I like to think of myself as mildly sentimental and personally reflective.  So here is my abbreviated and random list of the best and worst things about the year 2008.  Feel free to agree or disagree, but remember that I am typing this post while 2 boys, still jacked up from holiday sugar, jump all over me and my Mac, while cartoons play in the background.  If I finish this post, it will be a miracle.

1.  BEST MUSIC OF 2008 (and worst)

A Matchlight in the Darkness - By Lee McDerment.  It is a crying shame that most of you have never heard of this guy.  He is a very good friend and the worship pastor at Newspring, and this record is phenomenal.  Not a bad song to be found, epic crowd pleasers and monster guitar work, as well as contemplative and stripped down hymns and laments.  I am telling you, if you do not get this record, you will regret it once you finally hear a track.

The Heat - By Need To Breathe.  A very close second, this is just an instant classic.  And these boys are from the upstate of SC and sweat like Springsteen when they play.  Run, don’t walk, and get this record.

Chinese Democracy - By Guns N Roses.  You would think that with 14 years, $13 million and 15 different studios and producers, Axl Rose could have come up with something better than this hyped-up disappointment.

2.  BEST MOVIES OF 2008

Slumdog Millionaire takes the cake.  I prefer this movie, obviously, because of my many trips to India, but also because of it’s authenticity, real street grit, and triumphant storyline.  It is raw enough to be real, and not Hollywood enough to ruin it.  A true story of nobility in the face of loss and poverty.

Bella - Oh my goodness!  Finally, a well made film with a Christian worldview that is not cheesy, preachy, or starring Kirk Cameron (no offense, Kirk).  I am partial because I am adopted but if this film were to be a reality in the church, we could stop trying to make abortion illegal through the courts and politicians and see it fade away, or at least diminish, by caring for the moms and babies that often get forgotten in the arguments.

3.  BEST BOOKS (THAT I READ) IN 2008

Instead of giving comments or synopses of each book, I will just list the ones that left an impression and that I would read again.

The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns    Kahleed Hosseini

The Historian   Elizabeth Kostova

Christ The Lord; Out of Egypt   Anne Rice

Evil and The Justice of God and Simply Christian   N.T. Wright

The Humor of Christ   Elton Trueblood

Death By Love    Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

Adrenaline and Stress   Archibald Hart

4.  RANDOM BESTS AND WORSTS

Best Concert - Bruce Springsteen and the Easy Street Band

Best TV Show - Lost and AWA Wrestling on ESPN Classics

Best New Podcast Subscription - Broad River Community Church and All Souls Church, Langham England

Worst TV Show - I don’t know cause if they stink, I don’t watch them

Worst Movie - I couldn’t tell you.  Movies are a rare treat for me and Charie, so we do our homework before we go to make sure we don’t see a stinker.

Biggest Meltdown - The Dallas Cowboys.  My favorite tea, whom I still love, but goodness gracious, get rid of T.O. and stop self-destructing!

Most Hopeful - The Clemson Tigers.  Tough year guys, lost a coach and lost a close on to Nebraska, but a new coach and some good recruits will hopefully make a for a better year.

Most Delicious - Deer tenderloin taken from one harvested on my own property  

Favorite New Nation - Malaysia

Favorite Ministry Moment - Seeing nearly 700 people saved at Winterfest

Best Moment - Leading my son to Christ and baptizing him in the river at my home

Most Difficult Thing - Seeing my dad recover from triple bypass heart surgery

Most Challenging Thing - Finishing a manuscript for a new book out this spring

Most Annoying - All things Brittney Spears and politics

I am reading the Sermon on the Mount right now.  Or maybe…it is reading me.  Seems to be a theme in my life.  Anyway, something struck me the other morning in Matthew’s account of the greatest sermon ever preached.  It was a comment Jesus made to the gathered listeners on the side of a mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee, a crowd that consisted of Jewish peasants, farmers, rural artisans and nationalistic Roman-haters.

The comment was made in reference to the occupying Roman (read “gentile, pagan, unwanted, despised”) powers.  Caesar had appointed a puppet king in Herod, who is famous for his amazing building projects as well as his insecurities and manic fits of murderous rage (he slaughtered members of his own family in paranoia that they were plotting to overthrow him).  One of his sons was ruling Israel when Jesus preached these words and Jewish nationalism was at a fevered pitch.  It was in this context that Jesus said, essentially, “…if a man asks you to walk a mile with him, do it.  Then walk another mile with him.”

