In Christ, troubles are turned into triumph, so in Him we
look at what is coming as the times of the greatest triumphs the world has ever
known! The conclusion of all things is that we win! The cross will prevail.
This is the foundational truth that all of our understanding of these times
must be based on. There will be no retreat in those who walk in the true light.
When you open your shades at night, darkness does not come in and flood the
room. Rather the light shines out into the darkness because light is stronger
than darkness. The darker it becomes, the brighter our light will be. Where sin
abounds, grace will that much more abound || Rick Joyner
With a weak faith and a fearful heart, many a sinner
stands before the Lord. It is not the strength of our faith, but the perfection
of Christ's sacrifice that saves! No feebleness of faith, nor dimness of eye,
no trembling of hand can change the efficacy of Christ's blood. The strength of
our faith can add nothing to it, nor can the weakness of our faith take
anything from Him. Faith (weak or strong) still reads the promise, "the
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." If at times my
eye is so dim that I cannot read these words, through blinding tears or bewildering
trials, faith rests itself on the certain knowledge of the fact that THE
PROMISE IS THERE, and the blood of Christ remains in all its power and
suitableness upon the altar, unchanged and unaffected || Horatius Bonar
"Out, damned spot!" That is the true cry of
human nature. That stain cannot be removed without blood, and that which is
infinitely more, and deeper, and profounder, and more terrible than blood, of
which blood is but the symbol - the suffering of Deity || G. Campbell Morgan
If our greatest need had been information, God would have
sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent
us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an
economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Saviour ||
Roy Lessin
Had it not been for this [Christ's] dying, grace and
guilt could not have looked each other in the face; God and the sinner could
not have come nigh; righteousness would have forbidden reconciliation; and
righteousness, we know, is as divine and real a thing as love. Without this
exception, it would not have been right for God to receive the sinner nor safe
for the sinner to come. But now, mercy and truth have met together; now grace
is righteousness, and righteousness is grace. This satisfies the sinner's
conscience, by showing him righteous love for the unrighteous and unlovable. It
tells him, too, that the reconciliation brought about in this way shall never
be disturbed, either in this life or that which is to come. It is righteous
reconciliation, and will stand every test, as well as last throughout eternity.
The peace of conscience thus secured will be trial-proof, sickness-proof, deathbed-proof,
judgement-proof || Horatius Bonar
The Gospel is good news of mercy to the undeserving. The
symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales || John R. W.
Stott
As you gaze upon the cross, and long for conformity to
him, be not weary or fearful because you cannot express in words what you seek.
Ask him to plant the cross in your heart. Believe in him, the crucified and now
living one, to dwell within you, and breathe his own mind there || Andrew
Murray
Beloved, let the fact of what our Lord suffered for you
grip you, and you will never again be the same || Oliver B Greene
The Christian community is a community of the cross, for
it has been brought into being by the cross, and the focus of its worship is
the Lamb once slain, now glorified. So the community of the cross is a
community of celebration, a eucharistic community, ceaselessly offering to God
through Christ the sacrifice of our praise and thanksgiving. The Christian life
is an unending festival. And the festival we keep, now that our Passover Lamb
has been sacrificed for us, is a joyful celebration of his sacrifice, together
with a spiritual feasting upon it || John R. W. Stott
How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not
death; light, not darkness; paradise, not its loss.It is the wood on which the
Lord, like a great warrior,was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed
thereby our wounds. A tree had destroyed us; a tree now brought us life || Theodore
of Studios
God took the worst thing that man could do to his Son,
and transformed it into the best thing he could do for man || Anonymous
The cross is the model for our unanswered prayer.
Somehow, our sense of being forsaken by God in our hour of greatest need can be
united by God with Christ's sufferings on the cross - suffering that resulted
in the conquest of death and the sending of the Holy Spirit. Can we have the
courage to offer our sense of being forsaken up with that of Christ? Can our
suffering, united with that of Christ, also lead to the salvation of many? || Glen
Argan
It seems we are tempted to put our faith in a host of
things other than work of Christ on the cross. Some have even placed faith in
faith itself, or in a search for fulfillment or even in a worship style or
philosophy || Chip Stam
From my many years experience I can unhesitatingly say
that the cross bears those who bear the cross || Sadhu Sundar Singh
God led Jesus to a cross, not a crown, and yet that cross
ultimately proved to be the gateway to freedom and forgiveness for every sinner
in the world. God also asks us as Jesus' followers to carry a cross.
