Religion or Relationship

 

The popular consensus is that all religions are equal. Each individual is entitled to seek God in his own way. All ways lead to God even when each religion gives Him a different name. It then is seen as prejudice to state that one way is better than another, and that religions other than one’s own will lead to eternal damnation. The truth of the matter is that all religions are not the same.

Consider this fact: the gods named in the various religions are not the same, so how then can the religions be the same? For example some religions maintain there is a personal god, i.e., a god who is a person and has a personality (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) as opposed to a god who is a Force who is present in all of nature (Eastern Mysticism, New Age beliefs). Hinduism has many gods and Humanism purports that Man is his own god. So if all these gods are different, how can the ways to approach them be the same? In some religions man is always trying to appease his god while in other religions man is trying to bring out his godhead from within himself.

If religion is “the recognition of and belief in a superhuman power or powers to whom obedience, reverence, and worship are due (Thorndike and Barnhart Dictionary)” and religious duties are those things an individual does to gain acceptance with this power or powers, how one gains this acceptance is affected by how he or she perceives God to be. In other words, all religions are not the same. Some  religions teach the goodness of all men. Some religions teach strict rules and rituals. Some treligions teach definite principles of right and wrong and still some teach that all is relative with no set principles of right and wrong at all.

True Christianity is different in that it does not follow the definition of religion set above. Where religion is Man’s efforts to reach out to God, Whoever or Whatever that may be, biblical Christianity describes God’s efforts to reach out to Man. Biblical Christianity is a love story. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish have
everlasting life.” God created Man to have fellowship with Himself. But Man has gone his own way resulting in separation from God. The Bible is God’s love letter to us explaining how God is seeking to reconcile with us.

God doesn't desier religion. He wants a relationship with us. He doesn’t require a complicated system of obedience, reverence and worship, He seeks to restore a relationship and obedience, reverence and worship will follow. God never pretends that Man can earn His way back into this relationship. True love is not earned. It is just received. The simple truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is this: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).” This has resulted in separation from God. “But God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).” This is the reconciliation. Christ died for our sins. He took our place on the Cross of punishment.

This was God’s plan all along. He revealed it long before Christ was born. It is written in Jewish Scripture. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).” In short, God loved us so much that
He sent Jesus to die for our sins. He doesn’t expect us to do anything, but receive. “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name (John 1:12).” The question that comes to each of us is this, "In light of God’s love will you
choose to love God?"

Is The End Near?

A member  of our church handed me two pamphlets published by Family Radio which is under the leadership of Harold Camping. These pamphlets teach that Judgment Day is  coming on May 21, 2011, and that any person who is associated with any church  will be included in that judgment. It would be impossible to dispute all the  claims made in these pamphlet in this forum in that such an endeavor would involve  producing volumes of material. However, I feel it is important to address the major points and the dangers of Camping’s conclusions.

I will  start by pointing out that Camping predicting the end of the world is nothing new.  In the early nineties, I read his book 1994? (the question mark is part  of the title). In this book, Camping claimed that God’s judgment would come and  that the world as we know it would come to an end in 1994. I have often  wondered how he has explained away his error (apparently he has) and how any  who followed his teaching then would continue to follow it now. In the book 1994?,  Camping used a complicated system of numbers mentioned in the Bible as proof of his conclusions. To  Camping numbers when mentioned in the Bible always have specific meanings. The exact  meaning of each number seems to be established by Camping who leaves no room for disputation.  The fact that the world did not end in 1994 apparently has not caused Camping  to reconsider his system of calculation, in that he has continued his ideas as  evidenced in these two pamphlets.

Camping  maintains that the church age ended on May 21, 1988 and that the Holy Spirit  left churches at that time. He also maintains that anyone associated with a  church, is not saved because churches are full of false teachings and a true  believer would know that. His basis for this is Genesis 7:10-11 which depicts  the coming of the flood of Noah’s day. Camping applies the numbers mentioned in these  verses to predict the coming end-time judgment, something that is not at all  supported by the context of these verses in Genesis. The “strength” of Camping’s  argument lies in that he takes II Peter 3:8 to say that where you see a day in  Scripture is it the same as a thousand years when it refers to God (However, an  honest examination of II Peter 3:8 in context indicates that Peter is using the  expression “a day with God is as a thousand years” to indicate that time as we  know it is irrelevant to an eternal God. Peter was not telling us that where  you see a "day" in Scripture to substitute a thousand years). If you follow this  reasoning to its conclusions then you must also conclude that the earth was  created in six thousand years with God resting a thousand years and that the  floodwaters of Noah’s flood was on the face of the earth for several thousand  years. Nevertheless, Camping uses these numbers in saying that the age of the  church is dead and that judgment is coming May 21, 2011.