Scandalous!  Unheard of!  Jesus was clearly referring to the Roman law that allowed any Roman soldier to stop a Jewish man on the road and compel him to drop what he was carrying in order to assist the Roman soldier in bearing his load.  Or, the solider could have simply made the Jew carry his load out of laziness or a power trip.  But the law only required the Israelite to walk one mile for the solider.  Not two.  Only one.  So Jesus tells his listeners to go beyond obligation.  The second mile is not an obligation, it is an opportunity.

We quit too quick.  We want to get by with the absolute minimum.  We bail out after our obligation is completed.  In looking for the easiest path we fail to develop the muscle and the endurance for the second mile and we miss the opportunity that most often lies in doing the difficult and denying our rights to rest, relaxation and respite.  The point in demanding that the Jews walk two miles was for them to show the Romans that they were different from them.  They did not demand, they offered.  They did not compel, they invited.  The children of Israel were operating from a different worldview, one of simplicity and goodness and virtue found in the God of scripture.  The Romans operated from a worldview of power, conquest, and greed.  Roman hearts could be won, one at a time, by simple acts of radical service that went contrary to the expectation.  Freedom was to come not from a Jewish uprising or a revolt, but from the internal liberty of being free to serve your enemy, testifying to the transforming power of God in a person’s soul.

The only way for the good to win over the evil was to go beyond the expectation.  The second mile in our lives makes the “Roman” world ask why we would go the extra distance under such a heavy burden.  The second mile opens up conversations that would never happen in the first mile.  The second mile makes us better humans and better Christians.  It builds the muscle we need to carry the gospel and the endurance we need to remain faithful through the seasons of life and not just for a season of life.

Go beyond obligation.  You will only find opportunity when you walk the second mile.  And don’t worry about the burden wearing you out.  You can rest when you reach your destination.

MARGIN.  This is the one thing I most look forward to at Christmas.  If my life is a piece of paper, then I usually fill every line and inch up leaving little space for spontaneity or leisure.  The margins of my life are usually filled, and the last few weeks of the year afford me time to not be in hyperdrive.

This is very difficult for me.  I am an American and a country boy and for me, being busy and productive is the expectation.  I know how to do lots of things, and I need to do lots of things, and most days I end up doing lots of things.  The funny thing is, most of my best friends are just like me.  Most of my best friends are pastors and ministers and we all fall into the same wagon-rut of life; people have needs, we are ministers, and God uses us to meet their needs.  But who meets ours?  I mean, besides Jesus (the good Sunday school answer, of course).  And do we ever have the time, take the time, or make the time for margin?  For most of us the answer s simply NO.  The tyrannical job of getting things accomplished, crossing another item off my daily list, or getting the number of emails in my inbox below 150 (no kidding) marks a successful day.  

But there are days like today when doing nothing much at all seems to begin to center and settle me.  I can’t sleep late, so the day began at 6 AM.  But instead of feeling the press and pull to get a jump on the day and it’s accompanying list, I chose to remain calm and kept everything slow.  I made eggs for my two sons, their favorite breakfast, and drank french-pressed Broad River coffee at the table while they sopped egg yoke with toast.  Then we planted winter rye on the dirt road leading to the the river on our property, where the water has begun to wash out a ditch.  We took our time, raked it well, and covered it with straw, beating the rain by a few hours.  When I put JoJo down for his nap, I cheated and took one, too, right beside him in the bed.  I even covered up under his blanket.  And when I awoke 2 hours later, I didn’t feel the least bit guilty.  I ate peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon and drank milk from the carton to wash it down.

Guess what I am doing right now?  Watching DVR’d episodes of old Tom and Jerry cartoons with my 3 year old, preparing to go eat hot dogs and cake with my family at a birthday party for one of Jacob’s 6 year old friends.  And tomorrow, for the first time in 10 Sundays, I get to go church with my family.  I have no plans for the rest of the day, or the next 3 days.  And it feels scary and exciting.  It is a joy to not have every available spot in my life planned out and filled up.  There is a deep, deep part of me that feels relaxed and refreshed when I stare down the day ahead of me and say to it, “You belong to me today, I don’t belong to you.  I can do whatever I want, or whatever my wife and kids want me to do.”

It is not just a joy to have a few days to breathe, it is a necessity for mental health and spiritual renewal.  And hot dogs at a 6 year old birthday party, followed by ice cream and cake, make it that much better.

The above statement was made by Browe, the young man sitting beside me on the flight from Nashville to Charlotte on Sunday.  But you absolutely MUST hear the context of this statement.  Trust me, you will be amazed and disgusted, not so much at the man who said it, but at the worldview behind it.

