The Cross: What Does It All Mean Anyway?

Every religion has its visual symbol which helps illustrate a significant piece of its history or belief system.  For example, the lotus flower has become the Buddhist trademark.  Although the flower was used by the ancient Chinese, Egyptians and Indians, it is now associated with Buddhism.  It is not uncommon to see images of Buddha enthroned in a fully open lotus bloom for they claim that the shape of the flower depicts the cycle of birth and death. 

 Ancient Judaism avoided visual signs and symbols for fear of breaking the second commandment which prohibits making graven images.  But modern Judaism has adopted the Star of David which is a hexagram formed by combining 2 equilateral triangles.  It symbolizes God’s covenant with David that his throne would be established forever and that the Messiah would descend from him. 

 Islam, on the other hand, is identified by a crescent.  This image of one of the moon’s phases is said to depict the sovereignty of Muslim conquest, but ironically history reveals that the symbol predates Islam by several thousand years.  Modern legend sometimes claims that the points of the star refer to the 5 pillars of Islam:    Testimony of faith, prayer 5 times/day, almsgiving of 2.5% of individual savings, fasting during the daytime for 1 month during Ramadan and pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.       

Don’t Give Out, Don’t Give In, Don’t Give Up

Lyman Beecher was born in New Haven Connecticut on October 12, 1775.  His father (David) was a blacksmith, yet Lyman chose not to follow in his father’s vocation.  Instead, Lyman went to Yale and graduated in 1797.  The following year Lyman went to Yale Divinity School and was eventually ordained into the ministry. 

 Lyman Beecher began his ministry in Long Island New York and in 1806, Lyman gained notoriety after preaching a sermon concerning the historic duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.  History records that Hamilton, one of our nation’s founding fathers, was gunned down in that duel in defense of Burr’s honor and pride. 

 This fiery Presbyterian preacher went on to raise a large family in Connecticut, eventually served in Boston’s Hanover Church but ultimately came here in the Cincinnati area to pastor the Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati where Lyman Beecher is credited as being one of the leaders which led our nation into the Second Great Awakening.   (Today, this congregation is named Covenant First Presbyterian Church, 717 Elm St., 8^th and Garfield)

 In 1828 Ebenezer Lane, a Baptist laymen and a New Orleans merchant, along with his brother, William, pledged to finance from their business profits the establishment of a seminary in Cincinnati.  When the Baptists were unable to carry the project through, the Presbyterians assumed it.  So 1832, Lyman Beecher became the first president of Lane Theological Seminary in Walnut Hills where his mission was to train ministers to win the West for Christ. 

Are You Fully Alive?

God loves us!  Lean into that:  Despite where we have come from, what we have done or where we have been going, God loves us.  In fact, He has moved Heaven and Earth to position Himself at our heart’s door for He desires an authentic relationship with us.  Christ said it this way, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” 

Now, some believe what the Lord was suggesting is that Jesus came to extend to us worldly prosperity for mankind often equates “living life” with material wealth and circumstantial blessing.  However, that is reading into His statement that which He never intended.  Jesus never promised man such things; rather He simply promised us life; abundant life. (i.e., excessive life, superior life, superabundant life)

 So the question becomes, what does it mean to live?  Not only, what does it mean to live life, but rather what does it mean to be fully alive? 

 

Leaving a Signature of Significance

When we think about it, everyone worships.  Literally, everyone yields their life to something and pursues it authentically.  There are many things in which humanity will seek after and submit their life to; prosperity, position, power, popularity, and prestige are just to name a few.  In of themselves, these things are not evil and wrong to experience, but yielding to these pursuits have proven to be empty accomplishments to those that have achieved them.  Yet many continue to yield there life and worship worldly success.

 However, I am beginning to notice that more and more people are not satisfied with pursuing worldly success.  This discontentment has seeped in for many reasons.  First, some have tasted all the world can offer and it has left them completely disillusioned.  They have been the “lucky” ones in our society and have achieved great prosperity in this life, yet they would be the first to tell us that worldly success is not all that it’s cracked up to be. 

