Take Up Your Cross - Part 1

In Luke 9:23-24 Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

Continuing Michael’s Holy Week messages, he writes that many Christians approach the cross of Christ. However, to be a true disciple requires more than approaching the cross. In order to live for Christ, we must crucify the worldly nature that we inherited from Adam to walk in the Spirit and live according to the heavenly nature we inherited from Christ. The cross is the instrument by which we die to self in order to live for Him. Galatians 2:20 says, "For I have been crucified with Christ." When we come to the cross, we must abandon our pride to enter into the place of personal abandonment and absolute trust.

The Roman soldiers did not kill Jesus on the cross of Calvary. They did not take His life. He lovingly and willingly gave up His life after He shed His life blood as the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. It was not the nails that kept Him on the cross, rather it was the love that He had for you and me. According to Hebrews 12:2, Jesus, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down upon the right hand of the throne of God.

There are things going on in our physical bodies that only God knows and that only God can heal. Likewise, there are things going on in the church, the body of Christ, which only God can heal. Men and women of the unbelieving world and Christians often do things without knowing the purpose and value of their actions. Our challenge is to "put one on the scoreboard for our Lord."  For we are His living epistles known and read of all people.

How do we spread the word about the gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ?  Jesus rarely ministered to the multitudes. He taught by example those who followed Him closely.  The question is, "Who are your three inner-group and who are your twelve close group of intimate confidants?" The disciples asked Jesus, "Who's my neighbor." To answer that question, Jesus taught them the story of the Good Samaritan. The point of this story is that your "neighbor" is the person in need who is right next to you. Jesus came to bind up the wounds of the broken and the broken hearted and to show them the unconditional love of God in manifestation.  

There is a spiritual cause behind every earthly effect. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness from on high. All men and women who have been “born again” of the spirit of life in Christ are engaged in spiritual warfare whether or not they realize it.  

Let's continue Michael's message on "Taking up our Cross" in the next post.

In Christ, Brian