It is  easy to get caught up in Camping’s arguments which do have something compelling  about them unless you do your homework and check them out in Biblical context  both immediate and with all of Scripture. That so many Gospel preachers of the  past would disagree seems to leave Camping undaunted. And here is what is perhaps most dangerous about his teachings. He believes that salvation is all  of God and none of man (no disagreement here), but he sees this to mean that although  one may want to receive God, he can only be saved if God chooses to give him  that perfect faith to do so. Coming to Romans 10:13 which says, “Whosoever  shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved” is not enough according  to Camping whose God may turn away sinners seeking to come to Him. Belief, before we are saved is not enough because it is a work. The only belief that suffices is that which comes after we are saved. To Camping preaching that teaches men that that when you  call upon the name of the Lord you are saved is heresy becaues when you call God may or may not chose to give you that saving faith. The only  hope Camping's teachings give us is that we can pray to God repenting and hope that God will choose to save  us. In his interpretation, he destroys the promises of God expressed in John 3:16 and Acts 16 :31 all the while claiming he is not doing so. It makes one wonder
why anyone would follow his Gospel of uncertainty.

The setting
of dates for the coming judgment is nothing new. Many of the cults have begun
with just that. However, when the date arrives and the predictions of the cult
have not come about, usually the cult becomes discredited or it changes its
teachings in order to survive. The fact that Mark 13:32 says, “But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not
the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” referring to
the time of judgment, seems lost on Camping (who instead quotes Acts 1:7 which
is not as specific) who quotes Ecclesiastes 8:5 (“Whoso keepeth the commandment
shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and
judgment.”) out of context to mean that a righteous man will know that
which has not even been revealed to Christ Himself.

Camping in his zeal has caused much harm. This preacher has
encountered those whose confidence in Christ have been undermined because even
though they desire to be saved are not convinced that God has chosen them.
Camping confuses the issue of the Gospel. In a separate publication (I Hope God
Will Save Me), he undermines the Biblical principle of Whosoever Will by saying
that this means we must believe with all our heart soul and mind, which does
not happen until we are saved. Accordingly we can’t choose to be saved (he sees
that at a work on our part). God must first save us. In his teachings the
simple message of the Cross is lost. God calls the Whosoever wills. We come. He
will give us the necessary faith. He will not turn us away.

Camping has also done damage to local churches. More than one
individual has left his church because Camping says that only unsaved
individuals remain in them. The fact that we teach that any who will receive
Jesus is saved, receives condemnation from Camping who claims this is a false
teaching of the devil. To receive salvation one must believe (which he sees is
a work and not a saving belief), pray, read God’s Word and hope God will
save him. The power of the Gospel is destroyed in such teaching. Doesn’t it
reduce it to works? I rest upon “But as many as received Him to them gave He
the power to become the sons of God even too them who believe on His Name”(John
1:12). Here we have the idea of “Whosoever”. I’m glad I’m a “Whosever”.

So will the world end on May 21, 2011? Absolutely not! How do   know? Because Camping says it will, and  not even the Son of Man knows. I wonder what  Camping will say May 22. We don’t have that long to wait.

Science or Faith?

“I believe in Science” is a phrase this pastor has been hearing more and more often. Often attached to it is: “I don’t believe in organized religion”. These two statements perhaps sum up an increasingly popular movement in our society to reject the traditions of old and to seek new modernized avenues of thought. There is something very right in a healthy examination of traditions, because to accept traditions for tradition’s sake can cause us to be caught in the mistakes of the past. However, we must consider that when we replace these traditions we replace them with ideals based on strong foundations. Many people are choosing Science as that foundation. However, is Science sufficient enough a foundation to on which to base our eternal destinations?

