Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matt. 16:24

Jesus is with His disciples and ask them “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?  They answered His questions with who the people were saying that He was.  The people thought that He was a reincarnation of one of the prophets. However, Peter received the revelation that He was indeed the long awaited Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  Caesarea Philippi was influence by Greek and Roman culture which included pagan temples and idols everywhere. Peter identified Jesus as the one that they had been waiting on to fulfill the promises of God, the only Living God. 

Jesus warns them not to tell anyone.  Why did He not want them to tell anyone?  The disciples had yet to fully understand the kind of Messiah that He came to be.  He did not come to overturn the government or become king.  He came to suffer, carry a cross and die for the sins of the world. Peter tried to protect Jesus from suffering but He had to endure to give us life, eternal life.

 The Life Application Bible says, “When Jesus used this picture of his followers taking up their crosses to follow him, the disciples knew what he meant.  Crucifixion was a common Roman method of execution, and condemned criminals had to carry their crosses through the streets to the execution site.  Following Jesus, therefore, meant a true commitment, the risk of death, and no turning back. The possibility of losing their lives was very real for the disciples as well as for Jesus. Real discipleship implies real commitment – pledging our whole existence to his service.  If we try to save our physical life from death, pain, or discomfort, we may risk losing eternal life. If we protect ourselves from the pain God calls us to suffer, we begin to die spiritually and emotionally. Our lives turn inward, and we lose our intended purpose.  When we give our life in service to Christ, however, we discover the real purpose of living.”

 Jesus knows that walking with Him comes with sacrifice and suffering. But He also promises in 2 Timothy 2:12 that, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:” If we surrender our life to Christ, to His will for our lives, we will have the victory and be able to spend eternity with Him.  But if we deny Christ, live our own way, we will still suffer and have not part with Him in eternity. 

 Taking up your cross takes real commitment to His will and His service. It is surrendering your will, your plans, and your life to God.  No, you do not become a robot or a zombie.  Surrender to God gives you new life and freedom.  You cast all of your cares on the One that knows all, sees all, and can work it all out.  Surrender takes trust but He is trustworthy.  God’s plans are to prosper us and not harm us, to give us hope and a future.  (Jer. 29:11) If we take up our cross and follow Jesus, we will be so much better for it because He alone knows the way we should go and He will help us carry the load.  Take up your cross today and follow Jesus.

 Be blessed.

 

I Surrender All, I Surrender All

All to Jesus I surrender

All to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live

I surrender all
I surrender all
All to Thee
My blessed Savior
I surrender all

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  Matt. 16:24

As I was growing up in church, I remember singing this song.  It was a song of surrender, giving up your will to follow the will of the Father – God.  You were singing this song to God and proclaiming your desire to give yourself over to God and allow Him to rule.  You were yielding to His control. 

Unfortunately, a great deal of people sang the song but really didn’t mean it.  My mother used to say that you shouldn’t sing the song if you didn’t mean it.  You could sing a lie just like you could tell a lie.  How could you surrender all if you didn’t even know all that God wanted you to surrender?  How could we possibly surrender if we didn’t know what to surrender or how to surrender?  And how can you surrender ALL, if you only know one thing that God is asking you to surrender?

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t always freely give all (or anything).  There were some things that I only let go of after being made to by God revealing the truth, being hurt, or God removing from my life.  Some things came easy and others didn’t.  Some relationships were dismissed easily and some were heart wrenching.  I didn’t want to surrender, I wanted to make it work.  Sometimes God asked me to go places, move places, leave jobs that I didn’t want to go to or move from.  He asked me to lay down my dreams, and take up His for my life.  The jobs I was seeking after were not His will for my life.

Even though at times the surrender came after many tears and much conversation with God, I have to admit (and much faster now with less resistance) that God’s love for me is so great that if He asks me to surrender, it is for my good.  It will work out for my good and for my betterment.  He has great and loving plans for my life.  If I just trust Him and surrender, it will work out for my good. 

I haven’t always wanted to surrender but God has worked miracles in my life when I have.  He has made ways, open doors, restore relationships, and removed those that were harmful to me and my family.  God has only had my best interest at heart.  I have been learning to trust His guidance and direction in all areas of my life.

Now, I can sing the song knowing that I am surrendering all that I know at the time to surrender.  I will never know all that God wants me to surrender in my life because He won’t show me all at once.  It would be too much for me to handle.  But as He reveals what I need to surrender (and I do), He will reveal to me what His plans are as I walk through the process of surrendering.  I am allowing Him to become my Savior in another area, one area at a time. 

