Tag:

cross

Boasting

by TerryLema

When I look at the Apostle Paul’s life and accomplishments I am amazed.  When God sent him off to be the Messenger to the Gentiles, to those outside the nation of Israel, no one would have thought that he could have accomplished what he did.  Yes, he did have helpers, Luke, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Titus to name but a few.  He, however, was the tip of the spear that carried the message of Christ’s cross throughout the known world and saw that world change in the span of one generation.

His prayers, his desires, his thoughts are plainly evident in his writings, and are summed up truly in that one verse at the end of Galatians.  “But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”   [Gal 6:14 HCSB]

For Paul, it was all about Jesus.  He lived what John the Baptizer prayed, He must increase, I must decrease. Paul set such a high mark, such an illustrious example for us to follow.

What does it matter if we preach to thousands or a few?  What does it matter if we are called to a national platform, or minister in a rural setting?  What does it matter if we touch people in churches, or hospitals, or homes, or in the marketplace?  What does it matter if we take the message of the cross to small babes in Sunday School or the elderly in assisted living facilities?

What matters is that we truly find our boasting not in what we do or where we go, but in the message we bring … the message of the cross.  The importance is found in what our Savior did, in how God came down from His throne and got His feet dusty on this earth.  The amazing thing is that cross where the blood of Christ was spilled.

May we never boast in anything other than the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

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Three Songs (Psalm 22)

by TerryLema

Whenever I am in a difficult position or circumstance, I will recite Psalm 23 in my mind. I find it calms my spirit and emotions and gives me the strength to do what I need to do at that moment.

Psalm 23 is part of a trilogy of songs. Psalms 22, 23 and 24 go together. They have been described as songs of the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (Psalm 22), the Great Shepherd who lives to care for and provide for His sheep (Psalm 23), and the Chief Shepherd who is coming again to gather His sheep (Psalm 24).

When I read them, I see them as Christ Jesus my Savior (Psalm 22), Christ Jesus my Shepherd (Psalm 23) and Christ Jesus my King (Psalm 24).

When we approach Psalm 22, we must do it with gracious humility and honor. It truly is “holy ground.” It begins with that great cry Jesus uttered from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”

Psalm 22 is a song of David, but it seems to go far beyond anything David might have experienced. It is not the cry of a man who is sick or even a soldier in battle. It is the cry of a man being crucified. He is stripped naked, nails driven through hands and feet. As the hours wear on, he is thirsty and becomes dehydrated. People are growling at him as he dies on the cross.

But the song does not end with death, the second part (verses 22-31) speaks of resurrection and expresses glorious praise to God.

It is hard to read this song without picturing what our LORD Christ Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. As I read it, I keep hearing two words over and over … “for you.”

He did it all “for me” and “for you.” It truly is “holy ground.”

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Done By Us

by TerryLema

John R.W. Stott wrote, “Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.” 

That’s a hard statement, but truth often is.  None of us wants to see ourselves in the crowd crying out, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”  We want to see ourselves as staunchly defending Christ.

We want to at least be John, who it appears was the only one who didn’t completely desert Christ, the one who made it from the courtyard of Caiaphas to the mount of Calvary.

Our hearts break when we read of the tortures and the dying of our Savior and Lord.

 

But … but … we are looking back at Christ’s Passion from our current standing as a child of God.  We are looking back through our salvation, through our transformation.  None of that was yet available to those shouting in the crowd that day.  Salvation, transformation was still being wrought on Calvary’s Hill.

I wonder how many of those who succumbed to the mob psychology during Jesus’ trials and crucifixion heard Peter speak at Pentecost a few weeks later.  I wonder how many of those who screamed for His death cried out for salvation as Peter spoke truth about Jesus’ salvation and lordship.  We know about 3000 were added to the church at Pentecost, and the number of men grew to 5000 just a short time later.  [Acts 2:41, 4:4]

There might have been any number in the new church that were part of the mob in Pilate’s courtyard calling for His death. And even that sin … that sin of shouting “Crucify Him, Crucify Him” … was forgiven.  He forgives us all our sins.

