Sharing Simple Things

THE CROSS

There is a Southern Gospel song currently being sung by Eighth Day, “May I Never Get Over The Cross” that sends out a very powerful message

MAY I NEVER GET OVER THE CROSS

I see it on the steeple every time I pass a church.
It hangs there on the necklace I wear every day to work.
Is it a little too familiar? Has it become an empty symbol
I don't think about, ‘cause it's always around?

May I never get over the cross.
Lord, burn into my memory everything it cost.
Let me see you on that tree, dying for the lost.
Now and forever, may I never get over the cross

Can we really sing His praises or talk about His love
If we forget to mention the suffering and the blood?
Or how He was separated for the first time from His Father
There on Calvary? Oh, what agony!

May I never get over the cross.
Lord, burn into my memory everything it cost.
Let me see you on that tree, dying for the lost.
Now and forever, may I never get over the cross

So often when things get familiar they become ordinary and lose their significance.  We must be so very careful that the Bible and its message do not become so familiar to us as Christians that it is no longer precious and relevant.

As the song says, we see crosses everywhere, even wear them as symbols of our faith, but have we forgotten what the cross really was?  It wasn’t a golden cross. It wasn’t a decorated ornament. It wasn’t made of smooth wood.  It was the most cruel form of punishment used in Jesus’ day.

Crucifixion is a form of slow and painful execution in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead.  Crucifixion was usually intended to provide a death that was particularly slow, painful, gruesome, humiliating, and public, using whatever means were most expedient for that goal.   (Wikipedia)

We must never forget the price that the Sinless One paid for “our” sins.  God did something to Jesus that He never does to us, He turned His back on Him.    Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me”.  He could not look at Jesus bearing all the sin of the world and turned His back.

As the song says, we must never “get over” the fact that Jesus died a cruel death for OUR sins.  His shed blood on that rugged cross is what buys our salvation.  How I thank Him for that sacrifice He endured for me so that I may be with Him for eternity.

My card for the week tells the story:

Have a good week.