The Cross is Just a Piece of Wood From a Tree

One Cross + 3 Nails = 4 Given

 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever

believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

 

Have you ever thought about the cross? It was just a piece of wood. It came from an everyday tree. It was shaped for one purpose: death! Think about the cross you may be wearing, or the one you see during your church service. Have you ever really thought about the pain this one piece of wood caused?

History knows about the cross, and some people have despised it. The cross is worn by millions of people. It is often gold-plated and worn as jewelry—usually not to symbolize what it really means, or to show our faith. But the cross really means dying. A cross was used to punish the guilty. It displayed the offender in front of others so they would “learn a lesson” and not do the same thing. Bottom line: It was a torture device to show the power of the leaders during their time.

People try to ignore the significance of the cross, but they can’t. It is the piece of lumber that makes the biggest claim in the history of man. After all, when Jesus was here on earth, He hung on that cross, claiming to be the Savior for all mankind. He even had the nerve to claim He was God Himself!

Jesus was a carpenter and knew how hard it was to toil each day with his hands and a hammer. He had calluses on His hands even though those hands touched a blind man’s eyes and caused him to see. He used those same calloused hands when He touched a leper and he was healed. He knew what hard work was, and yet He had a tender touch that healed hundreds of people.

This is the God of love brought down to earth in the form of a man—a person with flesh and blood like you and me. Full of hurts. Full of sadness. Full of fear. Didn’t He cry out to God to “take this cup from Me”? Wasn’t He whipped, slapped and spat upon? Didn’t He slowly and painfully walk with that cross on His shoulders knowing that He would soon be hung on it and go through tremendous hurt and suffering? From the cross, didn’t He ask God why He had forsaken Him? Wouldn’t you have a little fear?

So we have the cross ready for the crucifixion. How about those nails? They weren’t tiny nails you’d use to build a birdhouse in the backyard. These were spikes—large nails about five inches long. They crushed the bones and caused pain that was beyond description.

Imagine your fear as they placed your left hand on that cross and get ready to pound that nail through your hand. The mallet comes down, and you scream in pain. But before you can catch your breath, they are nailing your right hand down.

Now that they have you securely part of the cross, they put your feet together, one on top of the other and slam another spike through both of them at once.

Do you feel the pain? Do you get the picture? Can you now relate to the sacrifice that Jesus had to go through so that you wouldn’t have to?

He was hurting, He was in great pain, and He cried out to God, just like you and I would, but He knew what He was doing had to be done for you and me.

He even had to look down and see the soldiers gambling for His clothes. That must have made Him feel even worse. They were at His feet, but they didn’t even know He was the Savior. He didn’t scold them. He didn’t cry out in anguish. He wanted them to know the One whose clothes they were throwing the dice for would come back to give them another chance.

Think of His arms spread out across the cross. Open arms. Arms that will hold you and show you love when we are in heaven.

Think even deeper about a mother watching her son die. Having Mary watch Him die had to cause Jesus another level of pain—perhaps even worse than any whippings or the nails driven through His hands and feet. He gave her one final look and then He said good-bye, handing her over to John’s care. Think of what Mary went through right at the moment He said, “It is finished.” Her son was dead, and she had to watch Him slowly fade away from her.

One final gesture. One more time of showing us how much He loved us. One last effort to tell us to seek Him so we can be with Him in heaven. After all, He died for us so we wouldn’t have to feel the pain. It is that simple. He went through all the torture, pain, aloneness, fear, for each one of us.

The next time you see a cross around someone’s neck or see one on top of a church, think of what Jesus went through so you can have eternal life. Try to see Him on that cross, with the crown of thorns on his head and the crimson blood flowing down His face. He is looking at you, and wants you to know that it is OK. He wants you to know that He did this for you, so that you will have eternal life. It should give you a much stronger feeling of what the cross stands for.

 

This is love: not that we loved God, but the he loves us and

sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:10

 

Further adventures

Take time each day to thank God for sending His only Son to die for you on the cross. Start out every prayer time, or devotional time, praising God for what He has done for you. The whole meaning of Christianity started with the cross. Think about how the love Jesus flowed out for you through His blood on the cross.

 

Something to ponder

Isn’t it funny how some people wear the cross and never know what it means?

(Excerpt from: Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World.)

The Cougars are Roaring into Town, and we are Ready!

The Cougars are coming town, but they will be leaving with their hide laying in front of the fire place.

