The Glory Of The Cross

The Glory of the Cross is beyond description. The cross is the pivot as well as the centre of New Testament. The death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the centrality of Christianity.

Here is a question to ponder. Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas for money, not Pilate for fear not the Jews for envy, but the Father, for LOVE.

God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Remember always one central truth. That is, Jesus came into the world and died and rose again to save mankind from sin (matthew 1:12).

The passion and death of Christ demands our surrender to Jesus Christ. That is why Paul responded rightly when he declared "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Its apt to conclude this thought with the portion of an immortal hymn that is ever fresh and fragrant.

"Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to your Cross I cling,
Naked, come to you for dress
Helpless, look to you for grace,
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Saviour or I die.
Rock of ages cleft for me
Let me hide myself in thee.............."

Practice Makes Perfect

"GO TO THE ant." Tammerlane used to relate to his friends an anecdote of his early life. "I once was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a ruined building, where i sat alone many hours." he said. "Desiring to divert my mind from my hopeless condition, I fixed my eyes on an ant that was carrying a grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall.I numbered the efforts it made to accomplish this object. The grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground; but the insect persevered, and the seventieth time it reached the top! This sight gave me courage at the moment, and I never forgot the lesson."

Rubenstein, the great musician, once said, "If I omit practice one day, I notice it; if two days, my friends notice it; if three days, the public notices it." It is the old doctrine, "Practice makes man perfect." We must continue believing, continue praying, continue doing His will. Suppose along any line of art, one should cease practicing- we know what the result would be. If we could only use the same quality of common sense in our religion that we use in our everyday life, we should go on to perfection.

The motto of David Livingstone was in these words, "I determined never to stop until I had come to the end and achieved my purpose." By unfaltering persistence and faith in God he conquered.

"Silently sat the artist alone,
Carving a Christ from the ivory bone;
Little by little, with toil and pain
He won his way through the sightless grain,
That held and yet hid the thing he sought,
Till the work stood up like a growing thought