Why Preach the Cross?

WHY PREACH THE CROSS?
November 22nd, 2008 (from www.claytonking.com/blog) This seems to be the underlying question among so many younger Christians today, particularly those in college who were raised in church and are now in theology classes where they are taught to question everything they have ever heard, read, or been taught.

Recently at a regional seminary, there was a great debate in a class on the cross of Christ. The professor informed the class that the traditional, orthodox teaching on the cross (that it was brutal and bloody and necessary for our salvation and for God's wrath against sin to be averted and satisfied) was antiquated and outdated. The professor then said that the cross was simply an example of a willingness to serve humanity; an example Jesus gave us to follow so that we might live the rest of our lives serving others.

This is correct insofar that the cross beckons us to die to selfish desires, shallow materialism, and arrogant pursuits. But is that it? Is that all? Is the cross MERELY AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW?

Maybe we should ask the apostle Paul that question. He made the cross of Christ the central element of his gospel message. Consider what he said in Colossians 1:20 when he stated, "...hrough Him to reconcile all things to himself on earth and in heaven, making peace through His blood, shed on the cross."

If the cross is merely an example to follow, then Paul missed he point by emphasizing the blood of Christ too often. The fact that the blood of Christ is made central simply points to the unjust brutality of His murder, the debt that had to be paid as required by Old Testament law, and the severe nature of the crucifixion of Christ on calvary. I don't believe the blood was magic, as some ancient sects would have declared. But I do believe it was perfect; perfect in a way that allowed God to accept it as a sacrifice worthy of all His forgiveness and grace. The blood magnifies the cross, and the cross is paramount to our preaching and living the gospel.

It is counter-intuitive to our human nature to put such importance on such a gross, disgusting and unsettling theme. But that is exactly the reason why we MUST preach the cross of Christ; the very nature of that cross is to unsettle us, to disgust us at the reality of our own sin and wickedness, and to see how very serious God was about dealing with our sin and reconciling us to Himself. And as strange as it seems to our post-enlightenment brains (which tell us to preach common sense and make people feel good), when we preach the cross and make a big deal out of the scandal of His crucifixion and resurrection, God mysteriously touches hearts and minds and lives are undone, convicted, changed and regenerated.

Without the cross there is no Christianity, no hope, nothing to believe in, and nothing to live for. Without the cross, Jesus is not the Christ and becomes a lunatic claiming insanities about Himself that He never proved. And if that is the case, we are hopeless. But by His work on the cross, we have life, God proves His love for us and His perfect way of dealing with sin, and Jesus is glorified and magnified as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Thank God for the cross!

Why Obama? Why???

I can agree that it must be important to African Americans to see someone rise to the position of President. A good friend of mine told me that the reason he was black had had no significance to how he voted. In fact we discussed the fact that people voted only because of that and not because of the issues. I am a Christian! Not a part time one, but a full time one. The special significance to me is to protect the sanctity of life. That is more important to me than any color of skin, sex, or party. The issue of life and the fact that we can not play God! When Obama said "it was above his pay grade" when asked about when life was considered sacred that is when he lost my vote. Yes, am a Republican, but first I am a follower of Christ. When are we going to get past all of this racial stuff. That has been a problem this whole election. Just because I didn't vote for Obama or agree with him as president doesn't make me a racist. How can anyone who calls themselves a Christian support killing babies. I have heard many people talk to me about going to church or about being a Christian and yet they voted for this guy. Someone please help me to understand how there is a more important issue than this!

Nice little example for the Obama lovers...

http://forums.hannity.com/showthread.php?t=1043901

Yesterday on my way to lunch at Doe's, I passed one of the homeless guys in that area, with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money."

Once in the Doe's my waiter had on a "Obama 08" tee shirt.

When the bill came, I decided not to tip the waiter and explained to him while he had given me exceptional service, that his tee shirt made me feel he obviously believes in Senator Obama's plan to redistribute the wealth. I told him I was going to redistribute his tip to someone that I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. He stood there in disbelief and angrily stormed away.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $3 and told him to thank the waiter inside, as I had decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy looked at me in disbelief but seemed grateful.

As I got in my truck, I realized this rather unscientific redistribution experiment had left the homeless guy quite happy for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn.

