this is a sermon title that i saw many years ago...and here it is again, easter time...and the christian world is rejoicing with choirs and lilies and the pagan world is having easter egg hunts and bunny shows...
I was reading this morning a very old book (recently i don't read anything much that isn't about a hundred years old) about rees howell, the famous intercessor. something he preached pierced my heart..."when I saw Him I broke down at the foot of the Cross and I have never recovered."
my heart echoed with these words. the sting of the statement pierced and throbbed in my mind. when have i ever really understood what it means to break down at the cross?
the resurrection means nothing without the Calvary.
i have a choice to make. Do i glance at Calvary and hasten on to the empty tomb to rejoice? to sing "he's alive" or the "hallelujah chorus" and dance in the streets?
Or do I allow myself to linger there in the agony until the reality of what Jesus did "breaks" me, changes me, in a way that I will never recover from...the movie "the passion of the christ" did not tell the half of it, and i could hardly watch it. how can i stay there in my mind until it's real? until it gets inside of me and gets ahold of me and i don't have to rush through the black friday gloom and on to the sunday glory...
Death is the prequel to life. real life cannot occur until there has been a death. i don't understand this, can't.
i glimpse it darkly. let me change those old words just a bit, to try to hang on to the depths of what i'm discovering, again...
"when i see You, i want to break down at the foot of the Cross, and never recover."
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