Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to Joni and Friends.
(Joni sings:)
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.
It was November 14, 1964, I was 14 years old, and I was in Natural Bridge, Virginia – of all places – for a weekend Young Life retreat… kind of a Christian camp getaway thing. That morning as I sat surrounded by some many hundreds of other kids from high schools in the Baltimore area, sitting there on the hard wood floor of the camp meeting hall, I felt my heart open to the soul-stirring hymns they were singing. It was the words that hit their mark so that when the speaker asked if any of us kids wanted to embrace Christ as Savior, I took a deep breath, shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans, and I stood up. My heart wouldn’t allow anything less.
From that moment on – I mean that moment, that instant – everything looked different. Everything sounded different. I sat back down, and as we all continued to sing those hymns, even those words and the hymns sounded different. Now the words meant something.
When the sun of bliss is beaming, light and love upon my way; from the cross the radiance streaming adds more luster to the day. You know, 24 hours earlier when I was sitting on that bus going down to Natural Bridge, Virginia, I would have given you a weird look had you told me within 24 hours I’d be glorying in the cross. I didn’t even know what it meant to glorify something like a cross. But when I was told that you glorify what you love – that’s what the speaker told me – when you appreciate what you treasure and what you think is really, really wonderful, then I understood what it meant to glory in the cross. I was only a teenager, but I mean I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders… I was free of guilt… I now had power to live the kind of life that I saw was so attractive in some of my Christian friends from high school. And it was all because of what Jesus did for me on the cross.
Can you recall that moment when you understood the Good News for the first time? Can you remember how it felt? Can you glory in the cross? There will be people all around you today who have yet to experience that life-transforming, destiny-changing moment. Pray for opportunities to tell them today what happened to you when you first – the very, very first time – were able to glory in the cross of Christ because you learned to love and appreciate and treasure what Jesus did on it just for you and for so many like you.
I am so grateful to God that I can share these words of encouragement with you. And you don’t even have to have a disability! That’s why we call our ministry Joni and Friends – it’s all about friends spending time together and uplifting one another through prayer and giving insights in the Word of God that inspire and refresh. Want to learn more? Well, you can always visit us at joniandfriends.org for more Christian encouragement.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends