Crossroads and Crosshairs

Apr 14

Written By Sheryle Cruse

We have all come to a dead-end road at times in this thing called life.

Can’t stop and turn around. It is a dead end, not a crossroad. Can’t turn left or right either.

Crossroads are intended for us to decide in life, whether it be for anything involving our future.

Like a car at a T- intersection with a stop sign only at our end. Not on the road ahead of us. Left or right turn only. Of course, you can stop, looking for both ways to be safe in traffic.

Not talking about cars. I am talking about you and me in our decisions in life.

Pondering the turn, we need to make it critical to try and hear from the Lord about our decisions. We will make mistakes and turn left instead of right. This is life.

A learning lesson about how to grow and to learn what “not” to do the next time.

My whole life has been about choices.

In the “crossroads” of life is also a thing called the “crosshairs.”

Not in a scope on a rifle as most would think. It is the being able to look through the lens of God’s Word, to pinpoint in the crosshairs the exact meaning of the Word, to be able to make a good decision.

Most of us do not pray about our decisions.

We just go with the flow, or we do this or that cause Daddy did it. Or the fellow who we looked up to did it. Or our peers did it.

What about how God feels when we do not include Him in our decision making?

Does He feel left out?

Well, to say God is not human is an understatement.

He does, however, feel.

The Holy Spirit is easily grieved when we sin, of course. But He also grieves too when we do not let Him in on our decision-making process.

What is this process?

Number One: Stop.

Number Two: look at the decision, and do the pros and con’s dissecting the possible outcome.

Still, after this, we do not know for sure how our decision will turn out. This is called faith.

Faith is a substance. A tangible feel, and a real power in operation towards an outcome. Hopefully an outcome to benefit the one who is having the faith to start with.

Crosshairs.

Definition: None, Biblically.

So, I will give you, my definition. The Cross of Calvary means sacrifice, service, and suffering. Jesus suffered. At times in our life, we have suffered too. Does not mean it is in vain. Jesus did not die in vain.

He died so we could live.

Figuratively, it signifies being directly targeted or focused on, much like the way a gun’s crosshairs pinpoint a target. It can be interpreted as a metaphor for being under intense scrutiny or facing potential danger, often with negative connotations related to judgment or persecution. Essentially, “in the crosshairs" means being the center of attention, often with negative implications.

Yes, that was a lot.

But this intense scrutiny on your part has to include the Lord Jesus.

Notice that the word crosshairs has the word “Cross” in it.

The Cross of Jesus Christ on Calvary.

Since we have given our lives over to being a follower of Jesus, we are in the crosshairs of an enemy who wants to destroy, kill, and steal our lives away.

Satan has you and I in his crosshairs to kill you. His weapons are not carnal either. They are spiritual.

Deceit, lies, misinformation, and counterfeit ideas bombard our minds.

Once we give over to a negative thought like, “I am a failure, I am a “no- good -for- nothing,” then we open the door for lies to come to invade, take over, and destroy the Word of God in us.

We did not intend this to happen, but circumstances dictated the pain. Loss of a friend. Failing in a job or school. Letting down those around us. Just plain making mistakes.

Mistakes are not forever. We have all done our share. The mistakes we make should not dictate our future. Our future is built on learning from our mistakes. They should never rule us.

Now, the center of attention, regarding crosshairs, spiritually.

Jesus, our Savior and Lord (as we mature in the things of God), will never change His mind about us. He is the one who saved us by the power of the Holy Ghost revealing Himself to us.

Martin Luther said, “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God, except that point which the world and the Devil at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there, and only there, the loyalty of the soldier be proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

The battlefield is not the place to flinch. The war we are in is spiritual.

Know your weapons. God’s weapons never run out of ammunition.

We need to put Christ in the crosshairs of our daily living. This is not enough at times.

We pray. We attend Bible studies. We are actively involved in our church and do outside ministry. We are gifted by God. To preach and teach. Or we worship or play piano or drums.

We have gifts given to us by GOD, and the enemy of your soul wants to deceive you into thinking you cannot do things right. The failure mentality comes in again to lie to you.

Subtly at times.

Case in point, my personal story:

Before the Lord healed my broken heart, I was driving down the highway with my future bride to be (someday, if I could get my life together) on the Banfield Highway in Portland, Oregon. The year was 1993.

I said, with my own words, “I feel like a failure. I feel like a no-good-for-nothing.”

She promptly assured me; “no, you are not.”

I did not like her response, even though she meant it in love for the Lord. I ignored it and got upset over it.

I have proven, over and over in my life, that I have failed, I am a failure.

Can’t deny facts.