I preached at one of my favorite churches Sunday called Longhollow, right outside of Nashville.  The Holy Spirit was clearly calling people to salvation with over 150 people (mostly adults) repenting of their sins publicly and beginning a relationship with Jesus.  I rushed to the airport and barely made my flight after church.  The guy that sat beside me was reading a book by Sam Harris; one of the many recent books touting atheism as the only hope for the survival of the human race and blaming religion for everything that has ever gone wrong in history.  I was reading Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice.  Based on our books, I knew that we were going to have a compelling conversation, if he was willing to talk.

He was.  Once I proved to him that I was not a fundamentalist who believed in bombing abortion clinics, we had a good little chat.  I won’t bore you with all of it.  It was the basic philosophical banter where we both made our points and listened respectfully to the other’s counterpoint.  But as the plane landed in Charlotte, I felt like I needed to wrap things up by pointing out to him the illogical nature of his argument against God and ultimate truth.

I asked a simple question.  ”Since you don’t believe in God or absolute truth, how do you decide what is right and wrong?  What higher authority do you appeal to for your morality?”

He replied, “I do not believe in good and evil.  There is no right and wrong.”

“You can’t possibly believe that!  How can the world exist when nothing is right and nothing is wrong?  That sounds good in a philosophy class, but it doesn’t work in the real world where people have kids and jobs and marriages.”  I thought this was a good response to such an insane statement.

His response was quick and concise.  ”There is not right and wrong, there is just personal preference.  And people with the same personal preferences usually get together and make laws and rules based on what they prefer.  The majority rules.  That is how the world works.”

I decided go for the jugular, not to win the argument but to hopefully jolt him out of his misguided worldview.  So I thought of the most vulgar, ugly, wicked, sinful act of despicable evil I could think up, and threw it at him like this…

“So if a man were to kidnap your daughter, take her to a remote location, abuse her and rape her, then murder her and cut her up into tiny pieces, would that be wrong and evil?

His response was simply unbelievable.  ”No.  Not at all.  Since I don’t believe in right and wrong, I can’t say that it would be wrong.  I would prefer that people not rape and murder children, but it is not right of me to make a judgment call and declare anything good or evil.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  This is the new worldview, the one embraced by our culture at large.  Anything goes.  Nothing is wrong, everything is ok, and there is no real God or ultimate truth that guides us or calls us to account for our actions.  And since there is no God, there is no heaven or hell or eternity, so why would we want to live a life of virtue, good, service, and kindness to others?  There is no purpose in it.  Life becomes meaningless and people become a combination of proteins, cells and D.N.A.  And in that world, where rape and murder are not wrong and people have no value placed in them by God, anything goes.  Holocaust.  Genocide.  Infaniticide.  Government corruption.  Corporate greed.  Let the demons loose!

I finally said, “So if there is no right and wrong, I could take a gun out and blow your head off, kill you in cold blood, and go on a killing spree across Charlotte, and it would be okay?  If you believe that, then you are educated beyond your intelligence.  I would not want to live near you, and would never let you near my kids.  And I would also hate to be your wife, because you could cheat on her and it would not be wrong.  And I would be afraid of you if you were my daddy, because it would not be wrong if you decided to abuse, molest, or beat me.  Sounds like you have a great view of reality, as long as you live in complete and utter isolation from the rest of the human race.”

I pray that Browe (his grandmother’s German maiden name) sees how foolish and wrong his worldview is. Would you also pray that Jesus Christ becomes a reality to him and that he gets saved from his sin and himself?  I pray that Christians see that more and more people see the world this way, and that we are prepared to give them the truth with love and boldness.

I have an idea for you to consider, and it will be a great blessing to some children who really could use some help this Christmas season.

I have just updated my website and I now officially have an online store where you can purchase my books and DVDs.  These items are for sale, of course, but I want to do something special for some amazing children in India that are dear to my heart.  For over 12 years, Crossroads has supported the ministry of Hopegivers.  This ministry takes care of thousands of orphaned children all over the world, but primarily in the lovely nation of India.  They have had a tough year financially, as many ministries have, and their founder, Dr. M.A. Thomas recently suffered a stroke while recovering from pneumonia.  

