Take Up Your Cross

Take Up Your Cross

(Philippians 3:4b-14; Luke 9:18-27)

10:30 am, Sunday, March 17, 2013; Windsor UBC; J G White

The tale is told in many ways of the boy who came home from Sunday school talking about an animal that needed glasses. It was a bear, with it's eyes crossed, named Gladly. Actually, the class had leaned a Fanny Crosby Hymn that sings Gladly the cross I'd bear.

As we listen carefully to lessons about the Cross of Jesus, we can hear the call of our Saviour to take up and bear our cross.

That great pioneer of Christianity, the Apostle Paul, wrote the book we call Philippians. As Andrew read, Paul speaks of counting former achievements as losses, because life with Jesus is so much more valuable. Paul wrote, (3:10-11) I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Life with Jesus follows Him to the Cross. It includes the teaching of 'taking up your cross.' What does this mean? What does taking up your cross, or me taking up my cross, look like?

We talk of 'the cross I have to bear' once in a while. It's a common enough idiom in English. Look it up online and you even get examples like this: Someone has to look after mother and because I live the closest it's a cross I have to bear. The phrase gets attached to all manner of hardships and troubles that good people must endure: illnesses, extra demands placed upon us, personal weaknesses or flaws. Crosses we have to bear?

These are really poor uses of the word cross. For the Bible is not speaking of these circumstances when we read of bearing our cross. The late John Stott, British scholar and preacher, in his book, The Cross of Christ, wrote: Our 'cross', then, is not an irritable husband or a cantankerous wife. It is instead the symbol of death to the self. (p. 279) Death to the self. To take up my cross is to take the path, like Jesus, with Jesus, that lets go of getting my own way, for the sake of many others.

Look with me for a moment into Christ's words in Luke 9, what Judy read.

If any want to become my followers... Want to follow Jesus? He calls you: come follow me. Want to be more than a fan?

...Let them deny themselves, He says. Deny yourself. This might be a big learning curve for you, or you may know enough of this now to sense what the rest of your denial may be. You must give up on your kingdom in this world – it gets handed over into the Kingdom of Jesus. You let go of getting your own way from moment to moment. You drop the game of working to have people to like you and do good to you. You get set free from needing to have enough willpower to make personal changes. All this can get taken over by Jesus and God's provision – as we deny ourselves. You get to live in His Kingdom, where He gets His way, God loves and esteems you highly, and the Lord has grace to do more in you than you can do yourself. How great is that?!

...let them... take up their cross daily and follow me. There it is, a daily plan; a moment-by-moment journey with the Saviour. And the image for it is Jesus with His Cross. I like to keep this as a picture, a real story, rather than mere explanations and theologies. Jesus, bearing the cross, for the sake of millions of us. There He is, going to His execution. And He invites us.

John Stott (can you tell I skimmed his book?) wrote, one might say, every Christian is both a Simon of Cyrene and a Barabbas. Like Barabbas we escape the cross, for Christ died in our place. Like Simon of Cyrene we carry the cross, for he calls us to take it up and follow him. (pp. 278-9)

We follow, we follow; and keep learning more of what this is. Look again to what Paul wrote about pressing on, in Philippians 3:13&14 ...this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Paul has such enthusiastic persistence. There is energy and hope in his walk with the Lord. Because it is all about Jesus.

Our Faith has this amazing claim upon people's souls. We hear and answer the call of Jesus to a great and challenging life. Deny yourself, take up your cross daily, follow me. Do you know the deep appeal of this invitation?

It is claimed that the following ad appeared in a London newspaper: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success." Signed by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer. Apparently, the ad drew many respondents, eager to risk everything for the prospect of meaningful adventure.

The adventure with Christ is meaningful because it is about human souls: your soul, and the souls of all the others. “Follow me and take up your cross daily” fits hand-in-glove with Jesus' earlier call, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of wo/men.”