Col 2:13: “And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses.” [HCSB]

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Messiah and a Cross (Luke 9)

by TerryLema

Suddenly, in Luke 9, the specter of the cross looms. Jesus asks His disciples who the crowds say he is. They have various responses. Then Jesus makes it personal by asking them a question, the same question He asks each one of us: “But you, who do you say that I am?” [v20]

Peter’s response is that He is the long-awaited King, the Messiah, the Anointed One to come.  Immediately, Jesus turns their thinking in a totally new direction. “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.” [vs 22]

No one ever associated the long-awaited Messiah with suffering, rejection, and death.  It stunned the disciples. It was incomprehensible. Before they can even catch their breath, however, He stuns them again.

“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it.’” [vs 23 HCSB]

To follow this King did not mean a cushy castle or a slew of servants. To follow this King of kings meant embracing a cross daily and going where He leads. It meant losing life in order to save it for all eternity.

The disciples must have wondered what they had gotten themselves into by following Jesus. When it became real at the betrayal, during the trials and at the cross, all but one abandoned Him, and one went so far as to deny Him three times.

They were lost, grieving, and confused as Jesus was in the tomb those three days, but then, Resurrection changed everything. I think it was at that point that they truly understood what Jesus said to them that day about picking up their cross daily and following Him. Because each one did, and because they did, the world was changed.

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Socks

by TerryLema

I am a barefoot girl. I love walking around barefoot, however since I have aged, and after three stress fractures in my left foot, I wear shoes and socks per doctor’s orders – even in the house. Does not meet I have to like it!

The one time I have remained barefoot is when I sleep at night. If I actually sleep at night. I have medication-caused hot flashes three or four times a night. They wake me up and it takes a while for them to disappear and allow me to go back to sleep.

A little over a week ago, I turned on the television to catch the evening news. The program before the news was still showing and it captured my attention. It was a sleep doctor who was outlining things people could do to sleep better. He had a number of items on his list, most of which I already do. But the last item caught me by surprise when he said to wear socks to bed. He gave an explanation I did not quite get, something about expanding veins in feet and dissipating core heat.

I thought it sounded a bit odd, but then what did I have to lose? So, for one week now I have worn socks to bed and have not had one hot flash. Not one. (Coincidence?)

How that works is beyond me, it sounds counter intuitive. I should be used to counter intuitive. Usually what God says seems counter intuitive to my human reasoning.

Luke 9:23-24: “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it.’” [HCSB]

One of the greatest tragedies of American Christianity is that so many who claim to be Christian do not seem to have a true understanding of what that means. Jesus said if we want to save our life, we must lose it. That is so counter intuitive to our human reasoning.

We too often forget that our purpose in this life is to be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus. Whatever we are to be in Christ, whatever we are to be as His disciples, can only come about if what we are is allowed to die. [Romans 8:29]

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A Manger, A Cross

by TerryLema

I got an email this past week requesting volunteers for a live nativity in our area. It has been cold these past few weeks, so I am not sure if they got all the volunteers needed. I know it is too cold for me to spend hours outside, and I doubt there were any old women in the stall that first Christmas anyway.

But then again, as I thought more about that, maybe there were. Maybe Joseph found a mid-wife or a woman nearby to help. Or maybe, he did not. We are not told a lot about how the birth of Jesus took place, just the where and the why.

It is that why that always amazes me at this time of year. Jesus came to set us free from sin and death. The Scriptures are abundantly clear that mankind got itself in a mess – a mess that only God could fix. God made a way.

Last Sunday in church we sang a Christmas song with one line that has played through my mind every night this week. “He made a way in a manger, a way through the cross ….”

The manger is nothing without the cross, the resurrection, and ascension of Christ Jesus to the right hand of the Father. Christ Jesus made the way for us. Through His cross and resurrection, He overcame death and the grave. He made us alive with Him, forgave us all our sins, erased our debt, and opened the way to the Father’s House. Christmas is all about the cross.