So beginning today, anything that is purchased off of http://claytonking.com/ck_shop/store.html will go directly to the ministry of Hopegivers.  And as long as I get the order by Monday, December 22, I can get it to you in time for Christmas.  Just log on and click the “store” tab, you can pay by credit card, debit card, check card, etc., and you have lots to choose from.  All the profits from everything I sell between now and Christmas will be given directly to their ministry, one of the largest on earth with over 11,000 churches in their fellowship and thousands of orphans in their care.

There are 4 books, including one on dating and marriage, a devotional I co-authored with my wife, and Journals of A Madman, my first and funniest book containing the strangest things that have ever happened to me in my life (chased by the Russian Secret Police, being thrown off the stage at a Motley Crue concert, and seeing God raise a baby from the dead in the Himalayas).  There are also 7 DVD box sets, each containing 4 video messages, and the topics include Evangelism, Discipleship, Dating, Marriage and Family, the Church, Leadership and Ministry, and Missions.

 And if you cannot support them financially by making a purchase, I do ask that you pray for their ministry and for Dr. M.A. Thomas.  Thanks for taking the time to come alongside a ministry that is touching tens of thousands of lives daily in Asia.

http://claytonking.com/ck_shop/store.html

I am 36 years old.  This is important for me to remember, especially at meal time.  As a young man with high metabolism, I could gorge at every meal and never worry about gaining an ounce or getting sick.  For me, food was about VOLUME.  The more quantity I could devour, the better deal I felt like I was getting out of a meal.  Now wit a bit more age and perspective, I prefer smaller meals with better quality.  They leave me lighter, healthier, and happier.

Preachers, listen up.  The same principle applies to our calling to teach and preach the gospel.  I tend to feel like I need to load up on illustrations and applications.  I need to include every theologians perspective on every biblical issue and leave no stone unturned .  I want to include humor and quote C.S. Lewis at least once in every message.  The results of overbaked sermons is usually three-fold:

1. They are rushed because we want to make sure we make it through our outline and notes

2. They are slightly boring and lifeless because we have so much information in them without enough inspiration to motivate folks to move on what they hear

3. We are worn out after the message and the crowd is fatigued because we preach too long

I have learned that not only in my sermons, but that in worship services as well, this is the best principle to abide by: LESS IS MORE.  Do not get caught in the trap of believing that you need to fill the stage with every solo artist, mime troupe, silly announcement and Carman skit on earth.  The most frustrating thing for me as an evangelist, without a doubt, is arriving at an event where I am to speak and realizing that there is an hour of STUFF scheduled before I preach.  Very little of this has to do with the gospel and many times it just ends up being entertainment for people who are not entertained by it.  (By the way, most worship bands would do well to practice the LESS IS MORE concept by limiting their sets to no more than 25 minutes.  If people aren’t singing by the 3rd song, they won’t be singing when you are on song #7).

When I know I have to wrap up my sermon in 40 minutes, I cut through the superfluous  comments and humor and get straight to the goods of scripture and application.  I don’t waste time.  And when I watch myself online, my sermons are better, they flow more smoothly, and my words count.  I can say more in 40 minutes than I can in 60.

So the next time you are involved in a team approach to planning a worship experience or outreach event, or the next time you sit at your desk with a bible and commentaries to prepare your message, just tell yourself that LESS IS MORE.  The people you are serving with your gift will be glad you did.

When someone is talking nonsense, a common phrase used in an attempt to shake them from their ineptitude  is, “Listen to yourself!”  Evidently, the assumption is that if they could just hear what they are saying, they would realize how embarrassingly off base they are, immediately cease talking, and apologize for their error.  Funny that this phrase now applies to me, since that is EXACTLY what I have been doing lately (thanks to a stomach virus that has laid me flat on my back and forced me to do things that require little or no motion, like listening to an iPod).

That’s right, I have been listening to myself, and watching myself, online.  Sounds conceited, huh?  Trust me, it’s not, and even if my intent was originally self-serving, I quickly lost all sense of self-flattery.  Have you ever listened to yourself or watched yourself talk, sing, or preach?  It is pretty humiliating the first time you do it, but if you can get beyond that initial phase of being shocked at how high pitched you sound, how fast you talk, or how southern you sound when you drop the -ing’s off the ends of all your words, listening to yourself is quite beneficial.

I want to be the most effective evangelist and preacher I can possibly be.  To do that, I need to take inventory and check my internal motives and my external delivery.  If I never watch myself or critique myself, then how I am to know if I could tighten things up a bit in order to become a more effective and anointed communicator?  Now that I have over 20 sermons on iTunes, and thanks to Newspring and Elevation Churches, I can listen to and watch myself anytime I want.  And it is amazing…there is a vast difference in how good I remember a sermon being that I preached versus how good (or bad) it really was when I saw it in real time.

