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Brokenness. Humiliation. Weakness.

This is not the image that we want to embrace in a Messiah, is it? We want strength. We want power.

In other words, we want empire.

The force that ruled the known world in the day of Jesus was the Roman Empire. Supposedly bringing about a universal reign of peace, it ruled by force, and by oppression. Taxation. Military occupation. Extortion. Corruption. Crucifixion.

Often we forget what the cross symbolized in the landscape of the first century world. It did not symbolize forgiveness. It did not symbolize sacrifice and love. It symbolized oppression. It symbolized domination. The cross was the way the Roman Empire dealt with political insurrectionists. It was a show of force. To be crucified was to be humiliated, de-humanized. Crucifixion was so hideous that it took centuries before the Church could visually express it in art.

The Romans did not crucify Jesus as a sacrificial offering. They crucified Him because He was dangerous.

In a world ruled by the most powerful empire in the world, the most dangerous thing you could do is proclaim that a new King and a new kingdom was being birthed right in the midst of the Roman Empire and Caesar.

Jesus came to inaugurate a kingdom – one not built through oppression and domination, but one propelled by love and compassion. And His way was the way of the cross. The cross was the triumph of the kingdom of God – the putting on display of the kingdom kind of life.

A kingdom of hope over a kingdom of despair.
A kingdom of freedom over a kingdom of bondage.
A kingdom of liberation over a kingdom of oppression.
A kingdom of generosity over a kingdom of greed.
A kingdom of love over a kingdom of power.
A kingdom of light over a kingdom of darkness.

“But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” – 1 Corinthians 1:23-25

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 9.15. Live for God, on purpose, because He gave His Son for you on purpose.

The Cry Of Power

Many times as a small boy, I would say something to my parents that would get me into plenty of trouble. Now, I never intended to get into trouble, and I wasn’t trying to say anything that would cause difficulties. And often, it wasn’t the exact words that I said that got me into hot water. My father shared with me a phrase that I have heard many times since the days of my childhood – “It’s not just what you say, but it’s how you say it.”

The meaning of the things we say is quite often determined not just by the exact words spoken, but perhaps more importantly, the way in which the words are said. This has never been truer than when we consider Jesus’ final words as He hung on the cross.

“It is finished.” These three words have been spoken by many people. And quite often, they are spoken in defeat. “It’s over.” “I can’t go on.” “No more.” These are the words of the losing team after a big ball game. These are the words of someone who has lost their job. These are words of sorrow and sadness.

But when Jesus said, “It is finished,” these were not words of defeat, but rather a cry of power! They were the exclamation point at the end of a journey. This was a shout to all creation, for time and eternity that the work of the enemy was defeated, that the reason that Jesus came to this earth was fulfilled, and that the salvation of all who would trust in Him was secured! Indeed, it was finished! No more would sin rule and reign, for the work of the Savior was completed! It is finished!

Because of His finished work, Jesus could then say to His Father, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” You see, Christ was not killed by the crucifixion. Rather, He voluntarily laid down His life to purchase our salvation, and having completed the task, was able to share “The Cry of Power” – “It is finished! Into Your hands I commit my spirit!”

You won’t want to miss this Sunday’s concluding message of our “Cries from the Cross” series, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, victorious over the enemy of all!

Christians Speak Out on Newsweek’s Gloomy Cover Story

by Audrey Barrick

Certainly, gloom is in the air for Christians this week as they are about to observe Good Friday, the day Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross and died.

But the cross is just half the story.

On the third day, he rose again.

In that sense, Newsweek’s April 13 cover story, with the title “The Decline and Fall of Christian America” in the shape of a cross, may have presented more gloom than Christians would have liked, especially during the holiest of weeks.

“Most regular church-goers have heard their less scrupulously observant fellows called ‘Christmas and Easter Christians.’ Well, they also have their counterparts in the mainstream media: “Christmas and Easter Anti-Christians,” said Colleen Raezler, a research assistant at the conservative Culture and Media Institute, in a commentary on NewsBusters.

