At The Cross

 "He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new.' Then He said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.' " Revelation 21:5...."Whatever was broken in the fall can be healed at the cross." Chris Tiegreen

I have a simple message for today, a desperately needed one. It's been available to all for over 2000 years, yet so few believe it fully, even in His church. What has been broken in the fall of humankind in Eden has been healed at the cross. And what has been broken in your life, wherever you have fallen and been broken, can be healed there as well.

I'm the teaching pastor in our church's Celebrate Recovery ministry. I've been involved in it for over 5 years now. Each week I see streams of broken, wounded, and hurting people come through the doors. They want to be whole but so many seem unable to believe that they can be. 

I recently taught about forgiveness, and some of the feedback I've gotten has to do with how many in our group struggle deeply to forgive, to be cleansed of bitterness and hatred. They want to be free, but they can't let go. They try, but they can't. I believe that in most cases, it's because they miss the key element of it all. Coming to His cross and surrendering the pain, anger, and woundedness there.

We're all born into this world as broken people. Sin has seen to that. Because we live in a fallen world we experience head on collisions with other broken people, as well as the fallen world system we live in. Oftentimes it seems we may be broken beyond repair. We're not, and we have to believe it. We have to because He has called us to wholeness and freedom. He came to break the power of sin and He did so at the cross. If we're to experience that in our lives, we must come to His cross as well. We bring our brokenness, our pain, our wounds, and all their effects to the cross....and we nail it to that cross. The brokenness is no longer ours to hold. It's His to heal. 

The old hymn goes, "At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the Light, and the burden of my sin rolled away." The witness of the ages is that this is true. Is it true for you? Come to the cross. Bring your brokenness, all of it, with you. Place it, all of it, at the foot of the cross. Release it to Him, let it no longer be "yours." The band Delirious, in one of their songs has the lyric, "Let us rejoice at the foot of the cross, we can be free, glory to God!" Let us rejoice, all of us. Let us be free...all of us. At the foot of the cross! Glory to God!

Blessings,
Pastor O