Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
Then he said to them all:
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”
Luke 9:23-25 (NIV)
Twenty-six thousand (26,000) children a day.
That was the number the speaker mentioned last week to all of us who were gathered for a missions conference.
That number, he said, is the number of children around the world who each day starve to death, or die from diseases which are preventable by medical treatment available in most other countries. Every day. I don’t know where he got that number, or whether it is accurate; but based upon other things we all know which are going on in the world, sadly it may, in fact, be true.
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But enough of that, the conference is over now and Easter is coming soon. And on the way to Easter, we’re in the middle of the season recognized by the Christian church as the season of lent, a season of preparation and reflection, heading toward Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday, that glorious day where we celebrate again the Resurrection of Christ.
We’ll color a few Easter eggs, have Easter egg hunts for the little ones, talk about what the Easter bunny left in our Easter baskets, put on our finest Easter attire and have Easter dinner. And someone will talk about the Risen Christ, as once again, on that Sunday, I suspect that more people will attend Easter sunrise services and other Christian services around the world than at any other time during the year.
Christ the Lord is Risen!
Indeed.
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And on the way toward Easter we’ll pass right through Good Friday again. The day that Christ hung on the cross for those then and for you and for me today—His day of ultimate sacrifice for you, me, everyone. He was pointing toward that cross, with His words in the scripture above as he was speaking to his disciples.
It wasn’t a pleasant thing for His disciples to hear—especially the part about taking up their own cross if they wanted to follow Him—taking the same road of sacrifice and personal denial that He was on. They wanted to follow Him, but they had hoped He would establish His kingdom there and stay a while and rule, and they would be given places of honor and comfort with lots of perks. But He was persistently annoying and kept pointing them to the cross and talking about sacrifice and things like “gaining the world but losing your soul.” It’s not what they had hoped for.
Sacrifice for them—they would ultimately find out for their loyalty—would mean death; for us today, well, maybe not death too often, but it means denial of self, turning from the things of the world, and maybe even denying ourselves things and stuff.
But only on the road to the cross. Only if we choose to follow Him.
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Twenty-six thousand (26,000) children a day.
Christ the Lord is Risen!
Indeed.
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2010. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
