Christianity Oasis Forum

[comfy]

Hi . . . (o:

Jesus says,

"'And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.'"
. . . . . . . . . . (Matthew 10:38)

So, what is this cross that Jesus is talking about?

"Then Jesus said to His disciples,
'If anyone desires to come after Me,
. . . let him deny himself,
. . . . . and take up his cross,
. . . . . . . and follow Me.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.'"
. . . . . . . . . .(Matthew 16:24-25)

So . . . what is this cross that Jesus is talking about?

And how might this help us with our counseling needs?

[phoofy]

the cross to follow Him?

to follow Him and to obey the law? . . . that was written down, years ago?

this is a hard one; there's so many things you can do with that

[JCsmediator]

Take up your cross: I would say means to Except Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and what ever He has for us( Thru Thick or Thin till death due us part ) ... Gods Will Be Done

Follow Him: means follow Him Only Trust Jesus with our life

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it: Not sacrific'n everything and anything for Jesus we will loose every thing and anything ... and ur eternal Life?

but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it: Sacrificing everything and anything for Jesus ...( die'n to self )Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and The Life
TY Jesus

[Lani]

Hey Comfy,

Awesome question bro!

It does appear many times throughout His teaching...

I thought, early on, that it meant to simply accept whatever trials came my way as an opportunity to grow in Faith.

Later the idea brought new meaning...

As I reflect on what the cross meant for Jesus, death of His human form... fully accepting the worlds judgement to honor the Love of our Father... I think, more so, it means giving ourselves to His will and purpose completely, ignoring our "wants" and filling His needs in this world without regard to the possible human judgement that may come.

I do beleive it speaks differently to each individual and hope others respond to give us all many views to consider.

Peace and Love in Christ,

Lani

[lizzie]

Hello comferelli my brother

comfles... if i ever meet u in person and u dont look like this --> (o:
I may be sorta disappointed

Awesome question

What does it mean to take up one's cross...

It would mean having to look deeper into what the cross represented:

It was a means of sacrifice that came thru love
It was a thing of suffering
It was a heavy burden to carry
It caused discomfort
It drew men to God

When i think of carrying a cross, i imagine when Jesus was dragging His up to Golgotha... where He had to be helped , or rather, allowed a man to help Him

I believe we are faced with 'crosses' every day of our lives.

Sometimes we choose not to 'pick them up'

This brings to mind when Peter didnt understand the plan of salvation, and he saw only thru physical eyes, the death of his friend Jesus. But Jesus knew that His death was necessary to save mankind from eternal damnation.

Sometimes we see situations from such a worldly viewpoint that it totally clouds out the reason God put us or even others in the situations to start with.

Can you imagine if Jesus had thrown up His hands and said, 'Wow Peter! Ur right buddy! I aint gonna go thru with that!' ?

Perish the thought!

But Jesus saw the cross in a way that ordinary man could not.

So He bore that cross till God took it away from Him... till It Was Finished

Thanks for the discussion comferelli

GBU all

[comfy]

Lani and Lizzie, I just found your comments > thanks . . . we each do have things to give to each other, about this . . . always more to learn and gain.

For a while, I have thought of how ones may think a cross is some one big problem that a person has in one's life. And everyone may be praising that person for having such courage to keep on dealing with that very great problem. It can be a *status* thing, even, so that I might learn to *like* my "cross", because it gets me attention and pity and praise. For attention . . . one may be willing to do anything

I ate a worm, once, in order to impress my girlfriend . . . well . . . who I thought was my girlfriend > and that did not work very well. The guy got me to eat the worm, not to back down, then got the girl to say she didn't like me. So, I paid up but then got done for.

So much for what is not a cross, though he kind of did crucifiy me.

Now, I can be quite the hero . . . to go through things, but living with my mother . . . kind of exposed how I still was not so strong, after all > though I have been kicked around by a gang and walked away like it didn't happen, and have walked from Massachusetts to North Carolina . . . most of the way, including one time having a jersey only and it was getting too cold to stop for a rest and I could not have kept going hard enough to stay warm > I was done for, unless God showed me how to rest and stay warm enough. As you can see . . . I found out what to do

So, I was supposing I was a pretty strong guy; but Mommy could find those weak points And I think this is part of what our cross is . . . how we get real in love so no one can get the better of us, and we can be loving them and bearing burdens for and suffering for ones who do not deserve this. Jesus forgave those people, right while they were still hating and torturing and cursing and killing Jesus. Undeserved forgiving is included in our cross.

So, our cross is not really what physical suffering me may go through, but our cross is how we love.

[lizzie]

I ate a worm, once,

Well i figure if John the baptist ate locusts...

aww

What a beautiful way to put it

The cross = Love

Absolutely!

[comfy]

Hi, Lizzie Once, I was walking in the woody country and had not had anything to eat for I think more than a day. I started trying clover flowers, then noticed grasshoppers jumping away from me. And I thought of John the Baptist eating locusts.

So, I caught a grasshopper and ate it. It was sweet in its juices.

Then I caught and ate another one, but it was kind of nasty bitter.

I thought of how a grasshopper might taste sweet if it had eaten grass, but another eating bitter leaves might be the one that would be bitter. And I realized I would not know which each grasshopper would be like; and I was satisfied to stop eating them. But then I thought of how we in the resurrection will taste and smell to God like whatever we have been eating.

[lizzie]

well the bible does say locusts and honey maybe he dipped em in the honey first

GBU brother

Stop eating bugs!

Try some cake