A Man and a Tree

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From ancient time they stood a-post
Planted by the same Wise Hand
From the ground sprung at once gnarled yet smooth
Extending arms ‘neath Heaven’s dome

A ruler brought a seed from home
Planting it near Freedom’s booth
For years it took full shape on land
Immortalized on minted toast

But the beloved son’s time came to an end
The strong shape kept it’s sheltering guard
Until off broke the largest branch
The tower loomed unsteadily

Such monuments men prop up readily
Though time’s decay makes honest blanch
But cables can’t straighten the heartless-bark
Of nobility lacking in the faithless friend.

O man, plant new what time has hollowed
Life by the ground must first be swallowed
In time new shade well-balanced stands
Like a man shaped by time’s just demands.

Inspired by This article about Andrew Jackson’s Tree being replanted.

“Have You No Decency?”?

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This news article from this past Tuesday, March 11, 2025, on Straight Arrow News contextualizes the title of this essay.

The question of the question comes repeatedly to my lips as I marvel at the collision of two worlds over my head in that government chamber. One World is a place in which there are only two genders designated by God, and so the most respectful thing is to call people by the gender of the body God gave them. The Other World is where human beings have the right to determine their own identity and to expect that fully informed, well-adapted human beings will address them according to that self-declared identity. The point of contact of this collision is encapsulated beautifully in this word “decency.”

The cursory Google definition that popped up on my phone for this word is: behavior that conforms to accepted standards of morality or respectability. This definition lays out the trajectory for collision between these two worlds: behavior that conforms to accepted standards of morality and respectability. These two worlds of the representatives from Massachusetts and Texas do not have an accepted standard of respectability to conform to. The result in this issue is that so long as there is no agreement, there is no decency to be had.

Or is there?

One is doing the most respectful thing they know by calling a transgendered representative by the title of their gender given at birth because God gave them that gender. The other is doing the most respectful thing they know by correcting someone who is not recognizing a representative’s own personal designation in this public government setting. Personally, I chuckled at the actual representative’s response referring to the Texas male delegate as, “Madaam Chair.” While it was not “decent” for that human being to do so, it kept the dialogue going, because there were more important things to discuss. Perhaps that is all we can do.

Or is it?

I watch these worlds collide and recognize my own place in one of them. One world was created by a loving God, the Other World is created as an imitation by God’s human offspring whose relationship with the Creator is estranged and hostile.

And despite what some may say, I propose that this estrangement is not the Creator’s fault. I think the fault lies at the feet of those who claim to be that Creator’s “ambassadors of reconciliation.” Their lack of willingness to carry Christ’s cross is the reason this Other World persists so, spinning on an axis centered upon the self as the highest god: because there has been so little vision of the True God represented as a New Humanity.

It is not a sad fact that only one of these two worlds will last longer than the other. After all, the way of renewed life is the One World, not the Other World. What is truly sad is that the citizens of the One World are not inclined to lovingly pursue the citizens of the Other to the point of laying down their lives for them. Decency can only exist in the One World and not the Other, because the Judge at the center of the One world is not fickle and imperfect like self, but rather is fundamentally and perfectly compassionate and inexorably justice-oriented.

I just wish that more citizens of the One World understood what “justice” means. Jesus knew, and he showed us that it looks like a cross: A cross surrendering the precious self to abject humiliation for the sake of others because the whole of all our sins merits such a gruesome spectacle.

This is the offensive glory of the cross by which only the humble can be transformed. But those who are transformed, after these two worlds are finished obliterating one another, will find an eternal place in the New Heaven and Earth where righteousness dwells. This transformation is necessary because the One World and the Other World are both doomed, and those in the One World, though it be stronger, will not escape the wrath to come unless they go the way that Jesus paved out of both of these two worlds: the cross. The cross that says, “I lay down my own identity (in the right or in the wrong), and submit to God’s desire and design to love those who do not deserve it.” And to the tender heart I think this, dear reader, better represents the true meaning of “decency.”

Schools of the Prophets: a Challenge

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I’ve noticed there are groups that call themselves schools for prophets. As I survey popular websites, I see repeated themes about hearing from God, activating spiritual gifts, growing in prophetic calling, and revelatory teaching, etc. I look at the testimonials that are posted, the tuition costs, and the speakers and teachers present. Ultimately, I find myself shaking my head going, None of this sounds like a school for prophets.

