your call, my Lord, and I will fulfill it with a full and faithful self-sacrifice of my own. I want to live for you, just as you died for me; holding nothing back. Your love has enslaved me with everlasting joy and a burning desire to share it.

Oh my Jesus, you are my eyes, my ears, and my heart. For without you, I neither see, nor hear, nor love.

1 Corinthians 15:10

But by the grace of God, I am what I am.

Chapter One

In The Beginning

In the beginning of my journey, I really could not move forward without knowing a few things, or, should I say, a lot of things! I attempted to get my information from family, friends, and even priest, but, there would always come a time when they would look down at their watches, and that meant, that they had other obligations to get to. I was so distraught over that, because whatever had entered into me was seriously craving the truth of it all, yet, I just couldn’t seem to satisfy its massive cravings. I then asked God to explain before I allowed him to lead me where he wanted. I’m kind of ashamed to say this, but, I was clueless. I knew nothing about him or about creation itself. I didn’t know who I was, why I existed, or, what the meaning of life was all about. I couldn’t understand how our world could be so cruel if we have such a loving God. If he truly was Creator of the universe and everything in it, I wanted him to explain to me what no one else had ever been able to. So, I raised my little eyes to the sky and persistently began to request,

Oh God, if you want me to know this stuff, then you’re going to have to teach me yourself. No one else seems to have enough time to explain it all. My Lord, I do wish to know, I do! Please God, tell me what it all means. Who are you? What are you? And what are you meant to be for me? Oh God, why do so many of us not know you? I hear your call to follow, but, how can I follow that which I cannot see and do not know?

He intrigued me when his Holy Spirit took possession of my barely beating heart. Actually, it freaked me out at first! Then it intrigued me. I needed to know more, much more, in order to be able to understand and accept it all. Yes, it seemed that the call came; for me to reject this world and embrace the cross. So, what did I do? I finally decided to answer; I stopped and dropped everything to let him teach me all about it. I gave up the world and its things and I sat at the feet of Jesus. If he was willing to give up everything to teach me, then I was willing to give up everything to learn. I let the world fade into the background and it was just me and Jesus from that point on.

So, what I was taught in the very beginning is what I will speak about in Part One of this book. Part One encompasses the first few chapters, and, it is actually the beginning of my spiritual journey into my new life in Christ. It is a summary of what I learned while sitting at my Lord’s feet. The truth that I learned while there is what allowed me to withstand the difficult journey that followed; the journey into my past mistakes. You see, in actuality, there are two separate journeys I will speak of; one into my new life and one into my old life. Part One will begin to bring you into the call to a new life of holiness, and, Part Three will take you into my finally embracing such. Part Two, however, will have you entering with me, into the difficulties that arose within my old life of sin. I realize that may sound strange, but that is exactly how it all played out; God called me to new life, I answered, he taught, I learned, and then I fully embraced the new life he called me to. That’s how it happened, my friend; strange or not.

You will find that the story will have some tense changes back and forth, from the past to the present. That is because, as I stated earlier, we live in the worldly and spiritual realms simultaneously. The memories that Jesus took me to visit were those of disturbing times in my life. The story’s words will attempt to describe those times to you, while also allowing you to know of the conversations had between me and my Lord, while viewing the memories through my spiritual eye. Remember, he was walking me into the past, as if we were literally walking along a path that led there. Try to imagine, if you will, yourself being a companion on that path with us, walking into the past while still remaining in the present. I hope the words are able to paint the pictures needed, that will allow you to see and hear, all that we saw and heard.

You may be thinking, how long did all that take to play out? Well, from the time of my encounter with God, to the time of this book being finished, approximately nineteen months had passed by. At the moment of that encounter, Jesus swept me up into the spiritual realm and kept me there for nineteen straight months. Many people, if not most, would say that that is nowhere near enough time to learn about God’s mysteries. Even my friends and family would tell me that it takes a lifetime to acquire such knowledge. I understood what they were saying, but they didn’t understand what I was experiencing. I felt like I was living a month in a day. That’s how long each day seemed to me. Whatever I did, said, and learned in one day, literally felt like I did, said and learned it about a month prior. And every single day within those nineteen months felt the same way. Yes, it was confusing and very overwhelming, but, it was also an experience that I will treasure for eternity. It certainly is true that God’s timing is not our timing.

