Throughout Lent we are exploring more the significance of the cross for our lives. See below to see the weekly focus:

The cross reveals the power of God to transform lives.
Christ's death broke the forces of evil allowing our hearts to be changed and beat with the heartbeat of God, for our minds to be renewed to think the thoughts of Christ, to have new eyes to see as Christ sees and to receive the Holy Spirit to comfort us, guide us, teach us, strengthen us, to give new life and unite us by uniting us with the risen Lord Jesus.

In the abstract the implications of the cross can seem foolish/scandalous but as we see the transformation in our lives, when we see the transformation in the lives of others, when we encounter healing that we never experienced before, when we have a real hope when intellectually we have no space for hope, when we have a peace that surpasses all understanding then the cross doesn't seem so foolish but the power of God.

A Christianity without the cross is really nothing more than the story of an interesting life lived by an incredibly deluded young carpenter or an exceptionally gifted liar who got nothing for his efforts. There is no hope for a thriving, just world, other than education, technology, and power—none of which have proven adequate.

With the cross: we encounter a Living Loving God, who not only knows what it is to be human, who understands suffering and death, but uses it to do what we cannot not do on our own and unites us with the Living Christ to be truly human and be restore us to our life giving purpose of bearing the image of Christ in the world that the world may flourish and know the real hope of living in Christ’s presence in a new heaven and a new earth forever.

Have you given yourself the gift of pondering the cross? Have you given yourself freedom to unpacked the expansive implications of the cross beyond Jesus died for my sin? Explored what it says about who Jesus is? Who you are? It is not a foolish idea.Together at the Cross