Listen, ministers…very few people will tell you that you need to do things better, try new techniques, shorten it up by 10 minutes, or stay closer to the text and use less humor.  Most of your congregation is just too nice to tell you that you are boring, or over-dramatic, or long-winded.  So unless you have invited a handful of trusted parishioners to speak to you about your sermons, or unless your wife is bold and ruthless enough to tell you when you need to evaluate (God would that ALL wives do this for their minister-husbands), then chances are the only way you will ever honestly evaluate yourself as a preacher is if you find a way to critique yourself.  And you really need to, by the way, because you are not nearly as good as you think you are, or as bad as you think you are.  

The first time I heard my own voice preaching was 1987, when I listened to a cassette of my first sermon at age 14.  I could not believe what I heard; it was hideous and frightening.  My pastor told me that when we talk, we hear our own voices with our inner ear, but when we listen to others talk, we hear with our outer ear, which is why we sound so different to ourselves when we listen to ourselves the first time.  The same is true with us preachers - we think we sound a certain way to everyone else, but we only sound that way to us.  We need to step back and get a better perspective on how everyone else hears us.  They are the outer ear, and they are what matters.

So I dare you, listen to yourself!  And don’t get bent out of shape over it, have a laugh and learn from what you really sound and look like.  It will make you a better teacher and proclaimer of the gospel.

Friends, I am not always on the cutting edge of technology, but thanks to Al Gore, I really believe this internet thing is going to eventually take off.  And based on that prediction, I have placed over 20 audio sermons on the world wide web for your listening pleasure and spiritual edification.

You can find these messages at 2 locations, and keep in mind that they were delivered in various places over the past 4 years to a wide array of audiences (Clemson University, Crossroads Summer Camps, Elevation Church, Newspring Church, The Heights, Liberty University, etc.)  You can find them at www.claytonking.com

And you can also enjoy them for free at iTunes.  Simply type in Clayton King or Clayton King Live and you can download them to your iPod and you can also subscribe to the podcast to get new sermons when they are available.

And finally, I had the great honor of preaching for one of my best friends, Pastor Steven Furtick, at one of my favorite churches yesterday, Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.  I preached a message on The Lordship of Christ and the importance of setting Him apart as the center and King of our daily lives.  You can watch it on the livestream here.

And incase you like to read really good books, I would highly recommend one I found for $3 at a used bookstore recently, based on a recommendation in a sermon from Mark Dricsoll.  It is called The Humor of Christ by Elton Trueblood, and is one of the most unique and interesting books I have ever had the joy of picking up.

The common objection to teaching about or preaching on the cross actually comes in various forms.  Here are a few that are heard regularly in our day, and they all flow from a self-centered worldview where we want things neat, clean, and safe.

1.  There is no need to relive the grotesque event of the crucifixion today because it makes people feel sick and uncomfortable.  They may not come back if we feature the cross in our preaching.

2.  In our advanced and highly sensitive culture, the cross makes God look like a bloodthirsty, vindictive monster.  This is not the kind of God we want.  We are not comfortable worshipping that kind of God.

3.  Our focus on the cross should not lie in the disgusting details of the event, but rather in the selfless example of Jesus as He teaches us how to live by His example.  

There are many more objections to the preaching of the cross, but these 3 seem to dominate.  I would like to make a few points concerning these objections, not for those who adhere to these statements (because few if any of them read what I write in this forum), but for pastors, teachers, ministers, evangelists, missionaries, and Christians who want to live obediently under the Lordship of Christ and serve faithfully in their calling to the gospel.  YOU are the person I write to and for, to be an encouragement and prophetic voice spurring on the body of Christ to living the gospel.

If you notice, those who fail to preach the cross or who have a problem with all the blood and gore always push back against it based on some personal, internal sense of discomfort.  They don’t like images of torn flesh being used in sermons.  They don’t enjoy being reminded of the flogging of Christ at the hands of the Romans that left His back torn to shreds, exposing His ribs and possibly His internal organs (the flogging that preceded crucifixion often killed the victim before they could make it to the cross).  Personally, I have had well-meaning Christians offer to me that they get queezy or feel sick at the mere mention of blood, torture, and excruciating pain.  Could it be that as a culture, we have become so averse to discomfort that we just can’t stand being uncomfortable in any situation?  The cross should sicken and offend us.  It is a mirror reflecting our sin back to us, as well as God’s serious measure to deal with our sin once and for all.  And the cross should never be preached apart from the resurrection, for they are ONE EVENT and indeed cannot be separated.  Nor should the story of Golgotha become an R-rated shock-sermon to simply get people worked up emotionally with feelings of guilt, then get them to an altar for a quick time of catharsis.  The love of God must be pre-eminent when the cross is preached.