I will always need to continually surrender to God on a daily basis.  He alone knows what I need to surrender, how I need to surrender, and why I need to surrender.  The more I trust and yield, the more blessed I become. 

The scripture says in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” The more I trust Him, the more He will make my path straight.  Surrender comes as you trust God, He will surely make your path straight and take good care of you.

Be blessed.

Have Thine Own Way Lord, Have Thine Own Way

Have Thine own way Lord
Have Thine own way
Thou art the potter I am the clay
Mold me and make me after Thy will
While I am waiting yielded and still  by Adelaide A. Pollard (1906)

⁴ But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” Jer 18:4

Have you ever had plans for your day, week, or life and God asked you to change your plans? Maybe something came up that changed everything.  I remembered this hymn from growing up and it is a song of surrender to God and His plans for your life.    

Adelaide Pollard wrote this song after attending a prayer meeting in 1902.  She heard and old mother praying that it really didn’t matter what God did to them but that He have His way in their lives.  Now that is total surrender.  It didn’t matter to them what He did but as long as He had His will in their lives.  Adelaide went home and read Jeremiah 18 and Isaiah 64:8 about the potter.

Adelaide realized that we are clay in the hands of our Potter, which is the Lord. He molds us, shapes us, and works all the lumps and bumps out of us.  If we are marred, he can reshape us, break us down and start over again.  He is working things in and out of us so that we can be the vessel that He needs us to be to accomplish the work that He has called us to accomplish. 

How can I, the pot, tell the Potter how to form me?  I can try but it doesn’t work that way.  The Potter is the creator, the pot is the creation.  The Potter gets to decide the shape, height, weight, color, etc. of the creation not the other way around.  As I yield to the shaping of the Potter (God), I become who He wants me to be.  But if I buck or rebel, then I become marred, and He has to break me down and make me over. 

Marred means impair the appearance of: to disfigure; to ruin or diminish the perfection or wholeness of: SPOIL; blemish. The pot that the potter was shaping was marred, disfigured, ruined, had blemishes, or spoiled.  We come marred, hurt by past relationships, broken marriages, sickness and diseases, mentally and physically abused, depressed, lonely, cast aside, underappreciated, etc. All these things that can mar a vessel or a human life.  But the scripture says, that He forms it into another pot.  God lovingly adds His Spirit and remakes us into a vessel of honor to be used in His Kingdom.  You can be made over, you can become new. 2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

 All of this happens if we surrender to the Lord’s reshaping and remaking of our lives.  We have to lay down our agenda and allow Him to (as the song says), Have thing own way Lord, Have thine own Way. He wants to make us new and gives us an abundant life in Him. Let Him have His way and you will see that the Potter, Our loving God, know what He is doing.

Be blessed today.

 

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done…

Luke 11:1-2

 “Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” ² So He said to them, “When you pray, say:  Our^[a] Father ^[b]in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus was praying and when He stopped, the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray.  He praised God and states that His Name is holy, sacred, greatly revered and honored.  His Name alone deserved to be reverenced.  He gave Him praise for who He is and His Name. 

Jesus then invokes God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.  God’s will is being done in heaven and He is calling for His will to be done here in the earth.  So how can God’s will be done in the earth?  He surely could cause it to be so but He often chooses to work through people. In order to do so, we must surrender to His will. 

Yes, the topic for this month is surrender.  Surrender means to : to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand; to give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor of another; to give (oneself) over to something (such as an influence). God is not trying to make you a slave or one without thoughts or feelings.  He loves you and has a plan for your life that includes what is best for you.  Surrender to God is trusting that He knows best and has your best interest at heart.  He knows what you need and how to bring His will for your life to pass.

Let’s face it, we do not always know what is best for us.  Why do I say that? Because even though we are aware of how we feel and what we would like to accomplish in life, we cannot see down the road to what is ahead.  We see linear and God sees the entire picture, He knows the end from to the beginning.

Jesus surrendered His will to the will of the Father so that we could be saved.  He endured great humiliation and suffering so that we could gain eternal life.  If Jesus had to surrender, so do we.  God does not make us do His will but He lovingly invites us to surrender our will, our choices, and our agenda to His.  Why? Because He knows the plans that He has for you…Jer. 29:11 those plans are to prosper you and not harm you.  He wants to give us hope and a future.  His plans are good and not evil.  A surrendered life is a prosperous life.