Intensive devotional Scripture study in the community of faith for almost 20 years, helps me recognize His voice when He is speaking. I know what His breath smells like, if you will. Journaling has helped me grow familiar enough with my own inner voice that I can distinguish mine from His, and musical rhapsodizing and creative expression has done much to expand the revelatory experiences I have had with the Lord Jesus Christ. I hear His voice, and am filled with His Spirit, have received impartations and activations, and I am familiar with history-attested stories of the gifts of the Spirit’s continuing work in the world. If there would be anyone who would believe in and sign up for a genuine school of the prophets to equip myself for a ministry even Paul said is to be especially earnestly desired, I am a top candidate who would love training in this area.

My issue with these who call themselves schools for prophets is that the most popular ones had vision statements that say precious little about Jesus. Really? There is no true prophecy unless it operates according to the same Spirit of Prophecy that inspired the Scriptures. He is called the Holy Spirit, and what I notice in Scripture is that he does not draw attention to Himself, but He draws all the attention to Christ. As the author of Revelation writes: the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy. Any prophecy that claims to hear from God, but does not resemble or reveal Jesus Christ Himself in character, word, art, act, or spirit is a fake.

What would a real school for prophets look like? I think it would be led by people who are on their way toward their own Golgotha sites. That is how the true prophets of Old and New Testaments looked. Students would be spiritually equipped and empowered by the laying on of hands, to reveal Christ Jesus in lifestyle, just like the Biblical prophets in whatever specific private and public ways He designates, remaining accountable and engaged with the Body of Christ in keeping with Scriptural directives like those in 1 Corinthians 14. All of these facets are necessary, and they pave a narrow pathway. There is such a broad way of false prophecy that leads to destruction and corruption. The flesh needs only an inch, and the forked tongue serpent needs only a tiny tear to rip living tissue in half.

This is why the School should be cruciform in every aspect including admission. Its prospective students would be vetted first with this prerequisite: have they personally encountered the crucified and risen Christ? This can look like a bunch of different things, but a prophet’s relationship with the Lord cannot be less than this. Secondly, they must have an appreciation and understanding of the Gospel, in which they have placed their faith. Third, they have presented themselves to be filled by the Spirit of Christ and demonstrated Biblical evidence of His presence in their lives. I do not go as far as my more charismatic brothers in Christ to say that this looks like speaking in tongues or being slain in the Spirit. I would say that the evidences of the Spirit of Christ in Ephesians 5:19-21 would suffice particiuarly with the previous two criteria. These are only the prerequisites. The journey is what comes after these.

There would be prophets discipling prophets, performing signs as the Spirit enables and equips, with careful attention to avoiding the pitfalls of false prophecy to which even true prophets fall prey. For example, prophecy can never be for its own sake. It has to stem from intimacy with Jesus being enough to satisfy the prophet’s heart. A prophet will need to understand the multiple levels, the multiple dimensions of prophetic work: from intimacy with the Lord as his first ministry, intercession, to his one-another roles in the body, to his revelatory miraculous abilities that the Prophet does as a sign to believers that Christ Jesus is personally engaged among them, to his stand that he takes in the world to heal and do the miraculous in meeting spiritual, and physical needs, to stands taken before those in authority once the source of a prophet’s power has been established as being in Christ. The journey stretches to the cross marked by its narrow shadow and on the other side, a crowning glory recognizing Him face to face at the resurrection.

Ultimately, the best way to reveal Christ is by carrying cross up the hill to Golgotha. There are some who do so by interpretting God’s work and word in supernaturally revelatory ways. There are some who do so by speaking the hard truth that no one wants to hear, but everyone needs in order to be set free. There are others who do it by revealing the secrets of people’s hearts. These are things that a prophet needs to be trained and equipped for. The warning is that for all of these things the devil can put forth his counterfeit. If Jesus Christ Himself is not the One who is at the center of it all, if the aroma of His anointing from the secret place is not with the prophet, then it is all nothing just as the prophet without love is nothing. You are not walking in love unless you are carrying a cross. You are not loving the people most dear to you if this does not include the regular agony of dying to yourself.

This may sound alot like basic Christianity. Prophecy is specific, but it is not less than this. It is also something that all believers are encouraged especially to seek. For any seeking the office of Prophet, beware any who claim to teach you the skills without Jesus personally involved. Money and position give just enough of an inch to the flesh for corruption to settle in, so beware!