Close to twenty years ago, Dr. Harold Mitton was interviewed about his life story. At one time he was Pastor here; at another he was professor of Preaching and Worship at Acadia Divinity College. With great interest I watched these interviews on Youtube a few weeks ago. Among his insights at the close of the interviews, Dr. Mitton spoke of his concern with some congregations about the lack of redemptive passion. He said, The churches tend to become inward looking instead of outward looking. ...It seems to me that the church of Jesus Christ should be providing answers to the deep spiritual hungers that are gnawing at people today. But it seems to me there is this lack of passion to reach people with the Gospel of Christ, which bothers me sometimes.

The Cross of Jesus shows us Jesus' deep compassion for all the people of the world. As we follow in His steps, that loving compassion is supplied to our own hearts and minds.

John Stott wrote, It is only when we look at the cross that we see the true worth of human beings. (1986, p. 282) Canadian Theologian Douglas John Hall, in his book, The Cross In Our Context, makes the same point by saying, The [theology of the] cross… is [nevertheless] first of all a statement about God, and what it says about God is not that God thinks humankind so wretched that it deserves death and hell, but that God thinks humankind and the whole creation so good, so beautiful, so precious [in its intention and its potentiality], that its actualization, its fulfillment, its redemption is worth dying for. (2003, p.24) We humans may be said to be unworthy, but we are not worthless; we are worth a great deal to our Lord. Remember Jesus' words – from His so-called Sermon on the Mount? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Yes.

Elizabeth Clephane composed the well-known hymn, Beneath the Cross of Jesus, in 1868, with this phrase in it:

And from my smitten heart with tears

Two wonders I confess,

The wonders of His glorious love,

And my own worthlessness.

This is the original, what we sing from Favorite Hymns of Praise. But recent edits, such as in our 1973 Baptist Hymnal, have us sing this: The wonders of His glorious love,

And my unworthiness.

John Stott, and other theologians, suggest this change is for the better, because God does find us so valuable and precious that the Son is sent to die for us. As William Temple pointed out: My worth is what I am worth to God; and that is a marvellous great deal, for Christ died for me. (Citizen and Churchman, p 74)

To take up our own cross is to give up our lives out of love for the lives of others, just as Jesus did. Looking to Jesus, we see how worthwhile the others around us, and around the world, truly are. With God we value people more and more. Our hearts break for them. Our lives bless them. Our priorities grow greater. Our pleasure and satisfaction shifts: we rejoice in those who need the Shepherd. My life is no longer mostly about me, anymore; it is about everyone, and about our God.

Douglas John Hall says …in the scriptural sources we never hear of a Jesus preoccupied with his own pain. Even on the cross itself he is conscious, chiefly, of the pain of others – of the thieves on either side, and of the pathetic little group of his followers standing beneath the cross, devastated. (p. 154)

And to know the power of Jesus' resurrection, and share his sufferings is a corporate thing. We walk the way of the Cross together.

Nineteenth Century Danish Theologian and Philosopher, Soren Kierkagaard, wrote, I went into church and sat on the velvet pew. I watched as the sun came shining through the stained glass windows. The minister dressed in a velvet robe opened the golden gilded Bible, marked it with a silk bookmark and said, ‘If any man will be my disciple, said Jesus, let him deny himself, take up his cross, sell what he has, give it to the poor, and follow me.’ And I looked around and Nobody was Laughing.

When we are together, what distracts us from the mission? To follow Jesus by taking up the cross means we must drop other things. I do, you do, together we do this.

So, for the sake of our community of people – and beyond – what do we shed, that we may carry our Cross, Windsor Baptist? How does a Church family deny itself, daily? How do we find our priority in Dr. Mitton's redemptive passion? That inner energy and motivation to help people be set free by Jesus.

I fear there may be many things to shed, to let go of, to drop. And I am enthused that the new priorities we gain are so worthwhile. From a ministry like our house of Hospitality we can perhaps see what we sacrifice so that it can happen, or the After School Program, or the ministry of funerals.

We learn about love and care first of all among ourselves, within this very room. We carry the cross because of one another. It was at a Drive-in Service I first heard this song sung by the Rev. Dan Green of Chester Baptist Church.

In this very room there's quite enough love for all of us.

And in this very room there's quite enough joy for all of us.

And in this very room there's quite enough power to share

wherever we go.

For Jesus, Lord Jesus, is in this very room.

