Thursday, May 10, 2007


Luke 9: 23
Then he said to them all, “if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Jesus is saying to his disciples about this verse, as part of His sharing about his suffering and death. Disciples refer to followers of Jesus at that time. In our context, “them all” refers to a more general audience, which is to us, the Christians, who have been called to be His people by the work of Holy Spirit. Jesus here is giving out invitation to his followers about the decision to follow Jesus.
The decision of following Jesus simple as it seems, but yet could be challenging. This is because it says here “he must deny himself”. To deny oneself is to let go of his own flesh desire, as said in Romans 8:9a – but you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead you live as the Holy Spirit tells you to, if, in fact, God’s Spirit lives in you.
We are born with human nature and inherit the human desire from our ancestors. Therefore, the (sinful and weak) human nature is always in us to provide challenge and obstacles. Let’s reflect again, along our walk with God, how many times have we struggled between our own wants and God’s wants. We would argue with God that we need this and we need that, we want to do this and we refused to do that. And out of those arguments, how many times have we allowed our desire to determine our acts and our words. Instead of embracing God’s will, we resort to our own will. Instead of waking early in the morning and driving 10mins to church for dawn prayer, we choose to sleep in the comfort of our bed due to tiredness from midnight work the day before. Instead of reading the bible, we choose to read textbooks as tests and exams are coming in the next few weeks. This is because very often our own desire is easier to do and to fulfill.
However, this is not the case when we fully whole-heartedly follow God, fully allowing Him to work in us. Philippians 2:13 says “because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey His own purposes”. If we say we wants to follow God, are we totally willing to let God work in us and make us obey His will with a joyful heart?
“Taking up his cross daily” is simply an indication that Jesus is inviting us to die with Him. What human sees is the physical death, but beyond human naked eyes, there is resurrection of spiritual life which last for eternity. This promise is in 2 Timothy 2:11 – “if we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him”. When Jesus walked his way with the cross to Golgotha, he was all alone; he was spitted on and mocked by the soldiers. Therefore, we have to bear in mind that being a believer in the world full of non-believers, we sometimes might receive persecution as well. Does this ring any familiar scenes to you? When you were in the school canteen and were afraid to close eyes to give thanks for the food in front of you, for fear your friends will laugh at you or even abandon you. Romans 12:2 says “do not conform yourselves to the standard of the world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God-what is good and pleasing to him and is perfect”. Do always to seek ways to please God, overlooking the “spits” and “mocks”, believing in the eternal rewards that God is going to bless you with as you embrace His cross everyday in life.
In John 13:15, it says “I have set an example for you, so that you will do just what I have done for you” gives clear direction what should we do when we follow Jesus. Jesus is righteous, fair, loving, compassionate, merciful, patience and etc. When faced with situation we do not know what to do, always look to Jesus, reflect on what will Jesus do if he is in this situation. Then we shall do what Jesus will do. Also, do seek to build up intimacy with God so that we will know the heart of God, thus knowing His desire and His will. The bible is the living dictionary of how Jesus is like! As we make this decision, pray to God that our heart, soul and spirit is so set on Him alone, that we will follow faithfully and persevere to walk this journey, growing into His likeness, with ultimate purpose to fulfill His plan and to reflect the glory of God (we live everyday as the ambassadors of God).
Paul in his letter Galatians 2:20 proclaims “so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me”.


Below is excerpt from a msn dialog between my friends (names being kept confidential )

A : cross is something that you wouldn’t want to take up…
B : challenges..?
A : It is heavy.
It is not easy to carry.
You can define it in your own words.. as long as it is something that nobody would volunteer or gladly
take up upon their shoulder.
My cross is not the same as yours, and yours is different from theirs.
Each one of us is called to carry his/her own cross to follow Jesus.
B: yeah…
A: Some may pay the price of their relationship with someone they love.
Some may pay the price of a job with high salary.
Some may pay the price of broken family.
Some may pay their own lives to follow Jesus.
The price varies from one individual to another.
And you have to ask God.. what cross can I carry for You..?
Jesus has bored the heaviest cross for us- the sins of the whole human population.

What can you carry for Him..?? I think this is a question for you as well as for me.



~*~ God bless you ~*~

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