The Cries Of The Christ From The Cross

"To stand at the foot of the cross is to witness the purpose for which God created the world." The cross is a wonder unfathomable. Time cannot contain its reach. No heart can endure its weight. And yet it is the center of everything. It cannot be passed over. Pastor and author Erwin W. Lutzer believes that the better we grasp what the cross meant to Christ, the better we grasp what it should mean to us. To do this, Lutzer examines Jesus’ cries from the cross. Search with him and see how God’s love and justice meet. Know the weight of sin and the power of redemption. Look upon Jesus in His weakness, obedience, sorrow, and compassion. Let the scandal of the cross give you pause. The cross deserves our attention. Journey forth into the heart of Jesus, that your own heart may be shaped to His.

As death approaches, the human heart speaks its greatest words of love to those it holds most dear. So it was with Jesus who in His final hours gave us seven last "words" rich with spiritual meaning for every human soul. For the first time ever, Archbishop Fulton Sheen's complete writings and reflections on Christ's last words have been compiled into this one book. Sheen shows how the seven words are, in fact, a full catechism on the spiritual life. From them, you'll learn the secrets to living the Beatitudes, ways to avoid the deadly vices of anger, envy, lust, and pride, and how to cultivate the heavenly virtues of fortitude, prudence, justice, and charity. Few books are such an inspiring call to sanctity, and few books are such a spiritual powerhouse. With Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen as your guide, you'll also learn: Why, during His Passion, Jesus never proclaimed his innocence. Why Jesus appealed to His Father to forgive, but did not Himself forgive directly. What Jesus' third word from the Cross says about lust. Why, like Jesus, the most innocent among us must suffer. Why darkness covered the earth after Jesus spoke his fourth word. The seven words spoken unto Jesus while He hung on the Cross and what they reveal about the impact of Christ's Passion on your soul. What the Passion says about judging others (and why it's an assault against hope). How the conversion of the good thief is the key to the conversion of our modern world. Why you and I can sin a thousand times and be forgiven, and the angels who have sinned but once are eternally unforgiven. How envy becomes the denial of all justice and love. The difference between the virtue of hope and the emotion of hope.

In days of stereotyped thinking, when almost every utterance is a repetition of something that has oft been said before, it is refreshing to meet a stream of originality. Those of us who know and love Robert Moyer, however, could expect nothing less than brilliant originality when he puts his thoughts in the concrete form of a printed page. The student of the Word of God will find food for meditation in these paragraphs from his gifted pen. There is no man in America whose works and words should count more for the spread of God’s kingdom in the hearts of men, than the man whose writing you now hold in your hand. It is our hope and confident trust that this volume is but the first of many that shall come from this source. If this hope is fulfilled, the religious thinking of America is about to be enriched with the infusions of a choice soul expressing itself through the medium of print. May the blessing of God rest upon the heart and life of every reader of these pages. Harry Rimmer

The cry of Jesus on the cross described in the gospels of Mark and Matthew was a wail of pain and abandonment. Many Christians have been scandalized by it. On one hand it is an expression of the humanity of Jesus, while at the same time it links him with his Jewish heritage and the rich imagery of the psalms. Italian theologian Gerard Rosse has examined the many meanings of Jesus' cry. He first considers the historical question - whether these were truly the words of Jesus. If we assume that they are, what do the words mean? Was it merely a cry of despair, or does it reveal something of the relationship between Jesus and the One called Abba? Theologically, what light does it cast on the inner life of the Trinity? Rosse also considers the reality of abandonment in the world today and what the outcry of Jesus reveals about our solidarity with all abandoned people.

Written by Rev. A. G. Sertillanges, this acclaimed devotional classic gives you vivid and dramatic details not included in the Gospel.

Sermons / Good Friday Christianity is a faith centered around an instrument of suffering and death -- a cross. The hope of every believer is rooted in it. Over the centuries, the cross has become a universal symbol of both suffering and redemption. On Good Friday, the cross takes center stage in our worship. Passages from the gospels retelling the agonizing tale of Jesus' betrayal, trial, crucifixion, and death are recited to the point where the words may become commonplace for some Christians. We may know the words, but have we explored their meaning? A Cry from the Cross, a series of seven sermons, explores each of the last seven statements given by Jesus as recorded in the gospels of Mark, Luke, and John. As each statement is explored -- statements like "Father, Forgive Them" or "Woman, Here Is Your Son" - Robert Cornwall offers deeper insights into the meaning and significance of the cross as it relates to the Christian faith. This is a useful resource for pastors and lay ministers, one that can be used as an inspiration for Good Friday sermons, a Lenten study series, or simply a window to greater personal insight into that day on a hill outside Jerusalem so many years ago -- a day that shaped the future of the entire world. Robert D. Cornwall is the pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Lompoc, California. He is currently the editor of Sharing the Practice, a publication of the Academy of Parish Clergy. He has previously taught courses on theology and church history at Manhattan Christian College in Manhattan, Kansas and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He has received degrees from Northwest Christian College (Eugene, Oregon) and Fuller Theological Seminary. He lives in California with his wife, Cheryl and their son, Brett.

"The doctrine of the Atonement is the distinctive doctrine of Christianity. Over the course of many centuries of reflection, highly diverse interpretations of the doctrine have been proposed. In the context of this history of interpretation, Eleonore Stump considers the doctrine afresh with philosophical care. Whatever exactly the Atonement is, it is supposed to include a solution to the problems of the human condition, especially its guilt and shame. Stump canvasses the major interpretations of the doctrine that attempt to explain this solution and argues that all of them have serious shortcomings. In their place, she argues for an interpretation that is both novel and yet traditional and that has significant advantages over other interpretations, including Anselm's well-known account of the doctrine. In the process, she also discusses love, union, guilt, shame, forgiveness, retribution, punishment, shared attention, mind-reading, empathy, and various other issues in moral psychology and ethics."--