(Ron & Carol Harris, 1979)

Take up your cross... it leads to the resurrection of Jesus!

It is for the sake of one another, and the whole world.

The Cross and Reconciliation

The Cross and Reconciliation

(2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32)

10:30 am, 4^th Sunday in Lent, March 10, 2013; Windsor UBC; J G White

It was at least a month ago that I planned my preaching for these Sundays before Holy Week. I thought it appropriate for us to listen to the Cross of Christ, and discover what Jesus' death says to us about repenting, being reconciled, and taking up our own cross. So, today is about reconciliation.

God has provided. All this past week I kept meeting up with people who need to be reconciled in some way or other: even myself. Again and again the need to be reconciled presented itself. Life is our teacher when we walk with the Master, Jesus.

Before I tell you my anecdotes from the week, keep looking with me at the finale of 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 18: God... reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Jesus' sacrifice by execution – with it's consequent forgiveness of our sin, making us right with God – brings about reconciliation with God, and makes us agents of reconciliation.

And, as God does this work with our souls and minds and bodies, we become Jesus' ambassadors of reconciliation. God actually trusts us, more and more, with His ministry of reconciling people. Think about how the Lord trusts you. Incredible.

Now then, I do believe Jesus parable of the talents applies here, talents being a quantity of money given to three slaves. Mathew 25. The ones who took and invested and grew what was entrusted to them were praised, and were then trusted with more. But the slave who was given little, and did nothing with it, was cursed. 'You wicked, lazy slave!' The Master declared, For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but form those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

God can trust us with more power to reconcile as we do well with the reconciliation that's offered to us. We are trusted to be ambassadors for Christ in as much as we trust Him and entrust everything we have and are to Him. We limit ourselves when we don't entrust everything to Jesus. The more of our own little kingdom we put in His Hands, the more we can be trusted with in His glorious kingdom.

Well, as Pastor, people occasionally expect me to be an agent of reconciliation. Last week, a person I did not know at all called me to make an appointment: an appointment for her and her husband to come in a talk. They find themselves suddenly estranged from a young teen granddaughter, and feel totally blocked about how to reconcile with her. They came in and poured out their stories, and their hearts, longing to understand what went wrong, and how to make it right.

For the most part I felt as helpless as they, and can but pray that one day the granddaughter will come back – like that famed prodigal son? – and that those grandparents will welcome her – like the forgiving father in the story, who threw open his arms and threw the big welcome-back party. The Kingdom of God is a party, don't ya know? :)

I turn from this personal challenge, to Jesus upon the Cross. See Him there, betrayed by one of his closest friends, Judas. See Him there, abandoned by almost all the rest of the disciples. As He died, He was experiencing betrayal and rejection by those dearest to His heart. That betrayal He bore upon the Cross. And out of His death will come reconciliation.

At the same historic moment, know that the religious elite were mostly enemies of Jesus by now. When Christ was twelve years old he amazed the teachers in the Jerusalem Temple; but when in His early thirties, those ministers of worship and religion and rules and ethics oppose Him. Jesus came to reform His religion; His would-be religious co-workers reject Him.

This past week I had a session with a person I know, from outside our Church, who talked at length about difficulties at his workplace. He is feeling pressured by those he works for, and it's all about a decision in his personal life. He finds them not supportive, butting into his business, and supplying lots of stress. His workplace is totally stressful, because of a personal plan he has for himself that should be pure joy.

I think Jesus understands completely what it is to be pressured by those who should be your colleagues at work. Jesus' religious career led him to a Cross of execution, the other religious experts of His Faith were glad of this. What would Christ teach us about being reconciled at work? This can can be explored with Him.

Our Saviour also can show us the way to reconciliation with things of our past. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:17, exclaims, So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

Sometimes I dive into the filing cabinets in my Study here, and read old minutes. Did it again just this past week, reading minutes of our Music Committee from the 1990s. I wondered again about the kerfuffle over hiring a Music Director back then, who would play the Organ, when the Organist had not and did not resign or retire. Awkward! Hurtful. Does our reconciling God use this to teach us reconciliation?

