Contemplating the Cross: His and ours

We Pentecostals have a strong tendency—shall I say, an almost exclusive tendency?—to hear God in the shout but fail to recognize His voice in the whisper. Further, we most often fail to recognize that feelings are not necessarily the facts. As a result contemplation is frowned upon, even—believe it or not—associated with the cults or Buddhism; or God forbid, New Ageism.

A friend of mine, an Assemblies of God psychologist, recently confided in me to that he was still reeling from the shock of the comments of some of his pastor friends when he suggested that it would help all of us to find a retreat and just meditate—no preaching, or systemize Bible study, or fancy spiritual motivation speaker—just meditate, contemplate that is, on God and our relationship with Him.

Their response was, “No, Brother, that’s the problem—all that intellectual stuff. What we really need is a good old fashioned Pentecostal, Holy Ghost, tongue speaking revival!”

Their answer to the subtle drift away from our spirituality was just more of the same. Shouting, apparently, would do it. Tongues would certainly help. The Gifts of the Spirit would certainly do the trick.

Now, I don’t want to say more than they said; but you get the point.

The truth is however that feelings are not always the facts! We can feel like we have really been to church when the drummer has invigorated things up emotionally, as we keep repeating some theologically questionable ditty of a chorus over and over again, accompanied by a lot of upraised hands and with an appropriate amount of swaying back and forth that make us feel good but the facts are that many of us are left with an emptiness when the shout wears off. Unfortunately, we associate the adrenaline rush of fleshly worship with an honest to goodness move of the Spirit.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not demeaning meaningful, heartfelt worship. All I am saying is that we must engage the head as well as the heart; because whether we like it or not the heart sometimes gets in the way of giving Him our reasonable worship. (Romans 12:1) 

May I ask you, when is the last time you meditated, really contemplated the meaning of the cross? After all Jesus did say that “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it” (Luke 9:23)

So, may I ask you, as I often have asked myself, “What is that cross? In what ways have I denied myself and embraced that cross? Or am I always looking for a way out by believing that God can only be identified with the good things I enjoy?”

St. John Eudes once remarked that,

"The crosses with which our path through life is strewn associate us with Jesus in the  mystery of His crucifixion." (St. John Eudes)

And, you know, he’s right.

Now, take some time this week, today, whenever, and think about it—think about His Cross and ours.