“And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross.” [Colossians 2:13-14 HCSB]

(773) the Ball Brothers - It's About the Cross (OFFICIAL video) - YouTube
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For Us

by TerryLema

I remember going to the movies as a teenager in 1965 to see the “Greatest Story Ever Told.” I remember how emotional I got during that movie when it came to the scenes of betrayal, torture and crucifixion. I knew when “The Passion of the Christ” came out in 2004, I would not be able to watch it … the scenes were so much more graphic. I still haven’t watched it. I can barely read through the accounts of the trials and crucifixion without weeping … even though I know that “Sunday is Coming.”

Jesus spoke from the cross that day. To me the most poignant were, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”

The most promising, “It is … and will forever be … finished.”

But of all the words that pierce my heart today, they are two words that we find throughout the NT.

1 John 3:16: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”

 Romans 5:8: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Ephesians 5:2: “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

For us … I often read those words as … for me.

 When I consider what God’s Son did … for me … I can barely breathe. When I read what He suffered … for me … I am overwhelmed by unworthiness of God’s love.

Yet, I know … yes, I know … that the greatest of all tragedies would be to ignore, reject or refuse that love that is offered for me.

So, today I both weep and rejoice. I weep over what my sins cost God’s Son, and I rejoice that despite my unworthiness, He went to the cross and made a way for me, so that I can now say …. “I – Am – A – Child – of – God.

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Set His Face to Go

by TerryLema

Eight days to the Day of Resurrection Celebration (what we call Easter Sunday). If things remain as they are right now, we will still be under a Stay-At-Home directive on that date, April 12. That doesn’t mean Easter is “canceled,” but it means the celebration of it will be postponed a few weeks.

Postponing the celebration doesn’t in any way alter the absolute truth that nearly 2000 years ago, our Savior and Lord, Christ Jesus rose from the grave! Since then every day is Resurrection Day; we just choose to commemorate it once a year.

Our commemoration of that Day of Jubilee and Hope is always a special day. This year we will probably participate with others at an on-line church service. For The Way, we intend to make our first Sunday back together our Celebration Sunday. We’ll have our worship and service, we’ll have a great Back-Together-Lunch and we may hang around the building and tell stories of our lock-down days, the earthquake, or the great toilet paper scavenger hunts. And then we may just worship and sing our praises some more before we all go home.

Let’s remember, in the days leading up to that celebration just what it cost Jesus to give us our life of Jubilee and Hope. His sacrifice was great. The cost He paid was beyond reckoning.

Luke reminds us that Jesus walked toward the cross. “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” [9:51 NKJV]

The cross was not a surprise to Him, neither was it thrust upon Him by others. He knew what was ahead, which makes what He did for us even more wonderful.

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The Greatest Equalizer

by TerryLema

Madonna, the singer, has been offering COVID-19 encouragement on social media. The latest one was delivered naked from her bathtub filled with rose petals. She said about the virus, “It doesn’t care about how rich you are, how famous you are, how funny you are, how smart you are, where you live, how old you are, what amazing stories you can tell. It’s the great equalizer, and what’s terrible about it is what’s great about it. What’s terrible about it is it’s made us all equal in many ways – and what’s wonderful about it is it’s made us all equal in many ways.”

 I’m glad Madonna is trying to keep us all positive, good for her. I’m not sure though that any other of us are offering our encouragement to the world while sitting naked in a tub full of rose petals. And while I agree with her that the virus doesn’t have any preference or feelings for whom it infects, I disagree that it is “the” great equalizer. That place of preeminence has already been claimed by “The Cross of Christ Jesus” and He’s not about to relinquish it to a virus.

At the cross, everyone comes the same way– spiritually bankrupt, with nothing to offer, on our faces, begging for mercy. We don’t bring our achievements or lack thereof. We can’t offer our money, our homes, our fancy cars. The cross cares not about our intelligence nor our social standing nor our talents nor gifts. The cross doesn’t care if we sing like an angel or croak like a frog.

The cross only cares that we are broken and in need. We come, equally unable to save ourselves and our God in Christ provides us with everything we need for eternal life.

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” [Col 1:19-20 NIV]

The Cross of Christ = The Greatest Equalizer for All of Time and Eternity.

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