The Language of the Cross

Hungary 2 - Dunakeszi House Church

From time to time I get a taste of what it must have been like.  Many people, packed into a small room, enduring great heat, sweat, no air-conditioning or antiperspirant, mainly because they are hungry for the Gospel, and to hear the Word of God, through which faith comes.  New Testament Church.  Underground Church.

Such was Friday, June 21st, the longest day of the year.  Teri and I, along with our daughter Sharayah and her husband, Bence, were packed like Sardines into the living room of a home for men on their way out of addiction - a perfect place for a church - especially for healing, renewal, and new-starts.

I had been asked to preach a message from the Word, and I strongly felt the Lord steering me to Mathew 4 - Jesus being tempted by the Devil in the Wilderness, to satisfy His appetite, to seek the approval of men, and to perform Satan worship to win His people and His creation back.

In the middle of it, I was drawn to share my personal testimony of recovery from being addicted to "self-pity", and from wearing the grave-clothes of victimhood for so many years.  How even though I was abused, I too was complicit in sin, in my bitterness, my hatred, and my violence.  People were literally on the edge of their seats, not because of me, but because of the demonstration of power in the Spirit - how God intersects us at our deepest levels of brokenness with His cross of brokenness.  

Most people I know who have gone through some pain, either accuse God and hang on to their bitterness like a trophy, or, they find the peace that passes understanding in repentance.  Unloading your burden at the feet of Him Who took universal responsibility for what He has allowed on this planet is the only way through it.  Otherwise, we drown in our own inability to properly deal with it, wallowing in the mire of our own ignorant understanding and vain attempts to climb out of that which we could never, since we have become part of the black hole we have fallen into.

What a joy to worship, pray, and hear from God in the company of fellow followers of Christ of whom we didn't even speak the same human language.  But the language of worship, the language of the cross, and the language of brokenness and healing are universal, and God met us there in the midst of it all.