“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God,” 1 Corinthians 1:18

Like other prisoners in the Soviet Gulag, Alexander Solzhenitzyn worked day after day in the fields.  It was backbreaking labor with no future but one of slow starvation!

One day, the hopelessness became too much to bear, Solzhenitsyn felt no purpose in fighting on; his life would make no ultimate difference.  Laying his shovel down, he walked slowly to a crude work-site bench.  He knew that at any moment a guard would order him up, and when he failed to respond, bludgeon him to death, probably with his own shovel.  He had seen it happen many times!

As he sat waiting, head down, he felt a presence.  Slowly he lifted his eyes.  Next to him sat an old man with a wrinkled, utterly expressionless face.  Hunched over, the man drew a stick through the sand at Solzhenitsyn’s feet, deliberately tracing out the sign of the CROSS.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at the rough outline, his entire perspective shifted.  He knew he was merely one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire.  Yet in that moment, he also knew that the hope of all mankind was represented by that simple cross – and through its power, anything was possible.  Solzhenitzyn slowly got up, picked up his shovel and went back to work – not knowing that his writings on truth and freedom would one day inflame the whole world and win for him the Nobel Peace prize.

Such is the power of the cross!  What is it about scrapes in the dirt that would enable a man to regain his hope?  What kind of symbol is the cross that its’ truth can transform millions of lives and overturn the most powerful empire (Rome) the world has ever seen?

Paul defined his gospel as the preaching of the cross:  “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God!”  1 Cor. 1:17-18.  The Westminster Confession states:  “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”  “Now this is eternal life; that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent,” John 17:3.  These are companion truths.  To know God is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.  Eternal life starts now!

Paul said, “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death,” Philippians 3:10.  The pathway to knowing Christ goes through the cross!  For it is at the cross, we “learn” who God is!  From Genesis to Revelation, the cross is the central theme of the Bible!  You cannot understand one without the other.

John Stott said:  “We want to stay near enough to the blazing fire of the cross to be showered with its sparks and to find the flame of our love freshly rekindled!” 

Ignite us today into a flame for God!

Your friend, Jean   (taken from one of Terry’s sermons)