The beauty of the Cross

I'm thinking about the power of the cross. We don't seem to understand it, really. I don't understand it fully, really.

I started thinking about this when I was reading a little passage from the YouthWalk magazines we get:

"Tell God what you're worried about and ask for His help. Then take some time remembering who He is. Remember that the entire universe is running because He sustains it. Remember that He loves you so much that He came to earth to die to set you free. Remember that Satan and all evil--even death--answers to Him. Breathe in His bigness. Rest in His power. Let your worries slide into perspective and receive the peace that He brings. Be healed."

For some reason, I started reading faster over the part that says "Remember that He loves you so much that He came to earth to die to set you free," like I was trying to hurry up and "get to the good stuff" or something. Get to the good stuff? Isn't our freedom in Christ pretty much the single thing that all of Scripture points to? So I asked myself why, then, did I try to go so quickly over that part of the passage?

And then I realized exactly why. If the Cross (and by "Cross" I'm talking about the death and resurrection of Christ) can be minimized in our heads and in our hearts, then we really have nothing to stand on. If we take the message of the gospel lightly then we don't even truly understand our own freedom (and by "freedom" I'm referring to the Christian, the reconciled to God, the Bride of Christ). If the Church doesn't stand on the Cross, and if we don't understand our freedom, then we think that sin still has a hold on us, that God's love isn't really all that intimately involved, and that being "set-apart" is merely referring to the movies we watch and music we listen to. And then I realized--what better mission for our enemy, Satan, than to minimize in our minds the power of the Cross? After all, the Cross is the focus of so many Old Testament stories, it's the very  reason Jesus came, and it's the saving grace to all who believe for when He comes back.

I don't know if it's because we in America hear about the Cross so much that we've just kind of become numb to it, or if we didn't really understand it in the first place, or if we say our "sinner's prayer" then don't grow much further after that, or if we've become so comfortable with ourselves that we don't rely on Him...i don't know. It kind of baffles me.

Anyway, I don't think we should approach life with the mentality that Satan is behind absolutely every "bad" thing that happens, or that there's a devil in every bush. After all, God certainly intentionally takes away things from us that we perceive as good (which may tempt us to think that the removal of these "good" things is bad), but it's all that we He may draw us deeper into Himself. But, this does seem to be one of the areas that Satan has snuck in there in attempts to discourage and deceive the Church. But, Bride, don't you think that we should cling to the Cross with every bit of our being? ....

Just for fun, here's the video to a pretty popular song on Christian radio these days that captures the Beauty of the Cross that we seem to have lost sight of. It's a video with the lyrics, so we can really dwell on the words and the amazing truth that this song captures so beautifully:

Beauty of the Cross - Jonny Diaz 

And, here's another video where Jonny Diaz explains the story behind the song. It's pretty simple, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless:

I hope you remember Jesus today, and the beauty of what He's done for you.