August 5, 2004

[Rev. Doc]

The Cross

"Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
Luke 9:23

The government of Polish Prime Minister Jaruzelski had ordered crucifixes removed from classroom walls, just as they had been banned in factories, hospitals, and other public institutions. Catholic bishops attacked the ban that had stirred waves of anger and resentment all across Poland. Ultimately the government relented, insisting that the law remain on the books, but agreeing not to press for removal of the crucifixes, particularly in the schoolrooms.

But one zealous Communist school administrator in Garwolin decided that the law was the law. So one evening he had seven large crucifixes removed from lecture halls where they had hung since the school's founding in the twenties. Days later, a group of parents entered the school and hung more crosses. The administrator promptly had these taken down as well.

The next day two-thirds of the school's six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived, the students were forced into the streets. Then they marched, crucifixes held high, to a nearby church where they were joined by twenty-five hundred other students from nearby schools for a morning of prayer in support of the protest. Soldiers surrounded the church. But the pictures from inside of students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. So did the words of the priest who delivered the message to the weeping congregation that morning. "There is no Poland without a cross."

For the child of God, life is meaningless without the cross. We bear that cross and testify to it daily of it's life changing power as evidenced in our own lives. Let us take up the cross and be identified with it.

Prayer: Ask God to help to see the cross not as a burden, but an instrument of liberty.

"There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross- bearers here below."
~Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

[true_noir_chloe]

Excellent devotion, Rev.Doc. Thank you for placing these here every day. ^__^

[Jaltus-bot]

What an incredible story! Good devotional.