Posts from March 2010
Lenten Blog 3.31.10
Special Blog Series Lent 2010 on March 31, 2010
Again on Sunday, I was reminded of the cross. Church can be a rather dysfunctional place (not talking about Grace here although I think we could all agree that sometimes even Grace can get dysfunctional) because it is filled with imperfect people. It’s the cross that covers our sin and makes us worthy of God’s grace. My past is filled with hurts that were imposed on me by Christ followers and many of you have probably experienced similar hurts. I will have to admit I’ve probably hurt other Christ followers myself. Yet it is through these experiences that we learn how Jesus makes us worthy when we are so unworthy. The words of Micah 6:8 have been running through my mind this week:
“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Sometimes the hardest people on whom to practice this verse are God’s own. Thank God for the cross!
This is why we are worthy. We bless Your name, Jesus.
– Rick and Michelle Verga
lenten Blog 3.30.10
Special Blog Series Lent 2010 on March 30, 2010
What does the Cross mean to me?
As I thought about the cross this week, I stumbled over how often I have to push back my own priorities to make room for the cross. True confessions hurt. The cross gives me a constant reminder of where God’s priorities lie and where mine should also lie.
The cross is always in the right place. My location (head and heart) is off-track too often. The cross is permanent. It does not move around and does not change. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, it was the father who waited patiently for the misguided son to find his way back after thinking he had all the answers. That loving father was always on the look-out for his son, day after day. The cross tells me I have a loving father who thinks about me every day, no exception. I am not part of a “person-of-the month” club. The cross means I am loved beyond imagination and I am valued by God with an intensity and expressiveness so great that even the earth physically shook that day when Christ died...in a perfect plan of love and redemption. I can only imagine what was going on in Heaven.
God Bless,
John Bailey
Lenten Blog 3.29.10
Special Blog Series Lent 2010 on March 29, 2010
The cross means I don’t have to be afraid of death or life. The cross gives me hope in both. The cross is the most poignant demonstration of God’s love for me. He marked Himself for all eternity by taking on a human body and enduring the unthinkable death of the cross. Knowing the price He paid gives me a sense of safety and security as I face life and death. In all of life’s turmoil I know He makes everything work for my good. He protects me, and if harm should come to me, I know that He has a plan for it.
The cross gives me equality with others. Whether we are kings or beggars, we all come to God the same way…through the cross. We’re all cut from the same fleshly fabric. God has not loved some more; He loved all of us enough to die. And with the equality of the cross there follows a sense of unity. Paul insists that “there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all (Col 3:11).” It is only the cross that makes this possible.
--Claude Vandevert
Lenten Blog 3.27.10
Special Blog Series Lent 2010 on March 27, 2010
What the cross means to me:
I come from a very dysfunctional family. My parents had a rocky marriage and divorced when I was eight. My mom got custody of my sister and me and we moved in with our Nana for two years. One day we were abruptly taken from our small hometown and forced to live in a row house in downtown Erie. Our father had visitation rights but we had no other family contact. We experienced some very trying times there. I knew about God from my early years of going to church with my Nana, so I would lie in bed crying and praying every night. I ran away over ten times. Then my dad got custody of us, but he had to marry his live-in girlfriend in order to obtain it.
I thought my life would be better but my dad and stepmom fought all the time. It was awful, as she would literally throw frying pans at him. But, they stayed together. Then, a few months later, the unspeakable happened. I became the victim of sexual abuse. I had nowhere to run. I had to stay, because I knew that otherwise they would put me in foster care and I didn’t want that. I still prayed, but I didn’t yet have a relationship with Jesus.
When I was 14, something amazing happened. It all started with a rickety old church bus…
~~Kathy Wiltse
Lenten Blog 3.26.10
Special Blog Series Lent 2010 on March 26, 2010
Because of the cross my sins are forgiven and the evil one has been
stripped of his power against the love of God to rescue me over and over
again. In the first chapter of II Corinthians Paul speaks about being under great
pressure, far beyond their ability to endure, so that they even despaired of life. A
couple verses later he talks about how God delivered them and will
continue to deliver them.
In Romans 8:32 Paul reminds us that “He who did not spare His own Son, but graciously gave Him up for us all-how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” I’m so thankful for Jesus’ triumph over the grave and that He now intercedes in my behalf at the right hand of the Father.
--Don & Debbie Sweatman
Lenten Blog 3.25.10
Special Blog Series Lent 2010 on March 25, 2010
For the most part, it seems that the symbol of the cross has lost its significance in our day. It hangs in countless churches but hardly makes a difference in the lives of the people who attend there. Yet take it down and they throw a holy fit.
Think of the countless crosses in jewelry and tattoos. It’s become a generic icon devoid of much meaning.
Why? Because the cross symbol has become sanitized. It’s clean. It’s fashioned out of expensive metal. It’s ornate. It’s a whole lot of things pleasing to the eyes. It’s lost its sting!
In the 1st century, the cross was ugly. Dirty. Splintery. Bloody. Sweaty. Nail-scarred. Smelly. An object of scorn and fear. To be avoided. Drastic. There were no crosses in churches until the 4th century. And only after the cross fell from “favor” as a mode of execution. No one in the 1st century, including Christians, could have ever conceived of a nice little piece of jewelry in the form of a cross hanging around their necks or piercing their ears. The cross was hideous! It would be like our generation making an icon out of the electric chair.
Give me the old rugged cross, not the dainty and polished cross. Remind me that Jesus died the cruelest of deaths in my place. Let me feel some pain and agony when I look at a cross, not the satisfaction of a fashion statement.
Help me to see the real cross or no cross at all. Because anything but that will anesthetize me to the real thing.
--Pastor Al & Marie Detter