Redeemed

Is there anything too hard for the Lord? Is His arm too short or is His hand not strong enough to save? Today we had a powerful representation of the crucifixion of Christ. Our pastors had setup a 10 foot tall Cross made of old railroad lumber and they also had some addition pieces on the steps in front of the stage. Pastor Ron's message quite simply was that Christ took everything from our sickness to our sin, to our weakness and the generational curses spoken over us and nailed them to the cross. At the conclusion of the service we were given an opportunity to take a black piece of paper and write on it whatever sins or shortcomings that we wanted to be free from and nail them to that cross on stage or on one of the other pieces of lumber. Hammers and nails were provided and the congregation filed up to the front to nail those things to the cross at which time they would then take the communion elements that were there also and have communion. What freedom was given we may never fully know but I can assure you of this. Some things in my life and in the lives of others were put to rest and the doors were sealed as we declared it is finished.

Have I been saved so long that I have forgotten the joy of my salvation? Has my theology become so restricted and regimented that I believe there are some people that are beyond God's redeeming power? I must confess yes, I have looked at some in the world and thought they are beyond His saving grace and that they should be removed from public spotlight because of their actions. The thing of it is, is that Jesus died for them just like he did for me and to Him they don't look any different than I did before He saved me. I heard it said once that Christianity would be a fine religion except for all the Christians. I am afraid that I would agree. In many ways we have made Christ unappealing to the masses because they feel like they must meet a certain standard before they can be accepted into the Kingdom. God did not place that on us. It strikes eerily similar to the Jewish Christians requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised before they could really be considered a follower of Christ.

There was a time when I felt like the direction our church was going did not make sense, because it seemed as if we were abandoning some of the deeper spiritual truths for the basic salvation message. As a result many who had been in our church for years up and left because it was not what they wanted. Fact of the matter is, is that we who were more mature should have been able to feed ourselves. The more I look around our church the more I see new faces and I realize that God is bringing these people here and that the fundamental truth of salvation is what we really need.

The things that have dogged me for most of life, I nailed to the cross today and declared it was done. What are you holding on to, not letting go of, or not giving Jesus the opportunity to set you free from? One final note: Pastor Ron said today that "God had to treat Jesus like us so that upon his death and resurrection He could treat us like Jesus."