The Beavers are going to start out carefully, but I think by the end of the half, the starters will be playing checkers on the side lines. If I am right, (and I usually am), this will be an excellent game to give some of the back-up players some real game experience.

WSU has one win against a lower division school, (Portland State). That will probably be their last win. They were blown away in most of their games: Oklahoma State, 39-3; Cal. 66-3; Baylor 54-17 and the Ducks, 63-14. They put up a gallant fight with UCLA, but still lost 35-3.

However, We will have to cover Brandon Gibson . Remember that name for the game. He is # 2 in the PAC-10 for catches, with an average of 6 a game. He averages 76.7 yards a game. He has caught a pass in 29 straight games. We would love to break that record.

WSU leads the PAC-10 in one statistic they don’t want to lead in. They have an incredible 19 turn-overs in six games. OSU leads the PAC-10 with the fewest at 6 in five games.

I have already given out my prediction of 34-3 with the 3 quetionable. We have a 30 point winning spread according to the odds makers. That is a record spread for the PAC-10.

__________________________________________________________________________

The final chapter of my travels to Pennsylvania:

When we were in the Gettysberg area we stopped at Dwight Eisenhower’s home, which was a nice farm. It has 186 acres. He invested into it towards the end of his career. He raised cattle on it. He had special things added to the farm. He had his own skeet shooting area. He also raised pheasants on the farm and then released them to hunt. He had a special area built just for him to practice golf. He had a green with sand traps placed around it. He had a fishing pond.

His home is what you would expect for a home back then in the farm area. It had a large living room that Mamie decorated with things from the white house. They had a special mantle at the fire place that IKE liked in the White house. They brought it to his home and installed it onto his own fire place. He had live in maids. He had a forman for the workers, who was also an expert herdsman. He lived in a 1797 house on the farm. His name was Bob Hartly. IKE became very close to Bob through the years.

IKE was an avid painter. He started painting in 1948. Many of his paintings were displayed by Mamie. Ike’s golf cart, jeep, and station wagon are still in the garage.

They have a guest house. Young David Eisenhower stayed in that house, and worked one summer as farm hand.

________________________________________________________________________

OK!

It’s off to Boston, to see the Boston Red Sox play Tampa Bay. We got to the Hotel Buckminster, which was built in 1897. We wondered where the park was. The guy working there said, “Look out the window.” It was right across the freeway from us. This hotel is where Babe Ruth stayed when he played for the Red Sox. Ted Williams also stayed there. It was also the hotel where “Shoeless Joe,” Jackson, supposedly took the bribe that cost the team the World Series. You could almost hear people talking out in the hallway about how much they would give him to throw the series.

It was game day, and I was really excited. We got to the game, and my world went back over a hundred years!! Fenway park stood right in front of me, and I was about to go in! We went in and the building looked old, because it was old. Many of the seats where still the ones used back 50 or 60 years ago.

Charlotte and I hunted for our seats, and we kept climbing. Up went went through the bottom section; then the next section; up and up. We finally got to the very top row, AND it was ours. There were no seats behind us. There were standing room only people right behind my shoulder drinking beer and breathing down my neck. I decided that it didn’t matter. I was at Fenway Park ready to watch the Red Sox play. BTW……The park was named Fenway Park because….They were in the Fenway district of Boston. Nothing romantic, or exciting there.

Two really large (huge) guys sat right in front of us. They were brothers, and they knew how to drink beer. As a matter of fact the stands were full of people who knew how to drink beer. They all went down and brought two beers at a time, and it was just for them.

The game got started, and the huge young man right in front allowed about four inches for clear viewing space. If he moved his head to the left, I was cut off. There were posts there . But no! I would not get upset. I was at a Boston Red Sox’s game!!!

Jacoby Ellsbury was the player that all the OSU fans around the park wanted to see. He didn’t start!! He had a pulled muscle in his leg, and he was benched. The game went fast. It was exciting to sit there and realize where you were. You dream of going to the old parks before they were tore down. Well, we made it to this one. I was sitting where I was looking right at the “Green Monster.” The plays I remember way back when I was a kid that happened off of that wall still are visions in my head.

