Today is the day that we remember and mourn and rejoice in the events that changed everything. All of history comes to its Crux in the Cross of Jesus. As we think on these things, the words that Jesus speaks from The Cross give us insight into what He experienced and what He accomplished for us.
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On May 19th Tim Keller passed into the Lord’s presence. Almost immediately and appropriately, articles and remembrances were posted honoring his life and work, the size and scope of which cannot be denied. Just a day before, our dear brother Phil Allen also “graduated” into the Lord’s Presence on May 18th. There will be no articles written in Christianity Today about Phil. But his life is a reminder that size of service is not of first importance to the Lord. What really matters is faithfulness.
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The order and readings for the Passover celebration are called a Haggadah and it means “the telling.” Passover is a story that has been retold for thousands of years. It is a story of miraculous redemption – from slavery to freedom, from despair to hope, from the darkness to the light. The power and grace of the Lord God is the focus of this story. The timelessness of this story comes from God’s intimate relationship with His people. As He cared for the children of Israel in ancient times, He also cares for all who are His today.
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Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you;
you received it and have taken your stand on it.
You are also saved by it,
if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you
—unless you believed for no purpose. (1 Corinthians 15:1-5)
The three days in which we remember, contemplate and celebrate Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection are the crux (from Latin meaning “cross”) of the year for followers of The Way – the Church, the Body of Christ. In these three days, Father God working in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit changed everything. The message of what He did for us in those days is the very heart of The Gospel – the Good News that we have been saved and set free.
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Everything in the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation has been given to us to point us to Jesus. He is the Seed of the Woman. He is the Seed of Abraham. He is the Lion of Judah. He is The Prophet. He is The Son of David. He is The Lord. He is Messiah. He is the One who was and is and is to come. He is first in all things and everything is under His power and authority. Everything will finally be “headed up” in Him.
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But understand this, that in the last days difficult times will come…
Evil people and impostors will become worse,
deceiving and being deceived.”
– 2 Timothy 3:1, 13 –
Manipulation and deception have been part of the human story since the very beginning. Now the technologies that are shaping our culture make it easier than ever for smaller groups of people to influence and move much larger groups of people into deeper lies and deception. As people of the Truth who root our lives in Christ, we need to be AWARE of who is really speaking to us and where they are leading us.
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In 2001 George Barna published Growing True Disciples: New Strategies for Producing Genuine Followers of Christ. Based on studies at that time, Barna had come to the conclusion that at the practical level of everyday life, there was very little difference between Christians and non-Christians. His conclusion: the churches were not producing spiritually mature followers of Christ. What we say we believe had little impact on our lived out values.
Just a couple of years earlier, Dallas Willard had already highlighted this problematic issue in The Divine Conspiracy. Willard would go on to write several other books addressing what he called The Great Omission: the churches are not encouraging and training those who believe in Christ to follow Him toward maturity.
Could it be that the solution to this ongoing evangelical disaster is that we should get back to who we are called to be and do what we were supposed to be doing in the first place?
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