My column in the Times News this week:
Has Holy Week Become Anything but Holy?
Full column:
Has Holy Week Become Anything but Holy?
The cross in the first century of the church was certainly no piece of jewelry, a logo on a church sign, a screen printed design on a t-shirt, a studded outline on a back pocket, or anything, for that matter, related to something that the world would somehow be impressed with. It always represented shame and death.
Everyone sentenced to death on a cross died on the cross, dead!
The cross beams were not sent home for family members to memorialize or cherish. They were most likely used again by the Roman government to bring shame upon another.
I doubt there were human rights activist groups assigned to make sure the cross beams were cleaned and sanitary for the next user; why would there be? the next user would soon be dead.
Not everyone who goes forth using the name Jesus Christ is speaking of the biblical Jesus. Be sure of this, be very sure.
Some love the appearance of being holy while holding on to all forms of ungodliness. Some think God is just like they are and don’t even know of what kind of idolatry they are enslaved to. Some hate Jesus so much that they mock him by misusing his name as they defend their lifestyles of sin.
The true followers of Christ
“must be willing to make Christ the one supreme Lord and ruler in their lives. They must surrender their whole being to the destructive power of the cross, to die not only to their sins but to their righteousness as well as to everything in which they formerly prided themselves.
If this should seem like a heavy sacrifice for anyone to make, let it be remembered that Christ is Lord and can make any demands upon us that He chooses, even to the point of requiring that we deny ourselves and bear the cross daily.
Those who have known the sweetness of it (the cross) will never complain about what they have lost. They will be too well pleased with what they have gained.” A.W. Tozer
There is great confusion about the biblical Jesus, such confusion that it seems like anyone who uses the name of Jesus is assumed to be speaking with authority of who He is.
Can movie goers trust that a movie based on the bible is a trustworthy representation of God? I hope you know this; the theatre is no trustworthy source.
Can someone who prayed a prayer at a vacation bible school when they were 10 years old but hasn’t gathered with other believers in a bible preaching church in 20 years because he thinks church is for weak minded people be trusted as a reliable source of describing who God is?