I've also read Deacon Minutes from the 1980s, including a time of squabble over the Assistant Pastor becoming Senior Pastor, or not. He did not. And then, I guess, our next Senior Pastor was put through the wringer. The minutes of one deacons' meeting in the book are blank – a blank half page.

Jesus, who knew no sin was made to be sin: He has surely taught some of us about reconciliation from that piece of our history. And yet there may be more to learn in our souls.

I could go on. Go on about a nasty deacon fight in about 2003 over the title of my Assistant Pastor. Or the resignation of Pastor Welton in 1862, after five years as Pastor here. His resignation was not accepted by the Church. He eventually agreed to stay, and became our longest serving pastor: 16 years. The minutes of his time here suggest an interesting chapter for the ministry of reconciliation.

I have a confidence in God: I believe in the mystery that we can learn from our past, and be the greater for it. So it is for our personal crises. Many people have to reconcile with traumatic events from their past. You who know such experience can tell me if reconciliation is really the word for it.

Look again, with you mind's eye, to Christ upon the Cross. Here He is, tortured and dying. The kind of event that, if one survived, would give post traumatic stress. This was not, of course, the first attempt on Jesus' life. One of the first was near His own home Synagogue, when the upset citizens tried to throw Him down a cliff. Jesus can be our Master, our Model, our Teacher for dealing with the personal traumas we have suffered. Because of Him – reconciled to Him – we can take a personal journey to reconcile with the deep hurts inside us, from our past.

Again this past week, I found myself facing my own insides: my mind, heart, soul, ego – all that stuff that makes me me. I've never suffered any great trauma, but there are things to be reconciled in here. I'm taking an online course from the Center for Action and Contemplation right now, dealing with addictions, stinking thinking, the personas we present and the like. I'm also in a small group, learning from Dallas Willard and John Ortberg about living Jesus' sermon on the mount. There is good and evil struggling within me, and I was looking there this week. I feel comforted that the Apostle Paul was like me: I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. (Romans 7:15)

Look to Christ crucified again. His last temptation? As the movie, The Last Temptation of Christ, explored, He faced the temptation to escape and not go through with this sacrificial death. The Devil, and Accuser, who had tempted Him in the desert a few years before, was there again. A gospel song reiterates what Jesus said when being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:53):

He could have called ten thousand angels,

but He died alone, for you and me. (Ray Overholt, 1958)

The light and dark that both dwell within, both part of who I am and you are – these our Jesus understands. He experienced intense temptations. And even having no sin of His own, what did Jesus experience? For our sake God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:1) And as we read last Sunday, He himself bore our sins in His body on the cross. (1 Peter 2:24) Thus, Jesus knows what it is to have inside what we have inside us.

So He brings about our reconciliation with God, with others, and with our inner selves. Thanks be to God! But I have one more little chapter from my week. It is about the body. Ever find you must be reconciled to your own body?

Many people, who have problems in the body, are on my mind. Sharon and I went to see one of them – Marilyn White – in the palliative care wing of the VG hospital. She is failing. Not quite as positive and energetic. Not supposed to get out of bed and walk by herself anymore. Not alone at nigh anymore – family members are taking turns staying with her.

She had an enthusiastic hymn-sing with some of you a few weeks ago, and reflected on what music to have for her funeral. This past week, she talked quietly about it with us, thinking through some details, and sharing her philosophy of funerals.

And now I wonder... what is it like to make peace with one's body when it is dying. To let go of, well, it must feel like yourself. But this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:53) Jesus' body, when He was dying, was a tortured thirty-three year old body. He knows what death is all about. And... of course... this is what what are all waiting for... Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep / died. (1 Corinthians 15:20) Jesus reconciles mortality with immortality; the body that dies, the spiritual body that lives.

So I've been listening all week for reconciliation. Ya know, so much of this happened in one day, Thursday. The couple estranged from their granddaughter, the guy needing reconciliation at work, reading music committee minutes, small group study about the inner life, visiting Marilyn in hospital – all came to me on Thursday.

These situations are understood by our Saviour. He goes to the cross – His execution – to reconcile us to God, and to one another, to our past, to our whole selves.

