All tagged cross

On the Cross with Jesus

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, On The Cross

We are about to enter into Holy Week, and during this week we live and are crucified with Christ during His final days. We follow Him through the joy of His arrival in Jerusalem, eat the last supper with Him, suffer through His anguish at Gethsemane, experience the capture, trial, and scourging of our Lord, and then we join Him on the cross for His crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension. Yes, over the course of this week we will have been crucified with Jesus... not in the physical sense of dying, but spiritually. Our crucifixion is such that our old selves die and our new lives in Christ come alive. Paul explains this to the Galatians in this scripture:

One Rainy Christmas Morning in Nashville

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Christmas Morning

One Christmas Eve morning, a weather front moved into Nashville in the wee hours before dawn. As is my custom, I was already awake and praying when the rain began to fall by the buckets full. Then, while listening to the wind and the sound of the rain beating on the awning over our deck, I was overcome by my thoughts of Christmas and the way that Jesus Christ came to wash us clean of sin.

There Has Been No Murder

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , The Cross

I am resting in the shadow of the cross this morning. My thoughts are on Jesus, the cross, and what that moment in human history, when Jesus Christ hung from it, means to you, me, and the world. Jesus was not a victim, the cross was not imposed upon Him. Jesus, the lamb of God, did not come to this world to perform some deed that was cut short by a Roman cross, He came as a sacrifice for our sins, and we were graced with three years of His life so that we would know beyond any doubt that this man was indeed the Son of God, and learn lessons regarding the new covenant that we could not know otherwise.

Pride, and the lost humility of a self-ingratiating Christian.

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Pride in Faith

Prideful Christians, we have all known one or two in our lives, and Heaven forbid we are one. We see in them a holier than thou attitude where we should find the distinct humility of Christ. Our boasting should never be in our own faith, and belief, but in Christ, and He crucified. Too often we see the palm fronds lying on the ground, and the fine colt on which Christ rode into Jerusalem. We hear the cheers, and forget the jeers, and neglect the sting of the whip. In the midst of our pride we forget that the cross was His true glory. We forget what it means to pick up our own cross and follow Him into the spit of the crowd, and that only by suffering as He did can we boast in Him. Does our faith make us proud, or does it point to our own Cross on Calvary?

Picking up our Cross, and Saving the Lost Souls of the World

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , The Cross

We hear the words of Jesus as He tells us to pick up our cross and follow Him, but what is He is really asking us to do? Is Jesus telling us we are to suffer and die for God, or for Him? I don’t think so, and His life, death and resurrection give us the answer. Jesus came because God loved us, and to redeem us from sin and death. He suffered and went to the cross in obedience to God’s will, but that will was for our redemption. The cross of Christ on Calvary was an unrivaled display of love for you and me; so our crosses should be a continuation of God’s love for man through us... just as it was through Christ.

Christ’s Cross on Calvary - our “Thermos Paradox”, and the Battery of our Faith

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , The Cross

As Easter draws closer day by day does the power of God rise up in us as we contemplate Calvary, and the cross on which Jesus was nailed for us? How is it that these two pieces of rough wood, and three Roman nails, can become the battery that electrifies one’s faith, and saves those who believe, yet means nothing to others who are dying in their disbelief?

Picking up our Cross; it’s no trivial matter

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , The Cross

Are we ready to follow Jesus, or do we think we are following Him now? If so, then where is our cross, why are we carrying it, and where are we going with it? The cross is a powerful symbol of our Christian Faith, and as such it is a very personal emblem of suffering, obedience, and ultimately death. When we think of “The Cross” we see Jesus hoisted up upon it with nails through His hands and feet, and the image is horrific to our mind’s eye, but that is Christ’s cross and not our own. Jesus didn’t tell us to pick up His cross and follow Him, He told us to pick up ours.