Haveyou ever wondered about the origin of some of the bizarre phrases weuse?  Phrases like "fair to middling."  Huh?  Or how about "no skin offmy nose," which has been transformed over the years to include otherbody parts such as teeth and the back?  And what's up with "beatingaround the bush" or "barking up the wrong tree"?  Perhaps one day I'llwrite a book on these odd sayings and their origin, but for now, I wantto focus on one that I thought of Sunday morning.

We had a guest preacher at church, and during the morning service, he preached a wonderful sermon based on Luke 8:49, which reads, While he yet spake, therecometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, Thydaughter is dead; trouble not the Master.  The focus of the messagewas on the last phrase: "trouble not the Master."  Throughout themessage, the preacher highlighted different problems of people in theBible (Jairus' daughter, the woman with the issue of blood, the maniacof Gadara and so on) and explained how their problems were no trouble tothe Master.  Their biggest plights weren't too difficult for the Lordto handle.  And at the end, he talked about how salvation and how whenwe cry out to the Lord to save us, no matter how bad we've been, He'llsay, "It's no trouble."

Atthat point, my mind took its own trail (which it has a habit of doing),and I immediately thought of the phrase, "It's no skin off my back." But before I could go any further, I was stopped short by an awfulrealization--that's not true.  While it is true that God can saveanybody at anytime, my simplification of the entire process wasseriously flawed.  Salvation did cost the skin off my Savior's back andso much more.  He was bruised, beaten, ridiculed and scorned.  He wasrejected and abandoned, even by His own Father who couldn't bear to lookat the sin Jesus bore on the cross.  My salvation cost Jesus His life,His fellowship with God and more than we could ever imagine orunderstand.  Yet, He did it willingly because of His great love for us.

It's easy to look at the greatness of God and think, Sure, He can do anything, so what's the big deal? The big deal is that, while salvation is free to you and me, it costsJesus everything.  It was a big deal.  Yes, He could do it.  Yes, Hecould bear the weight of our sin.  Yes, He's the almighty God.  But thebig deal isn't that He could do it; it's that He did do it.  The big deal is that He looked into the future, saw what I would be and said, "Now, that's something worth dying for."

Oh, Lord, may I never get over the cross!

ForGod so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, thatwhosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. - John 3:16