We learn that we get reconciled – it happened – but it also keeps going on. We are still being reconciled to God. We are still being reconciled to those people we hurt or who hurt us. We keep on being reconciled within ourselves, amid the inner conflicts that simmer, between the light and darkness that is me.

Keep Jesus going to the Cross and the tomb in your heart. Following Him, we will get to know what reconciliation looks like, and receive it, and give it. This is amazing Good News!

Amen.

The Cross and Repentance

The Cross and Repentance

(Isaiah 55:1-2, 6-9; Luke 13:1-5)

10:30 am, Lent 3, Sunday, March 3, 2013; Windsor UBC; J G White

I carried a cross yesterday. It was this one, behind me. I was looking for the bigger one, but I found the two smaller ones, so I thought this one would do. One more cross to attract our attention in these weeks before Good Friday and Easter.

The Cross is to be what I bring out for you all the time, in my ministry. Pastors preach “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,” if we follow Paul's lead, in 1 Corinthians 2. This is what we mean by “the Cross.” The Cross is the event, an action: the execution of Jesus. We don't mean the actual wooden implement of torture and death. “The Cross” stands for Jesus' sacrifice that day.

Our songs of faith, old and new, declare the cross event as the centre of what God does for us. From 300 years ago, this lyric:

When I survey the wondrous Cross,

On which the Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride. (Isaac Watts)

From ten years ago:

Wonderful, so wonderful, is Your unfailing love.

Your cross has spoken mercy over me. (Tim Hughes)

Today we consider one thing that can happen when we survey the wondrous cross: we humans repent. What Jesus does for us calls for a response. Part of our response is to repent.

The Bible does not actually use the word “cross” very often. One bit that does, and speaks of our repentance is 1 Peter 2: 24-25. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. Repentance is a turnaround. When I repent, I change direction; I turn from one thing towards something else. It usually requires action. It involves the mind, the heart, and the will to act. We confess, and we make things right.

The Peanuts comic strip often has had Lucy and Charlie Brown practicing football. Every time Lucy had ever held the ball for Charlie, he would approach the ball and kick with all his might. At the precise moment of the point of no return, Lucy would pick up the ball and Charlie would fall flat on his back.

One strip opened with Lucy holding the ball, but Charlie Brown would not kick the ball. Lucy begged him to kick the ball. But Charlie Brown said, "Every time I try to kick the ball you remove it and I fall on my back."

They went back and forth for the longest time and finally Lucy broke down in tears and admitted, "Charlie Brown I have been so terrible to you over the years, picking up the football like I have. I have played so many cruel tricks on you, but I’ve seen the error of my ways! I’ve seen the hurt look in your eyes when I’ve deceived you. I’ve been wrong, so wrong. Won’t you give a poor penitent girl another chance?"

Charlie Brown was moved by her display of grief and responded to her, "Of course, I’ll give you another chance." He stepped back as she held the ball, and he ran. At the last moment, Lucy picked up the ball and Charlie Brown fell flat on his back.

Lucy’s last words were, "Recognizing your faults and actually changing your ways are two different things, Charlie Brown!"

To repent in the face of what Jesus has done at the Cross is a change of our ways, not just a recognition of our fault. Jesus once said: Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

The repentance called for by prophets and preachers is a turn from being our own god, and turning toward following a new god, The God. Isaiah and others called for repentance. Today we heard Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake their way and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD... To forsake your way, and return to the Lord. Jesus called for repentance. Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

If Christ appeared in the flesh in Windsor this weekend, and was invited to be our guest preacher, what might He say today? WWJD: What Would Jesus Declare? I think it would still be “Repent, my Kingdom is at hand.”

There are many moments when repentance is needed. There is, of course, the repentance of one who is not yet “in Christ,” one who needs to join Jesus for the first time by being cleansed and saved. Accepting the power of the Cross to free us and make us new is a choice we have. Jesus makes the offer, as he bears our sins in his body on the cross, and we each respond.

The good news about how repentance works is spelled out in the words of Isaiah 55, which first were proclaimed long before that Cross on the hill called Calvary. The same God works the same way throughout history.

