In The Cross Of Christ I Glory

In the cross of Christ I glory

Tow'ring o'er the wrecks of time;

All the light of sacred story

Gathers round its head sublime. 

In the Cross of Christ I Glory.  Every time I sing this hymn -- I mean every time -- I have to think of First Corinthians 1:18 where it says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."  Friend, did you get that?  The cross is the power of God! 

Little wonder the apostle Paul talked so much about the cross -- he probably could have written this wonderful old hymn, right?  

You know... when I was first injured, when I first became a Christian, long ago, I knew the cross was critical to my salvation, but, I didn't understand it much more beyond that.  But now after 40 years in this wheelchair, after broken bones and pneumonia, I think I am beginning to get the point about the cross.  Not just as it concerns my salvation, because there are so many days when I... just don't think I can make it... I feel overwhelmed (and I'm not talking only about the paralysis part; sometimes it's just "life" - it's hard).  And it's at those times, when I come to the end of my strength,  when I can't do it any more, when I feel like giving up that I run down that road to Calvary -- I simply have nowhere else to turn.  And there, at the cross... right there, where I lay my anxieties down, my burdens down, my fears, my doubts... there, when I do that that's when I find strength, I find power to keep going.  Because the Scripture tells me at the cross is power.  The cross is the power of God.  And any time I need power from on high to face life, it's right there at Calvary.

It's a blessed thing to take up your cross daily and die to the fears of sin or doubt or worry... to die to those sins that Jesus died for on his cross.  And it's at that point where God releases his power in our lives.  And not just his power, but his peace and his joy.  No wonder I sing with the hymn writer, "In the Cross of Christ I Glory."  Today, friend, would you please join me in placing your burdens at the foot of the cross because when you do you'll discover what the apostle Paul was talking about all along: the cross really is the power of God.

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