Each year, our youth group goes to Fort Bluff Camp in Dayton, Tennesee (http://www.fbc-naca.org). They always have amazing preaching, but this week through a long series of events, Daniel Hollenbeck, soccer coach at Trinity Baptist College who happened to be at the camp that week, ended up preaching one morning. He preached a sermon entitled “The Familiarity of the Cross”.

The entire point of the sermon hit me hard: We (Christians) have become so familiar with the cross that it no longer holds any of the power and awe that it did the first time we experienced it. It doesn’t affect us, we can just move right past us. Even films like The Passion of the Christ, which was so graphic and moving, affects us for a day or two then we move on with life. We have allowed “The Old Rugged Cross” to become just that- Old and Rugged in our hearts. It’s just another thing to us.
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The other night I was doing my daily quiet time and I came across the following verses in 1 Corinthians 11.  Read them first, then my questions.

1 Cor.  11:4-5, 14-15 (ESV):
“Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head–it is the same as if her head were shaven…Does not nature teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory?  For her hair is given to her for a covering.”

I read this and it bothered me.  Why do we say that we have to obey the principles of one verse, yet ignore the principle of the next?  Why must men remove their hats in church, yet women aren’t required to wear them?  Why do we accept long hair on guys as “fashion”, yet we gasp at a woman with short hair?  I threw this question at my mom the other day, typically my source of great spiritual knowledge, and her response was something like, “Uh, um, well, uh…”  So she suggested throwing it at the blog community.  Why do we do this?  What reasoning is there behind it?

Here’s a couple of verses that I think are relevant:
Gal. 6:12-16 (ESV) [Paul is talking about those who are legalistic about circumcision]:
“It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.  For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.  But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”

James 2:8-11 (ESV) [The sin of partiality, as described by James]:
“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”

Let me know what you think in the comments.

It’s relationships, not programs that change children. A great program simply creates the environment for healthy relationships to form between adults and children. Young people thrive when adults care about them on a one-to-one level, and when they also have a sense of belonging to a caring community.

-Bill Milliken, founder of Communities in Schools
The Way I See It #237 off a Starbucks Cup