The Savior never instructed anyone with this understanding: the idea of needing or using a physical object of any kind in worshipping Him. He in fact forbids such.
It simply does not matter what graven image, what physical idol is depicted – God will not be worshipped via any physical object. It’s only the religious who are not born again, who attempt such.
Those who have a personal relationship with the risen Savior need no physical reminder. He’s their hope, dwells in them by His Holy Spirit, the love of God, and they hear His voice (John 10; Romans 5:5; 8:9; 1 John 4:24, etc.).
There is no power in a cross – including the actual literal pieces of wood Jesus died upon 2,000 years ago, much less in some trinket you carry around like a good luck charm. Jesus told us that “ALL power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18).
Anyone can carry a physical good-luck-charm idol around. Most don’t want to die to self though as Jesus requires in order to follow Him (John 3:19-21). Jesus conquered death, sin, and Satan by dying, and we must also as we are “crucified with Christ” (Hebrews 2:14; Luke 9:23-24; Galatians 2:20; Romans 6).
Jesus Christ didn’t come die on a cross and rise again from the dead so that His people could remember Him by a little piece of wood, a good luck charm they carried. Such is condemned in Holy Scripture.
To say someone should carry around a physical object to remember Christ would be like saying one should wear a shirt with a picture of his dad on it while he’s away from his dad in order to remember his dad. Ludicrous. One might say “But Jesus died and He’s away for now…..” 1. Jesus never told you to carry a wooden cross around your neck or in your pocket to remember Him. 2. He told you to repent…… deny self and take up the cross to follow Him – and this begins with surrendering your life to Him, confessing you are a guilty sinner and receiving Christ as the LORD of your life (Luke 9:23-24; John 1:12; Acts 17:30; Romans 10:9-10, 13). 3. Jesus is alive – always has been and always will be. He rose from the dead after being buried for 3 days. He’s reigning as the Great Intercessor at the right hand of His Father in Heaven (Hebrews 7:24-26).
The love of God in Christ is shed abroad in the hearts of God’s people. They need no reminder of such because they are known of Him – born again into Christ the LORD.
“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Romans 5:5
To those who truly know the risen Savior, their hearts are daily fueled by His Word, by His Holy Spirit in them and not any physical object, token, idol or icon (1 John 3:24).
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Romans 8:9
Wow, hundreds of people liked “The Cross in my Pocket” poem and well over a 100 shared it!
This is clear proof that most people who claim to be Christians, have no clue of the original Gospel. They simply are not saved.
So we are now blessed because we carry a little piece of wood in our pockets and not because of the finished work of the nail-scarred risen Savior who died on the cross once, we buried, and raised again from the dead? Isn’t THAT the Gospel? (Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.) That cross was a one-time altar upon which the Son of God offered that one, final, perfect sacrifice. “It is finished” means the sin debt is “paid in full” by the only One who qualified to do such (John 19:30). The one perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ on that cross on Calvary’s hill perfectly satisfied the claims of the Father’s justice to justify fallen men. He’s no longer on that cross beloved. He is risen from the dead, is seated at the right hand of His Father in Heaven, making intercession for us and dwells in the heart of each and every person who is His.
Wearing a cross around your neck or carrying a cross- shaped icon in your pocket or purse has nothing to do with following Jesus Christ. In fact it’s a violation of His Word.
If we need a piece of wood in our pocket to “remind” us of Christ who died on that cross, we need to be saved. “Ye must be born again” Jesus says. There is no Scripture or New Testament example of Jesus or His holy apostles or the earliest followers of Jesus using a physical object to supposedly “remember” Christ. If we are born of God we are new creatures in Christ, old things are passed away, and all things are of God (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). So, He has given us the miracle of regeneration and we are consumed with the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ (Romans 5:5).
“For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:3
There is no power in a piece of wood, even though Jesus died “once” on a wooden cross. The power is in Christ, not anything physical.
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” 1 Peter 3:18
“Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.” Hebrews 7:27
“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Hebrews 9:12
“For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Hebrews 9:26
“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10
Notice what Jesus says about “all power” and how it’s in HIM. He says nothing here or anywhere about carrying some physical object to remind you of Him. Such idolatry is only for those who do not know Him.
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Matthew 28:18
There’s no power in a piece of wood, even if it’s in the shape of a cross. “ALL power” is in the risen Savior Himself – Christ the LORD.
When Jesus spoke through His apostle Paul of remembering Him, He spoke of the cross He “once” – “one time” died upon for our sins (1 Corinthians 11).
Carrying an icon is a cheap counterfeit of knowing the Lamb of God. The cross Jesus commanded we take up is not carrying a little icon in our pockets (Luke 9:23-24). The cross itself has no value. It was merely the altar upon which the Son of God died for the sins of the world. This would be like saying we need to get a tattoo with the name or image of a now dead relative as if their memory in our hearts and mind wasn’t enough, we need to put their image on our body to remind us. This is all idolatry friends which God forbids in the very first two commandments. Pagan Catholics wear scapulas as if they are good luck charms. But those who are truly born again worship the living LORD “in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). Jesus says:

“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24
Instead of having to be reminded of the cross as your hand goes into your pocket, memorize and meditate upon the many Scriptures of the cross of Christ and the one He commanded you to take up in following Him (Colossians 1:20; Galatians 2:20; Luke 9:23-24, etc.).
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” Exodus 20:3-5
It doesn’t matter how much you use mere human reasoning to justify this idolatry. God simply forbids being “worshipped” via idols. He will not be and anyone seeking to do such will be excluded from His eternal kingdom as an idolater (Galatians 5:19-21; Revelation 21:8, etc.).
“But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Romans 8:11-17
Conclusion:

Personally, I do not have any imagery at all but rather have chosen to worship the LORD “in spirit and in truth” according to Jesus’ directive which He makes an essential “MUST” (John 4:23-24). This means to worship Him out of our spirit and by His Spirit and according to His truth, which is His written Word. See John 4:23-24; 17:17.
God Himself etches the image of who He is upon the heart of those who are His and thoroughly pour over His Precepts, His words.
Every image or picture, painting of “Jesus” comes from mere sinful mankind who cannot possibly begin to depict the image of an infinite Almighty God. Jesus walked the earth for 3.5 years but we no longer know Him according to the flesh.
“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” 2 Corinthians 5:16
Satan has so corrupted the image of the Son of God, his arch enemy. We can only trust God’s Word to inform and reveal to us who HE is. So we get every single iota of our image of God straight from His own mouth, His Word. That’s the way the LORD has chosen to reveal Himself and every other way will inevitably mislead and corrupt His holy image.
His words and pouring over them, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating upon and obeying them is how we are moved by and walk with Jesus and not some false image, painting done by a finite sinner.
Jesus tells us that the Scriptures are what He gave us to reveal Himself to us as we come to Him John 5:39.
“Search the scriptures … they are they which testify of me.” John 5:39
Jesus Teaching on the Cross | Making Peace with God
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Abiding
The Death before the Death [podcast]

Gethsemane Preceded Calvary
“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, 42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:42-44
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” 2 Corinthians 4:10-12
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” Luke 9:23-25

Shall We Freshly Declare the Cross to be Front and Center in our Personal Lives?
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
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Abiding
“Rend Your Heart, and Not Your Garments” [podcast]