Paradoxically, in carrying that cross, we find liberty and joy and fulfillment
|| Bill Hybels
The death of Christ on the cross was no imitation death
or charade. It is presented to us by the Gospel writers because they want us to
face death, to confront it - so that we will be prepared for real Life! The
Hebrews when they were in Egypt were saved from the angel of death and
destruction by marking the door-posts of their houses with the blood of a lamb,
so we are marked with the life-giving sign of the cross, stained with the blood
of the Lamb of God. The Cross then is the victory sign of every Christian. It
is the powerful and defiant banner under which we journey to the safety of our
proper homeland, for death has been conquered – and Christ has destroyed its
fear through the Cross || David Charlesworth
If you feel that Christ has died, He has died; and if you
do not feel that He has died, He had died. If you feel that you have died, you
have died; and if you do not feel that you have died, you have nevertheless
just as surely died. These are divine facts. That Christ has died is a fact,
that the two thieves have died is a fact, and that you have died is a fact
also. Let me tell you, You have died! You are done with! You are ruled out! The
self you loathe is on the Cross of Christ || Watchman Nee
I could never myself believe in God if it were not for
the cross......In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was
immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries
and stood respectfully before the statute of Buddha - - his legs crossed, arms
folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote
look on his face, detached from the agony of the world. But each time, after
awhile, I have had to turn away. And in imagination, I have turned instead to
that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross -- nails through his hands
and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks,
mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is
the God for me ! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of
flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become
more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human
suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross, which
symbolizes divine suffering. The cross of Christ is God's only self justification
in such a world as ours || John R. W. Stott
We must know the power of the Blood if we are to know the
power of God. Our knowing experimentally the power of the Word, the power of
the Holy Spirit, and the power of prayer is dependant upon our knowing the
power of the Blood of Christ || (Reuben Archer) R. A. Torrey
What if thou hadst committed the sins of a thousand? What
if thou hadst committed the sins of a million worlds? Christ's righteousness
will cover, Christ's blood will cleanse thee from the guilt of all || George
Whitefield
Christ's cross is the sweetest burden that ever I bore:
it is such a burden as wings are to a bird, or sails are to a ship || Samuel
Rutherford
We must know the power of the Blood if we are to know the
power of God. Our knowing experimentally the power of the Word, the power of
the Holy Spirit, and the power of prayer is dependent upon our knowing the
power of the Blood of Christ || (Reuben Archer) R. A. Torrey
Without the work of the Cross we would be quite helpless.
The Cross enables us to come out free from under the heaviest and most powerful
mental bondage. Not all the power of Satan, or sin, or habit can hold us captive
any longer || Tom Marshall
The believer's death with Christ upon His Cross therefore
means being crucified to the world in all its aspects. Not to be a miserable,
joyless person, but one filled with the joy and glory of another world. It is
not the "cross" that makes us miserable, but the absence of it. It is
a delivering Cross - a Cross that liberates you to have the very foretaste of
heaven in you, as already sharers of the power of the age to come.... Glory to
God for the Cross that severs us from the world, and the world- spirit, and
makes a way for us into another world where all is peace and joy and love || Jessie
Penn-Lewis
The God on whom we rely knows what suffering is all
about, not merely in the way that God knows everything, but by experience. In
the darkest night of the soul Christians have something to hold onto that Job
never knew. We know Christ crucified. Christians have learned that when there
seems to be no other evidence of God's love, they cannot escape the cross.
"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will
he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"(Rom. 8:32) …
When we suffer, there will sometimes be mystery. Will there also be faith? Yes,
if our attention is focused more on the cross, and on the God of the cross,
than on the suffering itself || D. A. Carson
A chaplain was speaking to a soldier on a cot in a
hospital. "You have lost an arm in the great cause," he said.
"No," said the soldier with a smile. "I didn't lose it - I gave
it." In that same way, Jesus did not lose His life. He gave it purposefully
|| Anonymous
Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers, or lined with
velvet, it is heavy and galling to disobedient shoulders; but it is not an iron
cross, though your fears have painted it with iron colours, it is a wooden
cross, and a man can carry it, for the Man of sorrows tried the load. Take up
your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love
with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all
the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell
sweetly; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought
of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of
trouble || Charles Haddon Spurgeon
