Thoughts on Easter pt. 1 "The Cross as Power"

Scrolling through the different avenues of social media today I noticed a large number of posts pointing to the death and resurrection of our Messiah.  My own was an update about coffee....and sleeping in.  I am thankful for the rest of my global Christian family whose thoughts were on Christ this morning and not their own selfish tendencies to brag and enjoy a cup of filtered bean water.  That said, I noticed a theme and it struck home, resonating in my heart.
Among those posts was a theme of Good Friday being the "necessary" day for Easter.  i.e. "without Good Friday, there is no Easter."  Indeed this is true.  Without death there is no resurrection.  It's a simple truth.  What resonated in my heart was a belief of how often I think, "now, if I can just get through the death part in order to get to the life part."  I tend to view Good Friday like I would exam week.  You have to go through it to get to the holiday but it's not an enjoyable journey.  It's simply a necessary part of the road we travel.
My thoughts have been resting here for a long season and it's amazing to me how I still don't "get it."  My initial thoughts upon waking up are how I can "live" and all the things I can do with my life.  Sleeping in, drinking coffee, having a day off of work...all a picture of my selfish "easter."  When I should instead be waking up with a mind and heart for Good Friday, and how every day should be a Good Friday.
For the next few days, until that great day we remember death was indeed conquered, I want to look at the cross in four ways.

The Cross as Power
The Cross as Wisdom
The Cross as Love
The Cross as Life

The Cross as Power

"We preach Christ Crucified . . . to those who are the called . . . Christ the power of God." (1 Cor. 1:23-24 selected portions)  This is liable to trip someone up.  And indeed, the apostle Paul says it does, "to the Jews a stumbling block." (23)  One would think any rational human being would stop to ponder, "so what you're telling me that is that "power" comes through death?"  That's exactly what we're saying.  Paul exhibits what this power looks like . . . it is Christ crucified.
"And when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God." (1 Cor. 2:1-5)
Christ's death on the cross was a demonstration of both His obedience to His Father (Rom. 5:19) and God's love for us (Rom. 5:8).  It is that obedience and love which draws us to Him.  "We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son." (Rom 5:10)  The power that can do such as thing as make filthy sinners like us reconciled to God is in the demonstration of the power of God, not simply in talking about it.  God "demonstrates His love for us" by Christ dying.  And this is how the gospel was made so effective in Corinth when Paul was there, in demonstration of this same power.  It is not the power of lightning and showmanship . . . it is the power of death and love.
So then, what does this mean for us?  The power of God plays out in us when we are obedient on our Good Friday as Christ was in His.  Each and every day we must "take up our cross" and follow Him.  We cannot simply talk about it, we must die for others.  This is the power of the cross.  We must wake up each day with the thoughts of Christ, "Today, I am going to die for people out of a love for my Father and in obedience to Him."  Having this mind in us is having the same mind of Christ and is power for drawing a lost and dying world to Him.
Our prayer ought be, "Father, give me strength today by your Spirit to have the mind of Jesus.  To empty myself of selfishness and conceit and with humility consider others more important than myself.  Give me power to be a servant to all and by so doing live out the power of Christ crucified, that people may be drawn to the God who did the same for me."