The Archaic Cross?

naterdog — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:07:03 +0000

The cross goes beyond just helping us recover from sin. The cross meets a person’s deepest needs. We can certainly see the cross as a fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system. -Ephesians 1:7 “He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.” -Ephesians 1:22-23 “God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.” So we see that he has “made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.” In the Old Testament, blood was a covering for sin But the cross goes far beyond the Old Testament. The cross also addresses and answers our deepest needs. It addresses the needs we have here and now. One of our deepest needs is love. When a person sees, understand, and believes those nail scars in Jesus’ hands as evidence to how deep is his love, how could they not be changed by the cross? The cross has the power to meet our deepest need of love. “No one has a greater love than the one who laid down his life for a friend. (John 15:13)” The cross is the greatest expression of love there is. It meets the human need for love. Of our deepest needs is forgiveness. It is believed that many mental health problems come from unresolved guilt. The cross meets the human need for forgiveness. It frees us from our past. – 2 Corinthians 5:17 “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” Earlier in that same passage we get a picture of how that happens. It tells us that the debt we had for our sin has been nailed to the cross. So the old is gone. It is buried in the grave. But the cross has more to do with our sin and its consequences than just ridding us of them. The forgiveness of Christ empowers us to forgive others. The forgiving of others is proof that we ourselves are forgiven. The opposite is also the case. If we refuse to forgive, it shows we have not received or understood the forgiveness of Christ. The cross meets the deep need so many people have for forgiveness. The cross gives us forgiveness and the ability to forgive. The cross addresses the human need for community. Consider the need people have for belonging. People need community. People need a place where they know they belong. The cross allows us to be born into the family of God. When a person is born again they are placed into the body of Christ. In community each person has a purpose. We are all needed. Each has got to do his or her part or the whole body (that is the church) suffers. Legs Falls Asleep You might have possibly seen the results of parts of your own body not doing what they’re suppose to. Have you ever tried to get up, yet couldn’t walk because your leg was asleep? Or have you ever tried to talk after the dentist put part of your mouth to sleep? You can’t drive your car after certain eye exams because your eyes have been dilated. They don’t work right or do their part. We need the whole body to work. Everyone must do his or her part. But that’s the beauty of the community. We each have a part. Community is one of our deepest needs. We as believers in Jesus have a family tie. That is the adoption we have in Christ and the unity we have in Christ. We share a future home. We share a current mission. We share community in the church. We are a family and are capable of being such because of the cross of Christ. The Church is to be that, a place where you know others and are known and accepted and encouraged and challenged. The Cross gives us community. People need a purpose that’s worth their lives. We need a cause for which to live and die. Of our deep needs this is one that is quite evident these days. More than ever people need to know they are part of something important. People are fanning and promoting all kinds of causes. It’s a small way to do the significant. The point is one of the deepest needs people have is the need for meaning and purpose. The cross not only provides for this great need. Consider what an inspiration it is to have a person willingly lay his life down for you. It causes me to consider how valued I am. It fills me with great hope and thankfulness. The truth is most of us want our lives to count for something great. These things are great. Giving inspiration, hope, and a sense of worth to others is a great cause. It sure beats the call of “self esteem.” Self esteem, as a cause, promotes the continual spinning on ones own axis. Our good self esteem, as a purpose, causes no effect on the world outside of us. It’s the cross that gives us purpose and offers meaning to our lives. It offers purpose beyond this world, beyond all time, for us, and for all the lives of those around us. There are a lot of causes out there; mission that people join, in their hunt for significance. In Philippians 3:10 Paul says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” The verse addresses the deeper needs of love, forgiveness, community, and purpose. They all are given to us in Christ. Conclusion It was the cross. The result of the cross is not just the eternity that we can look forward to, where we will live forever with the one who loved us so much. But the cross is for right now, too. The cross is for you and me. Consider what kind of sacrifice the cross was. It was a grueling experience. The entire encounter started on the night when Jesus was betrayed. He seemed to know this was the week when the terrible things would happen. He took the bread and he lifted it up before his disciples and told them “this is my body that is broken for you.” What a graphic illustration of what the disciples would witness in the following days. Jesus was whipped, beaten, mocked, and mistreated in cruel, inhuman ways. Then Jesus lifted up the cup, and in the same way, he gave it to his disciples and he said, “This is the cup of a new covenant, in my body. Do this as often as you drink.” Just a few days later the curtain that separated the people from God was torn down the middle from the top. The way people are now made right with God is no longer through a system of sacrifices performed by priests behind a curtain. We now have direct access to God through his son Jesus Christ. Paul says in Philippians 4:9-11, “I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” We can have a personal relationship with God. This personal relationship with God makes it possible to experience the mighty power that raised Christ form the dead. It is the very power that will raise us with him in the last days. It is the same power that meets our deepest needs even as we live here on earth today. The cross gives us love, forgiveness, community, and a great cause. May we find each of these things in Christ. May we also present Christ to others who are in a world of great and deep need. The cross meets a person’s deep needs. It is relevant and powerful for all time, not just on that one day when Jesus died and not just for some day when we will be raised to new life with him. We need Jesus now. We need the love, forgiveness, community, and purpose that is found in Christ and purchased on the cross for us. The cross meets our deepest needs.

I just figured out summer is over

naterdog — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:02:31 +0000

The weather man says there is snow in the forecast. Though I like snow more than just about anyone you’ll ever meet, I just figured out that summer is over. With a lot of coals in the fire, I’ll now be using them to keep my feet warm. I can’t say any part of my life is going bad, it’s just that it is all going so fast.

My friend Wes and I have been talking about time travel. Our discussions inspired some thoughts about how we all time travel. It’s that we always and only go forward. We sometimes think backwards and look backwards, wither to reflect of painful or wonderful experiences. Whichever it is, we do go that direction. We only and always go forward.

So the summer is gone. It wont be fall for long and winter will come and go. I have to nevermind the things I didn’t get done on schedule and with the only thing I get, I have to reschedule, looking the direction I always and only go; forward.

I think this might become a book title some day, in the future of course. I’d call the book “Forward” and subtitle it, “The Guide to Typical Human Time Travel.”

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naterdog — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:40:59 +0000

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The Archaic Cross?

I just figured out summer is over

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