Furthermore, if you are a school of prophets and endeavor to be faithful to the Spirit of Christ, then follow the patterns laid out for you in Scripture and testify about Jesus. He is your litmus test for true prophecy. Let Him be the intimate friend and brother who speaks only when all other voices are silenced, and let the Holy Spirit keep the focus on what He wishes. If you do not, you risk opening yourself up to spirits who will make a mockery of Jesus in the end. Be vigilant!

May God grant us the grace to testify to the person of Jesus Christ in all we do, and may the Lord raise up a school for true prophets who make this their boast:

“But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the Lord. ~Jeremiah 9:23-24

Buried Treasure

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There once was a great field that was far expansive. It was said this field held buried treasure of immeasurable, insurmountable worth. Many curiosity seekers came and sought the treasure, but they didn’t want to put in the time and effort to actually find the treasure, so they just made the treasure a hang out place. One or two treasure hunters came to the field and claimed that they discovered the treasure, but it was in different spots, and they staked their claim on that part of the field. People flocked to get a chance to see the treasure, but the so-called finders only showed them pictures and described the treasure they had seen. It was enough to satisfy some imaginations, but many were unimpressed and walked away.

One of the ones who was “unimpressed” went off into another part of the field. You see, he had found an ancient map to this field which showed where the treasure was really buried. He found it covered with thorns and brambles. He cut away the thorns, and the thorns cut away at him, but he pressed on until he got the ground cleared. People jeered at him, and mocked him for being so determined when others had already dug up the treasures. But he knew his map was accurate, and he believed that the treasure was worth finding, so he kept going. Day and night seeking to go deeper.

As his shovel pierced the ground he soon ran into some rocks, large stones, heavy and rounded. He cleared one stone at a time until he had dug a deep and very loose-soiled hole. Once again the people mocked him as his hole got deeper. Some said he should take better care of himself. Others were curious though about what he would find, but not nearly enough to help him out. But he knew the treasure was greater than himself, so he kept on going. Day and Night seeking to go deeper and deeper.

As his shovel dug deeper he struck bedrock. Who would bury a treasure this deep? He sighed, the work was so difficult. He climbed up out of the hole using the ropes that he had kept to get out. When people saw him, they said, “You’re out of your hole! What’s the matter? Got in over your head? There’s nothing there.” But the treasure hunter went to the well, and pulled up a bucket of water, and then walked up to the edge of his hole, and poured out his pale into the darkness. They all were like, “What are you doing?” He grabbed the ropes and back down into the hole. And he kept digging with the ground now softer from the water. With some terrific strokes of his pickax, and chisels, he made it through a thin layer of bedrock. Little did he know that it was thin because it had been placed there. His shovel found soft soil underneath the bedrock, and down he went. Day and night he continued to go deeper.

The journey was exhausting, and tedious, and time consuming, until one day, his shovel struck something that clanked. It was not Rock. It was wood. This deep no tree roots grew and he was too deep to be seen clearly from above. He dug around it and found it was a box. He found that it had a lock on it. After cleaning off all the dirt he found that the lock was still shut tight. He swung his pick ax and clang! it came off. He pulled out the broken lock, and pulled out the latch, and then with both hands he opened the lid.

If anyone else had been in that deep, deep hole that man had dug for days and nights, they would have seen a trove of gold, silver, precious stones, gems, pearls, jewelry, and diamonds. The prize of the treasure was one mammoth pearl perfectly round, the size of an ostrich egg.

He put the pearl in his bag, covered the treasure over, and climbed out of the hole. He walked away from the hole first filling it with water, to make people think that he was making it into a well and that he had given up. Mostly, he was trying to keep his new-found treasure hidden.

He went to a connoisseur of fine pearls in the town. And told him he needed to see him privately. The man sat down with him and said, “What is it that you wanted to meet with me about.”

The treasure hunter reached into his satchel and pulled out the massive pearl. It weighed about 30 pounds. The eyes of the Connoisseur went just as wide as the the pearl. He was incredulous as he inspected it carefully.

“Where did you find this?”

“It was buried in the field.”

The man looked up at him. “You found the treasure of the field! I would like to buy it from you.”

“For how much?” he said.