What I mean by saying a month in a day is that in one day within the spiritual realm, I was taught what would normally take thirty days to learn in the worldly realm. If you did the math, you would find that in those nineteen months, I spiritually lived thirty days in one day, which totals out to be seventeen thousand one hundred days. Divide that by the number of days in a year and your answer would be forty six years. Add those forty six years of living in the spiritual realm to my previously lived forty two years in the worldly realm, and you will have a total of eighty eight years. So, if you break it down that way and look at it with your spiritual eye, you would conclude that I have lived long enough, to acquire the amount of knowledge that takes a lifetime to acquire.

It is important to know that Jesus teaches in and through experience, not just words. He literally will take you to the spiritual realm if you let him. That is the only place that we can receive the truth, without the worldly distractions, that seem to blind us to such. You see, first we are to hear about Jesus. Then, we are to learn about Jesus. Once we become open to hearing and learning about who Jesus was and what he did, then and only then, can we make the choice to become open to being taught by him. That simple knowledge of truth was realized when he graced me with my very own gift of crucifixion. We all know that the only way to truly believe and never forget something is to experience it first hand, right? Well, lets just say that Jesus made absolutely sure that I would never forget a thing. We simply cannot deny that which we live. Such experiences are implanted into every fiber of our being and cannot be removed.

My soul rejoices always in his spiritual gift to me and I am humbled to be able to share it with you. The following is a summary of what I believe he taught me through his Holy Spirit. His Spirit testifies to the truth of all things and I believe the following to be his truth, and, our truth as well. I hope it enlightens you to who I believe God is, to who Jesus is, and, to who the Holy Spirit is. I was unfortunate to not have this knowledge for most of my life, but now that I do have it, he has asked me to share it with you. I hope it is able to shed light on your darkness and equip you with the power to believe; to believe in God, to believe in Jesus, and to believe in yourself.

Chapter Two

Knowledge: The Power Of Belief

I would like to start off by giving you an insight to the spiritual world that we cannot see with our human eyes. It is the world that existed before we humans came to be, and, it is the same world that is without end. God created us, yes, but he also created the angels and everything else too. God and his angels were the only living beings in existence before he chose to create the earth and its creatures. They live in that spiritual world in the heavens, apart from the material world on earth. They are a family, with God not only being the Creator of it, but also the Father of it. And, just as we know some children to do, some of the angels were led to be disrespectful and disobedient to their Father. They were led into that bad behavior by one defiant angel in particular. His name in heaven was Lucifer, but we now know him as Satan; the evil one, the devil.

Lucifer was God’s most powerful angel in heaven until he decided to defy God’s will. His evil defiance is what caused him to be cast out of heaven and separated from God. He is still powerful, but now uses his power in the world, since he is no longer welcome in heaven. I say he is still powerful, but, his power can only come from us giving it to him. Jesus already conquered evil. He did so when he gave his life on the cross for us, therefore, the devil has no power over us unless we give it to him. How do we give it? Through our choices and through our ignorance, that’s how. Only in our choosing, to seek the knowledge of Jesus’ finished work on the cross, can we regain the power back that God always wanted us to have.

You see, Satan had a problem with submitting to God’s authority. He refused to obey his Creator and Father. He wanted to be his own god in a sense. Therefore, God honored his choice to defy and leave heaven. He was then separated from God, as well as, from any and all joys. He also convinced other angels to follow him as well and they became separated too. He deceived them with lies so they would give him their praise instead of giving it to God. His lies were in him telling them that they could find happiness in doing whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and however they wanted. But, once they followed those lies, they found that without the discipline of order, there can only be chaos and confusion. Sound familiar? It should. That’s exactly what we humans fall for when we stray from God’s commandments every day. We should all give thanks to God for the mercy he showed us when forming our human free will. He gives us the choice between him and Satan. Unfortunately though, in our anger and frustration, many of us unknowingly choose the latter.

