I received many wonderful, beautiful and thoughtful Christmas Gifts this Christmas. But, I would like to share one very special gift I received from my son, Jon. It is crystal and a CROSS. My son purchased this in Prague and travelled with it in his hand Christmas Day for ten hours on a train ride. A day later he flew nine more hours with this crystal cross in hand across the Atlantic.
WOW, my cross made it without a break or even a crack. This was the first time ever Jon had not been home for Christmas. Things change, time shows how our children grow up. Time shows the wrinkles in our face and many other things that bring both joy and sorrow. But, one thing remains so steady and that is LOVE and The CROSS.
Why, because Jesus is Love and Jesus is The Cross. He is the Son of God and He is The Savior of The World. I have found a very special place in my home for my new crystal cross and you can be assured I will never forget this special Christmas and the love given to me by my son. I have also found a special place in my heart for Jesus who made the cross possible for you and me and all that choose to embrace His Cross.
I am so grateful and thankful to Jon for this cross and his many other exciting gifts he so generously shared this Christmas. Also, for Chris and his many wonderful gifts to me along with his wife, Tammy. I am writing here today about Jesus Christ and His Cross because Chris has made this page possible as his gift to us. I am very thankful. Even more thankful that they all love Jesus and the Cross and embrace it. Yet, I want to be like Paul and Glory only in the Cross. Paul writes to the churches, “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14)
I would like to invite all that read this to share in this Cross. For those that have never embraced Jesus as Lord and Savior, I hope you will today. I hope for others that have and yet have allowed other things to take your focus off the Cross of Jesus will once again turn your eyes and look at The Crystal Cross!
thedailylily.com 
Thank you for the message of the purity of the cross. What struck me when I read this blog is that Jesus carried the nations on His shoulders when He died on the cross.
Isa 9:6 says: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
This verse talks about a royal son, JESUS who was of the linage of David. Counsellor points to the Messiah as King. who determines and carries out a program of action. Therefore Jesus as Messiah carried out a royal program that caused all the world to marvel. He was the ONLY ONE who could carry out GOD’s plan. He did it, He died, He took on all our sins, He overcame Satan and Death, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He was the pure sacrifice, just like that crystal cross. No sin did He have. We who believe in Jesus as our Savior are reunited with God because of JESUS sacrifice. He bore our sins on His shoulders to make a bridge to the Father. Your belief enables you to walk across His shoulders into the Father’s presence. There is no other bridge, just Jesus.
Isa 11 says:
The Branch From Jesse
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD—
3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling* together;
and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people….
Isaiah 12
1 In that day you will say:
“I will praise you, O LORD.
Although you were angry with me,
your anger has turned away
and you have comforted me.
2 Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.”
3 With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
4 In that day you will say:
“Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done,
and proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;
let this be known to all the world.
6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”
This morning I was reading Job and Job says, I babbled on about things far beyond me. How many times do we babble on about the things of God that are far beyond us?
Job according to the Message says: “I’m convinced: You can (GOD) do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. (NOT PEOPLE, NOT POLITICS) You asked, “Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?” I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head. You told me, ‘Listen and let me do the talking. Let me ask the questions. You give the answers,’ I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise! I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.
The crystal cross points to the purity of God’s LOVE and Jesus sacrifice on that cross for us. Are we like JOB babbling on without true understanding of the cross and wonders over our heads? Dear God please forgive us and let start over anew like JOB. Thank you God for your forgiveness.
Sara, I was just sitting here looking at this beautiful cross you got for Christmas. I also got a beautiful cross for Christmas. I never take it off. Man can make a cross from crystals, dimonds or gold; but the most beautiful cross was the one made from a tree. This cross was the tree of life. Our King hung on this wooden cross so that we can have eternal life. None of us deserve such an awesome gift sent from our God above. Thank you Jesus!!
John 19:16 Then Pilate gave Jesus to them to be crucified
So they took Jesus and led him away. 17 Carrying the cross by himself, Jesus went to the place called Skull Hill, (in Hebrew, Golgotha). 18 There they crucified him. There were two others crucified with, one on either side with Jesus between them.