I was in prison. I failed at marriage before. I was an addict before I met Jesus in prison. I could not keep a job. I drove ratty cars. I had no money. My health was not too good. I had Hepatitis C, asthma, and some brain damage from all the drugs in the 1970’s.

Failure.

So, I dropped her off and went home.

I managed an adult Senior Citizen Apartment Complex in Portland at this time.

That evening, after my meltdown on the freeway, one of the ladies who lived there called me in my office.

“Joe, can you take me to church tonight?” I answered, yes.

Well, when it came time to go, it started snowing. She called me back and informed me to cancel because she did not want to get on slick roads. She said, “Joe, if you want to go, it is in Milwaukie,” (a suburb of Portland not too far from where I lived and worked).

“You will enjoy it.”

I hung up the phone and the Holy Spirit demanded I go. “But Lord,’ I said, “I have a church I am going to, and I do not want to go to her church.”

“GO,” He said.

So, I lost that argument with the Lord. I always did.

I showed up. I sat in the back of this small church building, just in case the people started handling snakes and chanting.

I wanted to be near the exit door.

A preacher came out. A guest speaker. He was a real prophet named Ed. He was from South Africa. He is a white man with an accent.

He preached. Did an altar call. Many people got saved. He prayed for individuals’ personal issues. He prayed for those who came up for healing and deliverance.

This was all great, until he stopped and began to walk out into the crowd after praying for all who were at the altar.

First, he called out to an entire family.

“Stand up, please.”

Dad, Mother, and the two children stood up. He began to speak the oracles of God to them. A Word from the Most High.

All four family members fell to their knees, children included, and wept as the Lord used him to speak hope to their lives.

I am in the back, sweating spiritual bullets, because I was trying to convince myself by mumbling to myself, “I am okay, God. You are okay, God, so all is well.”

No, it was not well with my soul, and I was lying to myself again, like almost every day of my pathetic Christian life back then.

As I tried to ignore this man of God, he finally came towards me.

After prophesying over several men, women, and children, he passed by me where i was sitting in the back. No snakes here. Just me and my slithering thoughts and belly to the ground mentality.

I could feel the tangible power of God coming from this Man of God who was about four feet from me at this time.

It was electric, powerful, and anointed. I had been in meetings like this at our home church, but not quite like this night.

He passed me by.

No word from God for Joe.

I wiped my forehead with my hand and said to myself, “Whew, escaped a bullet.”

Suddenly, as he was headed back to the pulpit, with his back to me, he stopped abruptly. Turned around and stared at me.

“You, Sir,” (pointing at me with a finger that seemed to be four foot long) “have been in trouble. You have been in trouble, and it did not take God by surprise what you went through. It was not a coincidence what happened to you. You did it to yourself. You did it. Without the devil’s help, you did it because you were stubborn and rebellious. But you made it through, okay?”

(At this point I knew it was God speaking through a man to me personally. It was like God was replaying a video of my past to this anointed man of God).

He continued, “You need to bury your past, bury it once and for all, for you are not the same man now like you used to be, okay? Bury it, bury your past.”

(Then he stopped for a moment and took off his glasses, put his face into both hands and began to weep.)

He said with tears, “I see you needed a father’s love, boy did you need a father’s love, and God wants you to know tonight, He is your Daddy, and He loves you unconditionally. He is with you night and day, okay?”

He continued. “You have always picked the wrong women in your past, YUK,” (he said loudly) “But God has given you the woman of God now, and she will help you.”

(Then the clincher happened).

“YOU are NOT a FAILURE, YOU are NOT A “NO GOOD-FOR-NOTHING” because you have it all inside of you, okay? Be assured of His Love for you.”

That was it. I was fried.

Weeping, but not gnashing my teeth. (Needed some dental work for sure).

The very words I said out loud to my future bride that very day on the Banfield freeway.

“I feel like a failure and a no-good-for-nothing.”

Wow, God was not using my own words against me.

He was letting those words I had said that day to be repeated so I would realize just HOW close HE is to us, and HOW HE hears every word we say, or think.

I left with a cassette copy from the sound man of this prophesy and went home. Listened to it over and over as I wept tears.

Eventually, I did bury my past, but the main thing is this:

I was at a crossroads in my life that evening in that “snake- less” church. I was the reptile in my heart. Full of poison and venom and hissing. God sent me on a new path seeking answers from this crossroads event at that church. Timing. God’s timing. God became my Daddy that day. Boy, did I need a father’s love.

I did not want my Daddy to be murdered when I was eighteen years old. It happened, and I can’t bring him back. But now, I have the best Dad ever.