There's A Different View When You're Near The Cross!

  4. Near The Cross
  5. Jesus, keep me near the cross,
    There a precious fountain
    Free to all, a healing stream
    Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain.
    • Refrain:
      In the cross, in the cross,
      Be my glory ever;
      Till my raptured soul shall find
      Rest beyond the river.
  6. Near the cross, a trembling soul,
    Love and Mercy found me;
    There the bright and morning star
    Sheds its beams around me.
  7. Written by Fanny Crosby 1869
  8. Fanny Crosby was an amazing hymnist who penned more than 8,000 hymns over her lifetime. Some of her most notable hymns sung today are Blessed Assurance and To God Be The Glory. Though she was blind from infancy, spiritually she was a visionary.  She wrote hymns that drew attention to the suffering of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Near the Cross was not just a song, but a prayer that every believer would do well to emulate. 
  9. Our journey through the Holy Week was full of traumatic events: the betrayal by Judas with a kiss, the abandonment of the disciples, the beating of Jesus, and ultimately his crucifixion.  Mark 15:39 recounts the scene at the death of Jesus while a centurion looked on.  He stood at the cross in front of Jesus and declared "Surely this man was the Son of God!" The cross represents the opposition that Jesus faced for the sake of the Gospel. Opposition isn't just about your position but about your perception. When you stand in opposition to a person, you are drawing a line in the sand.  You are exerting a fallacy of dominion and superiority against them or what they believe.  When you find yourself in opposition, you are in judgement of that which threatens you or is different from you. Though the centurion had been taught as a Roman that Jesus was his adversary, his position gave him another perspective. He was standing near the cross.   
  10. In 1955, Emmitt Till was murdered for allegedly looking at a white woman.  His punishers gouged out his eyes. His beaten, mutilated, and shot body was thrown into the river.  Mamie Till, Emmitt's mother, would not allow his body to buried immediately.  She insisted on an open casket funeral so that all could see what was done to her child.  Her decision to share her grief as well as her disfigured son, deeply affected the Civil Rights Movement. 
  11. The closer you are to a person, the more you can see of that person.  When you are exposed to his suffering, struggling, and agony, it ought to change you.  If you have Jesus in you, there should be some effect. At the cross, the centurion could see Jesus clearer than he ever had, and it changed him.  How is it that he could see what the high priest couldn't see?  How did he know who Jesus was when the Pharisees missed it?  What about all he had been taught?  How could he now declare Jesus the Son of God? Simple, he was near the cross. His location changed his perception!
If you could visualize the suffering of our Saviour, would your perception change?  If you could see the blood spilling from his pierced side, would your worship be for real?  What about the blood pouring between his eyes from the crown of thorns?  Would that solidify your commitment to not just serve him but to witness?  Would you be willing to bring someone else near the cross?
Stop looking at the blue-eyed, ruby-red cheeks in the photo and start looking at the bloody battered King that gave his life for you. There's a different view when you're near the cross!

Reaching the Lost at any Cost, 
Pastor Odie Kennedy

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