Christian Life Center

Archive for August, 2009

Tehya is a little black Yorkie-Poo full of energy and love. My daughter-in-law Debbie found her huddled against a storage unit in the mountains of Wyoming where they live. The veterinarian surmised that someone had thrown her from a moving vehicle along the interstate nearby. Her shivering body was covered with road burns and she was sore and stiff. Debbie, Chris, and Taet adopted her and named her Tehya which means “precious” in Iroquois.

Perhaps Tehya was unwanted and thrown away. But Debbie saw her and she became Tehya – “precious”.

We live in a cruel world. The god of this world is a cruel taskmaster. (John 10:10) Many people have been abused and abandoned in some way. Some feel unwanted, unnoticed, or rejected and thrown away. But there is one who sees and cares – God is the God who sees and to Him you are precious. (Romans 5:6-8; Psalm 139:12, 17; Mark 6:47-48)

In the Old Testament, when God wanted to illustrate his love and plan of salvation, He asked Abraham to lay his son of promise on the altar and offer him as a sacrifice. Abraham obeyed and as he began to take his son’s life, God stopped him and provided a substitute sacrifice, a lamb caught in the briars and thorns. God revealed Himself to Abraham as Jehovah-jireh – the Lord will see or provide. (Genesis 22:8-14) He is the God who sees our need of salvation and has made provision through His only begotten son. (John 3:16)

Before Abraham’s son of promise was born, he fathered a son, at his wife’s insistence, with her bondmaid, Hagar. Ishmael was born but God told Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. They were not to be a part of God’s covenant to bring forth the Messiah. (Genesis 21) Hagar took little Ishmael into the dessert. When they ran out of food and water, Hagar put the boy under a bush and sat down to die. But the God who sees sent an angel to give a message to Hagar and made provision for their needs. When Hagar raised her head she saw a well of cool refreshing water. Ishmael was not God’s covenant plan but he was still precious to God. So are you precious to the God who sees. Paul reminds us that we were “strangers . . . having no hope and without God in the world . . . But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ . . . For He Himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:11-14 NASB).

A century ago crosses dotted the landscape across America. Today many churches do not display the cross on their buildings and city governments have tried to ban the cross on public property. Our founding fathers would be chagrined to see this happen. It’s the cross that made the difference between victory or defeat, hope or hopelessness, eternal life or perdition. History is divided by B. C. and A. D. There are those who want to do away with that significance but it is the cross that made the difference.

The gospel is the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Paul declared, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Recently a missionary was asked by a young man what the difference is between the Red Cross and the Christian cross. Likewise, many throughout the world and in America are ignorant of the power of the cross.

In almost four decades of ministry I’ve stood in many cemeteries throughout America. This Memorial Day I’ll once again remember those who have died to preserve our freedom and walk by the graves of many of our loved ones. When I think of the thousands who have died, there is only one assurance of hope – The cross made the difference for multitudes.

On the cross the perfect man, the Son of God, gave himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. Peter wrote, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (I Peter 2:24 NRSV). An early church father, Ambrose, wrote, “O the divine mystery of the cross! Weakness hangs on it, power is freed by it, evil is nailed to it, and triumphal trophies are raised towards it.”