The Connoisseur said, “I would offer you all of my finest pearl necklaces.”

The hunter shook his head. “No. Can you tell me how much it is worth?”

“Round pearls are extremely rare! and to find one this size, I don’t know of any of the other the round ones that are this large!”

“I will keep it for now. Please give me a certificate of it’s value.

“If you don’t sell it, keep it well hidden or someone will steal it.”

The hunter put it in his pouch and walked out. He went first to the owner of the field, and asked him what it would cost to purchase the whole field. The owner said the price. The Treasure would more than cover it. The hunter agreed, and gathered some of the gold from the treasure and went and spoke privately with the two hunters who had claimed they had found the treasure and he asked them to show him what they had found. They showed him their pictures, and they told him their descriptions. The hunter said, “You have not found the treasure of the field, neither do you really know what the treasure is. Leave this place and deceive the people no more.”

They said, “We have our claim. You cannot tell us what to do.”

“Your claim is invalid because the field’s owner has transferred all ownership to me.”

“What?”

He then took out the Pearl. The two of them stared at them in amazement. “It’s a fake.”

He showed them the certificate signed by the Connoisseur. They looked at him in the amazement.

“You will leave this field in my keeping, your claims are now forfeit. You will be gone by tomorrow and take all of your works with you. If you will tell everyone that you lied to them, I will give you a stipend for your care for the people who have stayed in your field. You will make sure they are all well supplied for their move.”

The posers left. One of them took no stipend and left quickly, but the other admitted his falsehood and gave the people the resources they needed to make the transition to another part of the field. Before the second poser left, the hunter who now owned the field came and handed him something in a cloth bag. The poser opened it up. It was several gold coins.

“Some use their position to care for others. Others use their position to take care of themselves. Since you took care of your people, you will have some help to start somewhere else. Start with honesty.”

The other man nodded and thanked the man and said farewell.

The man pulled out from the buried treasure at night, and used it to sow seed in his field. He hired the people who had been treasure hunters to become farmers in his field. He built his home next to the hole, and lived happily ever after.

Care

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Trudging along the wall, her shadow bent in the sun, she carried her backpack on her left shoulder. She felt the absence of friends walking beside her on her way to class. At home, someone had said that he doesn’t care. If no one cares, why should she?

Still, the teacher was watching that shadow as she walked by. Her silhouette told things she did not know it told. The same face she turned to him: “Why should I care?”

She walked in and sat down in her new seat next to new chorus-mates. Things were different now, but nothing had changed. This was her third time around. She felt like she was stuck in a time warp.

Then one day, early in the day before the sun rose and gave definition to the odd shape slightly darkening the wall as she walked by, a rather eccentric teacher, shined a flashlight on the wall, obliterating her shadow.

She turned around and blinked at the grinning face of her teacher. Her face this time was not “Why should I care?” but it was “Why are you doing something crazy?”

The teacher said, “Some people need to be reminded they are not their shadow. I thought one of those people might be you.”

She didn’t get it.

So he walked up to her and said, “You are not your failures, or the unkindness of others toward you. You are the sum of God’s purpose for you and His delight in you.”

And then he gave her a hug. It took a little while for his words to sink in.

~Written for a former 7th grade student L. Blanco

November 16, 2021

He Calls

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It is shocking and inconvenient:
Like a cold wind blowing out of nowhere on a hot day.
A window of opportunity where self is left behind.
He calls us out of our world and into His world.
He whispers gently in the spirit,
His words are forceful when heard.
They have heart that answers to your own.
They smell of fire that fully inflames your own.

So light it’s brushed away by a passing thought.
But when it’s seized, it arrests you in its grip.
Who will even hear and turn aside?
Who wills to be held in His grasp?
When His call is heard He must be answered:
To not answer Him when He calls is to respond.
God bless the one who hears Him and comes to Him.
To know and be fully known.

Biblical Meaning in Context

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As I was reading through a LOGOS newspaper of the homepage, I came to a paragraph about the importance of the word “form” when talking about Philippians 2:16 “[Jesus] being found in the form of God did not consider it equality with God a thing to be grasped.” There have been a lot of debate about various meanings of the word “form.” What denomination, or creed do you follow? What do you believe about Jesus, seems to hinge on this one word! Was he fully God, or fully man, or more one or the other? However, In seminary I learned from Dr. David Palmer “Meaning does not exist at the word level, but at the clause level.” This means that if you want to know what Paul meant when he used that word, you have to follow the flow of thought to better use the context to situate the meaning of the text.