“How else to explain the spate of skeptical, negative stories that inevitably accompany the two most important Christian holy days?”

When readers pick up the latest Newsweek issue, they begin with a cover with a red-lettered title on a black background. It looks gloomy and almost like a horror film, says Dan Kimball, pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Inside, the subtitle reads: “The End of Christian America.”

Written by Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, the story is based on last month’s highly reported American Religious Identification Survey which revealed that the percentage of Americans claiming no religion rose to 15 percent while that of Christians declined to 76 percent. It also found that the non-religious population, or “Nones,” has shifted away from the Pacific Northwest to Northern New England.

Meacham, a liberal Episcopalian, writes that the declining influence of Christianity is “a good thing,” both for America’s political culture and for Christianity, arguing that Christians are “rediscovering the virtues of a separation of church and state.”

Much of the story also quotes preeminent evangelical Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and what the magazine described as Mohler’s gloomy outlook on the future of Christianity in America.

“‘A remarkable culture-shift has taken place around us,’ Mohler wrote. ‘The most basic contours of American culture have been radically altered. The so-called Judeo-Christian consensus of the last millennium has given way to a post-modern, post-Christian, post-Western cultural crisis which threatens the very heart of our culture,’“ Meacham writes.

“When Mohler and I spoke in the days after he wrote this, he had grown even gloomier. ‘Clearly, there is a new narrative, a post-Christian narrative, that is animating large portions of this society.’“

In response, Mohler, who expressed appreciation for the article, said it was not his intent to reflect much gloom in his analysis of the survey.

“Our proper Christian response to this new challenge is not gloom, but concern,” Mohler stated in his online commentary. “And our first concern must be to see that the Gospel is preached as Good News to the perishing.”

And in the eyes of many Christians, the Gospel is being preached and many are being saved.

To them, what they read on the Newsweek cover does not reflect what they are seeing in churches today.

Pastor Kimball of Vintage Faith Church believes that while there may be a decline of “a certain shape and subculture(s) of ‘Christian America,’“ there is “a rising and surging of missional church leaders, church planters, and Christians who have already recognized that we are in a ‘post-Christian’ America.”

And that recognition has only “fueled creativity, prayer and passion for mission,” Kimball, whose church draws many twenty-somethings, stated in his blog, while noting that many are “rethinking” what it means to be the church.

“Churches may die out in geographic places, but the Spirit is alive and powerful and changing lives, even though certain local churches may close their doors or types of churches lose their effectiveness,” he added. “So it is ironically quite an exciting time period in the midst of this gloomy title and cover.”

Meacham notes in one paragraph that rumors of the death of Christianity are “greatly exaggerated” and mentions that the ARIS authors note a movement toward more conservative beliefs (the percentage of those who identify themselves as “Christian,” “Evangelical/Born Again,” or “non-denominational Christian,” rose to 11.8 percent).

But the small mention is overpowered within a four-page story with bold titles.

“I’m trying to think where he’s coming from,” Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston – the largest church in the country – told CNN’s Larry King on Tuesday, regarding the story.

“I see faith in America at an all time high,” he added. “[W]e’re having church every Sunday in a former basketball arena, with 40,000 or 50,000 people coming out.”

“Now, sometimes I think people don’t call themselves religious anymore, but they do have a relationship with Christ,” Osteen noted. “I think part of that headline is America is more diverse than it was 50 years ago. Just with more different faiths ... And I don’t know that that means we as Christians are any less.”

The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, released on March 9, is part of a series of surveys by the Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. The recent findings were based on interviews with over 54,000 adults in the 48 contiguous states.

as seen in the “Christian Post” on Thursday, April 9, 2009

Jesus

He had no servants, yet they called Him Master.
He had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher.
He had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer.
He had no army, yet kings feared Him.
He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world.
He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him.
He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.
Feel honored to serve such a Leader who loves us!

