Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The Cross: Symbol of Christianity

As a follower of Jesus, I often wear a cross hung around my neck. More than a piece of decorative jewelry, I wear the cross as a symbol of my faith. Most often, I wear a small,plain wooden cross and it is the one that I prefer. The other is a larger metal cross, similiar to those worn by members of the Priesthood, but I dislike its gaudiness. 

Jesus died on a Roman cross, between two thieves. One thief saw nothing in Jesus in which to believe. He died, angrily cursing his ill-fated luck. The second thief saw something in Jesus that brought him at least an outside glimmer of hope that filled him with at least of a new possibility in paradise. Through the cross, the second thief died peacefully in his new-found hope--filled with anticipation.
              
By believing in Jesus, that second thief discovered a truth experienced many years later by John H. Finley. Finley described what he saw in Jesus:

Sought by the greatest and the least as a friend,
He gave himself, unsparing, to the end;
He even kept death waiting at the door,
Till he could do a friend one kindness more.

              
In the cross, Jesus communicated a divine and all-powerful love described as the ultimate of friendship. “The cross is the proof,” concluded William Barclay, “that there is no length to which God will refuse to go in order to win men’s hearts. Love offers the most powerful medium of reconciliation that can be found, the final proof of a loving God.”
              

Suggests Barclay, a love like that demands an answering love. A love like that is not to be worn lightly or to merely decorate one's clothing. A love like that prompts one to sing:

Savior, thy dying love Thou gavest me, 
Nor should I aught with-hold Dear Lord, from thee: 
In love my sould would bow, My heart fulfill its vow, 
Some off'ring bring thee now, Something for thee.

From Warner's World, I am walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

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