THE MAKER'S MARK
I bear the Maker's Mark on my heart
(2 Corinthians 3:2-3 "You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by everyone. It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.")
but someday His Mark will be on my forehead
(Revelation 3:12 "The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.")
But before the second mark can be made, the one desiring such an honor must first surrender to God fully. Our hearts must be given over willingly to God that He might transform our hearts and our lives for His glory. We have to go to the cross where He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die in our place. Sin was not just laid on Him, Jesus became sin: 2 Corinthians 5:21 "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.").
How do we come to the cross of Calvary when the cross no longer stands? The cross we come to is spiritual; it is an act of believing and submission. When we face this 'cross', we are compelled to fall on our knees, believing in our hearts that Jesus Christ Is God's only begotten Son, who surrendered His will and obediently did what His Father asked Him to do: pay the penalty for our sins. We could never pay as completely or as fully as Jesus did. He paid it all. He paid a debt, our debt, that He did not owe. Because God the Father loves us He sent God the Son to die for us, and He sent God the Holy Spirit to lead us out of the darkness of this world system into the light of God's Love at the foot of the cross.
There we leave our shame. There we leave our sorrows. There we leave our baggage. And we pick up our cross to follow Him wherever He may lead us. We surrender our will and obediently do as God asks us to do. Because we love Him and we want to please Him. We spend time with Him in prayer, open and constant communication with our heavenly Father, Who has adopted us into His family through our belief on the name of the only One who can save us, deliver us, from condemnation and judgment.
We kneel in submission, giving Him everything we have. Which to us may not seem like a lot, but to God it is everything He wants; because He wants us. He calls our names and when we respond to His call to come near, He rewards us immensely. We receive eternal life for Christ did not stay on the cross, nor did He remain in the grave: He walked out of the tomb and into eternity. When we believe on His name, this wonderful Word of Life which God has given to us, we, too will carry our cross and be persecuted for His name's sake. These bodies God has seen fit to place us in will be buried in the ground or scattered into the wind and waves, but God will immediately take our 'hand' and bring us to heaven with Him.
Because I believe I bear the Maker's Mark. Both Now. And Later.
