Crosspoint family,
In the preaching of the message yesterday something came into focus for me. I realized as the common and unimpressive message was being delivered by a common and unimpressive man about a the Day of Atonement and Christ’s work as a faithful High Priest.......that everything He uses is common and unimpressive. Aaron washed with common water and offered common farm animals to an Invisible God. He placed two common hands on the head of a common goat and confessed the death-securing sins of a common people. Then the common goat was led into the wilderness by another common man carrying away the transgressions of the common people. Fast forward to Jerusalem 1500 years later, a common carpenter makes the lonely trek through common streets to a common cross of wood and bears the sins of some more common people. In the eyes of the world, it’s all pretty lame......water, farm animals, a tent in the desert, a ritual that looks like it accomplishes nothing other than making a mess.........and 1500 years later.....a man, some rusty nails and a cross. This is the hope of the world?!?!?
It’s so liberating for me to see this in focus. Because sometimes I listen to the lie that our weekly gatherings are common.....our sermons are common.....the songs we sing are common and unimpressive.......and the supper we take is just a wee piece of bread and an unsatisfying shot of juice. But then days like yesterday remind and stir me to remember that He uses the common for His glory. It’s the common stuff that’s the furniture of His house!! He uses common weekly gatherings to stir His people to BE His people. He uses the wee supper and song and sermon to remind us and refresh us in the colossal news that we now enter the throne room of the Living God boldly because of Christ’s work.
Don’t listen to the lies, People of God. Be about the common...........trusting that in God’s hands nothing is common.
Ben McGraw