When God created man to be part of his family and capable of having constant communion with him, Satan and his followers became angry because they had lost their privilege to be members of that loving family. Satan told God that mankind would fall short of remaining holy; that we would defy him too. God knew that could happen since it happened with his own angels, so he made sure we had the chances needed to turn back if we strayed. God gave us humans a free will that could be used more than once in case we did fall short. Our free will is meant to choose good over bad. It was given as a gift of respect and guidance. God believes that we should not be forced to love another and that it must be of our own free will to do so. And, since he chose to love us, he assumed that we would choose to love him back.

Love is not a feeling, it is a choice. A choice that must be made without coercion. True love does not fade when emotions get rattled. It’s strong and faithful like God himself. God is love. He is the only true love among us. The only love that will not abandon us. One cannot know true love unless one surrenders all to Jesus. There is no other love as true. And, we can only truly love another person if we are in unity with God, because as I said, he himself is love. When we experience a deep and profound love for someone, God is loving through us. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you possess the power to love without Jesus. If you are in a relationship that produces love and are not in union with Christ, then your love is not as true as you think. Bring Jesus into your relationship and watch the depth of your love soar to a new height! Be joined together in Christ as he always meant you to be. That’s how two become one. The concept is in front of us every day. Man and woman are two and they become one in their child. God’s Holy Spirit and Mary are two and they became one in Jesus. What God created upon this earth is the way for us to become one through joining our flesh and his Spirit, which are two. It is through that kind of union that we become the unique one that God can be pleased with.

God thought we would choose to love him back. He really did. Why wouldn’t we? He created us. Well, we would have reciprocated equally if Satan would not have turned jealous of our relationship with God and began to tempt us into defiance. You see, Satan is separated from God. That means that he doesn’t know love anymore. He no longer knows it because he chose to leave it. He doesn’t have it so he doesn’t want us to have it either. His temptations cause us all to fall. His deceitful lies caused our very first parents to fall into sin. Since God gave his human creation a free will though, he also gave us the chance to choose. He wanted to prove Satan wrong. He wanted to show that his new creation could be faithful and share in his love.

Adam and Eve were living in the garden of Eden where God placed many fruitful trees for food. He was giving his new creation a choice between life and death with two trees in particular though. Those two trees were placed in the center of the garden and they would serve to define the future of mankind. God commanded they not eat from one. Only one tree was forbidden to be eaten from. If they ate from that particular tree, they would also be separated from God, just as Satan and his followers were. That separation was their consequence for defying God’s will. Adam and Eve were also facing the very same test of obedience to their God. The same test of which Satan had failed.

One would think that such a test would not be difficult, but, Satan is the father of lies and he went to work on Adam and Eve, just as he does on us today. They were told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were commanded. God said if they ate from it, they would die. They had no reason to doubt their Creator; no reason until Satan began to plant greed and doubt in their minds. He knew their flesh was weak. He knew what they didn’t yet know.

Adam, the first man, was given the duty of guarding the garden and everything in it. This included being guardian of Eve. He was meant to protect both she and the garden itself. When Adam became complacent, the evil serpent entered the garden and so did the evil temptations. The serpent began to speak with Eve. He was befriending her with his cunningness. He began to tell her things like such,

Certainly you will not die if you eat from that tree. That cannot be true. That tree offers knowledge. You could be like God and possess all knowledge if you partake in that fruit. Go ahead, try it.

