Being Faithful with the Cross

The cross of Christ...shame, wrath, pain, humility, suffering, redemption, thankfulness, hope, blessing, price, fulfillment, salvation, resurrection; all of these words and many more flood our minds when we reflect on the work Christ performed 2000 years ago on Calvary, but do we stop there? Do we merely look at the work and treat it as merely something to remember but once a year during Easter week or is it an act that radically transforms our daily lives and leaves us living a life of anticipation for what is to come...Christ's upcoming and glorious reign forevermore! As we reflect this week on what Christ did can we stop for a moment and thank Him, can we stop for a moment and remember what it cost for our sins to be paid for in full, and can we stop and realize what is to come; in a world that is getting worse by the day there are lost souls around us waiting to be saved, let us be faithful in preaching the Gospel daily, especially during this week when the opportunities are everywhere! I stumbled upon the following quote :

" Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the Child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His Divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a Cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying—and that was His coat. When He was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Such was His human life—He rises from the dead. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the Centerpiece of the human race and the Leader of the column of progress. I am within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life. Fundamentally, our Lord's message was Himself. He did not come merely to preach a Gospel; He himself is that Gospel. He did not come merely to give bread; He said, "I am the bread." He did not come merely to shed light; He said, "I am the light." He did not come merely to show the door; He said, "I am the door." He did not come merely to name a shepherd; He said, "I am the shepherd." He did not come merely to point the way; He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Let us take the message of the cross, be encouraged, humbled and spurred on and in turn share it with all we come in contact with. We must be faithful, for why else did He save us and leave us here but to use us as His tools!