Journey to the Cross

Pause

Loving God, bring your Word to life for me today. Plant it deep in my heart. Give me ears to hear your tender voice.

Listen

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed. But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved. It is written in scripture: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the intelligence of the intelligent. Where are the wise? Where are the legal experts? Where are today’s debaters? Hasn’t God made the wisdom of the world foolish? In God’s wisdom, he determined that the world wouldn’t come to know him through its wisdom. Instead, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching. Jews ask for signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those who are called—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. This is because the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Think

The culture tells us that the goal of life is to be the most successful, wealthy, beautiful, or most powerful person you can be. The message is clear: climb “the ladder” in your school or profession and you can have it all. In contrast, God’s word asks us to consider what, if anything, is at the top of that ladder.

Years ago I met a man who had achieved all of his professional dreams by the age of 39. He told me that he had been raised an atheist, and so he built his life around the wisdom of the world, climbing, climbing, climbing that ladder of success.

He was surprised when he got to the top of the ladder and became the leader of his billion dollar corporation. “When I go to that top rung,” he told me, “I was stunned to realize there was nothing there… absolutely nothing. I felt emptier than ever before.” Only then did he consider the “foolish” idea of faith. What the world couldn’t deliver, he found in Jesus.

Wade Griffith

Pray

Dear Lord, continually open my eyes to the truth. Sweep aside any illusions that would tell me that I can climb my way to wholeness and joy. Turn me around. Draw me into you, the source and the one who makes me complete. Amen.

Go

To believe in Jesus is to receive his costly love. To follow him is to share that love with others.

How will you share the love of Jesus today?