“What shall I say to the commendation of Christ and His Cross? I bless the Lord He has made my prison a palace to me. And what am I that He should have delt thus with me? I have looked greedy-like to such a lot as this, but I still thought it was too high for me when I saw how vile I was.” - Isabel Alison (excecuted for her faith on January 26th, 1681)

“I wish that our ministry - that mine especially - might be tied and tethered to the cross.  I would have no other object to set before you than Jesus only.”- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The heart of Christianity is Jesus Christ.  He is God who became flesh, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross.  Jesus was very mission guided.  His mission was to come and die.  Jesus came to be the mediator between a righteous and holy God and a sinful people.  His mediation, however, was not a mediation handled with words, but rather it was a mediation in which Jesus bore the sins of the people and took upon Himself the wrath of God on behalf of the people.  This is the story of undeserved and unfathomable grace given to people who did not deserve it.  This is the gospel.  Leading up to Good Friday, we will reflect on this amazing truth through some statements from Christians throughout the centuries.  May you be lead worship and adore Jesus and to seek a deeper relationship with Him as we journey to the cross.

Erwin McManus is the pastor of Mosaic in Los Angeles, California.  He has written several books including his newest release Soul Cravingswhich paints a picture of how each of our desires as human beings (such as our desires for love, purpose, and meaning) can be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.  Erwin considers himself to be a “futurist, activist, artist, and spiritual and cultural leader” according to his website.  God has led Erwin to form a very interesting an unusual ministry in Mosaic.  It is a church, or as Erwin would call it a “spiritual community,” which meets in schools and bars for its weekly gathering.  This is a church that is very different than what you would expect in that it is intended to reach out to people who are artists, musicians, and others who have a desire to be creative.  Mosaic has grown to become a place where creativity and spirituality have become wed together.  Erwin encourages his people to seek after God and to express the beauty and creativeness of God through their different forms of creative expression.  Mosaic has formed a Christian community seeking to glorify God in the midst of an area of the world with a tremendous cultural influence.  God is using Erwin and Mosaic to draw many creative people to Him.  One thing that I really respect about Erwin is that he lives his life looking for tangible ways to show the love of Christ to others.  This is seen through the many personal stories that he tells in his messages from the opportunities that God has given him to touch someone tangibly with His love.  The love of Christ and practical expressions of His grace through the lives of people seeking Him is a powerful way for people to be drawn to Jesus in the midst of a world that thinks that they want nothing to do with Christianity.

We so often get consumed with holding onto stuff that we should surrender to Jesus.  It is so easy to get caught up in holding onto our past failures and sins.  Satan finds it fun to bring these back up again and again in our minds.  He reminds us that we have done ___________ and therefore who are we to serve God and minister to people.  He brings up not only the sends of the long ago past but the failures of yesterday.  He focuses our minds on our walk with Christ as being a time of continual failure and sin.  He then plants thoughts into our minds and hearts that Jesus is looking down on us with a frown and that we will never measure up.  This is true in one sense that we will never measure up to the holy standard of God.  This is why Jesus came to be adequate on our behalf.  This is one thing that we so frequently hold.  Another think that we hold is our successes.  We look back on our resumes and accomplishments and decided that we can do it on our own.  We think that we are smart enough, good enough, and strong enough and that we do not need God.  In both of these times you have full hands which inhibit you in two ways.  The first way is that they keep you from letting the Holy Spirit hold your hand and walk you along this journey of faith.  Your hands are either so full of your failures that you do not think His hand is there or so full of your successes to think that you do not need the hand that is offered.  The second thing that they do is they keep you from reaching out to others.  Your hands are so full of your own failures or successes that you do not have a hand to reach out to others around you in love and be the hands and feet of Jesus.  So it is really important where you have your hands and what they are full of.  This was inspired by the following video.  I hope that this is both a challenge and encouragement to you.

Click here to see the video clip.

Earlier this week, I was listening to Francis Chan, a pastor who I first heard at Passion who has become one of my favorite people to hear speak.  He was talking about Jesus coming back and how we should be excited about that like a bride would be excited for her wedding day.  That really hit me because I do not even think about Christ coming back much at all.  He then went on to share about comforting people with the return of Christ.  This I think is something that we often miss.  When we see the world falling apart around us and feel like there is no hope, we can always rest in the fact that Jesus Christ is coming back to make all things new.  So when you hear about someone dying from cancer, when you hear the stories of the horrible genocide that is going on in the Darfur region of Sudan, when you hear about the children that were killed by a terrorist bomb, when your world falls apart, or when you have lost all hope, never forget that the King is coming back to make all things new!

