<\/p>\n
\nMatthew 16:24\u00a0 <\/span>Then Jesus told his disciples, \u201cIf anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>1 Peter 4:2<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>John 12:25<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Acts 20:24<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Job 27:8<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Luke 12:20<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0But God said to him, \u2018Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Mark 8:37<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0For what can a man give in return for his soul?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The\u00a0cross<\/b>\u00a0wasn\u2019t about religious ceremonies; it wasn\u2019t about traditions and spiritual feelings. The cross was a way to execute people. Everyone knew that the cross was an unrelenting instrument of death. The\u00a0cross<\/b>\u00a0had no other purpose. We have done a pretty good job in sanitizing and ritualizing the cross.\u00a0\u201cCross bearing does not refer to some irritation in life. Rather, it involves the way of the cross. \u201cDenying self is not the same as self-denial. We practice self-denial when, for a good purpose, we occasionally give up things or activities. But we deny self when we surrender ourselves to Christ and determine to obey His will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Human nature wants to indulge self, not\u00a0deny<\/b>\u00a0self. Death to self is always terrible, and if we expect it to be a pleasant or mild experience, we will often be disillusioned. Death to self is the radical command of the Christian life. To\u00a0take up<\/b>\u00a0your cross meant one thing: you were going to a certain death, and your only hope was in resurrection power. (Guzik & Wiersbe)<\/p>\n
Death is a friend no one wants but is always no more than one heartbeat or breath away from every single person born. We may deny it is with us at all times. We deny it has a time of its choosing to end our earthly life. We see it as a friend very close to others but not close to us. As hard as we may try to mask death’s inevitable fate for us we still will die and face eternity. Jesus is saying that death is coming to all and while we are still breathing you can choose to live life for eternal life or eternal death.\u00a0 <\/span>Choosing to follow the way of the cross to death means a person dies to self continually. They have set their hearts, minds, and souls on repenting of sin, humbly surrendering, following, trusting, obeying, and relying on Jesus Christ alone. Nothing this world has to offer is greater than honoring and glorifying Jesus Christ in all that think, say, and do. The way of the cross would seem like a burden to those who see it as taking away from this life. But, to those who have chosen it, to them it is life worth living, eternal life, and their heart is more than comforted in this. They find what others deem as a burden, it is has given them peace, love, joy, hope, courage, power, and a place of refuge from the very moment they were born again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Death comes to all and routinely gives no warning to its arrival. But, when it comes, eternity is waiting and it is here where God\u2019s final judgment occurs and either eternal life or eternal torment is the result of the choice being made the living side of death. Choose to repent of sin, humbly surrender, follow, obey, trust, and rely on Jesus Christ for there is no other way to eternal life.<\/p>\n
Upon death, no one can stand before God and claim they are worthy of eternal life because of their good works or anything else they have done. No one can say I did it my way and did not need Jesus Christ, nor did I need to burden myself with the way of the cross, nor can they say I went part way in following the path of the cross when it suited me. Scripture is clear, no one will find lasting peace, joy, love, hope, courage, power, and a place of refuge – eternal life – without surrendering this life and taking up the way of the cross through Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matthew 16:24\u00a0 Then Jesus told his disciples, \u201cIf anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he … Continue reading “33.u. “So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[475,14671,223,531,14173,304,2382,119,15740,15741,76,152,70,14840,165,36,796,7700,5531,844,328,2448,226,14672,7465,3353,202,322],"class_list":["post-141317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers","tag-angels","tag-deny-himself","tag-disciples","tag-eternal-life","tag-find-it","tag-flesh","tag-follow-me","tag-fool","tag-forfeits-his-soul","tag-glory-of-his-father","tag-god","tag-gospel","tag-grace-of-god","tag-human-passions","tag-jesus","tag-life","tag-lord","tag-lose-it","tag-ministry","tag-precious","tag-repay","tag-son-of-man","tag-soul","tag-take-up-his-cross","tag-value","tag-whole-world","tag-will-of-god","tag-world"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141317"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141400,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141317\/revisions\/141400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}