You may not see it now, but surrender will lead you to a lasting and wonderful relationship with God.  It builds trust as you walk out laying down your will to pick up His.  His will for you is preparing you to bear fruit and eternity. 

God has often asked me to go another way, give up my agenda in my career, leave a relationship, move to another state, or forgive someone that has wronged me.  I must admit that my first response in most instances was surprise, uncertainty, and sometimes fear. I often could not see why God would ask me to move, give up my career goals, or ask me to do something that I never dreamed to do.  He was asking me to allow Him to stretch me beyond the comfortable place that I wanted to be.  He needed me to take risks and to trust Him.  He was building my faith and proving Himself to me. 

God knows what I need, what concerns me, what He created me to be, and how He wants to take me from one place to another (glory to glory).  What I have found out in these years of building a relationship with God is that He is very capable of completing what He has started in me.  He has a wonderful plan for me and if I cooperate, I will reap the benefits and so will those around me. 

God’s will is what is best for us if we will receive His instruction.  My pray is that God’s Kingdom will come and His will done in my life and the lives of those I love and know. I surrender, Lord, to you and you alone.

Don’t be afraid, He will not leave you nor forsake you (Hebrew 13:5).  Surrender, and let His will be done in your life.  Be blessed.     

 

 By This Everyone Will Know That You are My Disciples.

John 13:1, 34-35

“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end… (34) ^“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Do you have any siblings that you look like or do you look like your parents?  People can often tell who you are if you look like one of your parents or siblings.  You are identified with your family members, those you hang out with or those that you resemble.  We often make jokes in my family about specific characteristics that identify people in my family. 

Jesus knew that His time was about over and He was going to be with the Father (God).  He loved His disciples who were with Him while He was on the earth to the very end.  He never stopped loving them.  It was His end and He still loved them, regardless of the fact that Judas was about to betray Him.  His love was unconditional and without end.  He was about to endure great suffering and yet the scripture records how He loved them to the end. 

Isn’t it amazing that God loves us even though He knows all of our flaws, idiosyncrasies, and mistakes. He died for each of us regardless of our sins.  He did it so that we could come into relationship with Him again.  He loves us to the end as well.

Jesus also wanted to let His disciples know that His end was near. Some questioned where He was going and why He was leaving. He washed their feet and left an example for them to do the same.  He announced that He would be betrayed, knowing exactly who would betray Him.  He wanted them to know that they could not go with Him.

But He wanted to leave them with an important and new command…to Love one another as He loved them.  Remember, the first verse said that He loved them to the end.  He wanted them to be an example of His love for them.  He wanted them to show love one for another so that the world would know that they were His disciples.  They were to be identified with Christ by the love they showed to one another.

Not just verbal consent (talking), but true authentic love for one another.  Their actions were going to make them look like Christ, loving to the end.  Everyone would know that they belong to Jesus because they loved, truly loved one another.  They were going to take love to another level. 

This is what Jesus is still saying to those that are His today.  We are supposed to show love to one another to the extent that it is identifies us with Jesus. Anyone looking at us will be able to tell that we belong to Jesus.  God is love and we should love one another like Christ loves us.  Real love.

You know Jesus could have pointed out Judas to the other disciples and I’m sure they would have done away with Judas.  But because Jesus loved them to the end, He didn’t call Him out or try to get Him straight in front of the others.  Jesus knew of the betrayal because it was part of His plan as well.  A plan to redeem us back to Himself.  A way for us to be a part of His family and have eternal life.

I don’t know about you, but I am grateful that God loved us enough to send Jesus.  Jesus died so that we may have life.

Jesus didn’t die so that His church could be filled with bitterness, jealousy, strife, gossip, lying, stealing, cheating, backbiting, hatred, prejudice, fear, or division.  These things should not be in the body of Christ.  Do you see these things in your church?  Well pray that your church will take seriously the command of Jesus to love one another as He has loved us.

Be blessed and love so that you can be identify with Christ, loving to the end.

With Loving Kindness Have I Drawn Thee

 

Jeremiah 31:2-4

³ The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

Jeremiah writes of what the Lord says to him regarding the people of Israel.  The Lord says that He loves them with an everlasting love and has drawn them to Himself with loving kindness.  This sounds so sweet and comforting.  Not only did God say that He loved them but He loved them with an everlasting love. 