It was a close game down to the end. The Sox were behind one run coming into the last inning. A player got a hit, and……..you got it! Jacoby came in to pinch run. It didn’t take him long. On the second pitch he took off for second. The throw was wide and got through the shortstop. It didn’t go far, but Jacoby was already on his way to third. “SAFE!” You could hear the unpire way up where we were in the stands! The crowd let out a roar that was ear splitting. Jacoby was only in there about 30 seconds, and he was standing on third. It was for naught however, the next player flew out to right field. I called him David Ortiz. I was quickly corrected.  One of the brothers in front of me said, “People from these parts call him popie. You must be from out of town.” I said “Yup, but I am a big fan of the Red Sox.”  I got a big hand shake, and I made a new friend.

The boys liked Charlotte and I so much that earlier in the game they said they would trade seats with us for the rest of the game so we could see better! Boston people are my favorite people, have I ever told you that?

Jacoby gear was selling for more than the other palyers’ gear. He is the most popular player on the team. Of Course he is…he’s a Beaver!

The next night we had much better seats! Down close, and on the first base side. We were sitting with six or seven people from OSU that also got tickets through Tom Huggins, of Eola Hills Winery. He arranged the whole thing including getting us tickets. Eola Hills does a wonderful job of planning trips. They take care of everything from the time you get to the airport until you land again back home.

This game didn’t go any better. The Tampa Bay team is for real, and now you see that they are playing Boston again to see who goes to the World Series. Should be a great series.

As I looked at all the numbers around the field, I could see they were numbers of great players of the past, There is the always famous #42. That was Jackie Robinson’s number. He was the first black man to really make it big in the majors. There was the number for Carlton Fisk. Can you vision him trying to coax that ball going down the left field line? His hands gestures point where the ball should go, is still shown many Years later. Of course there was also Carl Yastrimsky. (sp) Yaz was one of the greatist hitters in Boston Rex Sox history, but the real number belonged to Ted Williams. He was the greatist hitter in the history of the Boston Red Sox and some say the major leagues. They have a bronze statue of him looking down at a little baseball fan, and he has his hand on the boy’s head, in a loving gesture. There were other numbers up there. Boston had a history that could have me typing all night, but I am weary, and I have rambled on enough.

I hope you enjoyed going on this journey with me. I travel a great deal, and I will be sharing what I saw and my thoughts while there, when ever we do travel.

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OUT!!

 

 

The Rest of the Story, Part III

 

I feel like I am making a movie like, Rocky 16. This movie has drama. This movie has conflict. This movie has tragedy, and it could have a happy ending.

 

The tragedy has just happened, so let’s look at how it happened:

 

1.     Late in the game I saw two different Beavers go out of bounds when they could have gotten a first down with one more step. I saw another Beaver go out of bounds when he should have stayed in bounds!

2.     We are back to tackling like the other teams are greased pigs.  3.     The special teams are faltering at key times. One extra point missed, and two tries for two points missed. If one of those had been successful, game over.

4.     I would swear I saw some ball placements by the officials that helped Utah get first downs. I can’t say that though since I have officiated football for 25 years.

5.     This is another one of those games where we had better statistics in almost every department, but still lost the game. 

6.     The crowd was almost as loud as we were when we beat USC, which caused us to have 5 or 6 false starts.

7.      I can’t blame the offense for this loss, but the defensive secondary must have gone to McDonalds to eat during the game. We did have an interception by Al Afalava that resulted in a touchdown, but other than that Utah was wide open many times for passes.

So, where does this leave us? I will go from game to game for the rest of the year, and suggest what might happen:

 

  The next week, Arizona State is coming to town! Coach Erickson will be hunting for Beavers! The fact is that it is at home. I suggest we may win it in a close game.

 

·        Our next game is with Washington State at home. They are probably the worst team in the PAC-10. Any questions?

·        Then we play Washington at their place. We should win that considering that their start quarterback is out with an injury.

·        Guess who’s coming to dinner the next week end? You got it! Coach Erickson and Arizona State. They are a pretty good team. I think if we can play good defense, we could win that one.

·        We travel to UCLA the next week. We have had no luck at beating down there for years. BUT! This year they have started out awful! They lost to BYU 59-0. If we can keep them with less than 21 points, we will win big.

·        We then play Cal. We seem to play well against Cal. They are coming to Corvallis this year. They are ranked, but we can win this one if our defense doesn’t falter because our offense will score points.

·        We then travel to Arizona. That could be a very tough game. They have started out fantastic. I can’t come up with a good suggestion here.

·        THEN, the Ducks come to say hello to us. We are on a roll with them. We have beaten them the last couple of years. Can we make it a threepeat?

 

      Somewhere in there we have to beat either, Cal. Arizona, or Oregon. It can be done!!