But it means more than that. Paul wrote brilliant letters, but he wrote them to simple people in the vernacular, vulgar tongue. These are letters! Read them like a letter from a leader to fellow workers. Don’t get hung up on implications of various possibilities that could mean something. Enjoy the friendship of Jesus being shared between two people whom you’ve never met before, and discover the power of Christ to transform your life too.

This is the stance I have learned to take when approaching the Scripture. The Scripture attests to a God who relates with his people in community. The meaning of what is written is not as crazy as the debates make it. At least not in Paul’s letters. This is also why learning to read in the original languages helps you see that the Word of God is not just what He says, but how He says it. And the “How” is like a web strung between two “who” people sharing understanding, for meaning of “what” to be kept/carried. We can try to understand “why” Paul used the words He used, but the answer isn’t buried in the word. It’s deeper, more powerful, and more concrete, more real, day-in-day-out than that.

Now, where does the reverence due the text come in to play? Not in word-worship, or word-wars, but in getting to know the person whom the Word reveals. “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in the person of Jesus Christ” ~Colossians 2:3. He is even more the context that gives meaning to every Scriptural text.

Example: “Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.” If instead of guarding against heresy, we are able to know Him with a theology informed as the Scripture reveals Him. Instead of going out of the house to make sure you know where your boundaries are, why not go to the owner of the house, and discover everything important about this property in Him who lives there. A preacher named T. Austin-Sparks said that whenever Christianity crystalizes against something, we forget who we are and become useless. Christianity isn’t a system of thought, but a living breathing revelation of Jesus in every day life by the Holy Spirit’s power to sanctify a believer and glorify the Son to the glory of God.

Isn’t this anti-credism? No! It’s putting creeds out of the thumbs of those who wear them thin (Josiah Gilbert Holland Reference “God Give Us Men”), and back in connection to the One who is being crede. Organize the church after the person of Christ, read the Scripture in relation of Him. Seek to know Him. Know the current of power and meaning flowing in the fellowship of Paul and the New Testament believers recorded. Surrender to that power, as the Spirit enters into your broken humanity and makes you a part of the body of Christ that continues to bleed for the world. That is the real good news of Scripture.

Maybe this is the case, but how do we guard against heresy? I posit this as a question: Could “Biblical Theology” be enough to establish the church as a unified whole? Why do we still need “Systematic Theology”? And how can we tell if someone is really preaching, or revealing Christ rightly?

Paul’s criteria: “I will not test their words, but their power.” ~1 Corinthians 4:19

Any thoughts?

Some tips I’ve learned to rule my Imagination

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People today struggle a lot with various mental disorder. (notice I didn’t say disorders) Disorder in the brain meaning, things not being ordered in our thoughts, (formulation of ideas) imagination (playing out of pictures and scenes and stories in our minds) and internal worlds (the way we perceive, process, and respond to the world around us). There are ways to gain order in these realms that are not actually that difficult if you’re a Christian. If you’re a Christian you’ve got someone living within you that is actually strong enough to handle them and can strengthen you to take charge of your inner world. After all,

“The Spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching the innermost depths of his being.” (Proverbs 20:27)

The Holy Spirit can influence our spirit to search the depths of our being, so that every “thought can be captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:15) Not many people do this for a variety of reasons.

  1. They don’t know they can. It’s like when people say “Don’t think about elephants” but you have to think of elephants in order to figure out what NOT to think about. There are ways that you can deal with lasting scars and images and things you wish you could just put away. It is possible.
  2. They don’t know how. They try things but they don’t know for sure if they’ll work. Example: They try to distract themselves from thinking about things. That works short term, but what about when you’re lying in your bed, and your thoughts are decompressing? How do you “shut off the voices”?
  3. They are afraid that their thoughts or imagination will overwhelm them. Some people have trouble dealing with silence for this same reason. They don’t want to face certain things, so they expend so much energy trying to get away from themselves, and the voices they cannot shut off.
  4. They think they shouldn’t. People think, “This is just the way I am. I have to surrender to this.” And so they just let things play out. I think this roughly the equivalent of letting a street gang pillage a city with no protection any time they want. The street gang does not belong in this city, and so we need to establish Law and Order so that thoughts don’t have just any recourse they want in our minds.

