Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross

If you happen to be a regular reader of my personal blog (anyone? anyone?), you know I have holiday issues. Meaning that I don’t really like them. Actually, it’s not the holidays themselves—I mean, who doesn’t love to celebrate Jesus’ birthday?—it’s the commercialization of said holidays that make me crazy.

Take Easter, for instance. As a Christian, a follower of the Lord Jesus, it is the most important holiday on my calendar. Yet each spring I find myself worrying and stressing about the commercialized non essentials: eggs, baskets, bunnies, and new clothes. Don’t get me wrong: I like eggs. And baskets. And new clothes. And Cadbury mini eggs, though I would hardly place them in the non essential category; apart from the Resurrection, they are my second favorite thing about Easter. But I digress…

Though I enjoy all the accoutrements of Easter, I sometimes find it difficult to remember the reason for the season. Just as I found Nancy Guthrie’s Christmas anthology Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus to be a helpful tool for keeping the main thing the main thing (see my review here), so too does Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter encourage me to remember the cross and the resurrection, the Easter essentials for the believer. Guthrie has compiled twenty five articles written by some of the greatest theologians past and present, all focusing on the passion of the cross and the power of the resurrection. Guthrie writes in her introduction:

In a culture where crosses have become commonplace as architecture and jewelry how we need to truly gaze upon the cross of Christ in all of its ugliness and beauty, in its depth and in its healing, in the painful price paid there, and in its free gift of grace. Jesus, keep us near the cross.

If, like me, you long to celebrate Easter through the worship of your Savior (with a few Cadbury mini eggs on the side), I happily recommend Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross.

Wife and mother, Bible teacher and blogger, Lisa loves Jesus, coffee, dark chocolate and, of course, books. Read more of her reflections at Lisa writes….