The Cross is Way Too Radical for Most

5/18/2002

Just had a thought that “IF” the “pressures” of not stepping directly into “utopia,” but encountering the Cross instead are causing you some difficulty?...

Any wonder AT ALL at this point why TRUE LIFE is so rare, and cheesy religion and compromise and disjointed rituals and hierarchies are SO common? Human flesh HATES a cross, with its stench and pain and humiliation and inconvenience. Clearly this is about a CROSS, not externals, although bogus externals and faulty building HELP the flesh hide! EVERYONE is tempted to take the short cuts and the road most traveled, and curse the Cross as being unfair, too hard, or just plain “wrong.” Maybe you haven’t been tempted that way, but everyone is eventually that is on JESUS’ Trail. “Take up your CROSS” is an invitation to an ugly, painful, lonely, humiliating, and confusing DEATH. Which is EXACTLY why you can travel all around the world and find almost nothing that bears much resemblance to the Together Life of Christ. Most want “benefit” from “Christianity” or “Church” or whatever... but NOT anything like a real Cross.

A “Cross” is just to TALK about, not to experience, for most. That kind of LIFE is WAY too radical and embarrassing and misunderstood and rare, so it must be wrong. “Give me cool teaching and good singing and a friend or two, and that’ll be enough for me.”

BUT IS THAT WHAT JESUS LIVED FOR, DIED FOR, AND DESIRES? That’s the real question. Is “about” Jesus good enough? OR will we DIE before we will accept anything less than the SUBSTANCE of Jesus??!!

Those are the questions that satan loves to put in front of people. And satan only opposes that which is threatening his territory.

“Unless the seed falls to the ground and DIES, it abides alone. But IF it dies, it BEARS MUCH FRUIT” (Jn.12:24).

The Real thing only comes through Skandalon. And that will NEVER be an easy decision. FEW will be those who will take it past “teaching” into the ramifications of losing their very lives and all that they hoped for and dreamed of....

Be there? We’re praying for you. Hope everything is okay, and your silence is just being busy about His Business and saturated in Worship!