The Symbolic Cross

     As we all know by now, Christianity is under attack. 
     We continue to hear and see the controversy at Christmas time; people and retailers often have resorted to using “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greeting” instead of Christmas because they simply do not want Christ in Christmas, yet without Jesus Christ there would be no Christmas. 
     There is now an ongoing attack over wooden crosses and the placement of crosses in symbols and signs. Those who find the cross offensive say the cross is the most readily and widely identifiable object for religion, and it is a Christian symbol.  They want them removed.  Law suits are going on in various states in an attempt to remove religious symbols.    
     A close friend of mine recently made a statement that he would like to start a movement about the cross. 
     “In what way?” I asked. 
     He replied, “We see crosses everyday just about everywhere we go.  Think about it!  Look up.  Our power lines have crosses.  If everyone recognized them as a symbol of Christ, we would remember and think about Him every day, and I’d like to see someone file a law suit to have those power poles removed.”               

     That really got me to thinking.  You know he is right!  I looked around as I was driving down the highway and right before my eyes were crosses everywhere.  They were all tied together with power lines which hook up and connect all parts of the country.  They provide power needed every day. Without that electrical power businesses couldn’t operate.  All our technology would come to a halt.  We have become a nation that cannot do without electricity.     
     Yet, God’s power is so much greater.  He is the One who can electrically charge this nation.  He is the One who can wake up a declining, “sleeping giant.”  Without Him our nation will fail.  Without Him there will be no prosperity.    
     I must say that I will never be able to look at a row of electrical power poles the same way again.  I will always see the cross and remember God is with me.  He loves me. Because of Him I will be electrically charged to do the work set before me. 

 

             

     Even though God's power transcends all and reaches to the uttermost parts of the world, He gives us choices.  As Jesus hung there on the cross between two thieves, one chose to believe when he said, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."  Jesus's powerful forgiving answer was, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."  The other thief remained among the ones who hear and yet do not chose to believe.  He would have been among those today who hear and yet chose to sue to eliminate religious symbols.  

 

     Looking further at these electrical power poles, I am reminded further of The Great Commission.  Those power lines run in all directions sending electricity around the world.  Isn't that similar to the Great Commission given by Jesus. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always even into the end of the world." 

     We, Christians, are the power lines leading away from that cross, commissioned to take the gospel to all who will listen.  We are to run the race, electrically charged, for Jesus Christ. 

     How can we win the race?  My pastor gave good examples this morning.  It is in the way we live, the way we speak, the way we spend our money, in what we laugh about, in the people we spend time with, how we spend our leisure time, and in what we want and desire. 

     In other words, we need to saturate ourselves, absorb God's word, get to really know God, and run with a powerfully, electrically charged purpose.  "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?  So run that ye may obtain." (1 Corinthians 9:24)