This post was written in January of 2007: 

I went to see The Pursuit of Happyness movie last December.  If you have not seen it, it is a great story of coming from the lowest of low to the highest place.  Will Smith goes from being someone living on the streets without a home to being a successful business man.  The movie so characterizes the American Dream that it makes you want to stand up and sing the national anthem, but in reality success and prosperity do not define day to day life for many people not only around the world but in our own cities.  These people are the ones that get brushed into the alleyways, street corners, and garbage dumps of the rest of us while we are living our American Dream.  This issue came face to face with me when I was in Atlanta last week.  I go to school in urban Birmingham so I am used to being in the city and seeing people who are struggling.  The problem is that I have become so used to it that I have lost a heart for people.  They tend to just sink in to the scenery as a walk across campus looking for a good place to whip out my laptop and get online.  This week in Atlanta, however, I got to encounter and feel what these hurting people feel.  I was sitting in McDonalds reading a book waiting for some friends to bring my food to the table when he approached. He quickly got my attention and asked if he could ask me a question.  I agreed so he sat down across the table from me and we began to talk.  He introduced himself and told me the story of his 20 years on the streets of Atlanta with his wife.  He said that they struggle to find food for their next meal and cannot find somewhere warm to sleep at night.  This broke my heart.  He asked me for a few dollars to buy some breakfast, and I gave it to him.  He then went on his way.  This simple encounter has been on my mind and heart ever since it happened.  These people so fit Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25 when he tells us that whatever we do unto the least of these we have done unto Him.  Why are we not more mindful of those freezing and starving around us?  Where is the heart in each one of us to not just gather in our warm churches and talk theology but to get out and live the grace and mercy of God out to the least of these?  God, make me a person who does not miss the very people who need my help!

We are constantly being conformed to the image of Christ.  After we receive salvation, we then begin a process of being purified and brought back to a place of godliness.  I was reading a sermon by Jonathan Edwards called “God Glorified in Man’s Dependence” a while back, and he had some very good things to say about this process: 

“Men are dependent on the power of God for every exercise of grace, and for carrying on the work in the heart, for subduing sin and corruption, increasing holy principles, and enabling to bring forth fruit in good works.  Man is dependent on divine power in bringing grace to its perfection, in making the soul completely amiable in Christ’s glorious likeness, and filling it with a satisfying joy and blessedness; and for the raising of the body to life, and to such a perfect state, that it shall be suitable for a habitation and organ for a soul so perfected and blessed.  These are the most glorious effects of the power of God, that are seen in the series of God’s acts with respect to creatures.”

 This truth is both liberating and frustrating at the same time.  The fact that we are incapable of doing good and obtaining holiness is a liberating truth.  It is great to know that we do not have to perform to make ourselves into the image of Christ.  This is great in that it keeps us from competing in holy competitions with other believers.  It also takes the pressure off of us to do anything but submit.  That is, however, where the frustration enters the picture.  We are so used to performing, being, and doing that it makes it very hard for us to daily submit to the Holy Spirit to live this Christian life through us and bring us to holiness and purity in His timing.  God is the one who does the work.  Our job is to submit and let Him work in and through us. We are just clay in the hands of the Potter being molded into the image He desires us to be.

Ever feel like you are not good enough?  Ever feel that God could never use you do to the sins that you have done in your past?  Well that was how I felt recently.  The feeling of guilt and sorrow for falling back into sin was taking over.  I did not feel adequate.  “I am a failure.”  “I am a terrible person.”  These thoughts were filling my head.  The demon of guilt was taking over.  Then the Holy Spirit brought me back to a passage that he had shown me at Passion.  It reads this way: 

“Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.  I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me.  He will bring me out into the light; I shall look upon His vindication.” – Micah 7: 8-9 ESV

 Jesus Christ has paid the price and taken away the guilt and shame of my sins.  There is no need for me to fear but only for me to trust in God to pick me back up again.  I get the picture of a little baby who is trying to walk.  He slowly stands and then begins to take a step.  He immediately busts flat on his face.  He then begins to cry because he has fallen.  His Daddy comes over and picks him up, wipes his tears away, and then holds his arms and helps him along the way as he returns to the walk.  I think that this description adequately describes how my relationship with Christ goes a lot of the time.  I fall down and cry out and wait for my Abba Father to pick me up, dry my tears, and set me on the path again.

In The Gutter, author Craig Gross seeks to redefine outreach in a book that serves as a wake-up-call to the church.  Craig Gross brings a great perspective to this topic considering he is one of the founding pastors of XXXchurch.com, a ministry to people both struggling with pornography and people who work in the industry.  Craig continues to bring his readers back to the example of Jesus who was willing to hang out with the undesirables of society, such as the tax collectors and prostitutes, in order to minister to them.  This book brings out the idea of “the gutter” which is the place where each one of us found ourselves before Jesus Christ came into our lives.  Craig describes the gutter as a place of doing anything possible to find satisfaction and meaning.  He describes the gutter as any place where people are lost.  Through the course of the book, he presents stories of people, including himself, who were willing to step out of their comfort zones and be used by God to show the love of Christ to someone.  This is a very challenging book that I think runs right in the face of what the church at large views outreach ministry as.  He also gives great suggestions like looking for opportunities to share with someone at Starbucks.  This is a great book written by a man who is willing to step out in faith to show the love of Jesus Christ to others.