Friday, April 10, 2009

Good Friday!

Today holds such significance! I woke up this morning to the most amazing thought and I wanted to share it with you. I get emails from Max Lucado, one of my most favorite authors and wanted to share with you, his meaning of why as Christians the cross remains our symbol for Christ. The article begins by analyzing why as Christians would we take the cross as a symbol of our Savior's torture device. 

Why would we want to remember that? Take any symbol and make it mean something. A mini electric chair, a guillotine, an ax? Basically we are taking something, like a cross, and using it to signify our religion and our beliefs. Many don't see that way. Crosses are everywhere, they are on the top of churches, engraved on tombstones, hung on our walls in our homes, and even worn as jewelry around the neck. Yet besides the significance that the cross did not kill our Savior, we choose to hold it as a way to remember. A way to remember the ultimate sacrifice that was paid for everyone of us that has lived, so that we can share in the abundance of life everlasting, provided to us by Jesus Christ and our belief in Him. 

How sad to think how many people go through life without true faith and hope in something better than this life. My heart goes out to people lost in this world, bound by their own self inadequacies, faults, mistakes that they have made or currently making, and living a shell of existence as they go through life each day. How different is the life of a believer especially this weekend! We have hope, joy, peace, love and all the gifts of the spirit. We also have the added benefit of knowing that this life is temporary, our suffering in it, is nothing compared the suffering Jesus Christ took upon His perfect body and soul for us! 

We should be happy even in the midst of crisis because we didn't have to endure what Christ did for us. I believe today is a time to reflect on that day. To review and read the gospels stories of Jesus' final days. It's a time to realize that our bad days are nothing compared to the days Jesus faced in his final hours. It's time to remember that this life is temporary and we are just visitors in the place, designed to make sure we add to the very population of our eternal home, by taking as many believers with us as possible. Heaven has no capacity limits, and then again neither does hell. 

However, I would rather spread the news about hope and joy, than eternal damnation and suffering that nothing here on earth, could ever imagine. This Easter, it's about life! Eternal life! Just those two words are enough for me! Now here is what Max had to say about what he believes the cross truly means. Love his definition! "Why is the cross the symbol of our faith? To find the answer look no farther than the cross itself. Its design couldn't be simpler. One beam horizontal--the other vertical. One reaches out--like God's love. The other reaches up--as does God's holiness. One represents the width of his love; the other reflects the height of his holiness. The cross is the intersection. The cross is where God forgave his children without lowering his standards." May you all have a truly wonderful and blessed Easter!

2 comments:

Andrea said...

I am sooo thankful for that unending love....and overwhelmed as I read your post. Thank you for sharing your heart.
You write beautifully! GOD has great plans for you and I can't wait to see them unfold!

Laurie said...

Wow!~ Again, I love your reflections- here on the Cross. I pray God would help me to meditate more on His Word. You help me to do that in this blog. You are a blessing! (I only regret that I didn't catch your weekend ones on the day you posted them.) Love ya!