Day 12 – Issue 13

Be Still Know

1 Corinthians 1:18 NLT

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!

Paul identifies that the message of the cross is nonsense to anyone who isn’t a follower of Jesus. It is nonsense for a variety of reasons, many of which are becoming more acute as society heads increasingly towards an inequality based upon evaluating success according to wealth and position.

But we are invited to invest all our hope and entrust our future on earth and into eternity into the hands of a man branded and executed as a criminal. Jesus never acquired the status of a Gandhi or a Mandela, leading a people from tangible oppression to tangible freedom. His unique contribution lay in the promise that his death would demolish the barrier separating humanity from its creator, and that his resurrection would re-establish personal friendship between the divine and the human.

In following Christ there can never be more substantial evidence than the testimony of those who follow Jesus, testimonies stretching back to the resurrection itself. Building one such testimony by choosing to live by faith in Christ’s resurrection will prove to be an uncomfortable space to occupy.

It is this message of death and resurrection that gives you both your true identity and your focus for living on the earth. No matter what your ‘day job’, you remain first a faithful follower of Jesus, enjoying access to God through prayer and knowing that your life is secured for all time. No matter what the messages from media and colleagues, we are invited to live according to a message that the majority around us find foolish. You are to be a fool for Christ’s sake!

QUESTION: How do you feel when others treat your beliefs as nonsense?

PRAYER: Lord God, even when others around me see belief in you as foolishness, yet will I follow you. Help me when I find this hard.