Take Up Your Cross

 Scripture:

“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  ‭‭Mark‬ ‭8:34‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Observation:

Jesus called the crowd and His disciples to Himself at this point and told them that they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him if they wanted to be His disciples.  Disciples are learners who are becoming like their teacher.  Jesus didn’t even try to make it easy for them or give them the easy way of following Him.  He told them straight up they needed to deny self and follow Him, then they could be His disciples. 

Application:

As a preacher of Christ, I want everyone to follow Him.  As a result of wanting this, I also try to make it as easy as possible by saying things like, “Just repeat this prayer”.  We tend to widen the gate as wide as we can, hoping people will come in And begin following Jesus.  He did it the other way, He made it difficult to follow Him and people responded.  Maybe it’s time to redraft my altar calls to say something about picking up your cross, or being prepared to die, for Jesus if you want to follow Him.  May God show us how to represent Christ well as ministers.

Prayer:

Father, help me to know Your voice.  Show me how to lead people to Christ.  Help me never to water it down so people don’t realize what they are doing.  Empower me to speak as Jesus spoke.  Help me to say the right things in leading people to Him.  I want to represent You well.  Help me to call people to a higher level of commitment and sacrifice than just repeating a prayer after me.

Yours,

Jeff