Amazing Grace

Joel's Wednesday night youth group is watching The Passion of the Christ for Advent. Advent, the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, is to me a time of reflection, preparation and meditation over the coming of Jesus. I don't think there could ever be a better time to watch this movie. It puts the Nativity in a whole new light.

When you scan the Christian landscape you see crosses everywhere. You see them on car bumpers, on skateboards, on necklaces and even on chocolate candies. Wearing a cross is like being a part of a club. The Cross has become so watered down. It is little more than a symbol, like the golden arches at McDonalds or a mascot for an NFL team. 'I'm a Christian. I'm on that team. I wear a little golden cross.'

But tPotC shines a blazing spotlight on the cross. It shows it in the true light of what it really is. The Cross was pain, anguish, humiliation, suffering, torture and execution. It isn't a safe little symbol. The cross is life or death. You either kneel before the cross or are crushed under it.

Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:
" 'The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?
"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."
-Matthew 21:42-44

The Passion of Jesus Christ isn't a cute, little nursery rhyme. It's the most powerful story ever told. The Cross has the amazing ability to change people. It empowers the weak and makes them stronger. It takes the hopeless and gives them hope. The Cross can take a group of tattooed outcasts and make them leaders. It can take petite teenage girls and make them heroes. It can take those with seemingly nothing.... and give them the grace that only Jesus Christ can afford. He doesn't give you trivial things that the world offers. He gives you what you need. He offers you life, love and peace of spirit.

And why is His grace so amazing? Because it's FREE!!! The price has already been paid. The work has already been done. Jesus chose to walk down that path of pain and suffering because He loved you so much. He paid every fee, every fine, and every penalty so that you and I can become free. All we have to do is believe in Him, confess this faith with our mouths and start a new life with Him in our hearts.

Walking with Jesus is easy once you make that first step. He carries the load for you. He fills you up with a new feeling inside. You are like a detergent that is NEW and IMPROVED. And soon you see the fruit of this new relationship. Jesus gives you what you so desperately need. He has done it for me. Let Him do it for you.

Call on Him today. It’s toll-free!