Can you imagine the love of our King. If he had a selfish heart he could have stopped this from happening. He love me and you so much that he allowed these people to rip the flesh from his body and nail his hands and feet to this wooden cross. With blood running out of his body and not enough air in his lungs to breath, he never stopped thinking about you and I. When Jesus gasped out the words IT IS FINISHED He had you and I on his mind. Can we even imagine this love. He died for everyone including the men that hit him and hung him on this tree of life as the ultimate sacricific. Do we have this kind of love in our hearts.WOW!! What a beautiful cross!!! Thank you Jesus!! This cross should be thought of year round and not just at Easter.
Jesus carried his cross by himself. He did this so we would not have to carry our cross by ourself. Jesus is always there for us. All we have to do is talk to him, trust him and let him live in our hearts throughout our lives. That’s not so hard. The hard part IS FINISHED!!!!!!
Hi Chickenfarmer,
I was wondering if you had been listening to Debi Chaves’ CD, Garden Therapy before you wrote this blog? As I was reading it, Debi’s song “Have You Looking Into the Eyes of Jesus” kept resounding in my mind. Only LOVE could have held Jesus on that cross. A love so deep that we can not grasp or comprehend it. The hard part as you say is finished, so at the Daily Lily say get on board the Jesus express everyone for this train is rollin heaven bound for His eyes of love where on you too.
Hi Rena,
Debi sent me her awesome CD, Garden Therapy and I have listened to it over and over again. I love each song on it and I love hearing her beautiful talents through my radio. I did think of her song “Have You Looked Into the Eyes of Jesus” as I wrote this blog. What a wonderful song. What a beautiful child of God, letting her candle shine brightly in the darkness. God bless the Daily Lily Angels and let each of us let our Candles shine brighter than ever and light up the Darkness in the year 2007.
Rena,I’m ready to get on board the JESUS EXPRESS. The best thing about this train is there’s room for everyone!!! ALL ABOARD!!!!
What a beautiful gift that your son, Jon, brought to you and to all of us at the Daily Lily. He really gave of himself and of his convenience to ‘carry the cross’ all the way back to its destination. Much like Simon of Cyrene in Matt 27:32 carried Jesus cross. And then your son, Christopher, made possible with his time and talents for all the world to view it on The Daily Lily. Many thanks to them both.
I have been singing the hymn “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross” by Isacc Watts as I behold it:
“When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.” And in verse 2 as you mentioned above, “Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ, my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.”
1865 Sabine Baring-Gould(Arthur S. Sullivan)”Onward Christian Soldiers” marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before! Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; forward into battle, see His banners go! At the sign of triumph, Satan;s host doth flee, On. then, Christian soldiers, on to victory! Hells foundations quiver at the shouts of praise, brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise!..Onward, Christian soldiers, Marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before!…(that is what this blog caused my heart to sing..and that is because that is what you and your sons are doing…going on marching forward…and I join in this march with eyes Stayed on Jesus and the Cross….thank you for the Daily Lily and the life it gives to all…eternal life…to the nations of the world…dj
When I sing or think of “Onward Christian Soldiers”, I am reminded of SOS 2:4 “He brought me to the banqueting (house of wine) house, and His banner over me was love.”
When we lift our eyes of Hope unto the One that is our help, we hold on to these words as “He looks upon us with Love.” Just another way of trying to describe God’s eyes when He sees us. “Eyes of love like a banner over me.”
THE CRYSTAL CROSS
The crystal cross is quite lovely. I have thought about that cross for a couple of days as there seemed to be something stirring within concerning the Crystal. You see, crystal is mostly transparent or at the least, translucent. You can see through from each side of the cross. If you stand behind you can see what’s ahead and if you stand before it you can see what has been placed behind. The Cross is BEFORE AND AFTER. Christ’s Cross is truly transparent. For all that He accomplished on that Cross is for the whole world to know and to see. There is nothing “hiding” in the Cross of Christ. The message of the Cross is transparent, true, clear and for ALL who were before and for all who are to come. And when the light shines upon it in a certain angle you can see the RAINBOW of all GOD’S PROMISES that are contained in that CRYSTAL Cross of Christ.
MG, I was thinking about this beautiful crystal too. We know that the cross our Savior hung on, was not made of crystal, but we do know that His blood that was shed on that cross, makes our sins, as clear as the crystal. If we
will only repent and accept Him. Sara, what a wonderful gift, your son, Jon, gave, a reminder of what Jesus did for all of us on that cross.
Tammy, your comment make me this of this scripture from Isaiah today as I was once again ponder The Cross.
Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.