The Power of the Cross Video

I have set Stuart Townend’s brilliant song - The Power Of The Cross - to a series of photographs, to draw attention to the words. See the video below. If you would like the better quality WMV file for your own use, please get in touch via email, or leave a comment after this post.

Sing - Choirs of angels!

Well, it is that time of year again when we send each other cards and gifts and exchange festive greetings to one another. This year my wife and I actually got round to sorting out our Christmas cards before the last Saturday before Christmas! We actually set up a scene using a set of decorative angels, took a macro shot on the camera, got loads of them printed, stuck them onto red card thereby producing our very own custom made card.

Inside the card we printed the words: ‘Sing, choirs of angels’ (from the carol - o come all ye faithful), followed by ‘Glory to God in the highest’, which is the words that the angels sang.  May this Christmas be one that brings glory to God in the highest as we remember the first ‘Christmas’ all those years ago and are struck with amazement once again at who Christ is and the wonder of the incarnation. 

 Happy Christmas and a fruitful 2008 to you all.

The Christian Life

Sometimes an interesting photo catches my eye and sends a mental memo to the imagination department of my brain, which sends one back with a Biblical theme or even a single verse. I will, from time to time, publish such pictures and try to summarise the thought process behind the image.

Last week saw the annual London Marathon, a gruelling 26.2 mile race in difficult conditions. The above picture was that of one of the more interesting runners, who went round the course carrying a wooden cross. The runner’s motives for doing such I do not know, but the picture nevertheless highlights two important aspects of the Christian life.

1) The Christian life is a marathon not a sprint

Christ told His disciples in Matthew 24 v 13: those who endure to the end shall be saved. For those of us whose Christian walk is longer than the Dying Theif’s there is a fair amount of enduring to do.  Let us, says Hebrews, run with endurance the race that is set before us (12 v 1), and as Paul tells the Corinthians, run the race as an athlete who wants to win, in other words - with endurance. Not everyone who competed in the London Marathon went home with a medal, but only those who completed the race, those who endured. Those who endure to the end, in the Christian life, will recieve the medal, they will be saved. 

2) As we run the race, we must take up our cross

In Luke 9 Jesus is addressing would be disciples, much in a way that an athletics coach will address prospective distance runners. If anyone desires to come after Me, (follow Christ on the discipleship run), let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. (v 23).
In taking up the cross we take on the essence of the Christian walk. On our way to heaven we endure hardships, we endure persecution, we experience a death to the world, all because we run our race having taken up our cross and doing so daily as those who are determined to endure to the end. May God give us grace to do so in His strength.