If you are anything like my friend, Bola, then your favourite pendant is a cross. I can tell you free of charge that the only time a cross looks cute is when you wear it as a pendant. If you have to carry it, it is anything but cute.
Everybody has a made-to-fit cross. They come in different materials and sizes and are delivered at different seasons of life. These crosses could be made of wood, bronze, iron, silver or gold. Some crosses are crudely finished and others are tastefully finished but they all have some common denominators. They represent shame, pain, reproach and humiliation.
Some crosses are less obvious than others. We talk about some crosses openly and some we carry in the innermost recessions of our hearts. There are some crosses we are touchy about and there are some we have gotten so accustomed to that we don’t even remember they exist.
For every kind of cross, Jesus set a precedence. As God-head as He is, He submissively carried His cross. At the point where He couldn’t take one more step with it, God saw from heaven and sent Him help in the person of Simon from Cyrene.
Only God knows the extent we can cope with our various crosses. He can choose to intervene at some point and he can choose otherwise. If He chooses not to relieve you of a particular cross, He will make His grace available to you. Peter is a living witness to this. He recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 that:
“Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me and He said to me, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness”
Concerning your designer cross, God’s response could be Jesus’ style or Peter’s style. Any how, Jesus was the first person who, blamelessly, carried a cross and may I submit to you that He did a fantastic job of it. If that is the case, who else but Him has the sole right to say “I’ve been there, done that and have sole distributorship for the t-shirts”
The t-shirts in question are not plain. Inscribed on each one are these words…”TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME”. (Mark 8:34)
If you noticed, He did not say follow your pastor, parents, clairvoyants or any human being whatsoever. This is because He knows that the amour of flesh will fail you even when that was not the intention.
Everybody has a made-to-fit cross. They come in different materials and sizes and are delivered at different seasons of life. These crosses could be made of wood, bronze, iron, silver or gold. Some crosses are crudely finished and others are tastefully finished but they all have some common denominators. They represent shame, pain, reproach and humiliation.
Some crosses are less obvious than others. We talk about some crosses openly and some we carry in the innermost recessions of our hearts. There are some crosses we are touchy about and there are some we have gotten so accustomed to that we don’t even remember they exist.
For every kind of cross, Jesus set a precedence. As God-head as He is, He submissively carried His cross. At the point where He couldn’t take one more step with it, God saw from heaven and sent Him help in the person of Simon from Cyrene.
Only God knows the extent we can cope with our various crosses. He can choose to intervene at some point and he can choose otherwise. If He chooses not to relieve you of a particular cross, He will make His grace available to you. Peter is a living witness to this. He recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 that:
“Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me and He said to me, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness”
Concerning your designer cross, God’s response could be Jesus’ style or Peter’s style. Any how, Jesus was the first person who, blamelessly, carried a cross and may I submit to you that He did a fantastic job of it. If that is the case, who else but Him has the sole right to say “I’ve been there, done that and have sole distributorship for the t-shirts”
The t-shirts in question are not plain. Inscribed on each one are these words…”TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME”. (Mark 8:34)
If you noticed, He did not say follow your pastor, parents, clairvoyants or any human being whatsoever. This is because He knows that the amour of flesh will fail you even when that was not the intention.
This is so "on point". It really made me consider that when Jesus said to take up your cross and follow Him that He wants all of me! The good and the bad and even those things you deal with in life that you try to hide from everyone else. No one knows what it feels like to carry a cross more than Him so anything that we are dealing with that we think no one understands, He has already carried that cross for us. It's amazing how reading something you thought you already knew about will give you a completely fresh take on it. Thank you!
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