Beware

   Beware of taking the Cross lightly!

   What is the Cross of Jesus Christ to me?

   For some it is a pretty ornament to wear. For some it is a religious symbol on the top of the church, and for some the designation of the dividing of modern history into the BC and the AD eras.

   But the question is not what it is to someone or everyone else, what is it to me?

   The Bible says that "cursed is anyone that hangs upon a tree". Crucifixion was a death punishment for "bad" people, especially in the Roman Empire of Jesus' day. It was a painful way to die and was meant to deter people from defying the Roman authority.

   Jesus suffered and died upon a cross, and that cross becomes a life giving instrument for me. Because Jesus took the sins of the world, and that includes mine, on himself and became sin for me, I can have life in this world and the next.

   The old rugged cross was not the pretty gold one that we use and see today, but it accomplished more than any ornament or jewelry could ever do. 

   In the lines of a modern hymn by Stuart Townend:

      I will not boast in anything
      No gifts, no power, no wisdom
      But I will boast in Jesus Christ
      His death and resurrection

   That is the power of the Cross.