Hebrews 11:3 gives an interesting comment on this matter: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” In other words, there are things we cannot know except by faith. The origin of the universe, the meaning of Man, Man’s final destination, are all areas where Science has attempted to provide answers, but has produced unsatisfactory results. The reason ought to be obvious. How can finite Man locked in space and time hope to understand things that are eternal in nature?

However, the One Who transcends time has given us answers to what we need to know. These
answers are found in a book which starts with these words: “In the beginning, God…” This book is of course, the Bible which never attempts to prove the existence of God but merely states it. To many this is too dogmatic. They want to leave things open to a plethora of ideas. To state that the God of the Bible is the reason for our being is too narrow minded for them and smacks of  “organized religion”. Such people prefer to keep an open mind, but their open-mindedness can by nature, lead to no conclusions, and if they are truly honest, only to utter frustration.

The truth is, we must begin somewhere. To reject the existence of God based on principles of Science, is to try to explain what Science by its nature was never meant to do. In addition, to reject the existence of God because you prefer Science over faith, is unreasonable in its own right because Science itself begins with statements that are accepted by faith. For example, the Theory of Evolution has many principles upon which it has been built that are not universally accepted by all scientists. This results in so many differing versions of the Theory of Evolution current today, each based on the set of principles accepted.

Is the only alternative all this, to believe in “blind faith”? Those who have accepted the God of the
Bible do not believe we have done so in “blind faith”. We realize we had to have a starting point. That starting point was these words: “In the beginning, God…” The rest is getting to know Him.

Always Saved? Part II

Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.


This passage in Galatians clearly contrasts the life without Christ and the life with Christ. The characteristics found in verses 19-21 are those of a person who is without Christ. The true believer ought to display the characteristics found in verses 22-23. We are to have “crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof". However, we know we are not without sin (1 John 1:8), and we know that when we do sin, we can have our fellowship with God restored (1 John 1:9). But what about the believer who falls back into a repeated pattern of sin, whose life begins to resemble the characteristics of the flesh described above. Is the passage in Galatians telling us that such a person has lost his salvation when it says, “they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God”?
To answer this, we need to consider what the word “salvation” means. Salvation means deliverance from the power and consequences of sin. This deliverance begins at the moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and continues until the day Jesus returns (Philippians 1:6). Deliverance is both an accomplished fact and a process. Our lives are still affected by sin and will be until the day Jesus returns. This is a bit of a paradox. I have been saved for eternity, but I still battle with sin in my life now. I need to experience each day God’s deliverance from sin. How much I experience this deliverance depends upon my willingness to yield to the Holy Spirit. Each day I have the opportunity to grow closer to Christ, each day as I surrender to the influence of the Holy Spirit, I experience more of the blessings that are mine in Christ’s kingdom. In contrast, each day I do not surrender to the influence of the Holy Spirit, but instead walk according to my own fleshly nature, I do not receive the blessings of God’s kingdom.

The believer who has fallen back to live mostly in the flesh is most miserable indeed. He is not receiving the blessings which are his inheritance as one of God’s own, yet he cannot be truly happy in his life of sin because of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit within him. The question is whether the Holy Spirit ever leaves the child of God making him no longer a child of God. Scripture tells us that the Spirit can be “grieved” (Ephesians 4:30--saddened, given grief) and quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19—His influence is suppressed). The disobedient believer may be removed from this world (Acts 5:1-10; 1 Corinthians 11:29-32), but nowhere in the New Testament do we see the Holy Spirit being removed from the believer In fact, in Ephesians 4:30 where it says, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption”, there is no warning to the believer that he might lose the Holy Spirit, but rather an affirmation that he is sealed by the Holy Spirit. Consider this, if one seals an envelope, it is sealed. That which is inside the envelope cannot break the seal. The Holy Spirit seals the believer in Christ. The believer cannot break that seal. Only the One Who made that seal, God himself, can break it, and He will not.

So then, does a child cease being a child of God, because of sin? If so, we all are constantly falling out of that position because according to I John 1:8 we all do continue to sin. Some address this by saying that we are no longer God’s child when we do great sin or habitually sin. This type of supposition completely destroys any security in Christ. For if one accepts this idea, then how do I know what the limit is? How can I ever be sure I have not sinned away my salvation?