Because

by Anne Graham Lotz

Because He emptied Himself of all but love, you can be filled.
Because His body was broken, your life can be whole.
Because His blood was shed, your sin can be forgiven.
Because He submitted to injustice, you can forgive.
Because He finished His Father’s work, your life has worth.
Because He was forsaken, you will never be alone.
Because He was buried, you can be raised.
Because He lives, you don’t have to be afraid.
Because He reached down to you, you don’t have to work your way up to Him.
Because His promised are always true, you can have hope!

Why Jesus?

JESUS was born, that I might be born twice.
HE became poor, that I might possess wealth.
HE became homeless, that I might have mansions.
HE was stripped, that I always should have clothes.
HE was forsaken, that I always should have friends.
HE was bound, that I might have perfect liberty.
HE was sad, that I might have full joy.
HE descended, that I should be lifted up.
HE became a servant, that I might be a son forever.
HE was hungry, that I should always have food.
HE was made sin, that I should share HIS righteousness.
HE died, that I should never taste Eternal death.
HE will come down, that I might go up.

All of this – that HE might display in me the riches of HIS grace and be the companion of God in the heavenlies.

The Cross

by Max Lucado

The cross. Can you turn any direction without seeing one? Perched atop a chapel. Carved into a graveyard headstone. Engraved in a ring or suspended on a chain. The cross is the universal symbol of Christianity. An odd choice, don’t you think? Strange that a tool of torture would come to embody a movement of hope. The symbols of other faiths are more upbeat: the six-pointed star of David, the crescent moon of Islam, a lotus blossom for Buddhism. Yet a cross for Christianity? An instrument of execution?

Would you wear a tiny electric chair around your neck? Suspend a gold-plated hangman’s noose on the wall? Would you print a picture of a firing squad on a business card? Yet we do so with the cross. Many even make the sign of the cross as they pray. Would we make the sign of, say, a guillotine? Instead of the triangular touch on the forehead and shoulders, how about a karate chop on the palm? Doesn’t quite have the same feel, does it?

Why is the cross the symbol of our faith? To find the answer look no farther than the cross itself. Its design couldn’t be simpler. One beam horizontal – the other vertical. One reaches out – like God’s love. The other reaches up—as does God’s holiness. One represents the width of his love; the other reflects the height of his holiness. The cross is the intersection. The cross is where God forgave his children without lowering his standards.

How could he do this? In a sentence: God put our sin on his Son and punished it there.

as seen in UpWords. From His Name is Jesus, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2009, by Max Lucado

The Last Impression

Latest news reports are that five terrorist cell groups have been operating in many of our churches. They have been identified as: Bin Sleepin, Bin Arguin, Bin Fightin, Bin Complainin, and Bin Missin. Their leader, Osama Bin Lucifer, trained these groups to destroy the Body of Christ. The plan is to come into the church disguised as Christians and to work within the church to discourage, disrupt, and destroy.

However, there have also been reports of a sixth group. A tiny cell known by the name Bin Prayin is actually the only effective counter terrorism force in the church. This group appears to be very weak. Unlike other terrorist cells, the Bin Prayin team does not blend in with whoever and whatever comes along.

Bin Prayin does whatever is needed to uplift and encourage the Body of Christ. We have noticed that the Bin Prayin cell group has different characteristics than the others. They have Bin Watchin, Bin Waitin, Bin Fastin, and Bin Longin for their Master, Jesus Christ to return.

Which cell group do you belong to?

What a phenomenal time we are going to experience this Sunday here at WFA! Be sure to join us for a dynamic time of worship. You will be inspired by the WFA Worship Choir’s Easter presentation, “Jesus, Savior, Messiah.” And you will be challenged and encouraged by the final message in our “Cries from the Cross” series, “The Cry of Power!” Invite your friends, neighbors and relatives to join you for a fantastic Resurrection Sunday here at WFA!