Taking up my Cross

For my spiritual discipline this week, I practiced Devotions for my personal discipline and in class we practiced Scripture and Memorization. On Monday we read through Mark 8- Jesus feeding the multitudes- and we chose a part of that passage to memorize and to ponder throughout the week. We didn’t read Mark 8 from out personal Bibles but we read it like a narrative. Prof. Maddox typed it out without any verse numbers and like a story. How funny that a little change in the way I read a Bible passage changed the way I took it all in. We read it several times each time looking at it in a different perspective. I kept thinking if I were one of the twelve disciples how I would be acting when Jesus was telling me that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by others. What would I be feeling? I was also challenged highly of the three continuous commands God give us. 1. To deny oneself. 2. Take up his cross. 3 Follow Him. These aren’t suggestions they are commands and ones you can’t follow merely a week or a month or a year, but commands that will go with us the rest of our lives.

 I chose to memorize verse 34 and 34, “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Once again it reminds me let go of worldly things, and focus solely on God. To deny MY plans for life and focus only on the will of God.

I want to share a little bit about one of my devos this week. It’s called “A Lifetime Message”, a devotional in the book Holiness Day by Day, by Jerry Bridges, this book was given to me by a friend and I purely blessed by it. This one was based on the need and emphasis the gospel has on our everyday lives as Christians. Like my previous post about the struggle of getting into a habit of reading the scriptures daily and making the time to focus on what they mean for my life, I need the gospel; I need the Word of God every day. I want to be prepared to disciple, to bring the message of God to others, and the only way I can be prepared to do so, is the motivation and encouragement of the gospel.