Kevin Lanzerotti: Living and Dying for Christ

On January 18, nine members of our church boarded a Delta flight out of Cincinnati International Airport and headed to Manila Philippines for a brief 10 day mission’s trip.  As you can imagine, the anticipation of our journey was great and the support of our church family was overwhelming.  From the beginning, our mission experience was promoted and positioned to be more than an event in the lives of 9 individuals; our journey was a corporate experience for the entire Fairfield West Baptist Church.  For months we had prayed together and planned together as a local body.  Our church was excited about what we would be able to accomplish as a ministry once we reached our final destination.  

Personal Update About My Hearing Loss

Thanks for all the prayers today. This is going to be a long process to determine what is happening with my hearing. Today the Dr. ordered an MRI and some blood work, but it appears that I have what they call “asymetrical” hearing loss. Although this is not unheard of, it is a bit unusual. However, the best part of today was the gift that the Lord gave me. I saw 3 different doctors and a nurse that took my blood. Without exception they were all Christians. My main doctor even took the time to pray with me. God was simply telling me, “I know and I’m with you.” I praise Him for His excellent greatness.

Afraid of the Dark?

What are we afraid of? Perhaps that is a question that we do not really like to reflect upon.  It’s not that we do not have fears; it’s just that considering those fears causes great discomfort and we are people that thrive on being comfortable.  However, regardless of how we like it, man must figure out how to cope with the fears that confronts him in life.        

 

I could stand here this morning and try to list all the things which people fear, but I doubt I could exhaustively list all the fears of man for there are so many things that create uncertainty, insecurity and anxiety in life.  Although, as we learned last week, peace in life is possible, the reality is there are so many things that rob us of God’s peace and causes us to be afraid. 

“I Can’t Take it Anymore! Give Me a Valium”

Robert Browning wrote, “The year is closed, the record made, The last deed done, the last word said, The memory alone remains. Of all its joys, its griefs, its gains, And now with purpose full and clear, We turn to meet another year.”

No doubt, we need no reminder that 2010 has come to an end.  We have all been made aware that a new day has dawned.  Ready or not, the New Year has come.  But somehow, I don’t think most carry with them the same sense of purpose and hopeful anticipation as Robert Browning.  It just does not seem to me that most Americans have embraced the coming of this New Year with “purpose full and clear” for our future is ambiguously shrouded in uncertainty.  Take the temperature of our nation and we will find that many express uneasiness about these troubled days in which we live and display a level of anxiety about the future.

 

Don’t Give Cheap Gifts

Two weeks before Christmas a nine-year-old girl was walking with her friend down the street, sliding on the ice. The two of them were talking about what they hoped to get for Christmas. They stopped to talk to an old man named Harry, who was on his knees pulling weeds from around a large oak tree. He wore a frayed, woolen jacket and a pair of worn garden gloves. His fingers were sticking out the ends, blue from the cold.  As Harry responded to the girls, he told them he was getting the yard in shape as a Christmas present to his mother, who had passed away several years before. His eyes brimmed with tears as he patted the old oak. “My mother was all I had. She loved her yard and her trees, so I do this for her at Christmas.”

Make the Choice to Grow

The Bible is not silent on real life transformation.  The path to fundamentally changing our lives for the best is not obscurely hidden out of sight nor is it tucked away out of our reach.  For every Christian believer, the path to a transformed life is visible and within our grasp.  We do not have to be the victims of circumstances for we have not been left helpless and without hope.  We can change.  We can be transformed into God’s best. 

 So let me ask some questions.  Do we want God’s best?  I mean do we really want to experience the best that God has to offer?  Do we want to be happy?  Do we really want life to be good?  Do we long to experience something sweeter than merely a self-centered shallow existence?    Do we want to be healthy?  Are we sick and tired of being sick and tired?  Are we physically, emotionally and spiritually lacking in strength and stamina?  Do we want to be holy?  Is there an honest desire to live a life that is well pleasing to God?  Are we hungry to live physically pure and morally blameless?  I wonder, do we really want God’s best?