Nothing but the Cross

Being a teen of the late 60s and early 70s, I was certainly influenced by what was going on around me. I went to probably the most liberal college in Texas at the time and was certainly affected by that as well. Bill and I bought a home shortly after I graduated and we both worked until we planned to start a family. I met my best friend Karen on the day we moved into our first apartment (the day after we got married). What a blessing she was to me. She and her husband moved around the corner from us. After a year or so she started a group called Sew and Share. The plan was to do our favorite needlework, share food for lunch and have a very short Bible study. Well the Lord had a plan for us and soon it was all Bible study, prayer and sack lunches.

During those studies, one of those lessons was about Paul. Now “Wives submit to your husbands” did not sit well with someone influenced by the Feminist Movement and women’s lib. But the Lord had a plan for me and as I studied his word and read more, Paul became a great friend. What wise words he has taught me through his letters to the churches he had founded or visited about living with and for Jesus.

Paul was an amazing man. He was originally known as Saul of Tarsus, so he lived in a Greek city controlled by the Romans which made him a Roman citizen. He was very well-educated and was raised to be a Pharisaic leader. On his way to continue persecuting and killing people who were following Jesus, Paul met the Lord and was transformed into a man who preached “Jesus is the Son of God”.

Paul made many journeys and wrote letters to the churches after he left. One such is the first letter to the Corinthians. He had spent 18 months with them and was encouraging them and reminding them in chapter 2 of how he had come to them.

“And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come as someone superior in speaking ability or wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2: 1, 2

Here was this highly educated man who went to Corinth where discussing philosophy was a major pastime. Paul laid out who Jesus was and what he had done for the people who accepted him. Simply sharing about Jesus’s life is powerful which Paul understood and did. People’s lives were forever changed.

Looking through American history and the revivals that took place, we can read some of the sermons that sparked these revivals. Without exception, they preached Christ and the crucifixion. Jonathan Edwards (early 1700s) from Massachusetts was not a dynamic speaker or a powerful personality, but when he preached, whole towns closed their bars and opened churches in them. Dwight L. Moody influenced many but always with the simple message of Jesus and the Cross. In the 20th century, Billy Graham shared the gospel of Christ with millions but always the message of salvation.

All of these men through the power of the Holy Spirit preached as Paul did “nothing but the cross”.