The serpent’s cunning words peaked Eve’s interest as well as Adam’s. They became selfish and wanted all they could get. They too, as Satan did, wanted to be like God and possess all knowledge. Eve then agreed with the serpent, took the forbidden fruit, and shared it with Adam. God said they would die if they ate that fruit, but they were still alive after eating. However, by choosing the tree of death over the tree of life, they did suffer a spiritual death. And, they had then become destined to mortality, which meant that they would suffer much sorrow. Their bodies were then mortal bodies. Ones that would need to die and perish because of the evil allowed upon them. Those tainted bodies of flesh would not be able to enter heaven. The tree of life offered immortality though. It would have given them an eternal and joyous life as God intended from the beginning. That life would have saved them from sorrow and misery and allowed them to remain in union with God, as well as, receive all of his glorious blessings.

What God meant, by saying that they would die if they ate the forbidden fruit, is that they would enter a spiritual death while still on earth. Such a living death carries weariness and misery. Those are things that are found outside of God. That kind of death occurs when one defies God’s Word. It is the consequence of defiance. Such disobedience to God’s will is called sin. It is unclean and unacceptable by the Holy One.

Adam and Eve enjoyed God’s company in the very beginning. They were content with everything. That is what God offers to those who obey him. But, then they chose to disobey and defy for their own selfish reasons. They were in perfect communion with God before they defied him. But then they were separated. The immediate consequence of their actions was fear and shame. They hid from God because they then felt naked. It had been God’s protective glory that clothed them in their holiness. But when they defied God’s commandment, they lost their privilege to be clothed in such righteousness. Their conscience had then become wounded. That constituted the beginning of a long and treacherous journey for mankind. Generation after generation seemed to follow in Adam and Eve’s footsteps, and, that is why the world today is so full of greed and selfishness. We have since evolved from that original sin into many more thereafter. The only way to obtain restoration from our evolution is through Jesus and his finished work at the cross.

I see our conscience as our soul. I see it as the heart of our spirit. When it becomes wounded, it sets off many ill-emotions. Even our very thoughts and words can wound it. That is why we are to pay close attention to our conscience. The heart of spirit that we have was given to us by God. But not just by God, it was also given of God. Our conscience was meant to keep us from doing bad. To keep us from defying God’s will. Our soul needs God! When sin taints it, God has to detach from it. The soul longs for communion with God. Agony overwhelms it when it becomes separated from him. That is why we suffer ill emotions when we stray from the commandments that God gave us to follow. If you are suffering any distress, you should turn to God, in Jesus’ name, and ask for mercy and forgiveness. He waits to free you from your distress, so why don’t you just set your pride aside and ask him to?

Our conscience needs to be formed with God’s Word. It needs to be taught right from wrong. That was what God attempted to do before Adam and Eve defied him. He was teaching them right from wrong. He was teaching obedience to his Word because his Word is the only true righteousness. If his Word is not used to form our conscience at an early age, we will fall into the depths of sin and reap the consequences of such.

Whatever is used to form our conscience is what will determine our moral values in life. If God is not chosen for this task, then there is only one other choice, Satan. Forming our conscience is similar to forming our minds, just as schooling does for students. Whatever is studied and/or given much attention will be what will form the mind, the intellect. It’s the same with the conscience, but, that deals with morals. With what is right and what is wrong. God is the only right, therefore, if one is not giving attention to his Word, one will go wrong. How can he not be the only right? For he is Creator of all. By not focusing on God’s Word, our conscience will be formed by immoral values. Ones that will inflict harm upon our soul. And, not just our own soul but upon the souls around us. Immorality is a very unclean contagion. It can and will spread far and wide.

Our free will allows us to choose which will form us. Will it be God or will it be Satan? Remember, it is our choice to make. Satan is the one who dwells in the world and he is the one who destructs and destroys. God is the one who dwells in heaven and in our hearts if we invite him to. And, Jesus is the one who made it possible for our hearts to receive him. It is that Spirit and only that Spirit that can form and reform us back into his holy righteousness.

Satan uses the world and all its things to keep us from seeking God’s Word. That is how we become blinded to the righteousness of God. It is then that our conscience becomes formed by the evil in the world and not from our God. We try to justify the wrong choices we make that are opposed to God’s will, but there is no justification for such. God is Creator and he is the one and only judge and justice. If he says we are to follow his will, then we are to follow.

