The cross is an intersection. We all choose a direction, right or left, up or down.
A right or left decision leads to a turn-around; once again we end at a place of indecision.
Many take the downward road. It leads to destruction and alienation from God.
The way pointing up leads us to the face of the suffering Christ who took our shame and bore our pain on the cross.
We see Him looking down at us, eyes full of compassion and love as we have never known before. We see His expression and it overwhelms us.
Do we stay there or run away? Do we weep with the others kneeling or curse that He did not get down from the cross so we could have a hero?
To the world, Jesus Christ was weak and insignificant but to those who have witnessed His love and forgiveness, they know the cross as proof of a love so extreme even the worst sinner feels welcome.
The cross of Jesus Christ is a place of decision.
Up, down, right or left, which way have you chosen?
1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who believe, it is the power of God.

 When we hit a tough spot, our tendency is to feel abandoned, to become resentful, to think “How could God forget me?” 

 In fact, just the opposite is true for at that moment we are more than ever the object of His concern.  He uses the wonderful image of a young mother with her new baby and surprises us with a realistic reminder:  “Can a woman forget her nursing child?” 

 You wouldn’t think so, would you?  But look at the stories in the news and you know that women do exactly that.  Babies are left in dumpsters.  Tiny babies abandoned, sometimes abused or tortured or murdered.  Yes, as unimaginable as it seems, even a mother can forget her nursing child but here is the clincher.  NOT GOD!  No, not God.  He will never forget us.  We are permanently inscribed on the palms of His hands.  Not one fleeting moment of life goes by without His knowing exactly where we are, what we’re doing and how we’re feeling.

 Isaiah 49:14-16 – “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget but I will not forget you.  Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.  Your picture is continually before me.”

A greedy man stirs up dissension, but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper. He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe. He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in, behind and before. You have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to You. The night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.

You created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. O know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

When I awake, I am still with You.

Excerpt from, "The Craig-Bradley Debate: Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?", The Virtual Office of William Craig, 1994.

What will you do with Christ?  In order to receive forgiveness, we need to place our trust in Christ as our Savior and the Lord of our lives. But if we reject Christ, then we reject God's mercy and fall back on His justice. And you know where you stand there. If we reject Jesus' offer of forgiveness, then there simply is no one else to pay the penalty for your sin -- except yourself. Thus, in a sense, God does not send anybody to hell. His desire is that everyone be saved and He pleads with people to come to Him. But if we reject Christ's sacrifice for our sin, then God has no choice but to give us what we deserve. God will not send us to hell; we send ourselves.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 - Behold, I shew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Proverbs 11:24 - One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.