Journey to the Cross: Day 35

Ever talked to a friend of yours who didn't believe Jesus was God, but just a good moral teacher? It's easy to just try and find common ground with friends who believe that and agree that he was a good moral teacher (sure we believe that he was more than that, but why be pushy).

The problem is that Jesus can't be simply a moral teacher if he isn't God. Instead he'd have to be a conman. Read this.

Journey to the Cross: Day 34

In one of his most beloved books for children, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis write about one character in particular who undergoes transformation unlike any other in the story.

Eustace, a rather spoiled and selfish child, is cousin to the main characters Lucy and Edmond. On their journey across the ocean with a crew of mythical people and creatures, the ship reaches a island where they dock and stay for a few days before continuing their voyage. Eustace, inflamed that he doesn't get his way on the trip, decides to leave the crew and explore the island. Soon into his exploration, he looses his way within the foggy woods and becomes bewildered.

He finds a dragons cave and climbs in, only to find, not a dragon, but gold and treasure! Greedily, he hoards it for himself. Sitting upon the mountain of treasure, he falls fast asleep, worn out from his exploration. He, then, wakes up later to find himself changed magically by his greedy heart into a dragon.

Perplexed and doomed to live the rest of his life alienated on an island as a dragon, all hope for Eustace seems lost...until he meets Aslan, a mysterious lion who possesses divine-like authority in every story of the Chronicles of Narnia.

Eustace the dragon is terribly afraid of the lion, though he obeys him when the lion tells him to undress himself from his skin. As he scratches off his scales and skin, he is crushed to find layers of skin and scales underneath. He cannot change who he is on his own. Later Eustace recalled:


"Then the lion said --but I don't know if it spoke-- You will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down and my back to let him do it.

"The very first tare he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt."


...And that's what did it for Eustace. He became a boy again and who he was on the inside was transformed.

In Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, the character Aslan is symbolic of the Judeo-Christian God. In each of our personal lives, we have or we will come to realize that we can't save ourselves from our own sin. We can change who we are. It takes God the Father, through the work of his Son and ministry of the Holy Spirit, to tare away the dragon skin of our hearts and give us new life. It may hurt to reveal all of who you are to God, but until you do, you're never free.

Journey to the Cross: Day 33

High School Ministries at Wooster Grace just finished a month long emphasis in taking ACTION by healing the hurts of other in the name of Jesus. In Nick's message today, he discussed how Christians must have compassion on people in our world who are forgotten. Pointing to scripture, he took us to James 1:27 which says:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Is it funny to think of God accepting a type of our religion? What does the word "religion" mean? The word means to perform worship and ceremony to God. It's the outward expression of someone's journey to the cross. God is pleased when we live out our faith and show what we believe by taking ACTION.

High School Ministries committed today to have religion that God accepts by looking after orphans. We're sponsering one orphan from our orphanage in Cambodia. We showed this video at the end of the service. It has footage from Wooster Grace's orphanage with its students and director. Enjoy!


Asia's Hope from Wooster Grace Students on Vimeo.

Journey to the Cross: Day 32

While World War II and the rise of Nazi Germany brought about some of the worst terrors and tradegy in global history, it also made way for some men and women to "own" their faith. In the midst of the hard times, some Christians got stronger in what they knew about and did for Christ.

One such man was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A well known theologian of the 20th century, Bonhoeffer devoted his life to uniting the church and taking action in the name of Jesus Christ. In addition to his ministry in and with the local church, he also joined an secret underground team who's mission was to assasinate Adolf Hitler.

Bonhoeffer has been quoted saying "When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die."


How do you respond to that quote? Has Christ called you to follow him? If so, have you died yet? Think hard about that questions. We say this because as Christians in modern times, we sometimes feel entitled to many things that Christ might be calling us to die to. Things like:

- A Retirement package.
- Comfort in life.
- Having the latest technology (cell phone, computer, whatever).
- Privacy.
- Being married and having a family.
- Going to College.

These things aren't bad, but their not the ultimate goal in life. The soul purpose and meaning of life is to follow Jesus. Are you willing to leave behind something if it means following Jesus more closely?

What can you die to (or let go of) this week that you normally feel entitled to have? How could letting go of it help you follow Jesus more closely?

If anyone was a man of his word, it was Bonhoeffer. He followed Jesus all the way to his death. Arrested in April of 1943, he was led to the gallows just two years later. As he passed his inmates as he was escorted out, he told them, "This is the end, but for me it is the beginning of life."

Resources used: Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together (San Francisco: Harper Collins Pulbishers, 1954), pp. 7-13.

Journey to the Cross: Day 31

Check out this site. It's about well known people who are on the journey to the cross. These are their stories.

Journey to the Cross: Day 30

If you've read through the gospel books of the New Testament, you've read about how Jesus refered to himself as the "Son of Man." For instance, Matthew 17:22 says "When they came together in Galilee, he [Jesus] said to them, 'The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.'"

Often times, we can certainly see how Jesus was a man, while seeing him as God can be a lot harder. The verses in scripture when he calls himself the Son of Man don't seem to help either. It makes you think, So, Jesus, are you just a man?

Mark Strauss, professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary, shows the beauty of that title and why Jesus would call himself that if He was fully God. Take a Bible out and underline this verse:

"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of haeaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence." ~ Daniel 7:13

Wow, what a picture! When Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, he's got this Old Testament verse in mind. He obviously knew it because the Old Testament was more memorized and internalized by the Jewish nation than by any other group of people. He, of course, was acknowledging his humanity by the very conotations that came with that title, but at the same time, he also was referring to the autority and divinity that talked about in Daniel 7:13. And isn't that picture so true of who we believe Jesus is? The next verse in Daniel goes on to say:

"He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."

Now that's God! That passage was written a long time ago. If you fast forward from when that verse was penned up to the life of Jesus, you'll hear Jesus say stuff like this:

"But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." ~ Matthew 26:64.

Now that's God: Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man.

Journey to the Cross: Day 29

Wanna be more like Jesus? Read this and find out how you can today.