The Lord God is freely available. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! (1) Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near... (6) Jesus came and claimed the Kingdom had come near! And His beatitudes, the start of His Sermon on the Mount, may proclaim that this is available to everyone – every one. Everyone in every life situation can be truly blessed, by being in God's Kingdom.

Isaiah 55 teaches us that the wicked may forsake their way, and the unrighteous can forsake their thoughts. (7) Turning away from what's wrong on the outside, and the inside, are both possible, with our God.

People can return to God, says Isaiah 55(7). Let them return to the LORD... When sin and evil separate us from the Lord, when intellectual disbelief about God separates us, when sadness and trouble and injustice keep God far away – there can still be a return. When making peace with God seems impossible to a human, it is still possible for the Lord. The Cross of Jesus shows the ultimate distance God's willing to go to bring us back to Him.

God will have mercy and pardon. This is God's heart.

Did you hear? Pardons are running out!? Online there are adverts saying this about pardons for your criminal record: Sign up now and we can guarantee your pardon will not be affected by the deadline. The deadline to get a pardon is fast approaching so you’d better get started. I just need your credit card number.

Not true. Not true about legal pardons in Canada, and not true about pardon for sin and a peace that endureth. A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the cancellation of the relevant penalty, according to Wikipedia. Theologically, this is also true.

So, God's mercy and pardon are not running out. God's ways are so BIG and beyond us. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. (8)

As the Cross of Christ draws the attention of our souls, we who are saved, redeemed believers know our continuing need to repent. There is repentance for those who are already “in Christ” and part of His “Body,” the Church. Turning our life over to Jesus keeps going, week by week, year by year.

We are learning about this already in 2013.

Repent: turn from being a fan of Jesus; be a follower of Jesus! I gave a sermon about two years ago, asking if Jesus was a celebrity for us, or a Saviour? “Not a Fan” is the same theme.

Repent: turn from a gospel of sin management, to the gospel that saves the whole person, to discipleship in all of life.

Repent of being first in your own life, number one, and say “I am second.” If you are second, who is number one?

We must keep asking this when we are together, when we are a church, such is this one that we are: Windsor Baptist. Do we not need to turn from some of our usual ways, to better ways that Christ would lead us in today? Repentance is a matter of the fellowship, not just Christians one by one.

Lesslie Newbigin, missionary (Mission in Christ’s Way):

I remember once visiting a village in the Madras diocese. There was no road into the village; you reached it by crossing a river, and you could do this either on the south side of the village or on the north. The congregation had decided that I would come by the southern route, and they had prepared a welcome such as only an Indian village can prepare. There was music and fireworks and garlands and fruit and a ceremonial martial arts display ready (silumbum)—everything you can imagine. Unfortunately I entered the village at the north end and found only a few goats and chickens. Crisis! I had to disappear while word was sent to the assembled congregation, and the entire village did a sort of U-turn so as to face the other way. Then I duly reappeared.

I like this story of a physical turnaround of a whole village. Indeed, the repentance of a group is what the Lord sometimes needs from us.

A few of you may know the story of Matt Redman's 1999 song, Heart of Worship. His home congregation in England was struggling, in the midst of the revival of worship going on they'd been part of. The church Pastor called for a break: no sound system, no band and singers, no instruments. Worship without it. From out of that time, Redman wrote that song...

I'm coming back to the heart of worship

And it's all about You, It's all about You, Jesus

I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it

When it's all about You, It's all about You, Jesus.

Is worship our God? For some of us this replaces God. It happens to me! When what we like in music and teaching interests us more than Christ Himself, we need to make a turnaround... repent.

Or, is prayer for those who are ill our God? It can become so. We build a faith upon getting that healing power flowing to those on our list. Do we long to know the Lord more than we want healing in people's bodies here on earth? We may need to find how to turn to Almighty God. He is the Healer, yes, but He is bigger than the healing that goes on.

Many other examples we might ponder, as we remember and get in touch the with Cross of Jesus. He was lifted up to draw all people to Him. That is the fist and final thing. To be with Him. On our own, and together, there are ways for us to repent, to turn afresh to Jesus.

Hear again those phrases from 1 Peter 2:24&25

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

AMEN.