“Take Up
Their Cross Daily
And Follow Me”
Once when Jesus was
praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
They
replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that
one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
“But what
about you?” he asked. “Who
do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “God’s
Messiah.”
Jesus
strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. And he said, “The
Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief
priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day
be raised to life.”
Then
he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple
must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever
loses their life for me will save it. What good is
it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
Whoever is ashamed of me and my words,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the
glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
“Truly I
tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the
Luke 9:18-27
Deception is nothing new. Jesus
has described Satan in so many ways. Satan can promise a life of ease, but the
reality is eternal damnation.
We are told, by Jesus, to put our
needs second to Jesus. We are not promised a life of prosperity and ease.
There are two voices telling us
where to invest our lives. You will be damned eternally if you follow the wrong
voice.
If we hold on to God’s
truth, we won’t be trapped by Satan’s lies.
Our Daily Bread –