On that note, let me continue with the analogy and say your inner world is like a city. Your city needs to be protected and managed. As it says, in Proverbs:

“Like a broken down city without walls is a man who has no control of his spirit.” (Proverbs 25:28)

Now here’s one thing you can do on the front end to manage what comes into the city: Be careful what you pay attention to. Right? If you haven’t paid attention to the News, you won’t be dwelling on that story that worries you late into the night. If you haven’t paid attention to that lovely, beautiful person, you won’t be fantasizing about it later.

But we live in a world that throws tons of stuff at us, and we can filter some of it out, but not all of it. So what do we do with the bandits that get inside our minds.

  1. Acknowledge that they’re in there. Why yes I do have a thought about doing this utterly unthinkable act! Why yes I do think of this person in an immoral light. Why yes I do wish this person would have something bad happen to them. This gets them out of the houses and into the streets. You can’t deal with them until you acknowledge them.
  2. Bring Jesus with you. Jesus has claimed all authority in Heaven and on Earth. That includes your mind, your spirit, especially if Christ’s spirit is in you. Any time you have a memory, or a feeling, you’re using your imagination to play the image of the video tape back, BRING JESUS and put Him in the picture and video with you. He’s already there, you’re just choosing not to look at him in the image. He’s the only one who has the power to deal with it. This is part of “In all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He’ll make your path’s straight” (Prov 3:6). So, once you bring Jesus into the picture, watch what He is doing in the picture.
  3. Talk with Him about the image. If you feel shame, that’s good. Just don’t use it as an excuse to run FROM Jesus. Use it as an excuse to run TO Jesus instead. That’s what the shame is good for. Submit the image to His rule.
  4. Ask Jesus to embolden, authorize, empower, and invigorate you. Asking is the prerequisite to receiving. All power, not just some is belonging to Jesus now. He is the broker, and he’s on your side, but you have to ask.
  5. Then take firm control of the imagaination. Turn to the image and emboldened, authorized, and empowered by Jesus, take control of that image. Example: Say you have a lustful fantasy about someone. Right in the middle of what ever they are doing, put Jesus right there in the room, and start to do what He would do in the imagination. Push the person away, and take a blanket and throw it over them. Sit them down, and explain to them (as if they were a real person) why you can’t do this to them. Put your heart and soul into it. What this will do, is it will rewrite in your imagination the significance of what the flesh wants to get out of it, and rewrite it into what the Lord God actually wants for the situation. It will not only tell your head what to think, but allow your heart to feel the emotions needed to heal.
  6. Test the image again and see if it still has a draw or “power” to you. If it does, go to Jesus, and examine the emotional, spiritual, or mental aspects of the image that seem to have a pull on you.
  7. Take the image in your hand and cast it into something to represent giving it to Jesus. I like to use the Cross, taking nails and nailing the image like a cloth or a creature to the cross. Or sometimes a filing cabinet labeled, “Sanctified images.”

That is how you deal with one thought. Chances are, when you bag these gang robbers, they will scatter and multiple other things will pop up. Deal with each one as efficiently, passionately, and aggressively as you can, until your mind can focus on one image of the Cross without it getting fuzzy. Don’t let it overwhelm you. It’s not forever. Eventually, your imagination will be under your own control.

“He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is kept on You because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3

It only works if you trust Him.

A Guide to Reconstructing Christian Faith Part 6–The Cross

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Ground zero for the event which has changed the world forever–The powerlessness of the powerful, the defeat of the enemy, the restoration of the broken, the climax of the Biblical story, the hinge point of history, the humiliation of humanity, the enthronement of the Son, the payment of unfathomable debt, the breaking of the power of Darkness, the “foolishness” of God which outsmarted every diabolically inspired wise one, the end of a reign of tyranny, the beginning of an age of freedom, the gospel boiled down to an event, an image, a moment in history. The end of the past age of hopelessness.The most profound and powerful miracle dressed in the most ugly and unthinkably torturous happening which all the senses could bear. Bar none the most important thing that has happened since the fall of man (except the resurrection, which is actually the second half of this event. More on this later.)

