So many people are afraid to speak of the message of the Cross. They don’t want to offend anyone, but if the Cross is not an offense then it is not the true Cross that Jesus Christ died upon. For what Jesus Christ did was to finish the work on the Cross. That is to destroy the very power of sin and to annihilate the very work of the devil. Hallelujah! We need the true meaning of the preaching of the Cross today, for truly there has been a Luke-warm message given to the meaning of the Cross. It is the Cross that everyone needs. Even as Paul said, God forbid that I should glory in anything except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

It is because of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ that Paul was able to be content in any situation. We think that people need all kinds of things to be given in a message, and the Cross sometimes is preached, but not the true effectiveness of it, where it completely destroys the attractiveness of the world, and the desires of wanting our own way, and give you the desire to follow Christ fully in denying of self. The Holy Spirit lays the very fire of the Cross upon our old nature and He is the One who keeps it under the control of the death of Jesus Christ. It is thought that to win people’s hearts to Jesus Christ is to give them a watered down gospel, that keeps their old nature alive and they become people who are offended in everything that would kill the old nature. Oh we don’t want to offend; in fact we want them to feel comfortable so they will come back. Let me say what Jesus Christ has said, what is of flesh is flesh and what is of Spirit is Spirit. Flesh begets flesh, and Spirit begets spirit You see that is why the Holy Spirit says in Galatians 6:7-8 God will not be mocked, what is sown to the flesh will reap from the flesh corruption, and what is sown in the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Some of these ministries that are so afraid of even showing anything of the Cross and thinking they are winning people to the Lord because of a great multitude that is coming in will one day be very shocked to see that they have been building with wood, hay, and stubble. Oh we must really be careful what we are building with. Are we building the very character of Jesus Christ into the people, or are we building the character of some idol into the people. I fear for the young people, because of the way many are going. They say don’t preach the Cross to them just yet we got to get them in and made solid in the fellowship before you offend them. They have to feel welcomed. So don’t rock the boat by preaching that they have to deny themselves. Let them have a chance to get their feet wet first. To me that is a cheap gospel. There must come a time where a true Holy Ghost, crucifying flesh revival happens, and it will not happen without repentance, and that has to be a godly repentance where there is such a hatred for sin, and a love for righteousness.

Why do we feel like this that people need to be won by our fleshiness? It is because we have lost our first love and we need to repent and start where we first slipped away from our first love. Look at Ephesians church in Revelation. They had all kinds of knowledge, and probably all kinds of programs, they seem to be a church that looks on fire for the Lord, but they lost the most important ingredient their first love, where they were not afraid to offend anyone. You know we can do all the right things and say the right things, but if the Cross is not effective in keeping the flesh crucified it is worth absolutely nothing.

Revelations 2:1-7. To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write. These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand. Who goes about among the seven golden lampstands.

Here is what they looked like.

I know you industry

they were very active people. They labored hard

they could not tolerate wicked people,

they really tested those who said they were apostles

and found them to be imposters and liars.

I know you are enduring patiently, they bearing up for his name sake.

They did not faint, or become exhausted, or grown weary.



When you look at this church you would think this church was really on fire for the Lord, but the Spirit of the Lord sees differently then what we do. There are many churches that are in this same situation. But they don’t want to reckon themselves to loosing their first love. They think that the harder you work, the more you are on fire for the Lord, but really they lost their first love of being a friend with God, and the Holy Spirit living the life of Christ within. and the Holy Spirit is telling us to take a look and see where we have fallen from and to repent and go back to our first love. Do the works that you have done before. The works that we have done is our passionate devotion for our Lord Jesus Christ and for Calvary and for His Soon return. Wow when I was first born again, I was constantly looking for the coming of the Lord and living my life like he was coming at any moment.

I remember one time when Tony my son went to catch the school bus in front of the house and when I look to see him he was gone and I knew the school bus didn’t come by yet, and I looked up the road and could not see him, and I said, Lord did you come, and I couldn’t wait until 8:00 AM to call the school, and when 8:00 came, I immediately called the school and asked if Tony Hamalainen was there, they said yes, and I screamed Praise the Lord! And hung up. We don’t even have that in our lives today. The excitement of his coming.

What we are doing is looking for so many ways for our church to grow that we forget that it is the Spirit of the Lord that causes the increase. One plants and one waters and the Lord causes the increase. But we have settled for doing things the worlds way instead of really doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit, yes the Cross is an offense to many, and it will always be.

Paul says I don’t want to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Just think, Paul would have never been able to write the word that we have today if he did not cherish the Cross. Because he would have been always offended in the way he was treated. But he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit of the Lord could do whatever he wanted in his life, for the furtherance of the gospel.

Today we have a gospel that is not really a true gospel, because if it was the flesh would be dealt with differently. We wouldn’t be always looking for someone to say something nice about us, or to accept us. I remember one time in prayer, I ask the Lord why all this rejection, and I waited for an answer, and after a bit, he said I didn’t call you to be accepted, and that word healed me of my wound of rejection. Yeah it is looking to man that we get offended, but when we look to what happen in the cross we have no right to be offended. Hallelujah! Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In the very Love shown to us from Calvary. Jesus Christ representing the whole world and becoming sin and his Father had to turn his back on his Son Jesus and Jesus never was away from is Father, and He cried out in such agony. My God, My God, why have you forsaken me. That was the worst pain he could have ever suffered to be rejected by his own Father, but oh, how he love you and me to go through the awful agony. His Father had his eye upon the world so that what Jesus Christ His Precious Son was going through would result in many people coming into Glory and He would have many children. He saw the fruit of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. This was the only way to pay for the high treason that Adam did. That sin cause every person born into this world to have a death sentence written upon him, but through the righteous act of Jesus Christ God’s Precious Son, many could be counted righteous. Jesus Christ tasted death for every one and whosoever will may come and taste of His death and be made whole. And it is through His life that we live.

Hallelujah! We need a closer look at Calvary and know that the death blow was given to the flesh, because God condemned sin in the flesh. And we have a freedom that we can go into where we will not become offended, and where we can see that we have no rights at all, it was not only meant for Paul and the Apostles but it is meant for every born child of God. This glorious victory of not having to hold anything against anyone, but we can in the power of the resurrection enter into a glorious state of being able to forgive all who ever does anything against us, because it is not us who lives, but it is Christ who lives His life through us.

In the majesty of His Love