GBC Community update: Why the cross?

Good morning.  For those who were on the livestream Sunday and wondered why the sound cut out during the presentation by the Gillett’s, that was done for security reasons to protect their ministry in Africa. I am thankful for the technology we have that allows things like this and our livestream. A BIG thanks to our tech team who make this possible.  You are GREATLY appreciated!
 
 
Good Friday Breakfast and Service
Please plan to join us for a breakfast on Good Friday, April 7 at 8:30 a.m. at the Guelph Bible Conference Grounds located beside Guelph Bible Chapel.  There will be a sign up sheet in the church foyer for the next two weeks.  Please consider inviting family and friends to join us for breakfast and the church service to follow.  
 
The Good Friday communion service will be held at GBC at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, April 7 and will include music led by Jamie Iles, communion and a Good Friday devotion from Ken Tamminga.    
 
 
Thought for the Day: Why the Cross? 
The cross is a crucial symbol of the Christian faith. We see it pop up everywhere: perched atop our church, carved into a graveyard headstone or engraved in a ring or suspended on a chain. The cross is our universal symbol.  Yet it’s an odd choice, don’t you think? Why Chris?  It’s strange that a tool of torture would come to embody a movement of hope. The symbols of other faiths are more upbeat: the six-pointed star of David, the crescent moon of Islam, a lotus blossom for Buddhism. Yet a cross for Christianity? An instrument of execution?
Would you wear a tiny electric chair around your neck? Suspend a gold-plated hangman’s noose on the wall? Would you print a picture of a firing squad on a business card? I hope not!  Yet we do so with the cross.
So why then is the cross the symbol of our faith? To find the answer look no farther than the cross itself. Its design couldn’t be simpler. One beam horizontal—the other vertical. One reaches out—like God’s love. The other reaches up—as does God’s holiness. One represents the width of his love; the other reflects the height of his holiness. The cross is the intersection. The cross is where God forgave his children without lowering his standards. The cross is our symbol of hope.
How could he do this? In a sentence: God put our sin on his Son and punished it there.  Paul wrote this in 2Corinthians 5:21- “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  I really like the way The Message says it: “God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God”.  Though it’s a paraphrase and not a translation, do you get the point?  
So, why the cross? That’s why!
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris