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Taking Up Our Cross, May 25
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Luke 9:23
.
The foundation of the plan of salvation was laid in
sacrifice
. Jesus
left the royal courts and became poor, that we through His poverty
might be made rich. All who share this salvation, purchased for them
at such an infinite sacrifice by the Son of God, will follow the example
of the true Pattern. Christ was the chief Cornerstone, and we must
build upon this Foundation. Each must have a spirit of self-denial and
self-sacrifice. The life of Christ upon earth was unselfish; it was marked
with humiliation and sacrifice. And shall men, partakers of the great
salvation which Jesus came from heaven to bring them, refuse to follow
their Lord and to share in His self-denial and sacrifice? Is the servant
greater than his Lord? ...
“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.”
Matthew 16:24
. I lead the way in the path of self-denial. I require
nothing of you, My followers, but that of which I, your Lord, give you
an example in My own life.
Self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway of every follower
of Christ. The cross is that which crosses the natural affections and the
will.
Jesus is our pattern. If He would lay aside His humiliation and
sufferings, and cry, “If any man will come after Me, let him please
himself, and enjoy the world, and he shall be My disciple,” the multitude
would believe and follow Him. But Jesus will come to us in no other
character than that of the meek, crucified One. If we would be with Him
in heaven, we must be like Him on earth.
Let us follow the Saviour in His simplicity and self-denial. Let us
lift up the Man of Calvary by word and by holy living.
And to all who lift it and bear it after Christ, the cross is a pledge of
the crown of immortality that they will receive.
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