Are you meditating on the cross daily?

I have 2 videos to share with you and one quote for meditation from the book "The Truth of the Cross" by R.C. Sproul. One of the videos is some Nigerians singing at a bible study that we had with them. They are in this country because they are trying to get over into Europe to make money and have a better life. We want to disciple them to love Jesus more than anything this world has to offer. The time with them was very encouraging and very funny. We also played a little bit of soccer with them before the bible study. The second video is the reaction of the men watching Spain versus Italy when Spain put in their final PK to seal the win and their entrance into the semi-finals. And I am absolutely positive that the reaction you see in the video was the reaction in every restaurant in the city. Their passion and love in life is soccer. It is what gets them through the day. It is what gets them through the week. It is ingrained in them. The video that was taken was actually taken by someone else in a different cafe then I was in. As I stood their in the cafe that I was in watching the reaction of the people my heart was weighed down again to the reality of what they believe life is all about. I was consumed with the thought of these millions of people not knowing what true joy is. Their joy wavers with how their team is doing in the EURO 2008 cup. And when their team loses or even if their team wins that temporary joy is going to come to a screeching halt and they are going to be left with an emptiness inside. The only thing that can free them from the bondage of serving the idol soccer is if their eyes are opened to the truth of the gospel and so that is what my prayer is.

Finally, a quote to get you meditating on the cross again...It would be nice if I could type out the whole chapter for you but I will keep it to a few paragraphs. Let this soak in.
"God is too holy to look on iniquity, so when Christ hung on the cross, the Father, as it were, turned His back. He averted His face and He cut off His Son. Jesus, Who, touching His human nature, had been in a perfect, blessed relationship with God throughout His ministry, now bore the sin of God's people, and so He was forsaken by God.
Imagine how agonizing that was for Christ. Thomas Aquinas argued that throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus remained in a constant state of intimate communion with His Father. Aquinas speculated that the Beatific Vision, the vision of the unveiled glory of God, was something Jesus had enjoyed every minute of His life until the cross, when the light was turned off. The world was plunged into darkness, and Christ was exposed to the curse of the wrath of God. To experience the curse, according to Jewish categories, was to experience what it means to be forsaken.
I've heard sermons about the nails and the thorns. Granted, the physical agony of the crucifixion is a ghastly thing. But thousands of people have died on crosses, and others have had even more painful, excruciating deaths than that. But only One received the full measure of the curse of God while on a cross. Because of that, I wonder whether Jesus was even aware of the nails and the thorns. he was overwhelmed by the outer darkness. On the cross, He was in hell, totally bereft of the grace and the presence of God, utterly separated from all blessedness of the Father. He became a curse for us so that we one day will be able to see the face of God. God turned His back on His Son so that the light of His countenance will fall on us. It's no wonder Jesus screamed from the depths of His soul.
Finally, Jesus said, "'It is Finished!'" (John 19:30b). What was finished? His life? The pain of the nails? No. The lights had come back on; God's countenance had turned back. So Jesus could say, "'Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit'" (Luke 23:46b).
The hard reality is this: if Jesus was not forsaken on the cross, we are still in our sins. We have no redemption, no salvation. The whole point of the cross was for Jesus to bear our sins and bear the sanctions of the covenant. In order to do that, He had to be forsaken. Jesus submitted Himself to His Father's will and endured the curse, that we, His people, might experience the ultimate blessedness."