Posts Tagged ‘cross’

a holy contradiction…

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

“Dead people live here.” I was struck as I read that line. It came in the context of discussing the Cross–a sign of death.  Yet, people wear them…around their necks, in their ears, tatooed into their skins.  If the wearers are authentic–the line is true.  “Dead people live here.”

That’s discipleship. Living life in the shadow of and under the influence of the cross of Christ. We are dead to self and to the world–at least, ideally (See Galatians 2:20). What matters now is living like we’re dead. What an incredible difference it makes when matters isn’t my comfort or my success, instead it’s what pleases God and impacts people.

I keep hoping the ideal becomes real.  I keep hoping that the longer I linger in this life, the more dead I become so I can be even more alive than ever.

The world’s a mess…and the cross…

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

I’m 1/3 of the way through a great book.  Christopher Wright’s The Mission of God’s People is an incredible overview of what God is up to in the redemptive process…and how we fit in.  I can hardly wait for the morning to break so I can read the next few pages.  I’m sure you’re going to hear more about it in the future.  However, today, I simply want to quote from chapter 6, “People who are redeemed for redemptive living.”

The fact is that sin and evil constitute bad news in every area of life on this planet. The redemptive work of God through the cross of Christ is good news for every area of life on earth that has been touched by sin–which means every area of life. Bluntly, we need a holistic gospel because the world is in a holistic mess. And by God’s incredible grace we have a gospel big enough to redeem all that sin and evil have touched. And every dimension of that good news is good news utterly and only because of the blood of Christ on the cross. (p110-111)

That’s our story:  The world’s a mess and the cross is the answer.  You notice it has nothing to do with us. It’s not about how good we are, how right we are, or how talented we are.  It’s all about the cross of Christ and how at the cross Jesus provided redemption from the mess. That’s good news!