Another element of these objections is that large groups of people, presumably in corporate worship, don’t need to be reminded over and over again of the death of Christ, but simply need to be told how to live victoriously now; how to be financially stable, maritally happy, and vocationally satisfied.  Again, the crucial mistake in this objection is that it places US in center, the place of prominence and importance, and it elevates what WE want to hear above what scripture declares and admonishes us to preach.  Anyway, how can we live victoriously, stand strong in suffering, enjoy our jobs and our marriages, were it not for the sacrifice of Christ on the cross?

Every objection to the cross holds at the core a proclivity towards ease and comfort, an aversion against anything that points toward our own selfishness and sin, and a distaste for being told that we are wrong, wicked, lost and hopeless.  But that is the beauty, the magic, and the mystery of the cross!  It does exactly what we think it WON’T do.  We assume that the full practical and theological preaching of the cross will turn people off and turn them away.  However, the opposite is true, and we cannot explain it.  When the gospel is proclaimed, and Christ is seen as murdered and resurrected for our salvation, people are drawn to Him.  The love, the sacrifice, the selfless act of dying for others, touches a deep chord in the human heart, and sinners are beckoned to consider Jesus when they are told of what happened on the cross and at the tomb.

One final thought…what is the that one thing about the cross that makes it both so ugly and so beautiful?  Why does it create in us both a need to turn away from it in disgust as well as embrace it with humility?  Perhaps I am oversimplifying, but I believe it is because the cross simply makes people look at Jesus.  When we see it, we see Him.  A Roman cross by itself is as worthless as the wood it was made from, but when the Son of God climbs on that cross, it takes on a new ethos and compels us to consider our ways, to repent in brokenness, and to receive the crazy love that Jesus offers us.  If the cross is a mirror that reflects our sin back to us, then it is also a spotlight that shines on Jesus, magnifying His suffering and glory.  God the Father and God the Holy Spirit unleash their love, conviction and grace when God the Son gets the attention from us that He deserves.  And there is no better way to give our attention to Him than by looking at, embracing, and preaching the cross.

This seems to be the underlying question among so many younger Christians today, particularly those in college who were raised in church and are now in theology classes where they are taught to question everything they have ever heard, read, or been taught.  Recently at a regional seminary, there was a great debate in a class on the cross of Christ.  The professor informed the class that the traditional, orthodox teaching on the cross (that it was brutal and bloody and necessary for our salvation and for God’s wrath against sin to be averted and satisfied) was antiquated and outdated.  The professor then said that the cross was simply an example of a willingness to serve humanity; an example Jesus gave us to follow so that we might live the rest of our lives serving others.

This is correct insofar that the cross beckons us to die to selfish desires, shallow materialism, and arrogant pursuits.  But is that it?  Is that all?  Is the cross MERELY AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW?

Maybe we should ask the apostle Paul that question.  He made the cross of Christ the central element of his gospel message.  Consider what he said in Colossians 1:20 when he stated, “…hrough Him to reconcile all things to himself on earth and in heaven, making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.”  

If the cross is merely an example to follow, then Paul missed he point by emphasizing the blood of Christ too often.  The fact that the blood of Christ is made central simply points to the unjust brutality of His murder, the debt that had to be paid as required by Old Testament law, and the severe nature of the crucifixion of Christ on calvary.  I don’t believe the blood was magic, as some ancient sects would have declared.  But I do believe it was perfect; perfect in a way that allowed God to accept it as a sacrifice worthy of all His forgiveness and grace.  The blood magnifies the cross, and the cross is paramount to our preaching and living the gospel.

It is counter-intuitive to our human nature to put such importance on such a gross, disgusting and unsettling theme.  But that is exactly the reason why we MUST preach the cross of Christ; the very nature of that cross is to unsettle us, to disgust us at the reality of our own sin and wickedness, and to see how very serious God was about dealing with our sin and reconciling us to Himself.  And as strange as it seems to our post-enlightenment brains (which tell us to preach common sense and make people feel good), when we preach the cross and make a big deal out of the scandal of His crucifixion and resurrection, God mysteriously touches hearts and minds and lives are undone, convicted, changed and regenerated.

Why does this work?   I will tell you in the next post.