Week of 3/26

Crusader’s Devotional

03-26-2013/ Tuesday

Hello to all! Hope everyone had a good week and learned lessons of the good of God and the evil of the liar. I’ll tell ya, I feel sometimes like a newspaper reporter at a wild horse round up! A little dazed and confused and just trying to not get ran over. Let me explain one of this week’s lessons for me. 

My friend May and I went to a “western” supply store this week and I saw a lot more than I wanted. I saw eighty dollar pants, three hundred dollar pair of boots, City “dude” hats and almost everything you could think of marking ways that symbolized a lifestyle, but had no concept of the substance of the people they were trying to sell their stuff to. What I thought of most were all of the crosses I saw. I saw cross necklaces, boots with a cross on them, hats with crosses on them and belts and buckles covered with crosses. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love seeing the cross and people wearing them, but remember the old saying, “Never call him a cowboy until you see him ride?” Sadly, it seemed to me the cross has become a selling trademark rather than its true, much deeper meaning. 

I ask ya, does wearing a Denver Broncos jersey make you a Denver Bronco? Having and wearing nice clothes make you a person of class? Does wearing a cowboy hat make you a cowboy? Does wearing a cross make you a Christian? 

Being honest, I’ve seen some men with some sort of the cross on them so drunk he couldn’t hit the ground with his hat in three tries. I’ve seen women in their cross jewelry struttin’ like a turkey gobbler in a hen pen and heard both men and the women folk cussin’ so bad it would burn the grass for yards around while wearing the cross. It makes me think of my personal favorite passage, Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

When we wear the cross, it is saying that you are a Christian and that symbol means we must conduct ourselves in proper ways. Once you put that cross on, in any form, your actions and words are no longer yours. People will judge the Kingdom by your representation. 

“For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of uncleanness.”(Matthew 23:27). Atonement, through the Cross of Christ, means that God can put us back into perfect oneness with himself through the death of Jesus Christ, without anything coming between us any longer. Never tolerate, because of sympathy, what is not in good keeping with the Holy God. Place your words, actions and very thoughts under scrutiny of God himself. Think of that next time you put on your cross. Represent the kingdom well and make all Christians proud. Make people say, “I want to be like that.” Love all of ya. 

Remember: Don’t forget to live all the days of your life.

May grace and peace come to you and thankfulness for it to be given. 

In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of the Nazarene.

Cowboy Pastor: Ty