He created us, therefore, we should seek his guidance because only a Creator truly knows his creation. Only he can guide us and only he can repair and restore us when the need arises. When we begin to consider doing something opposed to God’s will, we feel a discontentment. That emotion is from our conscience attempting to guide us back to his will. It was put in place by God to help us avoid evil consequences that can severely harm who and what we were always meant to be. Satan made it his job to tempt us into ignoring our conscience so we would stray away from God’s will. God created humans worthy of heaven but Satan plans to do all he can to change that. The worldly temptations serve as excellent tools for his job. We humans fall easily for his lies and his empty treasures.

Once Satan causes our conscience, our soul, to be wounded, we enter into a discontent state. He convinces us that we are to dwell in such because we deserve to be punished. Satan knows very well what disobedience leads to. He himself is a product of such. He is banished from heaven and destined to an eternal hell. And yes, his misery wants our company. He either convinces us that we deserve misery, or, he convinces us that misery is all there is. He does not want us to know there is an alternative life that offers joy and peace. He constantly whispers lies to us, so as to keep us from the truth of who Jesus is and what he did. Jesus is that alternative life sustained in love, and, he freely chose to share it with us.

Satan uses our emotions; our shame, our guilt, and our regret, to blind us to the truth of God. If those ill emotions are not surrendered to God, Satan will deceive our minds into self-punishment with them. We tend to agree with that devil and we choose to remain in the ill emotions that arise. Our conscience was not put in place to punish us, it was given to guide us away from evil doings. Satan is a master at deceit, therefore, he uses life’s circumstances to bury us with such emotions. We condemn ourselves for our mistakes, yes, but, God wants to forgive us and rescue us from that very hell that we seem to invite into our lives each and every day.

When our conscience, our soul, becomes damaged by sin, our spirit is also damaged in the process. Our spirit becomes exhausted and weary. It reflects the very ill health of our soul. It is like a heart is to a body. If the heart is damaged, the body will reflect that damage. It is the same with the soul and the spirit. The health of one affects the health of the other. We were created in the image and likeness of God. Open your minds to this concept for a moment. God is the Spirit and Jesus is the soul of that Spirit, and, they live in a spiritual body of love, which is holy. So, when God sent Jesus to earth and had him experience the violent punishment that we humans inflict on one another, God felt every blow that came upon his soul, his heart. God felt the heaviness of a tainted soul, as he watched Jesus carry the weight of our sin. He saw the darkness that sin places us in. He felt the desperate separation from his heart, his soul, his son. And, he used his divine love to restore it.

His Spirit could not go on without his soul, just as ours cannot. Our spirit becomes very grieved when our soul is overwhelmed by sin. By Jesus enduring what he did for us, he allowed God to understand why our spirit fails in this fallen world. It is through such understanding that God gives us himself, encompassed by mercy. God knows the grief of being incomplete, because that is how he felt when he was separated from his son, whom is the heart and soul of his spiritual body. So, never think that he cannot relate to our human struggles. He can because he did! When our hearts and souls are struggling and our spirits can go no more, at our sincere request, God will send his body of divine love to revive us. That love comes to us through our belief and faith in the finished work of Jesus at the cross. It’s a perfect love and I say again, it is freely given.

The only medicine available to repair and restore the soul is the love and mercy of God. That’s not just a phrase, my friends. It is the supernatural medicinal substance that our soul needs to survive! God sent his son, Jesus, to offer divine mercy and forgiveness, and with that comes love. So you see, we really were created in the image and likeness of God. But, through our selfish defiance, we have evolved away from our original state. We are still three part beings but we don’t always live in the divine love of holiness. That can only be found in the Holy Spirit, which as I stated earlier, is the spiritual body of love that encompasses the Father and the Son. Our sins cause us to shed that glorious garment of love. That is why we need restoration from God. That is why Jesus bought for us, with his blood, God’s mercy. His healing power is in that mercy. When our spirit begins to feel downcast, we must recognize those unsettling emotions as warnings. Ones that are telling us to turn to the Word of God before the evil one senses our vulnerability. The devil lurks around every corner, waiting for his chance to seize and control us. When we mess up, we must seek the mercy of God to escape the death of the devil. God’s gift awaits our invitation.