Who Does God Look to? Who Does God Dwell in?
Beware of any man pretending to represent Christ who isn’t praying and preaching for you to be possessed by a humble and contrite heart.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3
“‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:3). A low condition. ‘Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted’ (Matthew 5:4). To mourn over our sin and our utter wickedness before a holy and righteous God. Those are the ones who will receive the comfort and ‘joy in the Holy Ghost’ (Romans 14:17).” Karen Cochran
Abandoning Our Own Sin, Our Own Way, for God and His Better Way!
To “rend your heart” is a biblical phrase meaning to tear open your heart in radical sincerity, true humility, and genuine repentance.
The phrase comes from Joel 2:13 in the Bible: “Rend your heart and not your garments and return to the Lord your God.”
One source notes the following:
“Context and Deeper Meaning:
- Cultural Background: In ancient times, the Jewish people would tear (rend) their clothes as a public, highly visible display of grief or repentance.
- The Spiritual Message: God is warning that outward rituals (like ripping clothing) are meaningless if the heart remains unchanged. Rending your heart implies breaking through your pride, letting go of excuses, and being completely vulnerable and authentic before God.
- The Reward: The verse goes on to say that God is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” Tearing open your heart allows you to experience His forgiveness and restore your relationship with Him.”
To see an example of rending one’s physical garment in representation of rending their heart, see Acts 14:11-18.
Where is the LORD Looking?
“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God” Joel 2:12-14
“What a gracious invitation is contained in these words. How tenderly the Lord reasons with his people. And what an encouraging assurance it folds up with. Reader! do not fail to observe that this call of the Lord, the accompanying grace to incline the heart to the observance of it is implied. It is most blessed ever to remember that when the Lord thus comes forth in his endearing invitations, he is secretly inclining the heart to accept them. Grace must first enter the heart, or there will be no inclination to obey.” Robert Hawker
“Jeremiah’s message was never meant to leave the heart in despair. Every warning from God carried an invitation to return. The Lord does not expose empty religion to shame His people, but to heal them. Repentance is not the loss of hope, it is the beginning of hope. Christ still receives every soul that comes with humility, and He gives living faith where there was only habit, peace where there was only fear, and joy where there was only emptiness. The call remains the same today, to draw near to Him with a sincere heart, trusting that His mercy is always greater than our weakness.” Dan Blincoe
A Fresh Start with God Always Begins with Humility and True Repentance
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19
“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?” Joel 2:12-14
Concerning rending our hearts before the LORD, one source notes:
The classic Bible passage on this concept is Joel 2:13, where God commands: “Rend your heart and not your garments”. In ancient biblical culture, tearing (or “rending”) one’s physical clothing was a customary, visible display of extreme grief, despair, or repentance. Through the prophet Joel, God is essentially telling His people: Stop doing the empty, outward religious ritual of tearing your clothes to show everyone how sorry you are. Instead, let me see true, inward brokenness over your sins.
Examples of Rending Physical Garments
In the Bible, the physical act of tearing clothes was used as a dramatic expression of deep emotion in several well-known narratives:
- Joseph’s Brothers (Genesis 37:29, 34): When Reuben realized Joseph was not in the pit, and later when the brothers brought Joseph’s blood-stained coat to Jacob, they tore their clothes in grief and despair.
- Job (Job 1:20): After hearing that he had lost all his wealth and his children, Job stood up and tore his robe as an outward sign of his overwhelming sorrow.
- King David (2 Samuel 1:11-12): When David received news of the deaths of King Saul and Jonathan, he and his men tore their clothes to mourn.
- The High Priest (Matthew 26:65): In a dramatic display of hypocritical outrage, the high priest tore his own garments when Jesus declared He was the Son of God, falsely accusing Him of blasphemy.
The Spiritual Meaning of “Rending the Heart”
The concept of “rending the heart” contrasts an outward show with inward reality.
- Genuine Repentance: Tearing your heart means being vulnerable, acknowledging your brokenness, and deeply repenting of sin before God.
- Prioritizing Relationships over Rituals: God desires a sincere heart—true sorrow and a desire to change—more than he desires traditional religious pageantry or dramatic, public displays of grief.
- The Promise of Forgiveness: In Joel 2:13, the command to rend the heart is immediately followed by the promise of grace: “Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love”.
God sees beyond our external habits and religious actions, requiring instead a humble, contrite heart to fully experience His mercy.”
God’s Mercy
“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?” Joel 2:12-14
In God’s Word, where we see men who tear open their garments…. This holds the illustration of rending our hearts before the LORD.
Don’t render outward tearing, no, rather, tear open your inner man, your heart—be honest, sincere, exposed, and vulnerable to the LORD whom you trust.
Let’s attempt to get at, to ascertain what God is commanding of His beloved people to do in this “rend your heart” passage.
“Joel 2:13: Rend your heart—Let it not be merely a rending of your garments, but let your hearts be truly contrite. Merely external worship and hypocritical pretensions will only increase the evil, and cause God to meet you with heavier judgments.
For he is gracious—Good and benevolent in his own nature.
Merciful—Pitying and forgiving, as the effect of goodness and benevolence.
Slow to anger —He is not easily provoked to punish, because he is gracious and merciful.
Of great kindness—Exuberant goodness to all them that return to him.
And repenteth him of the evil—Is ever ready to change his purpose to destroy, when he finds the culprit willing to be saved. See the notes on Exo_34:6, Exo_34:7.” Adam Clarke
“Joel 2:12-14: III. DIVINE APPEAL TO JUDAH TO REPENT (2:12-14)
Even now, the LORD calls the people to repentance. It is not too late to return to Him. But it must be more than outward ritual. Their turning was to be with all their heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Believer’s Bible Commentary
To rend our hearts is the consistent message, mandate of God to His people of all ages and eras.
“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Psalms 34:18
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Psalms 51:17
In Joel 2 the LORD reminds those who are backslidden that He “is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? …”
They must meet His stated conditions to receive His blessings ….
He promises that He will forgive them as they…..
“Joel 2:12-27: THE AVERTING OF JUDGMENT
To rend the garment is easy, but a broken and contrite heart can be imparted only by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The love of God should bring us to repentance. He takes no pleasure in our miseries and if men repent and turn from their sin they find an immediate and loving welcome to the Father’s heart and home. Joel had called for the trumpet to announce war; he now directs the trumpet blast to summon the people, from the highest to the lowest, to plead for help. Prayer and true repentance and faith bring an immediate answer. As the husband yearns over his erring but repentant wife, and is indignant with those who have maltreated her, so will Jehovah remove from us, when we turn to Him, those who have cruelly oppressed us.
The great things Jehovah did against Egypt and Babylon are an earnest of what He will do again. The earth (and all the creation of God) … have good reason to rejoice in what awaits them. God promises not only to forgive sin, but to make us happy and well provided as if the locust and cankerworm had never settled upon our lives.” FB Meyer
Religious hypocrites, counterfeits, emphasize the outward to cover their inner darkness, rebellion.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Matthew 23:23-25
“He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Mark 7:6
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Articles
God and His Word are Unchanging [podcast]

Because God is Unchanging, So is His Word
“For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6
“Which keepeth truth for ever” – Is the Bible “Archaic”? No. Divine truth is everlasting. Has no expiration date. You cannot escape accountability to it, to Him. It’s an open book test. The Savior says “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away” (Mark 13:31). Divine truth is eternal, unchanging, and binding upon all men (Psalms 146:6; Malachi 3:6, etc.).
Every time you open God’s Word and begin reading, you are hearing the voice of God.
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2:17
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Genesis 3:1 (the devil questions God’s Word, questions what God says in His Word.)
“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall NOT surely die.” Genesis 3:4
“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. 6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Proverbs 30:5-6
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:18-19
“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” Deuteronomy 4:2
“For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:17
“Ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.” Jeremiah 23:36
“all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:” Jeremiah 26:2
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