I am not only proud to cling to the cross...

I am more proud that there IS a cross to cling to!


As you wind up this work week, you may be tired. You may be exhausted. You may be battling illness, dealing with rebellious children, aghast over low finances, or stressed from caring for elderly parents. You may be battling many things, or worrying about many things. You may just be tired.

I cling, CLING for all I am worth, to His cross, the emblem of His suffering and shame. It was suffering and shame He took for me, a wretched sinner I am. That cross is so despised by the world, but has a wondrous attraction for me; because it SAVED ME. And now that I am saved, it REFRESHES me. I am tired, I am worried, I am stressed. But I will not be for long. I will listen to a good hymn, I will pray, and I will dip into His word and find love and wisdom. I can read His promises to me. I know they are promises made specifically to me because I know He had me in mind while He hung on the cross, dying and bleeding. He had YOU in mind, too. His book is written for all people who believe, and that means you and me.

You may be spiritually sensitive and crying over the blasphemy in the world. Jesus' name is trampled through the mud every minute, sneered at, and rejected from north to south, east to west. You may be sad over the lost people everywhere, who are believing they are working their way to heaven, or simply not thinking about heaven at all, not perceiving what awaits them. Not seeing the train wreck that will become their lives very soon in the Tribulation.

That old rugged cross is standing for them, too. It is available to all who would believe. It stands, stained with divine blood, for remission of sins of all peoples, tribes, and nations. It stands as the emblem of victory, available to any person to cling to when the storms of life become too deafening. Amidst the roaring waves and thunder I hear the whisper, the promise, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love." (Song of Solomon 2:4)

Comments

  1. Thanks, Elizabeth. God bless you and keep you in His hands during these wild, wacky, wonderful, compelling last days. He chose us to be here at the end. Hallelujah! How did you like Hinds Feet on High Places?

    Kim

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  2. Um, you do realize the word "Cross" never occurs in any Greek text on the planet right? The word used is Stauros which means "Upright Pole" or execution stake. The "Cross" was edited into your Bible and has always been a pagan sun god worship symbol used centuries before christianity ever existed.

    I sometimes wonder if Messiah had lived in modern times and been executed and tortured via a hypodermic needle with cyanide in it if christian would "Cling to the old hypodermic needle" and wear a little needle with cyanide in it.

    Or if he had been executed and tortured via the electric chair, if christians would "glory in the electric chair" and stand in front of electric chairs and preach.

    Take the time to research these things.

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  3. Hello Anonymous,

    I appreciate that you took the time to point out these things. I'm sorry, but you are making an erroneous assumption when you say that I have not taken the time to research these things. Allow me a moment to point out the results of my research:

    When you say that the cross "has been edited in" it immediately becomes apparent that you disbelieve that the bible is the Holy Word of God, from God, through men. But is it. No word is in there that doesn't belong.

    The cross is mentioned 16 times in the New Testament in the 4 Gospels, Philippians, Ephesians, Corinthians, and Galatians. That would be a lot of "editing" and a lot of lies if indeed Jesus had not died on the cross. But He did. He even told the disciples that some of them would die on the cross by crucifixion (Mt 23:34) and further, He advised them “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25)

    My Strong's concordance lists cross as 'stauros' as you mentioned, but the definition of it is to fence with stakes, to crucify
    NASB Word Usage: crucified (29), crucifixion (1), crucify (16).

    The Greek word translated “cross”, meaning “a pole or a cross used as an instrument of capital punishment.” The Greek word stauroo, which is translated “crucify” means to be attached to a pole or cross.

    The precise shape of the instrument of His execution cannot be gleaned from the bible, but that does not render the fact that He was hung up, pierced, and died for us any less glorious. We do not glorify the *instrument* of His death as much as remind ourselves that *through* His death in this, the most undignified manner, He left Himself low, for US, for YOU. His subsequent resurrection means life to all who believe. I hope that someday you can move away from the trees (looking at the shape of the instrument of His death and parsing the words used) and see the forest (your sin and need for Him). I hope someday you will come to see the eternal significance of the cross, and cling to it tightly.

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  4. Got to say! I appreciated anonymous' response about the needles and the electric chairs -- both of which can be considered gruesome ways to die in today's society. I also do not understand why people cling to the image of the cross. We are not called to follow idols or worship them. It is Jesus' resurrection that joins us to our future, the fact that the cross did not defeat Him. Like Jesus, we are called to walk through all the perils and pain of this world in accordance with our Father's will. Always our eyes are looking forward to our future hope and Glory. We are not looking backwards -- we have put away that sinful life, forsaken it and who we were. Jesus gift is that we have a future. I say don't cling to the cross, cling to Jesus.

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