The forbidden fruit, that Adam and Eve ate in disobedience, introduced evil sin into our minds and bodies. It introduced bad thoughts which led to bad behavior. If one does not know about bad behavior, then one will not exhibit bad behavior. But unfortunately, Adam and Eve did come to learn it through their eating of its fruit. I suppose the statement, you are what you eat, is correct after all. Well, once they obtained the knowledge of evil through that fruit, it produced negative emotions associated with evil. Such emotions are derived from the conscience, which was given to us all by God himself. God’s hope was that Adam and Eve eat first from the tree of life. At least that would have protected them from the evil. That fruit of life would have equipped them with God’s divinity, which is the only effective weapon against evil. The weapon of divinity conquers evil and it gives grace to endure and overcome all circumstances. If they would have eaten that fruit first, they would not have been destined to a life of pain and sorrow, but to one of comfort and joy.

It must be said, that such pain and sorrow is not a punishment from God. It is simply what a world without God offers. If we become separated from God and his kingdom, we will also become separated from the true joy of life. Jesus waits for us to turn back to him. It’s the only way to find the truth and joy that God waits to share with us. The ill emotions produced by sin and disobedience are like contagions. As I said before, they can and will spread far and wide. That consequence was reflected in our first parents’ attitudes, and, it was handed down to all other generations. We must all choose to break that curse that was handed down through the generations. Cling to the cross and to Jesus’ finished work upon it. That is the only weapon capable of breaking those chains! Go to it, fall at it, and cling to it. Always!

Lets give a little thought to the tree of life for one minute or two or three. In the Bible, Jesus spoke a lot about that tree. He actually said that he was that tree. What do you think that means? And how can he be that tree, when that tree was planted in the garden of which God locked the gates to, when Adam sinned? Well, this is how I have come to understand it. Just as God planted the seed in the soil of the ground that grew into the tree of life in the garden, he also planted the same seed within the womb of Mary, which then grew into the new tree of life, Jesus. God is God, my friend. You really have to open your minds and hearts to Jesus, so he can give you his eyes and ears to see and hear. By Jesus and Mary being obedient to God’s will, they created a new gate for humanity, to once again have access to that tree of life.

Mary really was blessed among women when God blessed the fruit of her womb. Oh wait! There it is. The fruit of her womb. There is the fruit we are to partake in to have the life God always meant for us to have. So wait. Jesus is the fruit, he’s the bread, and he’s the Word? What does all that mean really? Do you know? Well, again I say, this is how I have come to understand it. The fruit of life is given to us so that we can eat of it and then grow into a similar tree ourselves. We are to mature into a life giving tree and produce fruit that we can pass on to others. One cannot become a tree of life if one does not eat the fruit that possesses the seed of life. Now bread is a staple. It is something that is common and used regularly, or at least it should be. Bread has substance; meaning that it can sustain us in times of famine. It’s something that every household should keep on hand. And the Word. Well, it is a living Word. It must be because God spoke the universe into existence with it. Through his Word, all things came to be. So, I guess his Word is a huge part of him, right? Isn’t yours a huge part of you?

The Bible says that Jesus is the Word made flesh. That means that God sent a huge part of himself into the flesh of a human being, and, the two of them became one in Jesus. Therefore, if Jesus is the seed that grew to bear the fruit of life; if he is the bread and substance that can sustain that life; and if he is the Word made flesh and can give that life; then what his climbing on that cross of wood did for us, is turn that tree of death into a tree of life!

With all that said, I bring you back to one statement earlier mentioned. Cling to the cross and to Jesus’ finished work upon it. If you