Consider John 3:3 which states that a believer is “born again”. 2 Corinthians 5:17 calls the believer a “new creation”. Can a child once born be then unborn? Can a new creation be uncreated? The position of the believer as described in Scripture is a permanent one. Consider the parable of the “prodigal son”. The son spends his inheritance. He loses all, turning from his father, until he languishes in the misery he made for himself, and finally comes to his senses and returns to his father who never gave up on his son. Did he stop being his father’s son at any point in the story? Of course not. And so it is with a believer who wanders away from God. He may be disciplined (Hebrews 12:7-8). Or God may choose to take him home early (1 Corinthians 11: 29-32). But in either case, a true child of God never ceases to be a child of God.

Notice the reference here is to a “true child of God”. There are those who associate with Christians, act like Christians, and think they are Christians. These are so Christian like that they even have convinced themselves, much less those around them that they are children of God. These are those that are the “stony ground” described in the parable of the sower. These are those that live a Christian-like life until they fall away when it no longer suits them. These are they that never had any root. They were never born again. They may have said a prayer. They may have gotten active in church, but only God knows their true heart. These have not lost their salvation, for they never had any to begin with.

So, how can one be sure he is a child of God? John 1:12 tells us if any will receive Him, meaning Jesus, he has the power to become a child of God. To receive, means to accept Him as Lord and Savior, giving your life to Him. Romans 10:13 says whosoever shall call shall be saved. The Bible is clear God calls us, we receive. So blessed are the words of John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Only God can save. Only God can keep.

Once Saved—Always Saved (or is Eternal Security a Biblical Doctrine?)

“How can you say that a Christian cannot lose his salvation? You are teaching that a person can do whatever he wants and still get to heaven?” The words were spoken in an angry tone after a church service during which I had spoken on the topic commonly referred to as “eternal security”. The person responding was clearly agitated and insisted that my teaching was giving people a blank check to do whatever they want with no fear of eternal repercussions. I assured her that this was the farthest thing from my intentions and that a true believer will not want to continue on in sin because he now has the Spirit of God within. However this lady was not fully convinced. She went on to give examples of those she knew that were once believers, but now were living in the deepest sin. My answer to this was one that is commonly given in such situations—that such a person in so living was demonstrating that he had not been truly saved in the first place. The individual confronting me seemed placated at this but kept saying, “Just so long as you’re not giving people permission to sin.”

This incident has caused me to more carefully scrutinize what I believe according to Scripture and to consider how I express the Truth to others. As the apostle Paul, I certainly do not believe that we have permission from God to do whatever we want once we have made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. When confronted by this very issue, Paul said, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein (Romans 6:1-2)?” Paul’s point is that we have been saved from sin. We have been released from its bondage. Consequently, why should we want to go back? “…work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12)”, are Paul’s words to the Philippians. Taken in context, we realize Paul was not saying that their salvation depended on their work, nor does this fear and trembling referred to in this passage say that they were to fear losing their eternal salvation. The term work refers to exercising or making full use of our salvation which is our deliverance from sin. The fear and trembling refer to the danger of falling back under the influence of sin.

We tend to confuse the terms eternal life and salvation. Salvation means deliverance from sin and the consequences of sin. Eternal life is one of the results of salvation. Those who use Philippians 2:12 to prove that our continued salvation is dependent on us, often fail to quote the following verse which says, “For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.” God is the One who works out the salvation from sin in our lives. The emphasis is on God here and not on us. Paul never advocated that Jesus brings us salvation us, but we have to keep it. In fact, Paul emphasized that God saves and keeps in Philippians 1:6 where he states, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ.”

The point of all this is that it is God who saves and keeps. Romans 8 states that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35-38: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.) I am thankful for a salvation from which I cannot be separated.

The Tower Of Babel: A Political Message For Today?

The Tower Of Babel


Genesis 11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The story of the Tower of Babel is one of the more striking ones in the Old Testament. Theologians today are divided as whether to see it as a fable that teaches a profound truth or an actual event. One of the basic standards of Bible study is that when the literal sense of something in Scripture makes sense that is then the sense of it to take. In other words, if the Bible says it happened, it happened. This being said, the story of the Tower of Babel ought not to be taken as a fable, with moral lessons for today, but as an actual event recorded for us by the God of Scripture who has important Truth for us to learn from this event in history. The story of the Tower of Babel is not an allegorical lesson on human political ideals (i.e. a condemnation of Socialism and Communism) as some are saying today, but rather a true story that points out the basic nature of man and his need for a mediator to bring him to God.

