Pastor's Corner

for Sunday 9th Jan
Crucifixion was and still is one of the cruelest ways to kill a man. So when we mention the cross, Jesus’ pain and suffering immediately come to mind. What does the cross of Jesus mean to you? There are two messages that come to us from the cross. The first message is that God loves us. “For God so loved the world…” Think of this, that while Jesus was hanging there; experiencing excruciating pain; He had already endured hours of humiliation where He had been spat on, beaten, scourged, mocked and ridiculed by the crowd and even now as he hangs on the cross people are passing by and shouting insults at Him. Yet Jesus says, “Father forgive them.” Jesus is the friend of sinners. Sin, not the nails, kept Him on the cross. If you ever doubted that God loved you; if you ever doubted that you are precious in His sight, look to the cross and see how much He loves you.
The other message that comes from the cross is the seriousness of sin. Sin is no small thing; it is no trivial matter with God. Sometimes we trivialize sin; we excuse sin. We say, “I made a mistake” instead of saying “I sinned”. Perhaps we do things that are sinful and think “God will forgive me.” God’s love should never be used as an excuse to continue in sin but rather to move us out of sin. If you’re taking sin too lightly look to the cross. If that’s what it took to fix our “mistake” it must be very, very serious.
So as you focus on the cross of Jesus, remember that forgiveness didn’t come cheap and then praise God that He loved you so much that He was willing to pay the HIGH price of your salvation.
Pastor Don.