
is like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. proverbs 16:24
The cross is a universal symbol of Christianity; it's almost impossible to go anywhere without seeing it on a steeple or headstone. How did an instrument of torture come to represent forgiveness and hope for so many? After all, we don't wear little gold guillotines round our necks, or display replicas of firing squads on our church walls. The answer can be found in the cross itself. Its horizontal beam symbolises the breadth of God's love; its vertical beam symbolises the depth and height of His love. It's why God can be just and kind without lowering His standards, why He can dispense truth and mercy, and why He can redeem us without sanctioning our sin. John said, 'God loved the world: He gave his...only Son....that...by believing in him, anyone can have...lasting life' (John 3:16 TM). Thankfully it doesn't say God loved only the wealthy or the famous or the beautiful or the sober or the successful, or we'd all be in trouble! No, if you live in 'the world' you're included by God. Jesus didn't have to die, He chose to! He told His captors, 'I could ask my Father for thousands of angels...and he would send them instantly...But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what is happening now?' As Max Lucado says, 'The force behind the hammer wasn't an angry mob...the hand squeezing the handle wasn't a Roman infantryman...the verdict...wasn't decided by jealous Jews. Jesus himself chose the nails...Had the soldier hesitated Jesus himself would have swung the hammer.' That's how much He loves you.
From: THE WORD FOR TODAY at http://www.ucb.co.uk/index.cfm?itemid=88
Accept the truth that Jesus died on that cross for you, and it will change your life forever.
'God put his love on the line...while we were of no use whatever to him.' ROMANS 5:8
Telling of his experience as a prisoner of war, Ernest Gordon related how after work one evening a guard noticed a shovel missing. Insisting one of the prisoners had stolen it, he screamed for the guilty party to come forward. Then he prepared to kill them one by one until someone confessed. Suddenly a Scottish soldier broke rank, stood to attention and said, 'I did it.' The guard beat him to death on the spot. When he'd exhausted his fury the other POW's picked up their friend's body along with their tools and returned to camp. At that point the shovels were re-counted. The guard was wrong. None was missing.
What kind of person would take the blame for something he didn't do? Christ! 'We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for...how someone...noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his son...while we were of no use whatever to him' (Romans 5:7-8 TM). Think about it, 'God...piled...everything we've done wrong, on him' (Isaiah 53:6 TM), hence the only 'Mediator who can reconcile God and [man]... Jesus' (1Timothy 2:5 NLT). A mediator reconciles differences and negotiates agreements between two parties. At Calvary Jesus stood between God's anger and the punishment for our sins. Having lived the life we couldn't live, then taking the punishment we couldn't escape, He freely offers us redemption we couldn't afford.
Now the question is: if He so loved us, can we not love each other? Having been forgiven, can we not forgive? Having feasted at the table of mercy can we not share a few crumbs?
From: The Word for Today at http://www.ucb.co.uk/index.cfm?sectionid=3
Helen Steiner Rice
Heavenly Father
This moves me to tears every time.