The famous first national Salvationist here in Sri Lanka, Arnolis Weerasooriya whose picture we all walk past every day said something about the cross. Can you remember reading it, it is on his picture. That’s right he said, “Cross is the attraction.” He died from cholera some years later on the Mission field in India. Paul also saw the cross as an attractive thing, as a thing to be blessed by. The cross, an instrument of torture, a tool of death, this spectacle of suffering and drowning in one’s own body fluids, is seen as a blessing, but why?
Paul knew that to suffer for the gospel was to become like Christ, he preached Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, Christ the power of God.(Refer 1 Corinthians 1:23-24)
The blessing of living for and perhaps suffering for Christ is coming to know the power of God and the wisdom of God, to boast solely in the Lord.
We struggle with this blessing; we struggle with becoming Christ like. We want comfort. Sorry let me take ownership here, I struggle with this blessing no matter how much I know it to be true, I WANT COMFORT, I want an easy road, I want people to like me and some to even agree with me. The idea of being nailed to the cross is terrifying!