Head for the Cross

Most Americans take for granted what a great country this is in which we live.  We practice freedoms every day that are only a dream to peoples of other countries.  Yes, there is poverty in this country, and there are many people who don’t have enough to eat, or a warm place to sleep at night.  There are laws that we don’t agree with, and unless you are a very select group of people, most everyone could use a little more money in their bank account.

Most people don’t really realize just how good we have it.  I just read an article in a national magazine about the conditions in North Korea and the things those people are subjected to every day of their lives.  Most of the United States doesn’t realize it, but there is a major famine in North Korea.  The people outside the cities have to resort to eating grass just to survive.  Every move they make is monitored by the police or one of their neighbors who reports their activities to the communist party.  There is a shortage of almost every item of necessity in that impoverished country.

The magazine followed the lives of three people who had successfully eluded the state police authorities and managed, through great hardship, to leave North Korea and settle in South Korea.

It was not as simple as heading south and crossing the border.  They had to follow a very circuitous route through China, into Laos, and then to South Korea. Most of them had lived near the Tumen River and were able to see the lights of freedom only a short half-mile from where they lived.  From the dark, foreboding, oppressive shores of North Korea, they could see the lights, and if the wind were right, hear the music from the south.  They knew things were better in the south than what they had heard in the communist propaganda.

Following men who knew the way out, they had paid around three thousand dollars for the opportunity to escape the only home they had ever known.  Leaving family and friends, they sought a better life based only on what they had heard.  When the guides got them out of North Korea, and led them into China, they were told to “Head for a Cross”.

Even in repressive China, there is an underground church that helps North Korean defectors find shelter.  Many of those churches are bold and daring enough to display a cross of some kind so that people will know where they are located.  The defectors have learned that if they go to the Cross, they will find shelter and protection.

Many people today are, spiritually,  just like those people in North Korea.  The life they live is getting them nowhere.  Their lives are dreary, oppressive, and after what seems like a lifetime of drugs, alcohol, or sex, they are still just as miserable as before.  If they would only take the time to look across the river, they would see something totally different.  There are lights, music, and happiness; completely different from the propaganda the devil has been feeding them all their lives.  If they listen closely, they can hear the message, that there is a better way to live.  We are not destined to a life without hope.  The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish (come to destruction).

That is a promise to you and me.  If we “head to the cross”, we will find a way out of the unhappy conditions in which we live.  Listen closely, and you will hear the joy of those who have already found a new life in Jesus, by running to the cross.  Psalms 91 tells us about those who trust in God.  “1. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2  I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

There is a way out, for those who seek the light.  Head for the Cross”.

In the Wind

Double D