Well, I guess this redistribution of wealth is going to take a while to catch on, with those doing the work.

Missions Minded

http://derik100.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=348890

The above link is to a podcast from a message I delivered earlier this year for our Youth. The message was interconnected with missions which seemed to be our focus this summer. Our students traveled all the way to Jamacia and gave of themselves to further the kindom. We need to make our workplaces, schools, and our neighborhoods our mission field. This is what God has called us to do.

"Whom shall I send? Who is sufficient? Such a degree of courage for God and concern for the souls of men as is necessary to make a man faithful, and withal such an insight into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven as is necessary to make a man skilful, are seldom to be met with. Such an interpreter of the mind of God is one of a thousand. None are allowed to go for God but those who are sent by him; he will own none but those whom he appoints. It is Christ's work to put men into the ministry. Here I am, send me! Lord, give me commission and full instruction; send me, and then, no doubt, thou wilt stand by me.” - Matthew Henry

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)

Spot Festival

Today I am going to go to the NC Spot Festival. I am excited about eating some good fish. As I was looking on the website about it I saw this. (Local lore says that spot are the fish that Jesus used when he fed the multitudes with loaves and fishes. The actual "spot" on the fish is supposedly where Jesus left His fingerprints when distributing the fishes.) Now keep in mind this is only lore, if fact a very good friend who will remain nameless said this was crap. All the same how cool would this be if it were true. The aw and mystery of God! The questions that we ask do not always have answers. I will reply with more later!

"Reimage"

Well let me explain this "reimage" thing. As most of you know I am techy. Well last week at work I was given a palm to use. This not only works for me in the techy world, but it also meets my OCD standards for being more organized. So anyway I went about hooking it up and installing the software. It was funny everyting came up fine on the computer and fine on the palm, but it would not "hot sync". This is what the two devices do to talk to one another. Well I tryed everything I could think of, short of throwing it. I even called the tech Queen at our School, and she could not get it either. We both knew what this meant, in our little world this means there is a glitch and the only fix is to "reimage" it. This means everything I had installed would be gone, start from scratch. Here is the thing I was reluctant to do this because I didn't want to give up all that was already installed and start over. Even though the reward for doing this was great, by getting the palm. In the end I did it and lost it all, and started over.

What is my point? Well I know that was a long explaination to get here, but I wanted you to understand the sacrifice and reward involved. I think this is the same strugle many of us have in our lives with Jesus. We spend all of this time trying to hold on to parts of our lives that we don't want to give up. The reward for being a Christ follower is greater than all of the sin we continue to endulge in, yet we hold onto it and tell God we are not ready yet. We make excuses about why we are not ready. This is preventing us for "hot syncing" with God. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Mat 10:38 I read a great little book several years ago called "my heart in Christ's home". It talks about your walk and how it is broken up into rooms of the house. I won't go to far into this, so you can read it for yourself. The point is that we need to give God all of the rooms in our house and follow him. So in my techy world I would say God wants to "reimage" us. He wants to clean out all of those files and have us give them all to him as a sacrifice, and the rewards are growth in our relationship with him. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. Isa 40:28

Knight Rider

Tonight I had to stay home from church because Jenilee had a fever (Jenilee is my daughter if you didn't know). So since I was at home on a Wednesday night for the first time in a while, I decided to see what was on TV. I watched a couple episodes of the Andy Griffith Show. Man I love that show, because everything was so much simpler then. After that was over I figured I would flip back to Fox News and go do a few things. Then I remembered that I had set the DVR to record the new Knight Rider. So quickly I flipped there very excited about the show that I loved as a kid. Let me tell you if you did not see it that it was great. I will be recording the whole series to watch later since it comes on on Wed. night. As I was watching and loving the cool graphics that the old one was missing. I wondered does this make it better than the original? Well, the answer is no! Because the original has been around since the 80's and it had the Hoff. I must admit it was rather flashy and I was quite drawn in to it, but it still doesn't stack up to the original.

I think sometimes in our pursuit of the flash and bang that draws people in soetimes. What they really crave is the original Gospel. Lived out and breathed through us the congregation of believers, this is most relevant way to share the Gospel! For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom 5:10)