Early this morning before waking, I had a dream but it was more like a vision. I saw the image of a target. The background was a light gray with three black circles, each one smaller in diameter then the next. In the center was a big gray X. Then I heard the words, “X marks the spot.” I saw this three times. Then I saw a large three dimensional cross and the words, “this is the X that marked the spot.”
I woke up and began to think about what I had just seen.
I will try to explain what I understood.
Usually when we hear the words, “X marks the spot,” it has to do with seeing a specific place on a map. I pictured in my mind being in outer space and looking down on planet earth…then zooming in on a tiny place, the place was Jerusalem. Over two thousand years ago a Cross or an X stood on top of a hill…called Golgotha, which means, the place of the skull.
Focus on this spot…and picture the cross. It was an X marking the spot where God’s son would hang and die.
Jerusalem is a tiny place…Yet Jerusalem is known to the whole world.
Then I read something yesterday and it hit me…I had one of those AHHHHHH moments…I was overtaken with such insight and an incomprehensible thought of just what God did on that spot.
So here God is in the beginning of time, looking at earth and as he is spinning the earth on his finger he sets it on its axis…then he decides to hang stars and moons and the sun and he sits back as if to say…Oh this is going to be epic…then he flings the rest of the planets into orbit and thinks…this is very good!
He creates all living things by His word. But His greatest design is the creation of a man…He loves him and cares for him and watches him grow and play and live in peace and happiness. God sees the man needs a helpmate and gives the man what is needed.
He comes to dinner with them and talks to them about whatever their heart desires. They are His children. And God loves them. There is no evil in them they are good. Good and perfect, innocent little children. They know only that God is a God of perfect Love and goodness…
And then the unthinkable happens…in one instant everything changes…they do what God said they must not do and evil enters the garden…in that one reckless moment…God is crushed, heartbroken, for now He knows exactly what he must do to restore fellowship with his very own children…God, must die!
Can you see it? Can you see what this means?
One action of disobedience changed the world forever…
And God knew what it would take to restore mankind and His relationship…He knew that everything had to be set up in order…
That it would take years and ages and wars and people like Seth and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Boaz, and Rahab and David and Mary to say yes…in order for God to be born, and die and resurrect so that you and I could once more be in a right relationship with Him…
Do you see what God did?
Why?
Because He loves us so much. He knew that He had to come and die on a cross, the X, which marked the spot, where He would forever change death back to life…
Think about it…
God loves you so much!! Can you love Him back? Will you accept Him and walk with Him and be His child?
There is a target and there is a big X on it…God is saying he wants you to say, Yes to Him. Yes to restoration between you and Him.
X marks the spot; that spot is your heart!
Will you keep breaking God’s heart or will you let Him restore yours?
–Marla Shaw O’Neill February 18, 2017
God called to the Man: “Where are you?”
He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.”
God said, “Who told you, you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?”
The Man said, “The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it.”
God said to the Woman, “What is this that you’ve done?”
“The serpent seduced me,” she said, “and I ate.” Genesis 3:9-13 The Message Bible
As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). Matthew 27:32-33 New International Version (NIV)
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” Matthew 28:5-7 (NIV)
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:17-20 (NIV)
