Yesterday, while watching our home church live on the internet, I have to say it was one of the best Easter Services I have ever attended. The message Pastor Sam brought to us was titled How Do You See The Cross, and it was right on the mark. He could not have made it any clearer about what the cross was all about or more importantly what the cross was not all about. He went through the different types of crosses. The cross jewelry people wear, the white cross of healing, the red cross, the religious cross, and then the cross of the new age religion, and then we came back to the wooden cross that Jesus died upon for each of our sins.
He explained how there are so many crosses in our lives that we encounter at some point. But our faith had better be in the old wooden cross that Christ died upon. He made a good point as to when people wear a piece of jewelry in the shape of a cross. Do they really know what that cross means to them and to others, or are they just wearing a pretty piece of jewelry? When you put your faith in the white cross, in the world of medicine, have you lost faith in the wooden cross. Not that there is anything wrong with doctors, but your faith needs to remain in the wooden cross, not the medicine of this world. Or the Red cross, he was telling about how when Katrina happened, and the Red Cross was helping out, and they just did not have the staff to take care of all the people at the Hirsch Collesium there in Shreveport where they were housing thousands of people, so one of the other churches staff members took it over, and some of WOL staff members went to help out. When the church started to minister to these people on a spiritual level, the Red Cross members quit and withdrew themselves from the operation. He told how they do good things, but they leave Christ out of what they do. Don't take Christ out of your life, you have life because of what Christ did for you. Then he told about the religious cross, how some religions and churches have crosses on their buildings, and in their sanctuaries, and how some people only know its significance as being religious. When asked what does the cross mean to them, they might say Jesus died on that cross, but they do not have a clue as to what that means for them personally. Or some religions who kill in the name of religion and burn crosses in peoples yards. That is not the cross Christ died upon. The death on that cross was Jesus Himself, and then each one of us who has gave up our old man, and died to our old ways, and now live with Christ in us. Then he was talking about how the new age religious people want to use the cross for their beliefs. But yet their beliefs don't have anything to do with Christ dying on the cross for our sins, so that we are made whole, and have eternal life with Him and the Father. But yet they want to use the symbol of the cross.
You see to some the cross is just that, a symbol. Some do not realize the debt that was paid on that cross. Some people only go to church on Easter Sunday, but yet they do not even know why there is a celebration on that day.You know it would be better named Resurrection Sunday. I wonder how many churches would be filled on Resurrection Sunday? You know if we didn't have the easter egg hunts, the fancy clothes, if we just said, we will start celebrating Resurrection Sunday on the 3rd Sunday in March. Would the church be packed out with no room in the pews? I wonder! I mean let the ones that only come on Easter come, and give them a good message because you probably will not get to see them again until next year, but I just wonder how many Christians would pack the pews on Resurrection Sunday? How much attention to Jesus would they give that day? It would be interesting to see.
What cross do you look to for guidance, for healing, for love, for comfort, for forgiveness? Is it the one around your neck, the doctor, the organization that is there to help people in need, the one on the front of the church building where you attend church, or God forbid, the one who doesn't even believe in the saving grace of Jesus? What exactly does the cross really mean to you. Meditate on that for a while and then go to the word of God and read about what the cross really means. The next time you put that cross around your neck, remember what it stands for. Remember the power in the meaning, remember the suffering on that cross, and most importantly remember the healing in that cross. Healing comes to those who believe on that cross. Not the piece of jewelry itself, but the power behind the true meaning of the cross.
Romans 6 v 5....for if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.....
Gal. 2 v 20....I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me......
1 Pet. 2 v 24.....who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree (cross) that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes we were healed......
Neta
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