VIRTUES OF THE CROSS 1C

Take note of the following virtues:

1. Virtues of worship and giving CONT’D.

There is a close relationship between worship and giving. The moment you talk about giving, what comes to the mind of quite a number of people is money. Money is only a part of it. The greatest thing you can give is your life. Service is giving – your service in God’s kingdom is giving. Your prayer is giving. The time you spent to encourage others is giving, your evangelism – your soul winning is giving. You give because of the value you place in your relationship with your heavenly father; that is true giving. It is also a measure of worship. You can say your giving is a measure of your worship.

You can’t be a true worshipper and not be a true giver. This is the problem today; people are taught to give before they are taught the cross and so they are not ‘worshipful’. In fact they are taught to give so that they can get! The Church, inadvertently produces idolaters by so doing. Idolatry is perversion of worship and it is very easy to pervert. Introduction of error changes everything; error is like a virus; it may be little but enough to cause a lot of damage. That is the power of error and that was why Jesus warned his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (Matt. 16:6). “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (Gal. 5:9). The Pharisees thought that they had arrived while displaying the arrogance of the ignorance in them. Since Jesus did not spare the religious leaders of his time, he will definitely not spare the religious leaders of today if he comes down. At a point, he used a whip to drive some of them out the temple when they were merchandizing in the house of God.

We need to tremble at the word of God and get it right at the foundation. If you miss it at the foundation of worship, you have missed all. The devil knows the virtues that are concentrated on the cross. Every Christian virtue is symbolized by the cross and that is why he has perverted the cross to the point that some bishops ignorantly wear perverted and occultic cross. When I was in the theological seminary, we were shown over a hundred different types of cross to depict the extent of perversion the devil has done to the cross. Be very careful of what you bring to your home; this is because one occultic material is all you need to start suffering defeats and for the heavens to close. God calls such item an “accursed” thing. Some people call it bad luck and start looking for an external enemy meanwhile they used their money to purchase the occultic material.

The real cross should not have any inscription on it; it is plain. The cross is the concentration of all, not some, Christian virtues. What is your relationship with God worth? In other words, how much is the value of your relationship with God? You cannot produce true faith without the cross; faith without the cross will make you proud. However, because you are still practicing some principles of the word of God, God honours those things. Those principles are self-acting.

Pray –

• Everlasting and most merciful father, I thank you for the generous provisions you have made for my well-being here, and hereafter. Thank you for sending your son to die for me on the cross so that all my sins might be atoned for. I give you all the glory. I ask you to make me a true worshipper and deliver me from error in Jesus’ name. Amen.

TO BE CONTINUED……..