In the story of the Tower of Babel, we see man’s separation from God and his attempt to reach heaven without Him. Of this Matthew Henry had the following to say: “In contempt of the Divine will, and against the counsel of Noah, the bulk of mankind united to build a city and a tower to prevent their separating. Idolatry was begun, and Babel became one of its chief seats. They made one another more daring and resolute.” The Tower of Babel was the beginning of organized religion to which end would be to reach heaven without God. The Tower of Babel illustrates the presumptuousness of man. God was not needed. They would build a great civilization without Him and a great religion as well.

The Tower itself has been described over the ages as on tremendous in height—as much as twelve miles and being forty years in construction. The truth of this will never be known until Christ’s return when all things are revealed. However, it is clear that this was some tremendous project never seen before its time, and required the cooperative efforts of the bulk of the people. Another thing that is clear is that it was religious in nature. It was the effort of the men of that day to reach into heaven. It may well have been the prototype of the heathen temples down through the ages where pagan rituals including human sacrifices were performed. It was an effort that if it succeeded would take mankind down an irreversible path of destruction, but God intervened. The people were confounded. Their speech was divided into different languages. They separated.

God intervened as He always does sooner or later. The people were divided on the basis of different languages, but there came a day when these languages were put aside when on the Day of Pentecost the Apostles of Jesus Christ proclaimed the Gospel and every man heard in his own tongue. The message of the Tower of Babel is that man’s sin put a division between him and God. The message of Pentecost is that God sent a Mediator between man and God. This Mediator is Jesus Christ.

The story off the Tower of Babel is not meant to be one with a political message, but rather the message that man has sinned and desperately needs a Savior Who is Jesus Christ—God the Son (not a son)—God Himself who became a man and took on the sins of all mankind at Calvary. Man tried to reach up to God through the Tower of Babel, but God reached down to man through an Old Rugged Cross. So sweet are the words of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And again: John 1:12 "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name:" God found a way to reach down to man, but we must receive His Son.

Bearing The Cross

How often do we hear the expression: “Well, I guess that’s my cross to bear” referring to some situation that requires someone to put up with adverse circumstances. Too often we encounter this attitude that Christ had to bear suffering on the cross, so we each will have our suffering to do also. After all, isn’t that what Jesus was referring to when in Luke 9:23 He said: “… If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me”?

The People’s New Testament expresses this way of thinking when it comments as follows concerning Matthew 10:38 and Luke 9:23: “The cross is the pain of the self-denial required. The cross is the symbol of doing our duty, even at the cost of the most painful death. Christ obeyed God, and carried out his work of the salvation of men, though it required him to die upon the cross in order to do it. And ever since, the cross has stood as the emblem, not of suffering, but of suffering for the sake of Christ and his gospel.”

However, the Bible does not refer to the Cross as an emblem of suffering but rather as the place where Jesus died for our sins. It was on the Cross that God “…made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). It was there at the Cross God accomplished “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross (Colossians 2:14).” While the Cross was indeed a place of suffering for Christ the emphasis of Scripture is that it is the place of redemption, the place where “….our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforh we should not serve sin (Romans 6:6).

Paul, in his epistles, speaks much about the fact that believers are identified with Jesus’ death on the Cross. For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead (2 Corinthians 5:14). “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:11). I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

When Jesus said each one is to take up his own cross, He was not referring to the suffering each would experience but rather to the fact that we must identify with His substitutionary death for us on that Cross. We need to account that our sin natures were crucified on that Cross. This is what brings us salvation and this is what gives us the power to live a victorious Christian life. Yes, Christians will suffer many things for the cause of the Gospel, but Jesus came to give us abundant life (John 10:10). “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,” He said, “and I will give you rest”. Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” Even in our sufferings He gives us rest.

The Cross is to be a symbol of our victory in Christ over sin and death. To take up the Cross is to identify with Christ’s sustitutionary death and to account that our old nature is dead and that through the power of the Holy Spirit we live unto Christ. The verse in Luke says to take up the Cross daily. We are to daily account ourselves dead to sin and alive unto Christ. In Matthew, we see that we are to deny ourselves. We deny our self sufficiency. We cannot save ourselves. No amount of good works or suffering on our parts can get us in bit closer to heaven. Only Calvary can.