Facing 2020 in the Light of the Cross

Great truths are greatly won, not found by chance, nor wafted on the breath of summer dream, but buffeting with adverse winds and tides. -Samuel M. Zwemer Cairo, 1918

The events of 2020 have upset every person's nest; we are face-to-face with a terrific upheaval in life - covid-19's continual unpredictability, the violent anarchist ideology and violence of Black Lives Matter, threats from China, and the political storm of the upcoming election.  There is no civilized security anywhere on the globe.

We have seen that there is no such thing as a Christian nation, we have seen the unutterable futility of the Woke Church and Critical Race Theory, and many of us who have had no tension in our lives have been suddenly obliged to face things we never intended to look at.

These very things must be shown in the light of the Cross. Because only in Jesus Christ who is so like His disciples can we face this turmoil and stress, and stand with Him in the shadow of a great agony, undiscouraged and unafraid.

There is really only one mystery in the universe; it is the mystery of redemption.  The way we approach holy ground is nearly always through suffering.  Those that carry the cross after Jesus best understand why and how He first carried it, and how the nails pierced not only His hands but also His heart.

It's time for us as God's people to end our careless and superficial Christianity; it's time for us to gird up the loins of our minds and be sober.  Once we put on the belt which Paul calls "sincerity" and Peter "humility", the message of the Cross will grip and convince, and bring us to a deeper faith and walk with Christ.

Adapted from Oswald Chambers" The Shadow of the Agony, from talks on redemption given by Oswald Chambers to soldiers at the YMCA camp, Zeitoun, Egypt, August 14 through 27, 1917