If you are interested in what Christianity is all about: look intently at the multifaceted diamond of the cross. I have listed only some of the facets above, and there are more which I have only glimpsed without peering into it to the center. If you want to reexamine what your own Christian faith is all about, the center of it needs to be reserved for Christ Crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2) It is the irreducible reality of what it means to be a Christian. I’m not trying to give you all the answers to how, but this being a guide will at least get you started in the right direction. Let me give you four which I will unpack briefly.

  1. The Cross makes payment for every wrong thing done by us and to us.
  2. The Cross breaks all brokenness and makes it new
  3. The Cross disarms the evil one and all his servants of their power, position, victory, and authority.
  4. The Cross gives us the means for resurrection of ourselves and everything in our lives.
  1. The Cross makes payment for every wrong thing done by us and to us. Every evil deed must be paid for by death. (Romans 6:23) Christ Jesus offered representation for any and all humanity who would seek for the death payment for their sins to be made. In the same way Adam’s sin doomed all humanity, Jesus’ death provided an escape for all who would be a part of the new humanity. No reservations, no stickynotes on our record– all has been utterly wiped out nailed to the cross and put to death in his body. What a miraculous, wondrous gift that God has offered us in His Son’s death on the cross.
  2. The Cross breaks all brokenness and makes it new. It is the nuclear eradication of every evil work of man. Because there is no outstanding payment for sin, it also allows the sin’s effects to be reversed and repurposed into something that glorifies God in the end. No one has suffered so greatly that Christ would sheepishly be at a loss on how to comfort it. No horrific abuse of man can remain so ugly that it cannot, by the Cross’s ugliness, be recast in the beautiful light of God’s love and power. God can restore it now, he can restore it later and simply repurpose it now, or God can show His glory through the brokenness in a way that brings no glory to the inflicter, and all glory to the one who works good out of seemingly irredeemable brokenness–like the precious nail prints in Jesus’ hands and feet.
  3. The Cross disarms the evil one and all his servants of their power, position, victory, and authority. The Evil One and Death lost big that day. They gambled all their might on one bold move to destroy the heir to life. They got what they wanted, and they lost everything. Now the Devil only holds whatever Christ’s representatives on earth do not enforce: like lions in a cultivated city, like squatters in locked rooms of homes with new ownership, like a petty faux-king ruling whatever he can where the King’s reign is not enforced or like a tradesman who by his trade enslaves his clients, but his license to trade has been revoked. The Cross stands as the most important reality which has put an end to the Evil One’s rule. Wherever there is unforgiveness, the Cross is being passed over, and the Evil one still has his way. Wherever there is fear, the Cross is being treated as insignificant, and the Evil One still has his way. However, since the Cross has paid for all sin, unforgiveness is a baseless trap. And since the Cross redeems all brokenness, there is nothing to fear. Death was the supreme power over Adam’s race, but by the Cross, Death like a dragon swallowing up the Savior, now has a gaping hole in its belly where Christ has blown through death to the other side of eternal life!
  4. The Cross gives us the means for resurrection of ourselves and everything in our lives. This means that since Christ has made a way through death to the other side, now all who would seek to enter into life must walk the same path he walked. This starts simple: surrendering one’s ability to save themselves and nailing it to the cross, whereby one’s autonomy is put to death, and freedom is gained in dependence on God. It leads to the surrender of everything in one’s life to the death of the cross, so that only that which is of God can remain in our life on the other side of the cross. For example: anything and everything quickly becomes an idol in the heart of man. If a man idolizes coffee, he must put coffee to death in him, through denying himself what he depends on or desires, to embrace the reality of Jesus’ death on the cross as the only thing one needs for salvation in every sense of the word (sustenance, rescue from frightening circumstances, joy etc.), and then being filled with the Holy Spirit so that as Jesus had all his needs met in the Father by the Spirit, so we too can be set free from our dependence on things to serve the Living God. The end of this jourmey often looks like, the enjoyment of all things in their rightful place with God as the source, and good things like coffee as opportunities for praise and thanksgiving to God. This journey further leads to suffering for others the way Christ did and persecution on behalf of Christ. If this is where you have found yourself, blessed are you, because your reward is great in the Kingdom of Heaven which shall never end.

I hope this brief explanation of the centrality of the Cross is enough to give you some things to think about as you seek to know and be known by this Person, who by His Spirit makes us alive, and by His Spirit brings to life all which passes the test of humility and obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!