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“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Mt 16:24-25)“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”When Jesus calls anyone to Himself the requirement is always the same: you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him. Not your typical “God has a wonderful plan for your life” message, nevertheless it is the gateway into which we enter the fullness of all that God has in store for us. Jesus said the highway to hell is broad and wide and the gateway to life is small and narrow (see Mt 7:13-14 NLT). If you like to follow the crowd it could cost you tremendously in the Kingdom. You don’t go for what is necessarily common or popular, you go for what’s true and right.Life for the Christian is Christ and to die is gain. How this affects our personal lives is disruptive, inconvenient, uncomfortable, and uncommon and yet God-ordained for us to be conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus. While we are yet in this earth we are to live for Jesus. Our focus should not be on ourselves alone but on others that He died for. Our identity is in Jesus. We identify with Him and He is not ashamed to identify Himself with us (see Heb 2:11). I have been crucified with Christ…Christ liveth in me. If any man be in Christ he is a NEW CREATURE, a new original – according to the One New Man in Ephesians chapter two, verse fifteen. These are not just scriptures to read but the life to be lived.To move forward or into this Way of living requires faith – simple, pure, child-like faith – that believes it can be done. We get up, we move out. We rise up, we live out. We act on what we believe. We do, we do, we do. We never stop doing. Seeing only from the perspective of God that we truly are one. I/we have His views, His ways, His character, His nature, His wisdom, His knowledge, His understanding, His strength, His ability, His power, His might. We receive Him, Jesus, in all His fullness. Everything that is Him and of Him we receive.We don’t use our lives to satisfy ourselves, we use them to satisfy Him. This is why we must deny/put aside selfish ambition, take our cross (by which we are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to us), and follow Jesus – in that order.“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”
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