Everlasting means lasting forever or a very long time; lasting or continuing for an indefinitely long time.  God lets Israel know that He has loved them and will continue to love them forever.  How comforting and reassuring it is to know that God’s love will continue for an indefinitely long time, throughout eternity. 

Not only does He love them with an everlasting love but He shows them kindness – kindness that is motivated by His love.  He was eager to do what was best for them if they would allow Him to, if they were obedient. He warned them about their sins but He also reminded them that He loves them. 

God loves us but He does not love our sins.  He loves us too much to leave us in our sins, so He sent Jesus.  Jesus loved us enough to endure the Cross and die for our sins.  Our sins separate us from God but our repentance will cause us to draw near to God.  God is not giving up on you, He is drawing you to Him with love. 

He will warn you about your sins with love.  Why? Because He loves you too much to leave you the way you were when you gave your life to Him.  God is well aware of who you are and what struggles or sins that you need help with.  And in spite of all of that, He still loves you and me. His love is everlasting.  Just let that sink in…His love is everlasting.

God’s love will continue for an undefined period of time.  He is lovingly drawing us to Him so that we can become more like Him.  I know others may not love you for long, or may have given up on you, but God is not one of them.  He is God and His love is everlasting.

I don’t know about you but my heart is so encouraged to know that God loved me before I was born and will continue to love me.  He is drawing me closer to Himself with love and as I obey, I will become more like Him and enjoy the sweet relationship that He wants to have with me.  Yes, with me. 

So, if you are looking for love, here is the best love available.  The love that comes from the only One that can love you forever.  He is drawing you with loving kindness. Accept His love and draw near to Him.  You won’t regret it.

Let Us Love One Another

1 John 4:7-8

“⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

We are admonished by John the Apostle to love one another. Love is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible.  Here are some statistics on how many times it is mentioned in the different versions:

·       English Standard Version: 684

·       King James Version: 442

·       New American Standard Bible: 479

·       New Living Translation: 759

·       New International Version: 686

·       The Message: 611

Why should we love one another? We should love one another because love is of God and God is love.  Love is defined as an intense feeling of deep affection, a great interest and pleasure in something, (v.) feel deep affection for (someone).  The ancient Greeks have five to eight words for love:

·       Storge: affection

·       Philia or Phileo: friendship 

·       Eros: sexual, erotic

·       Agape: unconditional, divine, selfless

·       Ludus: flirtatious, playful, casual, uncommitted

·       Pragma: committed, long-standing

·       Philautia: self-love

·       Mania: obsessive, possessive, addictive, dependent

The scripture states that God is love.  Not only does He love us but He is love.  The verb “is” – the present tense third person singular of “be”.  Be means to equal in meaning: have the same connotation as; to have a specified qualification or characterization. God has the specific character of love.  His love is so intense, deep, faithful, and unmeasurable.  We can’t even fathom (to measure by a sounding line; to penetrate and come to understand) how much He loves us. He loved us so much that He gave His only Son, Jesus to die for our sins.  He died for us to have eternal life.  He suffered great humiliation and pain so that we could live with Him in eternity.  If we do not accept Him as the Lord of our lives, we will spend eternity in hell with the enemy, the devil. 

Jesus came and gave His all so that we could have eternal life and peace in heaven with God.  What love! Jesus says in John 15:12-13, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus laid down His life for us and called us friends.  Even when we were sinners, He died for us. 

We cannot say that we know God if we do not love one another. God commands us to love one another, Matthew 22:37-39, ³⁷ Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’^[e] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Not a suggestion, but a commandment. 

Jesus also said in John 13:35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” This is how the world is going to know that we belong to Jesus by how we love one another.  If we give our lives to God, we can develop the fruit of the Spirit, which is love.  The world needs to see us loving one another not just in word but deeds as well.

People often say that they love others and continue to treat them harshly.  1 John 4:20-21 says, “²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer,^[c] that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.”  If we say we love God and don’t love people, we are deceiving ourselves.  The Bible clearly calls that person a liar.  We must not only say that we love each other but we must treat each other kindly and loving. 

If you are of God, you must learn to love others.  Let the Holy Spirit help you to develop the fruit of the Spirit, love. So, let us love one another and the world will see Jesus. Then they will accept Him as their Savior.  It is Good news!!