Freedom. Freedom from a lifetime of collecting debts bigger than I can pay.
Relief. Relief from always doing, trying, striving.
Grief. Grief that the only person who knew how to love perfectly had to die for the rest of us who still screw it up.
Joy. Joy that death is no longer the last page of the story.
Peace. Peace that soothes all my messiness and chaos.
Hope. Hope that someday every wrong will be made right and every tear wiped away.
Safety. Safety in knowing there is something good and pure that stands true in spite of attempts to profane it.
“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.” ~ John 3:16-17, The Message
With the cross, God put me right again. It means everything to me.
What does the cross mean to you?
(photo courtesy of samplediz, stock.xchng)
I love this! I wrote about what the cross means to me on my blog a couple of days ago. Without the life, death and resurrection of Christ, I would be lost, hopeless, despairing, dead…but because of the cross I can persevere, even rejoice in trials; I can boldly approach the throne; I can eagerly await to be united with my Father in heaven; I can be free from the bondage of sin; I can live free and complete in Him. Everything I am, everything I have, everything is because of the cross.
I love this! I wrote about what the cross means to me on my blog a couple of days ago. Without the life, death and resurrection of Christ, I would be lost, hopeless, despairing, dead…but because of the cross I can persevere, even rejoice in trials; I can boldly approach the throne; I can eagerly await to be united with my Father in heaven; I can be free from the bondage of sin; I can live free and complete in Him. Everything I am, everything I have, everything is because of the cross.
Oh, Chrystie. Me, too. It's everything. I know what it feels like to live believing there is no hope. The cross resurrected my hope, and I'll never be the same.
"Oh the wonder of it all, just to think that Jesus loves me." The cross is to me today the place where an awfully gruesome price was paid to make it possible for me to be 'the righteousness of God in Christ. It means that my sin has a more sinister and insidious impact on my life than I can ever truly grasp. His Passion exposes the darkness of my heart's ability to pursue evil and to betray and hurt those dearest and closest to me. His grace is only amazing when I am confronted with the sinfulness of sin. My sin is what caused the purest, single, solitary, truly innocent man who lived to have to embrace the most cruel of punishments. That was not His cross He mounted but mine. Those nails were forged to pierce my dirty, sin-stained hands and feet…feet that were too seldom careful where they walked, lips that were often allowed to speak unkind and selfish things, eyes too willing to peer into the dark reaches of my heart's desires. I want to be much more willing to understand the depths of my capacity for evil so that I might be able to really discern this amazing love. "When I survey the wondrous cross" I can't help but wonder why He decided to experience such horrors for me. I am forever changed by this moment in history, and it has changed the destiny of my soul and the souls of my children and their children…Oh the wonder of it all!
I learn so much from you, Lewie. Thank you for always leading me back to the cross with your words and your life.
The death of death!
Yes! Isn't it great?!?!