Substitutions

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,”              I Peter 3:18

 

Before I take you on a mental jog in which we examine the presence (and value) of substitutes, let me first take you for a walk down memory lane.   Let’s go back to the time…probably the mid-elementary school years…when you were asked to compare and contrast two things.  The teacher asked you to draw two circles that overlapped.  Where the circles were separate, you were to write individual characteristics (how each item was different from the other) and where they overlapped, you were to write shared attributes (how the two items were alike).  Remember?  If your memory serves you well…or if you didn’t have as far to stroll…you’ll recall that what you created was a Venn diagram.  It’s a simple tool whose purpose is to illustrate how two seemingly different things may also be alike.  Now, with that memory in tow, let’s start our mental jog and talk about substitutes.  No…wait.  Let’s substitute walking for running.  After all, it’s difficult to talk while running…even if it’s just a mental jog!

Continue reading “Substitutions”

Chapter Ten: The Opposing Cross

The Opposing Cross

                And now we come to the cross.  Nowhere is there a greater depiction, or symbol, of the law of opposites than at the cross, and in the cross.  Its very name denotes its nature.  Any time something is crossed, two opposing directions intersect.  We see it in crossword puzzles, we encounter it at crossroads, and we hear it in cross examinations; two directions approach and cross each another.  And with the crossing, there is a point of intersection.  And at this point, there is a completion…a wholeness…a balance…in that both directions, for just a moment,are contained within this one point.  With that thought and from that vantage point, let us now approach The Cross.  Continue reading “Chapter Ten: The Opposing Cross”