 

 

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Let’s finally get to Boston, from the traveling I did when we went to the Penn State game!

 

When we got to Boston, it immediately transformed our thinking to the beginning of our country. I will be giving you the highlights in short sentences, or very little comment. There was just too much to write about. I am pretty sure you will know what I am talking about when you read each sentence.

 

·        We drove by a tavern called, Bell in Hand Tavern. It got that name because the town crier owned the tavern. There was a nice gentleman that lived upstairs making candles during this time. His name? Ben Franklin.

·        I was at the spot where Paul Revere gave his signal that the British were coming.

·        We drove by the spot where the Boston massacre happened.

·        We saw a Golden Kettle sign. The oldest sign in the United States. It was a place to come and drink tea, I suppose, since it had steam coming out of the tea kettle. It is now a Starbucks!

·        We went by a grave yard that had Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and the parent of Ben Franklin buried there.

·        John Adams was the first to say, “Everyone has the right to a fair trial.” He said this while he was defending a man no one liked.

·        We drove by the John Quincy Adams, and John Hancock homes.

·        The term “Mutual Funds,” was first said in Boston. A man that needed money to invest in the Market, contacted several men, and they had a “mutual,” agreement to pool their money together to invest.

·        We drove through the oldest residential area in the United States. It even had some of the original gas lights.

·        We went by the home of JFK at 722 Bowdon St.

·        There are tall spires with clocks on them on churches all over the city.

·        The oldest church in the U.S.A. is in Boston. It was there in 1723, 53 years before 1776.

·        We went by the infamous Boston Commons, the oldest park in the United States. I say infamous, because there were people hung there because the people thought they were witches.

 

(A side bar, to list some interesting observations, but do not need comments.)

1.     Went by the oldest library.

2.     The oldest fire station.

3.     Largest Apple Computer store. I mean huge!!

4.     Saw the Old South Church where lanterns gave people signals.

5.     Gas prices in Boston when I was there: $3.49

6.     Saw the home of Phillip Brooks. He is the one that wrote, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.

7.     Saw a church that had real Tiffany glass in its windows.

8.     Went by the original, Cheers Bar, on Beacon St. “Where everyone knows your name.”

9.     Saw where the Boston Tea Party took place.

10.                         I was able to see something I would rather not have seen. We drove by the spot where the Coconut Grove night club was. Remember it? That is where a fire broke out and no one could get out.

11.                        We rode the first double decker bus in the U.S.A. We were on top of course. “Front row seats!”

12.                         Drove by the oldest underground railway. There is still an entrance that leads to nowhere.

13.                         Saw the Bunker Hill tower. That is the spot where 1,000 British were killed in one day. They eventually still won the hill.

14.                         There are 260,000 students in the city of Boston. (Boston College, Harvard, and many other colleges are there.)

15.                         Speaking of Harvard, there is a grammar school that is just across the street from Harvard. The people that graduate from there can say they graduated from Harvard.

16.                        The first anesthetic was invented there. (I know about that stuff!!)

17.                         There is a hotel remodeled from an old jail. It still has the bars on the windows.

18.                         When Harvard first opened up in 1636, it was a divinity school for future ministers.

19.                         Harvard has the largest college library in the world.

20.                         There was a store selling Tiffany glass. It was wired by Thomas Edison.

21.                         The first barber shop was in Boston.

22.                         Saw Longfellow’s home.

 

Back to some longer thoughts:

·        In the Civil War area, there is a sign that says, “Here lays the arm of Stonewall Jackson.” He had to have his arm cut off. He wanted it buried right outside of where he was operated on. Wouldn’t that be a strange tombstone?

·        The owners of the Boston Red Sox, and the New York Yankees were drinking buddies. I saw the bar where the Boston Red Sox owner talked the Yankee’s owner into buying the contract of Babe Ruth  for $100,000 dollars, because the Boston Red Sox owner needed money to fund his play called, No, No, Nanette. The play was a success, but it was a very bad deal for the baseball team.

 

 

In the next newsletter, I will finalize my trip with my thoughts while standing on the deck of the USS Constitution. I could feel the drama that happened on that ship. When I went down below, I imagined the Captain shouting, “Man your cannons! This is not a drill!”

 

Please remember that this newsletter soon will be going only to the people who have subscribed. Take time right now to sign up by going to www.dougbolton.com click on newsletter, and subscribe.

 

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OUT!!