[As I thought today of folks that may read these words, I was overwhelmed with gratitude to our God who has given us such a fabulous family!  Now, you might say that you are not our "blood relatives"; however, if you know Jesus and He is your Lord, you ARE certainly part of our "blood relatives"!  He brought us together in His precious blood shed on the cross for us all!  Glory to His Name forever!]

 

Have you ever thought of how many crosses there are in the world?  There must be billions!  My last "blog" has a picture of the ancient Djvari Church which stands on a hill over-looking Mtskheta which was the first capital of Georgia!  Djvari is the first thing you see as you come down the Georgian Military Highway from the north into Tbilisi.  This highway was the "Old Silk Road" which was the much-used route of trade between the east and the west through-out the centuries.

 

Someone told me recently that the Turkish truck drivers are complaining about all the crosses that Georgians have built along the highways. "This is offensive to us!" they say!  

 

And I think, "Is love offensive?"

 

The Cross is love!  God's arms extended to a world without hope!

 

Sunday, we took two of our teachers to Sameba Cathedral!  The church was full of Georgian worshipers and we were thrilled to see so many young people at the service!  The service lasts for about three hours and the people stand for the service!  The liturgy has much significance and it is all centered around the death of our Jesus on the CROSS!  When the service was over, one of our lovely teachers got in a line so that she might kiss the cross that is a Sacred reminder of our Lord's sacrifice!  To her, this was a symbolic act that spoke of her belief in the provision God has made for us all to be free from sin and become His beloved child!

 

Offensive?  Never!  Not to those that love the One who gave His life for us all!  The agony He suffered, the torture He endured; He gave up His life because of LOVE for all mankind!  He said that He would that all come to repentance!

 

His precious blood cleanses us from all our sin!

And we become new because of Him.

 

Living under the shadow of the Cross of our Lord! 

Knowing true peace comes from our Adored!

 

There is no more shame and no more stain.

We can hold up our heads and sing out the refrain -

"IN THE CROSS!  IN THE CROSS - BE MY GLORY EVER!

I WILL SING FOREVERMORE - FOR HE IS MY DELIVERER!"

 

And I pray He is yours, as well!

Under the shadow,

Jan