Articles for tag: Calvary

April 29, 2016

Christian Standard

Guilt and Forgiveness

By Mark Krause Guilt. Oh, how we manipulate our lives to avoid, deny, or relieve any sense of guilt! No one likes to feel guilty, but once we get the feeling, it has staying power. We need to do something to alleviate the burden of guiltiness. Some people try to remove guilt by consulting a friend or therapist who tells them they”ve really done nothing wrong. But true guilt cannot be dismissed so easily, so the feeling lingers. Some seek a dialogue of forgiveness with the offended party. But this may be denied or impossible to us, so the guilt

February 1, 2016

Mark A. Taylor

At the Foot of the Cross (Easter Devotions for Our App)

Get Ready for Easter . . . At the Foot of the Cross Editor Mark A. Taylor has written a set of six meditations for the week leading up to Easter. This collection of devotions, titled At the Foot of the Cross, is available at no cost via Christian Standard’s free app. At the Foot of the Cross offers a meditation for every day in the week before Easter. These devotions offer a fresh look at the thoughts, fears, and motivations of those who saw Jesus die at Calvary””people like Simon of Cyrene, the Centurion, the robbers crucified with him, and his mother, Mary.

November 20, 2015

Christian Standard

Condescension that Brought Redemption

By Victor Knowles Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death””even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8). Communion is an incredible story of condescension. The Christ, the Son of the living God and the creator of the cosmos, condescended first to a lowly manger and then to a rugged Roman cross. It never happened

September 25, 2015

Christian Standard

A Glimpse of Tomorrow

By Tom Ellsworth At the time many condescendingly referred to it as “Seward”s Folly”””because U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward brokered the deal and was its biggest promoter””but the purchase of Alaska from Russia was anything but foolish. Rich in gold, copper, and oil, its value has far exceeded the 1867 purchase price of 2 cents per acre. Part of this grand acquisition (twice the size of Texas) is a tiny island with a big story. Only 2.8 square miles in size, Little Diomede Island rises out of the water in the middle of the Bering Strait and is

March 28, 2014

Christian Standard

Nothing but the Blood

By Kay Moll In his book The Applause of Heaven, Max Lucado tells of an earthquake that struck Soviet Armenia in 1988. Just before the earthquake, a young mother named Susanna, along with her 4-year-old daughter, had arrived at her sister in-law”s apartment. The whole building collapsed, and Susanna and her daughter were trapped under tons of concrete and debris. Help was tortuously slow in coming. The two were trapped for eight days. Susanna”s heart was pierced by her child”s pitiful cries for something to drink. In the midst of the nightmare, she remembered seeing a program on television about

January 4, 2014

Christian Standard

Living on Less

By E.G. “Jay” Link What does God want us to do with all he”s given us, especially when that is so much more than we need? Deciding on the answer to that question requires some changes in how we view and how we use what we have. Recently I received an e-mail with the subject line, “You can live on less when you have more to live for.” This profound and thought-provoking statement so struck me that I literally stopped my expeditious handling of all my e-mails and just pondered it. This is not a statement about an involuntary “belt-tightening”;

April 26, 2013

Christian Standard

Foolishness and Communion

By Tom Lawson   “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). What could be more foolish than Communion””a little bread and grape juice or wine through which we are invited to experience Christ? Perhaps the only thing more foolish is saving the world with some wood, a few nails, and torn, bleeding flesh. We like to make the chasm between the spiritual and the physical as clear as the difference between day and night. The unseen spiritual is

February 15, 2012

Doug Redford

In the Garden

By Doug Redford Last summer our local newspaper featured an article about urban farming in the Cincinnati area. It described how people began growing gardens in various locations throughout the city, not only as a hobby but also as a way to provide additional food. One man was rather philosophical about gardening. “I started seeing how gardening made people happy,” he said, “how it started changing the whole community, and it just took my heart.” Then he added, “In a garden, you control your own destiny.” That last statement, to use gardening language, deserves some cultivation. It brings to mind

May 23, 2011

Christian Standard

Lesson for May 29, 2011: Water of Life (Revelation 22:1-9; 13-17)

This week”s treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson (for May 29) is written by Ron Arnold, senior pastor with Kaimuki Christian Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. ____________ Water of Life (Revelation 22:1-9, 13-17) By Ron Arnold Water department trucks in Honolulu display the slogan “Pure Water””Our Greatest Need””Conserve It” to remind the people of Hawaii to use this limited resource sparingly. This is true in the islands, and may be true in your area, if we”re talking about the physical realm. It”s only a half-truth in the spiritual realm. In the Scriptures, water is a symbol of life flowing from

April 3, 2011

Christian Standard

A Fitting Memorial

By Bob Hostetler At 6:55 on a cold March evening, 12-year-old Valerie Webb, who lost her father in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York”s World Trade Center towers, threw a switch that sent twin towers of light into the sky. The bright beacons, a tribute to the nearly 3,000 lives lost at that site, seemed a fitting memorial for the horrible acts that left a gaping hole in New York”s skyline . . . and in America”s heart. When something of that magnitude happens, it”s only natural””and right””to want to mark it and remember it. On the

January 10, 2011

Christian Standard

The Cure for Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

By Jon Weatherly Nothing alarms church folk quite so much as problems with the young folk. So it was about five years ago with Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton”s book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Smith and Denton”s research produced the phrase “moralistic therapeutic deism” to describe the typical American teen”s view of God. It”s “deism” because the god of the typical teen is mostly distant and uninvolved. It”s “therapeutic” because that distant god still wants everyone to have a happy life and occasionally is willing to get involved when a person has an

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