Scott Reichert: Take up your cross

A fundamental difference — perhaps the fundamental difference — between the Christian worldview and the literalist, materialist mindset that dominates even the thoughts of most Christians today is that Christians view everything in this world, including our fellow human beings, as symbols of something beyond this life.

We cannot follow Jesus and sidestep the cross

As Christians, we believe that the narrative of human destiny is the story of redemption in the cross of Christ. It stands at the center of time; everything before the cross leads to it, and everything that comes afterward flows from it.